An Italian Across America: Welcome To "Neon City"!

Good Evening Gamblers,

Yes, another day in Las Vegas!

This morning, according to our plans, we had brunch at the Stratosphere, another free standing tower with a revolving restaurant on top (and not only that), that revolves on its axis.

Sunday brunch at the Stratosphere is not your usual brunch, as we were all expecting a fixed menu price for a buffet style kind of experience.

Instead, we ordered as usual from “A la carte” menu, and in the specific, I had a very juicy and tender Kobe Beef Burger with parmesan French fries for $21. Matt had a pasta dish with chicken and vegetables (also for $21), and Hap had smoked salmon over potato pancakes ($19).

We also had dessert, I don’t recall the fancy name, but it was basically three slices of brownies, with vanilla ice cream, and a very nice decoration. Here is a picture:

The view is great, it gave me the chance to take several pictures of the strip, and the surrounding area with all the new casino popping up like crazy.

This is the Trump Tower from up there:

And this is my foot on the floor of the restaurant:

One reprimand I have for the Stratosphere management is that when you make a reservation on the phone, they tell you they have a dress code that you have to respect, and then once you actually get to the tower, you see people dressed with shorts, tank tops, and flip flops! I think that probably is the Vegas resort attire, and I have nothing against that; what drives me crazy is to have the folks at Stratosphere putting up these silly rules that they don’t care to enforce! Oh well, live and learn, right?

After lunch, we went on top of the observatory, where they have three separate thrill rides: Insanity, XScream, and the Big Shot. I didn’t try any of them as I was afraid the precious Kobe Beef Burger would show up again, but the rides really looked like fun.

Insanity has seats tethered to an arm that swings out beyond the tower leaving riders dangling 1000 feet in the air. As the ride begins its circular motion, the seats rise and tilt downward to the Strip; XScream resembles a giant seesaw that sends riders teetering over the edge of the tower; and the “Big Shot” is a hydraulic freefall drop tower, similar to many found at theme parks, except this one is on top of the tower.

We then went for a ride on the strip to take some pictures, all the way down to the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign where everybody stops to take pictures, here is mine:

Nevada must be one of those states where they really like guns; just like at the advertisement on this cab riding down the strip:

At night we went back to the strips to see the lights, and to go to the sumptuous Bellagio to see the Fountains show synchronized with beautiful music.

We also went to Fremont Street to see the light show. Fremont Street is where Las Vegas and all its glory originated from. It lies about a mile away from the strip and a safer option for visiting it would be to take a cab there; as Matt said, the area surrounding Fremont Street is really not a nice area, and it is something that I have been able to feel first hand this evening. The light show is called the “Fremont Street Experience”, a magnificent lit up ceiling that puts on a laser show every hour; we saw USAF aircrafts (probably F16s! LOL) and the Space Shuttle. It was really amazing, and here are some shots for you: