Las Vegas Friday, Dec, 20 2019

I head to Las Vegas after 8 hours of work in Flagstaff.  It’s a 4-hour drive but thanks to a time change, I arrived in LV at 8:30pm instead of 9:30pm.  I was really tired for the last hour of the drive and considered stopping, but I’m glad I didn’t.  I was able to knock out a few things on my list before I went to bed.  I’ve heard that Las Vegas pumps oxygen into the casinos to keep people awake and I believe it.  The strip is so well lit its practically daytime and even though I was sleep at 7pm, within 20 minutes of walking around the strip I had a second wind.

I parked at the Miracle Mile/Planet Hollywood Hotel parking garage and started with a stroll through Miracle Mile.  I’d been there before, I recognized it from when I took a stripper class there about 7 years ago.  Its basically just a shopping mall with a casino and a few theaters.  I didn’t spend to much time here.  I had a list of things that were close by and headed over to the Bellagio.

The Bellagio is one of the most beautiful resorts on the strip.  Its not alone, there are a few other in its range, but it’s definitely in the 98% percentile.  I had three activities on my Bellagio goal list: The Conservatory, The Beauty of the Human Form at the Cirque du Soleil Art Gallery and the Symphony of Fountains.  The Conservatory and Botanical Garden is in a sky lit atrium right past the check in desk.  I was expecting a regular old botanical garden, but silly me…nothing is regular here.  Apparently, they regularly redo the atrium with different themes.  This theme was holiday based and it was really well done.  There were a thousand people shoulder to shoulder crammed into the little room…all trying to take photos without other people’s heads in the mix, so I didn’t stay long. But it was a beautiful display and would have made the Flower and Garden people at Disney proud.

The Bellagio Beauty of the Human For exhibit was all a single artist: Richard MacDonald.  And it was incredible.  The exhibit was small, but every piece was amazing, and I spent a ridiculous amount of time there.  If I ever win the lottery, I’ll buy the whole collection so that I can look at them whenever I want.

The Fountains are a Vegas staple, and I’ve seen them before.  But in the evening, they do the show every 15 minutes, so I was able to catch it while exiting the Bellagio.  I’d seen a similar show in Branson in October, which was smaller but designed by the same guy that did the Bellagio fountains, so similar ideas.  On this trip, I also saw the World of Color Holiday Show at California Adventures, which is bigger and longer and probably better, if you like Disney.

From the Bellagio I made my way over to the New York New York Resort.  Walking on the strip is rarely a straight line.  Because of large volume of traffic and pedestrians, there are many elevated cross walks above the street.  This works out really well to keep the pedestrians safe and prevents the roads from getting too congested with people.  The drawback is if you have wonky knees and the elevator/escalator isn’t functioning.  There were a number of them down for maintenance or just broken.  I got where I wanted to be but took the scenic route and strolled through at least one shopping mall and up and down many levels to cross the streets. 

There was a fairly nice green space right next to NYNY and it was decorated for the holidays with lots of lights and fountains.  Finally made it to my destination: Hersey World.  I’ve been to Hershey World in Hershey PA but this wasn’t anything like that.  This was just a small shop.  I didn’t see any of the history or behind the scenes kinds of the activities they have in PA.  They do have Hershey based shot glasses which made me giggle.  I wondered if they called them toothpick holders like Disney does. 

After Hershey World, I walked across the street to M&M World…again, another shop.  I like to see how other companies are taking a note from Disney in their marketing.  M&M World had a number of products….t-shirts, pajamas, coffee mugs etc.  But the store was broken up into the different color of M&Ms.  So, each product was repeated in each color section.  It made for an interesting visual, but I wonder if there is really a demand for so many M&M products.  I guess there must be, they are paying high real estate and maintaining their business, but it seems weird.

Off to the Coca Cola Store.  They were getting ready to close so I didn’t spend much time here.  They did have some interesting products and a few more than they used to carry at the Epcot store.  I had intended to go back over the weekend to try the 16 flavors of international soda, but I never made it back.

Hard Rock to wind the night up.  I needed to work my way back to the car for the night, but I had an opportunity to tie up any HR things I wanted to do before I got there.  I have a tendency to stop at any HR I have access to and order a Watermelon Margarita.  I also look for souvenirs for Gil, as he likes HR.  Within 5 minutes, I found a bottle opener (he collects them) shaped like a playing card (he plays poker) and I paid a stupid price for it, but it was so “Gil”, I had to buy it.  Went upstairs for me Watermelon Margarita and I was sad to see they didn’t have it on the menu.  Ended up with some type of Colada drink that was pretty good.  It made me sleepy enough to head to the car, stopping for one last toilet break on the way.  The parking garage is very well light, and I was concerned I wouldn’t sleep.  But after a couple of episodes of NCIS, I was out.