Viva Las Vegas

Retracing our steps through Sin City, the City That Never Sleeps, the Marriage Capital of the World, the City of Second Chances, or as it is more commonly known – Las Vegas – was, to put it simply, an interesting experience, though perhaps not AS interesting as I anticipated it to be.

I made it a priority to revisit some of the specific locations we explored almost exactly three years ago, which included sights such as the MGM Grand, a nearby Taco Bell (where we made NATIONAL news the last time we were here!), the M&M shop, as well as the Coca-Cola shop, and the experience was surreal in that it all felt oddly normal and familiar, like my brain had melded together the memories from our previous visit with the current trip, making it feel strangely as if I’d never even left.

We definitely weren’t let down when we first came to Vegas, and I’d still recommend it as a place to go at least once – but perhaps only once, as somehow my brain managed to make Vegas (with its extravagant lights and architecture) seem pretty normal the longer I stayed.

All that rambling aside, we still made the most of our time in the city, by purchasing last minute tickets to see Menopause: The Musical. And boy, was it worth it. Seriously, if you have the chance to see this show, do it (had us crying with laughter throughout the runtime)! The second show we attended during our stay was the revered “O” by Cirque Du Soleil, held at the gorgeous Bellagio hotel. Sadly, we must report that we were quite disappointed and underwhelmed, despite its reputation as one of the best Cirque Du Soleil productions. As a side note: the props, production, costumes, and special effects were all PHENOMENAL; it’s pretty damn impressive to sit in a theatre which has a huge pool as a stage, with amazing set pieces that come swinging through the air, or rising through the water, all the time being surrounded by several groups of wildly-dressed individuals. But then two clowns came on stage and all hope was lost. Perhaps it was the fact that our seats were up in the balcony, in the second row from the very back, that the spectacle and shock factor was somewhat dulled; we could see the underwater platforms rising or falling before each act, so we knew that when a performer went plummeting to the stage, they were going to land safely in deep water, whereas other audience members closer to the stage would likely have flinched, expecting them to hit solid ground instead. Additionally, an array of peculiar characters seemed to randomly come and go with no real purpose or meaning, and sometimes, there would be so many things going on at once, we didn’t know where we were meant to be looking, meaning we often missed the main act because we were too distracted. In summary, if you’re willing to pay the $360USD PER TICKET to sit in the front section, then yeah, maybe “O” would be worth the ludicrous price. If anyone else has seen a Cirque Du Soleil production, feel free to let us know how you found the experience! To top off the night, we were then caught in a ridiculous traffic jam on the free shuttle to get back to our accommodation – moving about 100m in 45mins – so that was fun too!

Some pics of Sam’s Town, the place we stayed – it had a neat little casino and food court, like the hotels on the Strip, but on a much smaller scale.

Side adventure for the day: stopping by the ‘Area 51 Alien Center’ en route to Vegas, where we came across a lovely little establishment by the name of ‘Alien Cathouse Brothel’.