Note: Wireless Internet is a good thing, when it works. I posted the following blog in Las Vegas, but learned later it never made it out of my computer. This is the last one of my travelog series. AB
We’ve been here 72 hours and we are on overload. We’ve seen the Venetian, the Mirage, Caesar’s Palace, Treasure Island, the Frontier, the Wynn, the Bellagio, New York New York, Bally’s, Paris, the list goes on and on. These are all hotels on the Strip, each with its own claim to fame. It reminds me of the play, Gypsy” and one of the hootin’ songs in it, “You Gotta Have A Gimmick.” Every hotel here subscribes to that theory.
The Venetian replicates Venice down to indoor and outdoor canals where you can pay for a gondola ride and a song from the gondolier. The Mirage has a volcano that erupts on time. Caesar’s Palace has a shopping mall that’s over the top. Treasure Island has pirate ships. But I think my favorite hotel is the Wynn, which has a golf course on the premises. I don’t play golf and I didn’t get anywhere near the course, but what I liked was the more elegant ambiance of the hotel. If golf was its gimmick, it was subtle and gracious. By comparison to the other hotels the Wynn is understated. This doesn’t mean the flowers and chandeliers and shops are unimpressive; rather, they are more so because they don’t shout at you.
My second favorite hotel is one that has been around for years, unlike the Wynn which just opened. From the outside, the Flamingo looks like an aging high rise, but behind this faзade are gardens and pools with live fish, various species of swans, and even a penguin habitat. It felt restful after walking through so many casinos amid so many tourists.
As a sidetrip, when our feet were screaming for a brief time-out, we jumped in a cab and went to visit the Liberace Museum. Liberace was to his generation what Elton John is to his. Both showmen, both piano players, both fancy costumers. I imagine many people no longer remember Liberace, but we all did; so his museum was a trip back in time. It was also sobering to wonder if today’s music lovers will remember Sir Elton twenty-five years after his death.
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