Special Edition: Las Vegas

“Decadence is what you make of it”

So I, like most other people in the world, have a running list of places I would like to visit someday in the back of my head. Places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, the Oregon Coast, and Maine. But I have to confess, Las Vegas was never really on that list. Whenever I think of Vegas, I have always thought of gambling, late night binge drinking, and scantily clad showgirls, none of which are particularly my thing. My apologies to anyone reading this who loves Vegas, but I saw it as the pinnacle of cheap and flashy decadence, and although I had several friends try to tell me there was more to it than that, I never made any effort to go.

Until now, that is.

It turns out that Pete has a national convention that he attends for work, and this year, it was in Las Vegas. Because he knew I had never been, he suggested that I come with him, and that we stay an extra couple of days in order to explore. I agreed, thinking at the very least, I would be able to say I tried it. And all-in-all, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there were casinos literally everywhere (I started calling them rooms with brightly lit obstacles, because you almost always had to go through one to get wherever you were going). And yes, my heart broke for all the nearly naked girls standing out on the street trying to make a few extra bucks posing in souvenir photographs (although it wasn’t only girls in sequins and feathers; Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the Avengers, and Bumblebee from Transformers were also photo options). And–what I personally found to be the worst thing–smoking is allowed everywhere; it was like spending a weekend in a cloud of cigarette smoke. But still, a lot of it was fun as well. While half of me was mystified by the excesses all around, the other half was impressed by the creativity and possibilities. If someone could imagine it, it could exist. And that I thought was cool.

So here are a few of the highlights and travel tips from our adventure. Having finally given it a whirl, I do agree Vegas is something you should try at least once.

History:

Before this trip, I knew very little about Las Vegas, so one of the first things I did upon arriving was hit the Internet for a little research. Las Vegas is apparently Spanish for “the meadows,” and it was named for the local springs and water traps that made this a popular place for Native Americans, such as the Paiutes, and other would-be settlers to winter. Ultimately, the area drew a number of different people. John C. Fremont built a secret fort there that was used a little during the Mexican-American War. Mormons attempted to settle the area, but their efforts were not too successful. The town was unincorporated until a railroad was put in, and Las Vegas became its most popular stop. (Montana Connection! The railroad was built by the Montana Senator and Copper-King William Clark; Vegas is in Clark County, also named after him.).

The town didn’t really become the Vegas we think of today until the 1930s. While the Hoover Dam was under construction, single men flocked to the area looking for work. The mob, thriving during Prohibition, saw an opportunity to make money providing alcohol and entertainment for the workers. After World War II, the mob invested even more money in the area, building the large hotels and casinos that would become the Strip. Even though people knew the mob ran most of the casinos, they still came for the entertainment, since the mob could afford big-time acts from Hollywood. The “Rat Pack,” including Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, were particularly popular there, as was the late-great Elvis Presley. Later, as the mob declined, Howard Hughes and other Wall Street Investors started to buy the hotels and renovate the Strip.

How We Traveled:

The easiest way to get to Vegas for the weekend is to fly, so sadly, we had to leave our four-legged friends behind. They hung out at Riverside Kennels with their friend Cheryl, the owner. They were the only dogs for the weekend, and we are sure she spoiled them rotten. They had a large shared kennel with heated floors, and got to spend large parts of the day playing outside in the big outdoor runs by the river. We hope they missed us, but it doesn’t seem likely.

While we did rent a car at the airport for the last few days of our stay so we could go out of town, we mostly used Uber to get us out to Pete’s convention, and then to go to and from the Strip. And we were very pleased with our Uber experiences (it’s not something we encounter a lot, living in rural Montana). All of our drivers were pleasant and helpful, the cars were clean, and you can’t beat the convenience of tapping a button and setting up a ride. Plus it meant we didn’t have to deal with traffic and parking on Las Vegas Boulevard, which we thought was a huge perk!

Where We Stayed:

The Rampart

We actually stayed in two hotels while we were there. The first was the JW Marriott. That was where Pete’s convention was, and it was a swanky place. It is out closer to the edge of town, and attached to the Rampart Casino, which is mostly frequented by locals, according to one of our Uber drivers. Just to say we did, and because you had to go through it to get anywhere else in the hotel, we went in to do a little gambling. Pete had several dollars from coworkers for the slot machines, and I managed to turn $5 into 40 cents. It was the first time I ever gambled, and I’m glad I got it out of my system.

