The Vegas Strip in the Daylight Hours

After a wonderful evening exploring the Strip on foot, it was time to see it again for an afternoon. This time, the sun was out. And so was my hunger, after not getting much to eat for dinner!

So I walked to the monorail station after a wonderful night of sleep on the seventeenth floor. I still had about three hours left on my 24-hour monorail pass.

Best $12 I spent in Vegas, that’s for dang sure!

This is the Hilton attached to the Convention Center, and the home of the monorail station closest to my hotel. I only had to walk a few blocks to arrive here this morning.

Pretty, isn’t it?

Up, up and away to the monorail station! It wasn’t much busier than the day before, but El Capitan happened to hop on the same car as me to ride to the Strip today.

What a small world!

Since the monorail station was on an elevated platform, if gave me the height to take a picture of the Strip in the distance. Way too far to walk, right?

Soon I was exiting at my monorail stop to walk to lunch. I had found on a map the night before where my lunch destination would be today.

And it was going to be much more affordable than last night’s dinner at Serendipity. (And much better, too, but I didn’t know that yet!).

At first, I considered eating some tacos for lunch at Cabo Wabo. But their menu was the typical high Vegas prices, and I was ready to wander for a while until I found what I wanted.

This is just outside the Planet Hollywood entrance.

There are two entrances to the Miracle Mile Shops. Had I known that, I would have walked a few more feet and entered in the farther door. Going this way, however, I got a fun view of the interior of the casino, as well as lots and lots of stores.

All filled with people. There isn’t a recession on the Las Vegas Strip, apparently!

After taking the long way, I finally arrived at the Earl of Sandwich. It sounded like the perfect solution to calm my hunger, since I happen to like sandwiches quite a bit.

Just not Subway. Yuck.

Hi, Earl! You’re about to make me very, very happy!

Especially with a delicious side like red potato salad. I’m an Ideeho girl at heart, since my Dad grew up there. My Mom even lived there for a few years decades.

Spuds are just a part of me, and I’ve come to terms with that knowledge.

But this. Oh my. This.

A hot sandwich on crusty bread, filled with turkey, ham, and probably avocado. I can’t remember which sandwich I got. But I can remember that it tasted heavenly.

And it was nice for my wallet, too, since my entire meal was less than ten dollars. Now we’re talking!

Soon it was time to head back outside. I still had about an hour before my monorail pass expired, so I decided to walk the Strip again.

This bull is to pay tribute to the cowboys entering town this week for the professional bull riding championships. It’s probably up all the time, but I’m sure that the cowboys noticed and appreciated such love from Vegas.

And then they probably got wasted here. Since that is what visitors to this town seem to do for fun.

     

It was a little overcast, which made for a nice day to wander outside. Here is the front of Planet Hollywood, and across the street is the new Cosmopolitan.

The yellow building is Aria, I think. And lots of construction still taking place on some shopping buildings in front of it.

A distant view to the south. Can you see Mandalay Bay waaaaaaay down there?

And here are those fancy-pants stores that I walked past last night. What on earth would I do in a Prada store?!

I took a skyway to cross the Boulevard so that I could walk north on the west side. I did the other side last night, so I thought that it could be fun to see the buildings from a different vantage point.

Man, I live a life of excitement!

Hi, Planet Hollywood! Thanks for lunch. It was the best thing that I ate for my whole trip!

   

Hi, Bellagio and Eiffel Tower at Paris. You’ve been swell to me these past few days!

I can’t stop at just one picture of the Bellagio, since it’s so dang purdy.

And these tunnels underneath the driveway light up in bright blue at night. So neat!

Hello again, Bally’s. I saw Chewbacca last night in front of your property. In fact, lots of Star Wars people were wandering around in full costume. It made me wander if I didn’t get the memo.

The bright pink and orange signs are Serendipity, where my dinner was served last night. See what a great view I had all during my meal?

Oh, those Osmond's. I’ve never seen them in concert but have heard they’re pretty amazing.

And look at this! The Imperial Palace is completely gone! They are doing extensive renovations to this. It will be fun to see what it transforms into next time that I get to visit.

Hail, Caesar!

And Shania, apparently.

This is my sister-in-law’s favorite spot at the Strip, so this picture is just for her.

But now it’s time to head back to catch the train. I don’t want to spend another $12 because I missed my monorail by just a few minutes!

This will give me time to read for a few hours back in the hotel lobby until it’s time to meet for our flight home. Perfect!

Goodbye, Strip. You’ve been such a nice friend to me these past few days. And I didn’t lose a dime! It helps that I also didn’t gamble a dime, either.

It’s like they are blowing the train whistle for me!

Just kidding. That would be kind of creepy, actually.

