What Happens In Vegas Randomness

I spent last weekend in Sin City, Las Vegas.  This is my third annual visit there for the iHeart Radio Music Festival and my overall impression is the same … it is a great place to escape reality.  Here are some random thoughts and observations:

- Money, decadence, rich people, poor people, Gucci tourists, Walmart tourists.

- Crowds in the afternoon and night, not so bad in the morning when they’re all sleeping off their day of decadence.

- There is a hotel/attraction built to look like New York, another is Paris, another is Egypt.  Paris has a simulated Eiffel Tower.  Yes, I had to go to the top.  The picture shows a view from there.

- Most men dressed in flowered Hawaiian style shirts appear to be my age or older.  I am rethinking that part of my wardrobe.

- With that thought in mind, I walked into a couple of clothing places.  The Ross store clothes were way too cheap for my taste.  The $14 shirts just looked cheap.  The two stores in the Mandalay Bay shops looked great and unique in a one-of-a-kind way.  Shirts cost $265.  That’s not a typo.  The half-price sale rack?  Do the math … still insanely expensive.  Most shirts I own cost less than $50, so even if I want to pay more for ‘unique’ I can’t make a $135 shirt make sense.  Who spends that kind of money on a shirt?  So I bought a House of Blues t-shirt for $25.

- Vegas is loud and bright 24/7.

- Music, ads, vendors, random people on the street handing out ‘free show’ tickets.  Last year I saw Elvis on the street, this year I saw Batman.  And an incredible Michael Jackson.

- The festival was incredible.  Twenty or more acts, most well-known, representing all genres of music.  If I’m starting to sound like a commercial it might be because I make commercials for the festival as part of my job.  But I was truly impressed with the variety of music … Elton John, Paul McCartney, Maroon 5, Tim McGraw, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Keith Urban, Fun, Muse, Justin Timberlake, what’s left of Queen with plenty of other festival stars sitting in.  Wow!

- It is very dry there.  Humidity was sometimes less than 10%.  Sort of like breathing cardboard.  I’m sure I drank several gallons of water.

- I also drank quite a bit of rum, some of it free because of some concert VIP pre-parties.

- I did not gamble.  I usually plan to lose some money playing slot machines, maybe around $40.  High roller, ey?  But this time I watched a friend lose money.  I left a couple hundred of my dollars in Vegas in the form of paying for some meals and drinks.

Like I said, I love visiting Vegas for a few days at a time.  It is a great escape from reality.