That Banner Did Wave
When my brother, Aaron, and I made plans to meet in Vegas, it had very little to do with the destination–I’d bet the city was pretty low on both of our lists of places to visit. But he could find a flight there from NY for a decent price, and it seemed a reasonable amount of ground to cover–Vegas to Denver–in a week. A friend’s parents’ offer to put us up sweetened the deal–there’s certainly something to be said for staying with parents who don’t have a regular opportunity to dote on “children.” They take you out to dinner and/or cook for you, offer local travel advice, and send you off with lots of useful things like paper towels and plastic forks and knives.
Our hosts in Vegas (Henderson, to be more exact) had asked what we were interested in seeing in town, and Aaron had requested the “non-touristy” stuff. Seems Vegas has very little of that to offer, and they were convinced that once he saw the Strip he’d be curious to explore more.
After picking him up at the airport we drove down the Strip, conveniently located nearby, and I pointed out things I had seen on the drive along the same blocks of endless lights and sights the night before–I was already feeling like a local. We ended up at Fremont Street so Aaron could get something to eat, and our visit happened to overlap with the Fremont Street Experience, this insane light show that happens on what is essentially a massive LED-screen-lined awning over the street. To our chagrine, the 10 p.m. show’s theme was something like America the Beautiful–full of images of bald eagles, baseball games, waving Stars and Stripes, and shuttles taking off. It was bizarre and insanely over the top–watching it made me embarrassed, as I imagined how many international visitors were probably witnessing this patriotic blitzkrieg. Ten minutes later it ended to applause, cheers, and whistles–as every show probably does–but I suspected it was a little more emphatic than the response to, say, the light show with the ’50s theme.
That was the end of our explorations for the night, but we were already formulating a plan for the rest of our time in Vegas. Stay tuned for the next installment…
Tags: Travel
Amy
i hear that hoover dam is quite a sight to see if you’re near vegas.