Travel Tuesday - It Happened in Vegas

Christopher is currently in Las Vegas for a conference, and since his birthday was yesterday we opted to spend a weekend in Vegas as a mid-winter getaway. (Hence last Friday's video posting.) Considering that, on Friday, my commute took almost twice as long as usual due to cold and snow, the prospect of being in Vegas with highs in the 60s and lows in the 30s was pretty much perfectly timed.

So we flew out on Friday afternoon and landed 3 hours later (give or take) and walked out of the airport to catch a cab in the gorgeous weather. In true Vegas style, we were delayed getting to the hotel because a major week-long gun show had just wrapped up. Apparently it was running concurrently with a porn convention. The marketing teams must have had a field day with that combo.

We stayed at the Venetian (since it was a birthday - and a rare mid-winter vacation - we did a major splurge), and after check-in we went up to our suite. A lovely bathroom, a king-size bed, and a sunken (two steps down) living room. Three phones. Three TVs. And a view of the mountains east of the city, which changed colors during the days.

I'm going to talk about all of the food on Friday, but tonight I thought I'd mention a few things about the hotel, itself.

Of all of the hotels we walked around in over the three days, I would have to say that the Venetian has one amazing thing going for it: You don't have to walk through the casino every time you turn around. In the other casino hotels, you seem to have to walk through the casino any time you go from the hotel to the outer world. But at the Venetian you can stop on the second floor and walk out through the "Grand Canal Shoppes." And we did almost every time we went anywhere.

It wasn't exactly quiet in the shoppes - after all, it's a massive shopping center that's open almost 24 hours a day - but it was so much less frantic than the casino. This is the kind of area that has earned Vegas the nickname of "Disneyland for adults" - the ceilings are painted with sky. The gondolas float down a real canal. People walk around with open containers of all kinds of booze. And it goes on at every hour of the day.

The window shopping is incredible all over the place. Christopher kept saying "Is the shopping at (insert casino name) higher end or lower end than this?" and the bizarre thing is that the same high-end shops are everywhere. There are a few mid-range places, but so much of what you see is just flat-out expensive. And, since we were mainly there to eat and window-shop, that was fine with us.

And, since Monday was the Chinese New Year (the Year of the Dragon), there was a massive (180-foot-long) dragon in the walkway between the Venetian shops and the Palazzo shops. So very cool. The signage said that they took more than 10 days to just do the gardens around the dragon. I can't imagine how long it took to create the dragon. (I hope to have some photos on here, soon. Sorry I don't have them, yet.)

We did our good luck walks around the dragon, then wandered off for drinks and dinner that first night. Of course, since food will be the topic 3 days from now, I guess I should stop, now, so I don't go too far. (I can't imagine that many people say *that* about Vegas...)