Lots of construction going on behind the scenes. Maybe they are making more parking spots for the Strip? That would be nice, since it’s tough to find a good spot sometimes. I’m glad that I didn’t even have to mess with a car on this trip.

Just sneakers and monorails and airport shuttles for me, thank you very much.

It kind of looks like an ant farm, huh?

Goodbye, back of the Strip. You’re pretty nifty!

Since I had some time to kill, and I was safe with my monorail pass since I was already on the platform, I decided to ride to the “end of the line” near the MGM Grand to take a peek around.

Seven minutes later, I hopped on the same monorail and headed back towards my hotel.

Man, I’m so adventurous!

Soon I was near my hotel once again. Except that I decided to be even more adventurous by going to the end of the line in the opposite direction!

Somebody…stop me!

It was only one stop past my hotel, so no biggy. But it got me closer to this pretty thing. It’s the closest I’ve been to the Stratosphere yet.

This is the barn where all of the monorails spend the night. At least, the three hours a night that they get to rest. This is a town that doesn’t really sleep, remember. So I doubt they give any slack to their monorail system, either.

I’m not sure what happened to this poor little train. Did he run out of steam? Couldn’t quite make it to bed for the night? Or maybe he is dragging his feet as he preps to come on for the wild night shift?

You just never know with monorails.

But this was the main reason that I wanted to ride the monorail all the way to the end. I wanted to see this classic (though presently closed) casino. This was one of the grandest buildings back in the day when Vegas was first getting its party town name.

Remember the Rat Pack? They were here. All of the stars were here. And now it sits empty and vacant at the end of the monorail line. At least it had one visitor today…friendly wave from me!

From this last station, I walked back to my hotel. I read a book for a few hours before it was time to head to the airport for our quick night flight home.

And, since it’s only two pictures, I will end with the proof of our quick night flight home. It was such a fun few days!

Welcome to fabulous
Welcome to fabulous
Laaaaaaaaaaaaas Vegaaaaaaaaaaas
Give us your dreamers, your harlots and your sin
Laaaaaaaaaaaaas Veeeeeeeeeeegaaas
Didn't nobody tell you the house will always win?

- Brandon Flowers

The Vegas Strip at Night

After such a lovely meal, it was time to hit the road, Jack. I wandered for the next several hours to enjoy a pretty town all lit up.

The sun was setting as I headed south from Caesars Palace towards the Bellagio. I’ll admit that I’ve never officially seen the water show. So I decided to wait tonight until the next water extravaganza began.

It was only about fifteen minutes away and totally worth the wait!

I watched as one-by-one, the casinos turned on their lights. It made for some pretty views, that’s for dang sure!

It will be fun when it gets a little darker so we can see the lights even better.

Uh oh. What have we here? It was really neat. They must play it to different songs all the time, because I can’t really see Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” really being the theme music for this town every half hour.

It was pretty impressive how intricate the water fountain is. It follows the music precisely and does some pretty cool things during the show! This was so amazing!

And high! Holy smokes, that water can shoot up!

This is actually one of my favorite pictures from the entire evening.

    

After the Bellagio Water Show had ended, I made my way up Las Vegas Boulevard to enjoy some very interesting people-watching.

Oh yeah, and some pretty buildings, too.

Here is Paris, and the new Cosmopolitan.

After not that great of a dinner, I wish I would have seen this “Sugar Factory” restaurant earlier. Doesn’t that sound like something that I would enjoy trying? They had crepes and sandwiches and all sorts of yummy stuff, judging from their menu.

Next time…

Planet Hollywood has a prime spot on the Strip, just across the street from the Bellagio on one side, and Paris on the other. Inside is a giant mall called the Miracle Mile Shops. I didn’t head in tonight, but tomorrow for lunch!

I don’t think I’m quite cool enough to stay at the Cosmopolitan. Like, ever.

But their restaurant listing sounded pretty neat. If I didn’t have a budget, I would love to try each and every one of these places for some grub!

    

This is one of the escalator entrances up to the Bellagio. I actually didn’t go inside for this trip but have been there several times. And this second picture shows some of the new shops just south of the Cosmopolitan.

They finally finished the ritzy ones for stores such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

As you can imagine, I didn’t go inside those, either. But the building facades sure are cool! Especially in a sunset!

Planet Hollywood is home to the largest screen on the Strip. This thing was massive and crystal-clear! In fact, when it would show up with an image that was white, I had to shield my eyes a little because it was so bright!

Oh, didn’t I tell you? I could never fit in here long enough to live here! Shielding my eyes from the casino lights?! I’m surprised  that I didn’t get thrown out of town right then and there.

Who does that?

This is a fun view near the Louis Vuitton store looking back towards the Strip. Everything is so bright and pretty!

And this was about as far south as I decided to walk tonight. But I waved at the MGM Grand from across the street. This weekend was hosting a Manny Pacquiao fight, so already the MGM was hopping for Fight Night.

