A night in Downtown Las Vegas

Spent a quiet day, grocery shopping mostly. Then I wanted to stay home in the air conditioning, while Randy made one more trip to the Imperial Spa. 

Las Vegas during the day isn't very exciting. Although some of the buildings are unusually shaped, it could really be almost any big city. Las Vegas needs the dark of night to come alive.

We decided to spend our last night in Las Vegas Downtown, on Freemont Street. At one end of the street is a big, tall structure called Slotzilla. I thought it was a giant slot machine.

But after dark it lit up and showed it's true purpose: it's the starting point of a zip-line that runs overhead, the length of Freemont. Very cool!

There have always been showgirls offering pictures for tips, but now the trend is for guys to strip down to the minimum. I was not impressed.

We went to the Paradise Buffet for dinner, which was pretty good. Not outstanding, but pretty good. By then it was dark outside, which is the best way to see Freemont Street. The covering over the street seems to create a shared space for the crowd, which is a livelier group than you find on the Strip. Or maybe it was just that the music from the clubs and DJs was livelier, making it feel more like a street party.

At the end of the Freemont Experience we continued walking past Slotzilla and onto what is billed as Freemont East. It's got some flashy lights, but it seems to be mostly bars and homeless people.