July 11, 2008
Ahh Fremont Street!!
Man...did we have a blast in Vegas. I was able to snap a few pics. One is in my cell phone and it'll have to wait a bit...but it's a hoot! Anyway, here we go!
Here is where we stayed, the Golden Nugget, my favorite casino...period. While there, we played a ton of video poker and I also made time to hit Mom's favorite slot machine, Little Green Men. After 10 minutes, I had taken a $50 TiTo and built it to over $100. After cashing out, I looked up to the heavens, said "That was for you, Mom" and went on my way. What was interesting, was that the machine was in the same place I remember it in 2003 when I last visited Vegas. George also mentioned that it was in the same place in 2001, when he, Barb, and my cousin Kim took Mom to Las Vegas 3 weeks before she passed away. Will it be there when I get the chance to go again? If so, I plan on smacking it around once more!
Across the street is Binion's Horseshoe. It will always be that to me, even though it has changed its name slightly.
Barb really likes Binion's and she played there quite a bit. It still has the "Old Vegas" feel to it... a bit smoky, lower ceilings, lots of crystal and brass. The crowd seemed a little older there too. So did the employees, heh heh. We visited the snack bar and had Binion Burgers (a must have). I didn't fare too well there but that's ok. The Club's Poker Tournament was held there, in the very same place where the World Series of Poker finals were previously played. George did great, placing 6th out of 152 entrants, and won a nice little stack of chips for his efforts.
At night, Fremont Street lights up on the hour with an audio/video show that will make your jaw drop. For 2 blocks...Las Vegas blocks that is...the sky above bursts forth with color and surprisingly good, and earth shaking, sound.
On Friday night, after a long day of gambling, chipping, drinking, more gambling, more drinking, and shopping...George and I walked the Street looking for more things to buy. I was looking for a shirt for Trevor...and was successful. While cruising, we thought we would see if the Glitter Gulch had shirts. The GG is a strip club but once had table games ( I have a chip from there). No luck though as they had no shirts...of course if you went in, you would discover they had nothing else either!! Clothing that is...we chose not to enter...we were good. We did nothing that had to "Stay in Vegas".
Now...we did have a little bit of fun while walking about. Like I said, we were searching for shirts and we did find a place, but before we made it there we stopped at the entrance of The Las Vegas Club. This is another older place, not on par with the GN in terms of classiness, but still cool none the less. It did have something the GN didn't...a showgirl teaser out front to attract gamblers. We could not pass this opportunity up. George gave her a modest tip and I took the shot.
Heh heh...Barb reads this blog...so I made sure it was cool with George to post this pic. Barb...all in fun...we were all laughing it up. But...George did help me pick out those loud, obnoxious (and oh so cool) shirts.