The Charm of Old Vegas Oddities

If the Vegas Strip is a world unto its self, old Vegas is a separate solar system. Along with the vintage hotels and casinos from the Vegas early years, it contains hundreds of quickie wedding chapels, each with its own theme, history, and raft of characters. You will find the Mob Museum, the Museum of Atomic Testing, the Heart Attack Grill (where anyone over 350 pounds eats free), the pawn store where the TV series "Pawn Stars" is filmed, and, of course, local characters, like the one in the photo, just driving down the street.

The Nostalgia of "Old Vegas"

The Glitzy Hotels/Casinos on the Vegas Strip owe a huge debt to the section of town known as "old Vegas," about a $25 cab ride from the Strip. It is vintage Casinos like Circus Circus and the Cortez Hotel where the original mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky stayed while they started the Vegas gambling empire. It is also the site of all the quickie wedding chapels like this one where Brittany Spears started her famous 7 hour marriage.

Las Vegas has the highest marriage and also highest divorce rate of any city in the US due to the ease with which either can be obtained. No license, no blood test, no waiting, no problem. Also, you can be married by any number of Elvis impersonators or have several as your attendants.

The Stratosphere: Hotel/Casino for the Xtreme Thrillseekers

A bit off of the Vegas strip is the Stratosphere; the casino/hotel with the "highest thrill rides in the world." The building is 1,149 feet tall with 900 rooms. At its' top it features 4 rides: Insanity, Sky Jump, X-Scream, and Big Shot. The names say it all. As we were riding past, one brave person was enjoying the Sky Jump; "a controlled free fall from the 108th floor in which the person falls at a scream inducing speed." In the bottom photo - top left hand corner, you can almost see the tiny person I caught in free fall. Doug talked about trying it but it is definitely not anywhere in my future.

Casino Crawling

Each Casino/Hotel has a distinctive personality and it is fun cruising though each. The "grater" looking building on the right is Planet Hollywood, an older failing hotel that was redesigned and saved by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Demi Moore, and Bruce Willis. It has a flavor of the Hard Rock Café chain.

Next door is the Paris Hotel/Casino where you can ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower and take out a mortgage to pay for a drink while enjoying a gorgeous view of the city . It also boasts a restaurant where you can be insulted in person by Chef Gordon Ramsey while enjoying one of his delicious meals.

Paris also has Mon Ami Gabi, one of the mostly highly recommended restaurants in Vegas for good food, good prices, and good location. It was always packed.

A must see is the dancing fountains of the Bellagio. Every half hour in the evening a choreographed dancing fountain show will steal your heart. The music changes with each show so you could spend an entire evening just hanging out in front of the Bellagio. You might recognize it from the Oceans Eleven film.

The Ferris wheel near the Venetian was intriguing, but we never saw it move - so we were wary about trying it. Caesar's Palace is an institution in Vegas and a must see. The entire side of Aria is a technological marvel: a massive video screen that can be seen even in the brightest sunlight. It is about 25 stories tall!

Sin City

By many, Las Vegas is known as "Sin City" and few would argue that it is the basis of this city's existence in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Except for Boulder and one other city, prostitution is legal in Nevada. You are reminded of this continuously in Vegas by the teams of people every half block forcing cards on every male who passes by. The cards have photos of women available in 20 minutes. It doesn't matter if the man has a partner with him; the cards are offered to every male. I found this terribly insulting at first and one point I had a minor hissy fit with one of the distributers, but soon just learned to ignore it. It's Vegas after all. It was interesting watching the crowds for the very mismatched couples and wondering.......


In the casinos, if you played slot machines or cards, all alcoholic beverages are free. I have never been anywhere in the last decade with more places that you can smoke. Every casino that we visited allows smoking.

Sin is very big business in Las Vegas and they average $6.1 billion a year in profits from gambling alone - and it is what makes Vegas the Disneyland for adults.