New Year's was a fairly peaceful event here. Outside of a week of messy commutes in the afternoon, the crowd of 350,000 revelers bothered me not at all. I stayed in, of course, with some champagne and nibbles...and a project! My last two hours of 2015 were dedicated to building a Lego version of the Flatiron building in New York.
Do I know how to rock in the New Year or what? The fireworks on The Strip lasted 8 minutes and were visible from my perch on the second floor of the house. Meh.
My weekend wanderings took me to a different casino today on the near east side of town. It's close to the strip but far enough away that it's a locals' hangout. I wish I could have photographed the outside of it, but it is of course rather large and just so happens to sit smack in the center of a rundown residential area that doesn't afford many good views of the place at a distance. Picture a rundown wild west town, and that's what this casino looks like. Heck, it's not even called a casino--it's a "gambling hall." Like many casinos, looks on the outside can be deceiving. Don't misunderstand me, though, the inside was rundown too, but it had a cool sort of courtyard in the center of the casino floor.
The courtyard boasted a small fountain that was choreographed to music (a sort of poor gambler's version of the Bellagio fountain?) and animatronic grizzly bears in Santa hats. Who comes up with this stuff?