The rest of the resort was awesome though. It had several restaurants, including a fancy Italian one (my favorite!) where we ate out one night and a deli where we grabbed some cheese, crackers, and deli meat, along with a couple of salads and a decadent chocolate mousse to eat up in our room as needed (breakfast was included as part of the conference). It also had a spa, and while I didn’t pay for any special treatments, use of their extremely nice workout facility was included with our rooms, so we worked out a little every day and also enjoyed the spa’s small outdoor pool (the hotel had a big one, but it was closed for “winter”). The best part of the spa was the locker rooms, which included a hot tub, steam room, and sauna, as well as rain and waterfall showers featuring some of their fancy spa products. We ended up showering there more often than we did in our room, although the room also had a rain shower head and a jacuzzi tub.

My favorite part of this hotel was its extensive gardens. While Pete was occupied with his conference, I spent hours wandering the paths around the ponds (complete with waterfalls and koi fish), sitting on the sun-warmed terraces listening to jazz music from the hotel (it was 65 degrees and sunny in Vegas; in Polson it had been puking snow), and watching the people as they went by. There were even a few small animals, mostly birds, but nothing too exotic. At one point a small boy stopped and pointed some birds out to his grandfather: “Look, Grandpa! Swans!” The older gentleman apparently didn’t have the heart to tell the kid they were, in fact, geese.

Our stay at the Rampart was some much needed R&R for me, and certainly decadent in its own way (when you are as busy as me, all rest feels decadent).  I was sad to go, but excited to head out and begin exploring the city.

The 4 Queens

After the conference, we stayed at the 4 Queens on Fremont Street, which was the center of the old downtown before the Strip was built. Compared to the Marriott, it was noticeably less luxurious. The rooms were smaller and more minimalist, and the spa and zen garden were replaced by a run down parking garage, quirky elevators, and a pervasive scent of smoke. Still, the place had more character, and more of a sense of history. Pete had wanted to stay on Fremont Street to get a more genuine Vegas experience. And it did feel genuine. I half expected to see mobsters in the casino playing poker or Frank Sinatra and other crooners on the way to perform a show in the little theater (one of the acts was an Elvis tribute).

The place had some other perks too. We apparently had access to a neighboring hotel’s rooftop pool, although we were so busy we never actually made it there. And it was surrounded by restaurants and other amenities, while the resort had been remote. Plus, it was affordable, which is always a big perk in my book. Best of all, it opened right out onto Fremont Street (see below) so you were right in the thick of things.

What We Did:

Walking Around the Strip

There is so much to see on Las Vegas Boulevard, commonly called the Strip. It is a string of large luxury hotels with casinos and many other attractions. You’ve probably heard of most of them–Mandalay Bay, the Venetian, the Mirage, Caesar’s Palace, Treasure Island, the Luxor, the Excalibur, the Cosmopolitan, the Bellagio, New York New York, the Stratosphere. Each has its own unique spin, each hosts its own exhibits, shows, shops, and other attractions. And sandwiched all around are are small restaurants, outlets, and bars. We found an excellent stone-fired pizza place and later had a beer right under the Eiffel Tower.

The Strip is interesting just for the people watching. Tourists wander by in droves (there are apparently 62,000 hotel rooms in Vegas), making use of the many elevated walkways to cross above the street. There appeared to be no laws regulating drinking in public; you could buy a drink and walk down the street with it. The air was also heavy with the smells of cigarettes and the occasional marijuana. Nor could you escape Vegas’s well known obsession with sex. Not only were girls dressed as showgirls (or way underdressed cops) trying to pose in photos, but trucks drove past advertising escort services offering “nice” girls (who were lucky if they were underdressed in the pictures; most weren’t dressed at all). And there were a ton of sleezy looking guys handing out tickets to strip clubs. But there were also artists working with spray paint, Disney characters, and an overhead zip line, all more wholesome entertainment options.

Me being me, I suppose it should be no surprise that my two favorite attractions had to do with water. The first was the Grande Canal in the Venetian. At its most basic, it’s pretty much just a shopping mall with a few restaurants and a food court. But in the middle, there is a Venetian canal, complete with gondolas with drivers serenading their passengers in Italian. The store fronts are painted to look like buildings, and the ceiling is painted and lit to look like you are outside in the evening. It blew my mind a little bit, and I was happy to spend some time walking along it, even though we weren’t particularly interested in the shops themselves.

*The Venetian was also getting ready for the Chinese New Year celebrating the Year of the Pig, so one foyer had numerous statues of golden pigs. One was almost two stories high, but this one was my favorite. I crack up every time I look at the picture.

My other favorite from wandering the Strip was the fountain show at the Bellagio. The hotel has a large pool in front of it, and every half hour (every fifteen minutes after 8pm) there is a fountain show with music. I don’t think I can find the words to describe how awesome it is, so I included a brief video to give you a sense of it. Be aware that this clip is from the beginning of the show. The fountains reach much more impressive heights by the finale.

