Saturday April 15th 2017

This afternoon I headed up to the Las Vegas strip. My goal was to checkout a few more of the Resort Casinos and all of the weekend revelers. Apparently even Easter is treated as a holiday to get down and dirty in Sin City.

Waterfall and Koi pond at Flamingo Las Vegas

Today I checked out the Flamingo, the Linq, Harrahs, the Venetian/Palazzo, and the Wynn/Encore resorts. These resorts are all in a row on the east side of the strip north of Flamingo Road. There are many subtle changes since my last visit. Mostly the changes were reconfigurations of the gaming floor or changes to restaurants.

Garden area between Venetian and Palazzo Resorts.

Closer view of the garden between Venetian and Palazzo.

It’s the people that are wandering the strip and casinos that are the real attraction. I saw around twelve wedding parties. The brides were in full wedding gown and the grooms were in tuxes. In some cases they were accompanied by other members of the wedding. A couple of the newlyweds were accompanied by photographers complete with tripods. Any way you see them, they attract a great deal of attention. Their weddings aren’t slipping under anyone’s radar.

Flower covered carousel at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort.

Flower covered balloon at the Wynn Las Vegas resort.

Another observation about the people on the strip is the total lack of situational awareness that some people demonstrate. In addition to the usual walking around gazing at the sights rather than where you going, there are also groups that seem to think they’re the only people in Las Vegas. It is fairly common to see groups of people stop dead in the middle of the sidewalk to decide where they are going next. Those around them have to dodge to avoid running into them. Today I saw two examples that took this behavior to the next level. One group stopped in the middle of the street so that the cars had to dodge them. Another group stopped in front of me just after they got off the moving walkway. I had no choice but to push them out of the way. I had people right behind me. It appeared very much like a pickpocket scheme, but it was just really oblivious people. Nobody was hurt, but I’m sure they thought I was rude dude. That concludes my soapbox speech.

I was on the strip for close to five hours. During that time the crowds changed from families and groups of twenty and thirty somethings usually in groups of 3 to 6 of the same gender to lots of couples. Sometime during the late afternoon people retreat to their hotel rooms and change into party clothes and pair up for the evening.

From where I parked at Planet Hollywood to the Wynn and back I probably walked more than three miles. I got some exercise along with enjoying the sights. I was back home by eight.