Vomit Comet photo log, day 2: Las Vegas (2009/09/18)

1440h: After walking up to the Rio, we find the Rio Casino.

1442h: Giant, creepy, 20 foot head at the Rio. I'm guessing this androgynous head is what Duran Duran is singing to in their song "Rio". The eyes moved back and forth. (S)he is watching you!

1606h: After lunch, we find some penny slots in the Rio. I play poorly.

1708h: The lobby in the Venetian. I used to wonder why the societies of the past (Romans, Greek, Egyptians, etc) built giant, extravegant palaces and we did not. Then I spent some time in Vegas. These multi-billion dollar casinos are our pyramids/temples.

1717h: The trouble with tribbles is they take all my money! It's hard to play when Kirk keeps throwing tribbles at you. There were slot machines of all kinds in Vegas. Lots of them were Sci-Fi themed to get all the nerd money.

1725h: Lisa tries to win a car at some penny slots. We later realize that you have to make the maximum bet to win the car. We were making bets between 1¢ and 9¢, to win the car you had to bet $2.25.

1729h: We started a contest to see who could cash-out with the most money starting with a $1 cash-in. I'm in the lead with $1.05. The nice lady in the background with her ass hanging out is a "bevertainer". She spends some of her time delivering drinks, and some of her time table-dancing.

1731h: Lisa beats me with $1.06.

1737h: Lisa stays in the lead with $1.20.

1738h: Lisa darts ahead with a dolla-fiddy!

1742h: Lisa attains her maximum cash-out at $1.52. I still haven't beaten $1.05.

1748h: A ceiling at the Venetian. So much of the Venetian was very intricately decorated and painted. It's easy to see where the money went.

1749h: Rolf joins Blue Man Group but forgets his costume and drum at home.

1751h: This is the fake Venetian street inside the Venetian casino. It's an elaborate, long street with lots of shops and a fake, partly cloudy sky. The sky was just convincing enough to give me a slight headache -- my brain expected a certain parallax but because the sky was actually only 20 feet above my head, it got confused.

1753h: The fake Venetian street included a real canal with gondolas you could pay $20 to ride in.

1806h: The canal went all the way through the casino and ended out on Las Vegas Blvd.

1836h: Caesar's Palace was one of the largest complexes I've ever seen. It was ridiculously enormous; seemed to go on forever. One of the best examples of extravagance in the modern world. Someone told us about how people now come and ask for the Hangover suite. That "Villa" in the movie was just a set, although it was inspired by The Emporer's Suite in Caesar's Palace ($4000 to $5000/night).

1840h: Southbound view of The Strip from outside Caesar's Palace. Bally's, Paris & Planet Hollywood are visible.

1840h: Caesar visiting LV

1843h: Half lion, half bird, half woman, half metal boobies.

1855h: Lisa & I waiting for the Bellagio 1900h water show to start. It's been very hot all afternoon -- about 37°C. It's a little cooler near the giant, man made lake.

1900h: The water show starts. As soon as the water is thrown into the air, you can feel the air cool down a few degrees. Maybe down to 33°C which seemed very cool after an afternoon at 37°C. The show started off pretty tame. The water was dancing around with 10 foot jets. But as the show progressed, the water was shot up 40 or 50 feet into the air with popping sounds.

1910h: The 5/8ths size (541 foot tall) replica of the Eiffel tower at night.

1920h: This was the biggest slot machine we could find. I had to play it. Do you remember that game Lisa & I were playing trying to see how much we could cash out with only $1 cash in? After 1 play on this machine, I won the contest with a $2 cash-out.