A wider angle, taken from the rooftop bar under the Eiffel Tower

The Avengers Exhibit at Treasure Island

Pete and I are pretty low budget tourists, so we were happy to mostly wander and absorb things that we could enjoy for free, but Pete did think we should at least get tickets to a couple things, because the shows and exhibits were what most of our friends came to Vegas for. Unfortunately, Van Morrison wasn’t playing any of the nights we were there, and the cheapest ticket to go see Lady Gaga was $600, so Pete had to do some digging. And what he came up with was pretty much tailor made for my personality.

I have already admitted to being a nerd, and superheroes play a large role in my obsession (my desk at work is lined in superhero legos).  I am a particular fan of Marvel’s Avengers. I’m completely in love with Thor, which makes sense, because I also grew up reading Norse mythology. Captain America is a close second; he’s just such a stand-up guy. So I was overjoyed to hear that there is currently an Avenger Exhibit at Treasure Island.

You start in a gift shop with all make and manner of Avengers paraphernalia. Next you have the opportunity to take a photo with props in front of a green screen. Then you go through the exhibit, which is set up as a training for new recruits, with museum-like displays of certain “artifacts”–the chamber that made Captain America, alien weapons, Bruce Banner’s lab, and Iron Man’s early suits. There were also some hand’s on items; you could ride Cap’s bike and attempt to pull Thor’s hammer out of the rock. To top it off, there were interactive exercises, like comparing your hand strength to the various superheroes, testing your ability to recognize villains, and even seeing how well you could operate Iron Man’s eye-controlled suit (Pete actually did really well at that, me…not so much). The whole thing was great. I nerded out!

Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur

Right alongside my childhood books on mythology were my childhood books on King Arthur. I have loved stories about the sword and the stone, the knights of the round table, and wizards and dragons for my entire life. So Pete’s other great find was even more perfect: the Tournament of Kings.

The Tournament is a meal and a show with a medieval twist. In the basement of the Excalibur, you sit in amphitheater seating around a full-sized jousting arena. Waiters bring you a meal, but no silverware; you have to eat with your hands like in the Middle Ages. (The best part, in my opinion, is that they don’t take themselves too seriously. Our server told us our soup was “Campbell’s Dragon’s Blood,” and we were at one point instructed to raise our “authentic plastic tankards.”) Each section of the stands was designated a certain country (we were in Norway), and each country had a king you got to cheer for in the tournament.

That’s right. A full on tournament. With jousting and sword fights and actual horses. It was awesome. It was interactive with cheer competitions, sing alongs, and other call and response games. Some of the characters came out and engaged people in the audience; Merlin even hit on me! And there is music, and special effects, and plenty of dancing girls (this is Vegas, after all). The tournament also tells a little bit of a story, which I won’t give away, but I’ll give you a hint: there is a dragon! All told, it was a very enjoyable night.

Fremont Street

While we were staying at the 4 Queens, Fremont Street was just outside our door. As I said before, it is part of the historic downtown Las Vegas. While most of the big money is at the Strip, there is still plenty of Vegas to be found down here. The coolest part is that several blocks of Fremont Street are covered, and every hour there is a huge light show on the ceiling. And the really cool thing is that they were never the same. Here is an example:

Fremont Street was also a great venue for people watching. There were small circles painted on the road that artists, vendors, and entertainers could use (I’m not sure if they rented them, or if they just had to get permits). One man painted himself silvery green and posed as a statue. Another lay completely still and let people pose him. Some stands drew caricatures of people; others folded palm leaves into elaborate flowers to sell. There were dueling drummers using buckets and glass bottles for instruments. Other people worked the crowd trying to get donations for various charities (legitimate or not). And of course, there were the scantily clad people, but not just women. I can now say I have seen a banana-hammock in person. I’m still wishing I could unsee it.

There were also a bunch of little shops, bars, and restaurants. We found a very interesting brewery (more below) and a restaurant dedicated entirely to nachos. There was even a Walgreens (not the most exotic tourist destination, I’ll admit, but I was coming down with a cold, and places like that are handy). And after we had wandered back and forth to our heart’s content, we headed back up to our room for the evenings, where we could still hear the music playing below us until late into the night.

Red Rock Canyon

It is fun to visit the big city from time to time, but Pete and I cannot fight our natures, and at the end of the day, we both prefer to go exploring in the wilderness. So we dusted off our America the Beautiful Park Pass, and headed to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, just fifteen minutes from Las Vegas. We were a little worried about what kind of shape the park would be in, what with the recent government shutdown, but happily, they had managed to get funding from BLM to stay up and running (and as we were visiting, the government was finally starting to get its act together!).

