Friday Photo

I went to Las Vegas this past week for a couple of days to attend a work related convention/seminar.

 

I had never been to Vegas and I'm 99% sure I won't be going back. Several people had told me how "fun" it was. Most described Vegas as "different." I don't drink--not even occasionally--and I don't gamble, so that left a limited amount of things for me to do. Luckily (no pun intended), I was traveling with a co-worker that was pretty much in the same boat, so we spent our time outside of the work-related stuff, sight-seeing...and boy are there some "sights" to see!

We visited Hoover Dam one afternoon; most evenings we walked The Strip and watched the people. We took LOTS of pictures--my co-worker had just purchased a new camera. The lights, fountains, and shear magnitude of the casinos is incredible. And we ate good! I had always heard that food was cheap in Vegas, but we didn't see that...at least not in the area where we were staying. We ate at The Buffet at the Bellagio casino one afternoon. It's HUGE! One evening we took a cab to Freemont Street downtown--the "old Vegas;" the Golden Nugget casino is there.

I was amazed at the openness/lax attitude toward nudity/near nudity on the billboards and signs in front of the casinos and along the roads. I was also taken aback by the brazen attitude toward prositution. There were "clickers" everywhere--people that stood on the streets--in DROVES--slapping/clicking business-size cards with pornographic pictures on them and phone numbers for prostitutes. (The clicking gets your attention supposedly so they can hand you a card(s).)

From a logistical stand-point, Vegas is an amazing place when you consider the amount of electricity, water, food, lodging, etc. it takes to make the place run. It's a very sad place from a spiritual perspective--so much energy and money spent to provide temporary "happiness" in the form of sex, alcohol, and revelry. I felt like I needed to wash my eyes out the whole time I was there.