Las Vegas Strip & Pawn Shop Stars

We decided to spend some time on the Strip today and check out the sights.  We were here two years ago and they have built a ton of new buildings since then.  The new City Center was just taking shape in 2010 and now it looks completed.  There is another huge block or two long casinos going up on the strip near the Wynn casinos.  It is hard to imagine that they all can survive and make a profit.  

Gucci on the strip

In the midst of all these buildings are upscale places like Prado, Gucci, Louie Vutton and others.  We saw more than one luxury car including a brand new Ferrari that was cruising down the strip.  I wonder why you would buy a Ferrari to just drive from traffic light to traffic light.  Maybe they take it out on the road after hours.

We drove by the sign boneyard and were surprised how small it was and how close to downtown.  I always figured it would be out in the desert somewhere and there would be thousands of signs.  Not so, they are crammed into a small space and it was hard to see all of them.  They are working on the street near the area so that made it even harder to see them.  There is a small park next to the boneyard that was open, but we didn't see much parking in the area.  The area was the scene of a geocache and I had to pick out a favorite sign to complete the find.  The Golden Nugget was my choice.

We stopped at the Pawn Shop Stars shop on Las Vegas Blvd and Gerry wanted to go in and see what it looked like.  The stars weren't there, but the place was full of tourists and about 50 clerks selling t-shirts and the tourist junk.  The shop is in a seedy area of Las Vegas near the downtown section. 

We ran into a famous person on the strip out near the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.  He was there posing with the tourists and making a ton of money doing so.  He even had his signature pink Cadillac car parked in the area.  He has lost some weight since we last saw him in the 1970s.  Wow!  It is amazing how he hasn't aged after all those years.


Gerry saw a sign for all the girls out there and managed to get a good shot of it as we drove by.  Feast your eyes on this all you ladies.  There was another sign advertising an Australian group but she couldn't get a clear shot of that one.  I thought the car parked in front of the sign looked great.

We managed to get some shots of two of the older casinos left on the strip.  The Sahara casino closed down a year or so ago and they have taken down part of it, but the bulk of the old building is still there.

As the night wore on we drove the strip a couple times after dark and enjoyed the drive.  There was some traffic, but nothing that terrible.  Circus Circus used to be a top casino but has fallen in stature after all the new casinos were built.  They still have a ton of light bulbs in the entrance of the casino and it looked good after dark.

  We have eaten numerous dinners at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino over the years and enjoyed them very much.  They were always one of the more expensive buffets but the food was always great.  Well, that ended with this trip to the buffet.  The price this time has gone up to $30/person and was one of the worst buffets we have eaten.  What a disappointment to the both of us.  Later on in the evening my stomach was acting up and bothered me most of the night.  Yuk.

We did manage to leave with a net gain of $50 in gambling money and Gerry played for hours.  She had a ball and is already talking about coming back for a week.  Time to start saving our pennies for the next trip.