Viva, Las Vegas

The intent of this trip was not to spend time on the strip and in the casinos but to visit with Leon’s family and get to know other parts of Vegas. But one cannot ignore the glitz and neon lights completely. The Strip is actually four miles along Las Vegas Boulevard where the most popular casinos line the sides of the street and the neon lights light up the night sky, while the throngs of tourists look like an army of fire ants whose hill has been disturbed. So we joined the ants! At the Rio we saw the Show in the Sky, one of the freebies that we had not seen.

There is a large stage, lightly clad dancers, and three “vessels” that float around the room on rails on the ceiling. They even throw a few Mardi Gras beads. It is not at the top of my list of shows to see but it's free!

Then it was a time for an ice cream fix. We immediately thought of St. Mark’s Square in the Venetian. We got our gelato, cholesterol and fat free of course!

Then we just sat in the plaza and watched the crowds before wandering over to the canal to watch the boats with singers poles by.

We intended to visit New York New York but we just ran out of time.

It was great having all the space at the Elks’ Lodge to ourselves most of the time.

The unexpected entertainment was the sirens we kept hearing as emergency vehicles passed by from the next door fire station.

This was the last planned stop on our trip so it is now time to head to the house.