At the beginning of April, my husband and I went to Las Vegas for the third time. We had been there twice before, in 2008 and 2009. There were lots of changes.
While my husband was playing in a poker tournament, I took my Deuce bus pass and started taking pictures. A large section of each of my novels will be set in Las Vegas, so I went up and down The Strip, went down to The Freemont Street Experience and then down to the outlet mall area.
All up and down, there were these mobile billboards for different escort services. Well, and many limos.
This was one of my favorites--the Eiffel Tower reproduction in front of the Paris hotel and casino. We got to go up to the top a few nights later. It was too cold and windy, but still a pretty awesome experience.
I loved the detail on The Flamingo.
Here's a detail from the entrance to Harrah's. We stayed there in 2009 and it was pretty fun.
The bus ended up stopping at The Venetian for a few moments. While I was able to get a few pictures of the outdoor gondola ride (we took the inside ride in 2009), I was fascinated by the fake windows.
This was the fanciest Walgreens I'd ever seen:
We had to go in to get some things earlier.
I took this picture of a display in there, because one of my heroes gets a pair of glasses, thinking they might make him look a little older. I also found this and took it to be a sign:
One of my heroines looks like a blue-eyed Audrey Hepburn.
They moved the Welcome sign when they imploded The Sahara last year to the end of The Strip:
Down on Freemont, I had to take a picture of the Harley-Davidson shop:
One of my characters buys a shirt there. Also, I thought this was kind of weird:
One of the things they have down there now they didn't have in 2009 is a zip line. I wanted to go on it, but was carrying a bag. Can you see the rider on the upper left of the picture?
Finally, Vegas is covered with weird carpets. Here's one in The Tropicana:
Weird, huh?
I had Chris take a picture of me on the walkway over The Strip wearing my Pittsburgh Penguins hat.
The hat was a minor plot point--I get asked when I wear this or my Penguins T-shirt if I'm a hockey fan. Especially funny this year, as the Penguins are playing the Boston Bruins in the finals for the playoffs. One of my other characters is a huge Bruins fan. Me, on the other hand, not so much. I happened to have a layover at the Pittsburgh airport and I love penguins.
So, I hope you like my weird perspective of Vegas. I tried to see details that my characters might notice. Which was your favorite?
