Gibber-gabber
Just got back from Vegas
beingzoe 2008-02-11 22:24:05 UTC

Well I’ve been away for over a week. I spent some time with family from my Dad’s side. It was a fairly typical trip. A lot of hurry up and wait (hanging out), and mad gambling around the casino floor. We spent most of our casino time downtown. While Fremont is not as a glamorous as the strip, it holds a certain appeal for those old days of the beginnings of Vegas. Though the $2 buffet is nowhere to be seen these days. Even the $1 hotdog doesn’t seem like that great of a deal anymore.

My brother lives in Vegas so my dad traded his time share this year to meet up there. Though my Dad’s family have always made nearly annual trips to Vegas. We stayed at the Cliffs at Peace “resort” on the West Side not far from Red Rock Canyon.

We spent some time at the Canyon one day and on the way back my sister and I stopped off (went way out of our way) to go through Death Valley. But I will probably post some about that in Outdoor Adventures later.

Anyway, I couldn’t believe how much Vegas has grown. I would have never dreamed of needing a map to get around, but this time we sure seemed to consult it a lot. Not that it is that hard to find what you are looking for (it is a grid after all), but with the limited freeway and boulevard action finding the quickest way of not getting stuck in traffic was quite the challenge.

Driving from one end of town to the other is quite a haul these days. Where we were staying was on the complete opposite side of town from my brothers house and seemed to take a half hour if there was any traffic (or you took surface streets) at all. I definitely recommend avoiding the freeways at 5.

We didn’t go to any shows, mainly we spent family time together at the timeshare or my brothers house, or you could find us on the casino floor. I’m a big craps and roulette fan, but I am so broke I didn’t get much gambling in, though I think I broke even mostly (well if you don’t count the money my dad spotted me and I subsequently lost). One of my aunts is pretty good at black jack and she spends most her time there, while my dad and his other sister are partial to the slots, though my dad plays a little black jack.

Apart from family time, one of the highlights this trip was getting pizza and riding the roller coaster at New York, New York. The little pizza stand was really good (sicilian style) and I was fairly impressed with the roller coaster (probably just the uniqueness of a roller coaster on the strip).

I had hoped to bungee jump this trip and ride the coaster atop the Stratosphere, but both had been removed in the past years.

Well, that’s the summary of my trip to Vegas with family.

What have you all been up to while I was gone? :)