The sites
of Las Vegas from the Eiffel Tower
replica are far different than those
seen in Paris.
Like a
kid "stuck at the beach" (poor me), the
sites and sounds of Sin City or Las
Vegas lured me ever closer to my trip
away for a
weekend getaway. While Southern
Californians who make the drive
regularly find it long and laborious
after doing it so many times, I stopped
along the way at the touristy, yet
totally fun and fascinating
Calico Ghost Town.
Purchasing some great Southwest-styled
CDs at a little shop where the music was
very lively, with guitar strums and a
steady beat, I headed back on the road
from Yermo to
Las Vegas.
My
driving partner took control of the
wheel in Las Vegas when I knew that I'd
need to map the terrain and photograph
the buildings and skyscrapers as we
drove along the Strip. Wow,
building after building, lots of
congestion, traffic and hoards people!
Exactly what I am used to in
my home town,
a beach community of 200,000 people in
Orange County,
California.
If I
tire of hearing discussions about the
minimal attire of locals at the beach,
in visitor guides and in the press, Las
Vegas has taken care of that. The images
are not nude, but the girlie-girls on
the oversized screens broadcasting ads
along the Strip are scantilly clad and
quite sexy. When I visited Las Vegas
from the Midwest during my college days,
I found it boring. Now it is quite
fascinating as a phenomenon as I notice
"down home" folks who are able to throw
reckless abandon and walk the children
along this advertisement of sex, sounds
and color.
Well,
just cover the kiddies' eyes or talk to
them and find out that they see more on
their favorite television programs and
on the Internet than you realized. Get
over it, mom and dad. So the tourist has
gathered this list from time reading
travel sections, looking at other
people's boring photos and deciding what
needed to be done in Las Vegas.
1. Go
to the Eiffel Tower. That's where we
took the photo above. You are
totally caged in with a solid mesh
screen that makes it most easy for
smaller digital lenses to poke through
and get a photo. If you want to
eat at the restaurant with a view in the
Eiffel Tower, the prices are on the
luxury side with meals beginning at $25
per entree and going up. The attraction
at this nicely-decorated restaurant with
sweeping views it the water show you
overlook at
Bellagio.
2. Take
a walk down The Strip to size up New
York New York, Luxor and the other
attractions of the world found in one
place. You have to stand next to
them to see the facades and scale of
these look-alike buildings, casinos and
attractions.
