Viva Lost Wages

Lost Wages is what Simiao's airline pilot called Las Vegas on the way in, and I think that's a hilarious name so I'll go with it.  We decided to spend 5 days here for Valentine's Day, and I was really pumped to explore!  Everyone calls the city tacky, but I think it's beautiful in a very surreal way--like Dubai, but less sad because you have freedom and the buildings aren't just sitting there unoccupied.  Even though gambling's not really my thing, we found the biggest, most ostentatious slot machine we could and bet a single dollar just so that we could say we did.  My favorite part of the visit (aside from hiking in Red Rock Canyon, which I will document in a later post) was the Cirque du Soleil.  If you haven't heard of this science-fiction interpretive dance show, you need to find one and go to it.  It's positively jaw-dropping.

Actually, if there was one thing I'd change about our stay, it would be the venue.  We stayed at the Bellagio which in spite of its ratings was a disappointment in many regards.  The "heated" pool was only open until 4 and was barely tolerable temperature-wise in the 50-degree Nevada winter, the shower hardware in our room was falling off the wall and nearly unusable, the drain didn't work and overflowed into our bathroom and bedroom, and the casino which you had to walk through to get to your room guaranteed that you would smell like smoke after any trip to or from your room.  The service was quite good and the location was very good--it just didn't seem quite right that such a fancy hotel should have a room that feels like it's falling apart.

We have some cool pictures from the city, though, which you should check out below!

Adding to my collection of statues of famous historical figures with their arms around me.

At the Wynn to check out the in-hotel Ferrari dealership.

We loved this mural in the Cosmopolitan.

The view from our hotel room.