Las Vegas, Baby?

Last week I went to Las Vegas. Yeah, you read that correctly, I went to Vegas.

I went with my friend Angelia who is the creator of fantastic fairy wings and related ephemera (check out her Etsy store: On Gossamer Wings). She had been invited to teach fairy wing construction to dance costume designers (Tutu Seminars). I was invited to go along as the muscle (because every good fairy needs to have some muscle and protection behind her).

Angelia's seminar went from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM on Thursday and Friday nights, so that put a bit of a hitch in doing anything exciting in the evenings (and yeah, I know technically that is still early, but we are old...and cheap, err frugal). The sessions were great and Angelia had the opportunity to meet some of her fans...and she does have fans. I have to say that the women and men that were participating in this seminar are amazing. They all schlepped sewing machines and sergers to this place and learned to make all sorts of different bodices and tutus and dance wear for the schools and professional dance troupes and theaters. The work that they were doing blew me away and they so enjoyed what they were doing. After the classes, they would continue to gather together and discuss the hows and whys of doing certain things in the construction of their costumes and they were all more than willing to open and share what they knew.

Now, Angelia and I we were not there for learning all the ins and outs of working with tulle...I was there solely as an observer. We also didn't stay anywhere near the strip, which is always the first question that people ask when I say I went to Vegas. In fact, the strip was about a 30 minute cab ride over there, and we just weren't that interested in checking it out....we could see it from our room, and that was good enough. We were on the 19th floor of a 20 floor building, so we declared ourselves to be staying in the penthouse basement or penthouse adjacent. The room fit our needs. It was clean, had two beds, and good AC, so really, what more could you ask for?

The casino, however, well, it really wasn't what you imagine, or rather not what I imagine....

What you expect in Vegas....bright lights and beautiful happy people

This would have at least been interesting to see:

This is what we actually saw in our casino (not an actual picture because I just couldn't bring myself to take pictures in there....)

Rows and rows of slot machines manned by the elderly or the depressing

Mind you, the casino was right across the street from a retirement community, so I really think they just bus people over from there every afternoon. The highlight of the casino, though was checking out all of the names on the slot machines. My personal favorite was:

Willy Wonka machine with the motion seat

Now this casino didn't have just slots and a handful of tables for cards, craps, or roulette....they also had a giant smoke-filled bingo parlor (although there was a little glassed in room for the non smokers to sit in), a bowling alley, and a movie theater (not that any movies were showing at times that were convenient for us).

Just to give you one last feel for this place.... As I stated, our class was finished at 8:00 PM, which meant we would get out of there around 9:00, after all the clean up and final questions. We would try to go to dinner after that, however, the restaurants would all stop serving around that time. The buffet was closed, the surf and turf restaurant was out of our price range...and closed. The bottomless taco and enchilada restaurant stopped serving. The sushi bar...you guessed it, stopped serving. The only place left to eat was TGIFridays. Yep, I went all the way to Vegas and we ate at Fridays...both nights. Not that I really minded because they currently have a Tennessee Whiskey Cake that is really scrumptious and Angelia and I split one....twice.

Will I go back to Vegas? I'm sure I will.....it didn't kill me this time and who knows, maybe third time will be the charm where I meet somebody and get married there...