The park consists of a 13 mile one-way scenic drive, with numerous pull outs, picnic areas, and trailheads along the way. The very first stop, which we highly recommend, is the Visitor Center, which teaches about the geology that created this unique canyon. In prehistoric times, the area had been underwater (there are some fossils of the prehistoric marine life, which are always just really cool!), and as it dried out, sand deposits compacted and hardened into sandstone. This particular sandstone was high in iron deposits, which oxidized over time, creating what is known as Aztec Sandstone, or the red rocks. The Visitor Center also has lots of interactive displays to teach people about the various flora and fauna of the Mojave Desert. As visitors from the Rocky Mountains/Pacific Northwest (Polson has aspects of both areas) we found the desert climate fascinating. There is even a desert tortoise habitat at the Visitor Center, and we were really hoping to see one, either at the center or out hiking. But apparently these tortoises hibernate during the winter, so we had to settle for an over-sized statue instead.

The Visitor Center, and the park website, have lots of information about all of the hiking opportunities, to help you pick the best option. Because we only had one day, we chose to do two shorter hikes, which we thought would give us the best sampling of everything the park had to offer.

Our first hike (and the longer of the two) was called Calico Tanks. The hike was 2.2 miles and mostly moderate difficulty, with a few more strenuous spots where you had to scramble up and over some fairly steep rocks. The trail gets its name from the mix of red, white, and tan rocks, and the pockets of trapped rain water along the hike (one of the ways life is able to thrive in the area). The hike also passes an old quarry, and ends with an excellent view of Las Vegas.

The other hike we did was Lost Creek/Children’s Discovery which 0.6 miles and fairly easy. It has numbered posts for a self-guided tour, but we somehow missed getting the accompanying packet. The best part of this trail was the waterfall, which due to the dry climate only exists some of the time. Happily for us, it rained a few days before we got to Vegas, so there was water in the creek. We met a couple who had hiked the trail the day after the rain, and they said the waterfall had been huge then, but by the time we got there, it was relatively calm. In a few more days, it probably dried up again. Things can change very fast in the desert.

Our final stop was a picnic lunch and short walk to the Petroglyph Wall, a remnant of the ancient people who once inhabited the area. The symbols–carved in the oxidized stone thousands of years ago–still stand out clearly today. I always love looking at ancient bits of history like this and wondering about the people who drew them. What were they like? What important event were they trying to record? Perhaps a successful hunt? A victory in a war? A strange occurrence in the weather? Or maybe a blueprint of the area’s very first casino? It’s hard to say.

Altogether, it was a very enjoyable and interesting day, as well as a nice break from the busy city. Plus, we can check another National Park off our list, which is always a good feeling.

*Travel Tip: One of the things we learned on this trip is to invest in a collapsible cloth cooler bag. It doesn’t take up much space in your luggage on the airplane, and then you can buy some snacks and deli food to eat off of throughout your trip, without worrying about whether your hotel room has a fridge (the Marriott did; the 4 Queens did not). You save some money on eating out, and it is very handy on day outings, such as our trip to Red Rock.

Breweries:

Just like it wouldn’t have been a real adventure for Pete and I if we hadn’t gone hiking, we also could hardly say we’ve truly visited an area unless we sampled some of its beer. While microbrews are hardly Vegas’s leading attraction, they do exist, and we were able to try a couple.

Sin City Brewing Co.

First, we found an outlet for Sin City Brewing while we were exploring the Strip. Their beer is obviously made elsewhere; this was just a hole in the wall stop catering to the thousands of tourists wandering by. Still, it felt homey, a different kind of oasis in the desert. We didn’t have time for a whole flight, so unfortunately we can only tell you about two of the beers. Pete said his stout was drinkable, but nothing to write home about, but I really enjoyed my British-style IPA.

Banger Brewery

The other brewery we found was downtown, on Fremont Street. Banger Brewery had an even more relaxed feel, and we were able to sit and chat with the bartenders a little, which was a nice change from the hurried atmosphere of the Strip. This brewery had some very interesting barrel-aged beers. Check out the Mole Ole and the Coach Bombay below. We enjoyed both, although they were fairly strong, and we would not have wanted to drink a lot of them.

Conclusion:

So that, in a rather long nutshell, was our trip to Vegas. It was a great adventure, and I had a lot of fun. There were so many options, we were able to plan things that fit our interests, with just the right amount of decadence for us. For any of you who were on the fence like me (or even just completely anti-Vegas), I would encourage you to give it a try at least once. But plan ahead, and find things that interest you. If nothing we did looks that appealing, ask around. There are thousands of other options.

I can’t say its a place I would go to regularly (big cities and party cultures are still just not my thing) but I am very glad that Pete’s work conference gave me an excuse to give it a try. Next year, they are apparently meeting in San Diego, another place I know fairly little about. Sea World, here we come!