freemont street!

I really am trying to make this the last of the Bizarre Las Vegas Files. Oh, speaking of bizarre things – K is having to be out of the office for a few days because a long-time friend’s father died yesterday. This guy is such a long-time friend that I’ve been telling everyone who gets all snippy because she’s out that she had a death in the family (she was on vacation last week and advising has started so she’s REALLY busy). But the weird thing is that her friend’s father is being buried in a very old cemetery that’s now part of national park land. And the national park doesn’t allow heavy machinery. So K’s husband and the other pall bearers are digging the grave by hand. I was just astounded – and I sure hope somebody gets pictures of that. I guess that would be in poor taste – but I’d have to take pictures so I could process it!

But, back to Las Vegas – these last pictures are of Freemont Street, which is downtown. “Vintage Las Vegas”, as one of the guides put it. Apparently Freemont Street got really run down and seedy and scary at one point, but it’s been somewhat revived and is more touristy and not so scary now. Although it’s still pretty seedy, in a very fun and Las-Vegas-alter-ego sort of way. In fact, Not-Too-Clingy-Roomie and I went by ourselves, because our female traveling companions were scared to go. (Our male traveling companion was busy gambling.) We both found that very amusing. This actually is more what I was expecting Las Vegas to look like than the Strip is.

So, Freemont Street at night!

Older and less cushy slot machines. That had things you pull and would spit out money instead of tickets. Not that you can tell here.

And finally, a very strange…show, I guess. They projected this thing onto an overhead screen that ran what appeared to be the entire block. And there was music. I have no clue what the point of it was, but it was fun. And appropriate that I’m ending with these, as this was pretty much my last Las Vegas Experience, since we flew out at the ungodly hour of seven in the morning next day.