Vegas is More Than Trashy

Let me start off by saying that many years ago, before I had ever gone to Las Vegas, I had no interest whatsoever in ever going there. It didn't seem like my kind of experience. I imagined it was loud, gaudy, and dirty. Every movie I saw depicting this desert hell had images of Elvis Presley, drunk people that woke up married, prostitutes, violence, and lots of naked people. I didn't think I'd ever want to go.

As luck would have it however, I married someone who absolutely loves Las Vegas. I have now visited there on 4 different occasions and you know what? I like it more and more each visit. The last time I visited was just last week and we had a fabulous time.

Here are some great reasons to visit Las Vegas:

• It's warm. I've only ever lived in places where winter starts at the end of October and runs until the end of March. A "sun injection" as my husband calls it, is a welcome change. When we visited last week the weather was a balmy 78 degrees. As a disclaimer however let me inform you that during the summer it feels like walking into an oven. I got married there last July and the temp outside was 108. The locals will boast that it is a "dry heat" so that makes it better. Too hot is still too hot. Humid or dry.

• Free parking almost everywhere. Niagara Falls needs a lesson here.

• Everything worth seeing and doing is located on one very long street. "The Strip" is easy to access and navigate. It is extraordinarily pedestrian friendly and surprisingly safe. For people like me that get lost easily it's fantastic. Most buildings are tall enough that you just have to look to your right or left to figure out where you are.

• Lots of family friendly activities. If gambling and porn don't interest you there are still plenty of interesting things to do and see. A 40 minute drive will bring you to The Valley of Fire State Park. Another short drive will bring to to the Hoover Dam. Both of these excursions are fairly cheep and very interesting. Las Vegas also has lots of cool artists and street performers that are fun to watch. We watched an artist on Freemont Street do an amazing spray paint art piece of the new City Center. Freemont Street also has a zipline you can do that looks like a lot of fun! We have seen people painted to look like sculptures..and were so convincing you just had to stop and look. We've listened to beautiful string quartets at the Venetian, and seen women that looked like fountains with real water coming from their fingertips.

• Free entertainment. Las Vegas has several family friendly shows or attractions that are free! You can watch water dance to music every half hour in front of the Ballagio. The Ballagio also has an amazing indoor garden that is changed every day and includes beautiful floral art, a butterfly garden, and jumping fountains. You can see a volcano explode at the Mirage to a super cool original percussive piece complete with tribal drums and dancing fire fountains. If you swing on over to MGM you can watch their lions play (or sleep....they sleep a lot). There is even a pirate show several times a night complete with attractive sirens, handsome sailors, and fireworks over at Treasure Island.

• The Shows. Wow. The Cirque Du Soleil shows are outstanding. This time we saw a smaller show at the Imperial Palace called, "Matsuri." We got the tickets half price and it didn't have quite the wow factor like Cirque but it was still a great show complete with story line, talented dancers/gymnasts, lights, and a cast that genuinely seemed to enjoy entertaining. There are lots of shows in Las Vegas. I have seen one of the "adults only" shows (it was Vegas and a girlfriend said she liked it so I didn't mind checking it out) but really it was just sort of tacky. "Bite" has great 1980's music but the dancing is average (all the really incredible dancers work for Cirque Du Soleil I think) and it's sort of like a bad vampire t.v show...it wasn't sexy enough to have made it to HBO. Whatever you want, comedy, magic, dance....whatever kind of dance. It's there. If you are with your husband there are shows you will enjoy. If you are alone (why are you in Las Vegas alone by the way?????) there are lots of adult shows for women as well as men. My husband thinks the next big scandal to break will be when it is discovered that the men of "The Thunder Down Under" aren't really from Australia (I don't know if they are or aren't...and don't know many women that would really care either way.)

• The food! I love to eat. The best hamburger I have EVER eaten in my entire life was at "BLT" in the Mirage. "Isla Mexican Kitchen" at Treasure Island has the prettiest and most tasty Tex-Mex food and comes complete with a Tequila Godess to show you around the wide variety of lovely agave products they have. (They have over 100 different kinds of Tequila!) If you want to go off strip and save money you can feed two people for what it would cost to feed one on the strip. Our favorite place to go for breakfast is called, "The Egg and I." If you're looking for a great way to celebrate your first morning in Vegas, program 4533 W Sahara into your GPS. I promise you will not be disappointed. My husband orders an egg dish (They're famous for their egg crepes and omelets) and I order the blueberry cashew pancakes. We split each dish, are stuffed by the time we're done and the bill that comes to the table is only about 20 bucks...can't beat that. Las Vegas has a lot of beautiful buffets to choose from too. Our favorite is at the Wyn. For about 30.00 per plate you can eat foods from all over the world and sample a seriously impressive array of desserts. I love cold smoked salmon. They always have a lot of it at the Wyn.

• Lots of other neat family friendly things to do! We have enjoyed the "Shark Reef Aquarium" at Mandalay Bay and the "Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat" at the Mirage. Entrance to both of these attractions are under 20.00 per adult and the neat thing is that both are geared toward education. You won't see any dolphin shows at the Secret Garden. They seem opposed to them, and that was quite refreshing. You could still come very close however, watch the dolphins with their caretakers and even sit on the edge of their enclosure. The Secret Garden also has one of the most successful breeding programs for endangered large cats. Just make sure you follow the signs at the Mirage to go see the Dolphins. If you aren't careful you'll end up in line for the topless pool at the same hotel!

So while there are a lot of super trashy things about Las Vegas it's not all bad. This post should not lead you to believe however that you won't need to have a conversation with your pre-adolescent children before you go. There are homeless people in Las Vegas that have gotten very creative with their pleas for cash. One man held up a small stuffed dog..made him bark and then pointed to a sign that read, "Help! Hungry Dog." Several others held signs which very honestly stated, "Why lie? We Need Beer." An African American man stood with a sign that said, "Help me I'm black." While 15 paces a way a white woman held a sign that read, "Help me I'm white." My husband and I wondered if they traveled around together. The only times I ever saw anyone give money was when there were children or pets involved. Women sometimes bring their small children with them to beg. This is hard to pass by. Other young adults will bring their dogs, or have a picture of an ultrasound to better their odds of gaining a couple dollars.

It is also clear that there are groups of people that struggle for survival in Las Vegas and end up taking very undesirable jobs. One job that seems to be reserved for Mexican immigrants is the job of "Porn Slapper." Both men and women do this job, and no one that does it seems to speak English very well. These people stand out on the street all day wearing florescent shirts and hand out cards featuring nude escorts for hire. It breaks my heart to see people taken advantage of this way..at the same time I did not see one Mexican/ Mexican-American male (who am I to judge citizenship??) begging for cash on the street. The panhandlers we saw were mainly white. The exception was women with children.

Las Vegas is fun and it's one of the least expensive vacations you can take in today's economy. My husband and I stayed a week and it cost about 600.00 each including air. There are a lot of things to do, and although I hope the aliens visit a nice little town in the Midwest first before they judge humanity, Las Vegas is definitely a place I'd go back to again.