Kaleidoscope Project On Location: Las Vegas

What Happens in Vegas...sometimes gets taken across state lines in shopping bags

You might think that I'm crossing the line, posting photos from Vegas.  You might protest, "That's not even on the East Coast.  They don't even have foliage, for crying out loud!"  You might think that Vegas has nothing to do with New York.

You would be wrong.

My good friends Alpha, Beta and Maycho gleefully booked us into the New York, New York hotel for our girls' getaway to Vegas.  This resulted in several enjoyable exchanges such as the following exchange between me and my taxi driver when I first arrived:

Taxi Driver (with great enthusiasm):  Welcome to Las Vegas!!  Where are you headed?

Me (with equal enthusiasm):  Thank you!!  To New York, New York!

Taxi Driver (enthusiasm undiminished):  And where are you from??

Me (enthusiasm floundering):  Oh...New York.

Taxi Driver (flatly):  Oh.  Well, at least you'll know what to expect.

Which also struck me as a funny thing to say.  I mean, did he get many tourists who arrived at the New York hotel screaming, "Oh my God, NO!  I was NOT EXPECTING A GIANT STATUE REPRESENTING LIBERTY!"

Perhaps to ease the pain of those unsuspecting tourists, the hotel thoughtfully provides a softer, kinder statue of liberty made out of jelly beans.

For those of you loyal readers who recognize this as my second posting of something made out of jelly beans, you get a gold jelly bean each.

Anyway, the hotel created some pretty good approximations of New York, like this fire-escape facade (which I think is supposed to be somewhere in Chelsea).

But the hotel also woefully misfired on other attempts at New Yorkisms.  As Megaphone pointed out to me even before I saw the sign, there is no such place as "Soho Village."

Alpha, Beta, Maycho and I decided to honor New York by doing what it knows best - shopping.



New York would be very proud of us.  I'm sure the Las Vegas economy was pretty pleased as well.

Maycho, Beta and Alpha as we wait for a taxi to haul our purchases back to New York (hotel).

I bought a new purse!  Although I went through a pretty lengthy period of buyer's remorse after we got back to the hotel, based entirely on my concerns that the new purse was too heavy.  My neuroses forced Alpha, Beta and Maycho to invent a game to test the heaviness of our purses.  The game pretty much consisted of one person closing her eyes and holding out her arms, and the other girls pelting her with purses.

Just before we watched Mystere (a Cirque de Soleil show), we grabbed a super yummy dinner at the fake palazzo in the Venetian hotel.  I must say, sitting under a false blue sky has its advantages - no wind, dust, dirt, bugs or threat of rain.  Can't prevent the humans-pretending-to-be-statues, though.

Alpha and Beta at dinner.  Don't they look identical?  And yes, those are my attempt at leaves - I'm trying to include some foliage for you New York-addicts!  I do concede that they look a little like peppers.

More photos after the weekend.  Happy Halloween!

Las Vegas.  On Canon Powershot.