Viva Las Vegas

"So, my brother has to work. I guess I'm going to Vegas by myself."

"Uh... no you're not."

And so began Operation 'Furica: six days in Sin City with passes to the SEMA show, a pair of four-inch heels, and a taste for all things american. I was absolutely beside myself with excitement, and when we arrived, I was blown away by just how EVERYTHING everything was. Our first full day was spent at the Las Vegas Convention Centre (a short monorail ride from our hotel. That's right: MONORAIL!) taking in the show. Like the rest of the city, it was overwhelming in all the right ways.

Looking out from the inside:

 

Anyone wanna go wheeling?

 

 

Once upon a time, wheels.

That is all.

A little racey-racey?

 

In a Lamborghini, perhaps?

 

 

 

Maybe with this guy: professional rally driver Ken Block.

He was signing autographs and, despite standing and signing and smiling and selfie-ing continuously for the entire afternoon, he was an amazing sport right down to the last of the ridiculously long line-up of people waiting to shake his hand: really a class-act.

 

This one won over the girl in me: a Porsche 356, literally covered in Swarovski crystals.

 

 

Move over, Barbie, there's something bigger.

Kellie DeFries, a.k.a Crystal Ninja was finishing up placement of the crystals... one by one by one.

 

My overall favourite, though, as the girl-with-a-big-brother, was this beauty. Full-sized Tonka dumptruck? Children of the 80's rejoice!

Meanwhile, outside of the show, Las Vegas was thriving. It's like Disneyland for adults; everything is bigger, brighter, and more enticing than the thing before it.

Okay, so maybe the consumables are not quite like something you'd find at Disney...

 

...and if you don't like the selection, you can always flavour your own at VomFass.

 

 

Also, these:

 

Because Vegas.

 

Little trip to the mall:

 

 

 

..and another mall:

 

We wandered through all the hotels.

 

I'm telling you,

Giant.

Disneyland.

for Adults.

 

 

 

 

and on the outside? Absolutely jaw-dropping.

Yup, this is one hotel: New York, New York

 



 

 Bally's, Paris, and "the strip": Las Vegas Boulevard.

 

 

 

 

 

Daytime? A whole different kind of amazing.

 

 

 

But this is a city that lives and breathes at night.

 

Back in the days of early Las Vegas, downtown was the place to be. Fremont Street was home to Las Vegas's first hotel, first telephone, first paved street, and first traffic light. By 1992, however, four fifths of the city's casinos were on the strip, so the marketing gurus of the time came up with a plan.
Enter: the Fremont Street Experience.

These days, Fremont Street consists of three large stages boasting live shows, a zipline which flies you over the entire street and is backed by light shows on a canopy that encloses five full blocks, restaurants, bars, shops, casinos, and more neon signs that I care to admit having ever seen in one place. It truly is its own entity, and our last night in Vegas found us experiencing Fremont Street from one end to the other.

 

 

 

Random neon dome and somewhat oversized praying mantis? They've got that.

Bartenders on the bar showing off their skills? They've got that.

 

Neon on every corner? Every wall? The ceiling?

 

Wait... there's a ceiling over the street?

Yup.

 

 As you can imagine if you know me at all, I took hundreds and hundreds of pictures. Choosing just a few to convey the full feeling of 'the city that never sleeps' proved to be an impossible task. I think I know just what they mean when they say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, and I know I'm super-fortunate to have been able to take just a little bit of it with me when I left.