Wow, that screen is just crazy talk.

And, though I didn’t get any closer than this tonight, I have visited New York, Luxor, and the Monte Carlo before.

It’s kind of neat seeing the Empire State Building down there, huh?

Where am I?!

Ha! Look at that! As I turned to walk north on the Strip once again, it was already time for another water show at the Bellagio.

I can’t imagine how much these guys spend on water in the summer because of evaporation.

And here is Paris. This is the closest I’ve ever been to this place. Someday, I need to go inside to check it out. It’s massive, I know that much!

    

But the Eiffel Tower is so pretty. I love how they have recreated the highlights of Paris in this giant casino.

Now, I need to get to the real Paris to see how accurate they were!

Hubby and I stayed here on our trip to visit family a few years ago. He had never been to Vegas, so we decided to make an overnight stop of it.

It was a really fun evening showing him the town, but I learned the hard way that flip-flops and lots of walking are hardly a good mix.

I wish that this was the entrance to Space Mountain! But it’s just the escalator entrance to Bally’s Casino.

So close.

And just across the street from Bally’s is The Flamingo. A very flamboyant place, if I may say so.

I hit some of the highlights of this city. Someday, I need to actually eat at a Margaritatville to see if it’s any good.

Hubby and I saw “Defending the Caveman” here when we visited. It was so funny and actually clean! I would highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for a great show.

It’s one of Hubby’s favorite t-shirts…the one he got for free at this event!

From across the street, the Forum Shops are just beautiful.

And here is The Mirage! Their volcano is pretty fun outside, in case you’re bored. But how could you possibly be bored here? Have you seen the people who walk these streets?!

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never actually been able to witness in person the pirate show from the pirate ship located at this casino. How can I even show my face in this city?

 
My timing was perfect. It was early December, which means all sorts of beautiful Christmas decorations were on display. It seemed like the Venetian went all-out with their tribute to my favorite holiday.

They had live music. And, later when I came back outside from the Venetian, they had a Christmas parade! I was too far away to get any pictures, but it looked pretty fancy and all lit up.

And, for some unknown reason, I really love this picture. Perhaps because of that giant sparkly thing in the middle?

The Venetian has all sorts of pretty things to admire tonight. But let’s go inside and warm up for a few minutes, shall we?

I’ll admit that I heard that there was a cupcake bakery inside, and I wanted to see if anything was worthy of my coinage.

Though I’ve been here many times, this ceiling never ceases to amaze me. It would be fun to sit to the side and watch people’s faces as they walk through the doors to this first view of the casino interior.

Isn’t it spectacular?!

The Venetian is famous for lots of things, but one prominent attraction is certainly the gondola ride through the casino. I’ve never done this but have admired it from afar on numerous occasions.

It just always seemed kinda creepy to ride a gondola alone, you know?

    

While I never found my cupcake place (wop wop), The Venetian connects with The Palazzo shops underground. And they had their main lobby all decked out in Christmas. Isn’t that “frozen” waterfall so pretty?!

   

I always feel like I’m missing out on the fun when I’m inside, so I headed out to the Strip once again. Here is The Venetian from that view, but it failed me tonight by not providing cupcakes…

What trip would be complete without a bronze statue tribute to Siegfried and Roy, the lion masters of Las Vegas?

These are huge…probably ten feet tall at least. And they always crack me up.

Judging from these statues…they’ve had a little work done. But you didn’t hear it from me.

I can’t imagine how expensive the rent is for Denny’s to have a restaurant in such a prime location! And who on earth would come to Vegas just to eat at Denny’s, when you could eat anywhere?!

On the right-hand side of this picture is The Mirage Volcano. Last time that I was here, they were doing lots of renovation and new landscaping. Maybe they don’t even do a volcano show anymore?

It’s a good thing that we aren’t flying home tonight, because trying to salvage some semblance of night vision is not going to happen in such a bright town!

And I can’t help it…the entire time while walking around, I have Brandon Flowers’ “Las Vegas” song in my head. Even now as I type, I’m singing about drugs and bad luck, etc.

By the way, I totally grew up with Brandon. He lived just a few blocks away from me. Close enough that he attended the same church.

Yeah, sure. He claims Vegas as his hometown. But he didn’t move there until his Junior year in high school!

His music is awesome, by the way.

     

Now that I was on this side of the street, I peeked my head inside the Forum Shops.

And promptly left. I would never pay those prices, so why wander?! Pretty interior, though, huh?

Hey, we’re getting close to where we started a few hours ago! I grabbed the monorail from the Flamingo, remember?

We made it through the entire Strip at night! And I didn’t even get mugged or high! Bonus!

It’s fitting to have a saloon as our last picture for today.

More Las Vegas to come in tomorrow’s post!