Strip View
Hello, fellow solos! Just a brief post to let you know I’m back from sunny (and hot!) Las Vegas, Nevada with lots of new information, reviews and photos to share. This trip reinforced my deep love for this city as my favorite vacation destination. Honestly, I’m really not sure I’m on board with the whole “Sin City” moniker. You don’t have to sin to have a great time in Vegas. I have no sins to confess. (I hope that doesn’t disappoint you too much.) In my “sneak peak” post prior to my trip, I set out some expectations for my trip. Did I meet those expectations?
Peppermill Fireside Lounge
I did manage to gain entrance to the Star Trek Experience on Monday after I arrived, and spent more than seven hours there. I was there right up until the curtain came down on a ten-year phenomenon. I did attend the two meets (one at the Peppermill’s Fireside Lounge and one at Bally’s Tequila Bar–which was not as nice a place as I remember it being during my last visit; it has not aged well). I did eat at as many new venues as I could. I did not drink as much as I thought I would, but then, I never do. I did visit Planet Hollywood and the Palazzo (as well as the California and Main Street Station in Downtown Las Vegas). I will post in more detail about all of these things throughout the month of September. I did take some great photos with my camera and new tripod (and many more bad ones), and I also learned several valuable lessons in the process:
- The photos I took using my tripod are exponentially better than the ones I took without it.
- Setting up a tripod to take photos in public places isn’t as easy as you would imagine. For one thing, it made me feel very self-conscious (I need to get over that). For another, it was so crowded in many places, I feared that if I set up the tripod, someone would walk into it and send my camera crashing to the ground, which I wasn’t willing to risk.
- People get in the way of great shots way too frequently. There were some shots I wanted very much, but couldn’t get because either I was too short and the people around me too tall (which was the case at the Star Trek Experience Decommissioning Ceremony), or because there was a constant stream of tourists between me and the subject.
MGM Casino
What didn’t I do? Well, I did not quite keep my expenses under $1,000. I went over budget by $106, mostly in the areas of food and transportation. I did not stay up until midnight all four nights, but I did make it past 11:30 all four nights, thanks to my Awake, and copious amounts of caffeine. (Remember, midnight in Vegas is 3am East Coast time.) The first night, I had been awake for nearly 24 hours, which put me on a severe sleep deficit for the rest of the trip.
I also didn’t win or break even, but I felt like I did. You know how high rollers are called whales? Well, I’m not even a guppy. I budgeted $200 in gambling money for the trip. Normally, by the end of a trip, it would all be gone, never to be seen again. But I had a great run on a video poker machine at a bar in Harrahs on Thursday night that kept me playing on the same $20 for two and a half hours, and I walked away with $100 cash. So while I’d actually put $180 into machines to gamble with, I only lost $80, and so I saved $120 of that budget. To me, that’s a win.
Most important, from a solo traveler perspective, I managed to strike exactly the right balance between “me time/alone time” and social time. I only felt a little uncomfortable twice at restaurants (more on that during my restaurant reviews) and again at the Burlington Airport when I arrived home and walked through the gauntlet of friends and relatives meeting my fellow passengers. I always feel a little lonely at the baggage carousel. But since I live so close to the airport myself, it would be silly to ask anyone to meet me there.
Vegas has certainly changed a lot in the two years since I was last there. Casino razings and new buildings have changed the landscape, but nowhere is this more evident than the City Center construction project south of Bellagio. That thing is a behemoth. Encore and Palazzo add luxurious beauty to the northern end of the Strip, and Planet Hollywood was a pleasant surprise, punching up the appearance of Center Strip nicely.
Even though this was my 6th trip to my personal mecca, four nights just wasn’t long enough to do everything I wanted to do. I never saw a show, and I should have. I never made it to the lounges on my list to check out live bands (except for hanging out for a few songs in Carnaval Court at Harrahs). I should have relaxed a bit more instead of trying to squeeze in as much as possible. But every time I leave Vegas with a few unchecked items on my to-do list, it gives me the excuse I need to go back again. And you can bet I will.
