We woke in Bakersfield at around 7am and made use of the free internet and free breakfast. We looked online for rooms in Las Vegas. There were plenty of last minute deals but my mom was set on staying at a place called ‘The Golden Nugget” via a review of the place she’d heard from a friend. With a $39 rate we booked it and got on the road.
We headed out on 58 which eventually lead us to Barstow and the major Hwy 15. Somewhere between Barstow and Las Vegas we came upon what seemed to be some sort of oil rig graveyard, but in fact was the rigs were working away. Pretty eerie sight actually; looked straight out of some technical tragedy movie. Of course we had to stop to get a few photos.
Just outside of Vegas is a welcome center, an outlet mall, and the first few casinos. One in particular stood out to me as we pulled off the hwy. It was my friend Kate’s 13th birthday; and her wild mama Mona was taking herself, Kate, and three of her friends to L.A. to see the band her current boyfriend was in, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I was one of those friends. We drove from Aspen and spent the first night at Buffalo Bill’s Resort & Casino and headed to L.A. the next day.
http://www.primmvalleyresorts.com/hotel_buffalobill.php
As soon as I saw the giant sign all of those memories from that trip flooded back to me. What a wild and fun trip that was—and Kate had been one of my few friends who had really made an effort to keep in touch with me while I was in Japan. I was excited that I would be seeing her soon. Mom and I went into the welcome center to collect coupons and walked around the outlet mall for a while, leaving with tasteful Easter baskets for my dad and sister. We ate lunch on the rear end of the car out of our cooler-- which was still stocked with random Trader Joe’s goodies.
We then headed towards the hotel. ‘The Golden Nugget’ is in the older part of Las Vegas, not directly on the new strip; but when we arrived there was a huge line at the reception desk so I found a place on the floor with our bags while Mom waited it out in the line. Both of us wanted to ‘do’ something with our Vegas night…but we didn’t know what. We’d read about shows and such that were going on, but no one thing yelled out to us.
The main reason my mom wanted to stay at ‘The Golden Nugget’ was for the pool that she’d heard was so great. So, once in our room and settled down, we headed straight there. And it was really beautiful—but it was also quite chilly and crowded. Instead of fighting our way into the hot tub we laid back in the chilly sun and relaxed on the roof top chairs while everyone around us frantically watched a movie scene being filmed on the street below. Every few minutes we would hear a car crashing and shouts from the scene below.
http://www.goldennugget.com/home.asp
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| The typical Las Vegas sighting...old lady gambling at the Golden Nugget |
After that we headed back to the room and got ready for our night on the strip. We headed to the bus stop where we waited for the bus number we’d been told to take. But when another bus rolled up and a young girl shouted out to us to get on and quickly explained that this was a free bus we jumped on it. We sat with her and her crew as they explained that this bus was an experimental express service they were running for free. We’d lucked out; Not only was it free, but it was an express. The bus ride was damn entertaining as well with the girl and her group.
When we made it to the strip and there started our long night. We walked through loads of Casino’s—always keeping our eye open for a show or something we might want to ‘do.’ But nothing really seemed to hit the spot. We finally ended up in, of all places, an Asian restaurant in Caesar’s Palace for our dinner. Giving up hope of finding a show, we made it our goal to just find cool things to take pictures of.
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| Blues Brothers on the Vegas strip. |
By about 9:30pm my mom was near to being ready to hit the bed…but I wasn’t letting that happen. In order for her to pep up she ordered a $12 shot of Patron but knew that wouldn’t be enough to keep her going. So we headed to a bottle shop where she purchased a small bottle of Patron and a bottle of orangina soda. I got her a cup from Starbucks and she was ready to keep going.
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| Mom with her energy pill--tequila! |
The rest of the night we spent walking, watching the free spectacles that go on there with every corner you take, taking loads of pictures, and just laughing our asses off. It was a blast. I’d heard somewhere the Cher was playing in Vegas, and when we saw a giant Cher sign we both assumed she was playing. We ran to the ticket window only to find out she’d be there 4 days later. Mom was disappointed. We’d finally found the thing we both would want to do…but we were 4 days too early.
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| Getting what little bit of Cher I can |
Oh well…we kept on and found ourselves in the middle of a line to enter a club called ‘TAO’ which is inside the Venetian Hotel. http://www.taolasvegas.com/tao.html It was the perfect place to get some great pictures of Vegas nightlife.
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| People waiting to get into TAO |
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| TAO entrance requirement: Bare legs and very high high heels |
We continued on with our nonsense fun until about 3am and then found our free bus back to the hotel. We were sitting next to a young gay couple and we started talking to them about what fun we were having. Mom tried to strike up a conversation with a Las Vegas local who couldn't have been rudder. Obviously the city and it's turists had gotten to him in a really bad way. At this point, mom was ready for breakfast and luckily in Vegas you can get pretty much whatever you want at any time you want it. We got her some pancakes and eggs and then headed to bed with every part of our body exhausted--but damn was it a fun day!
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