Thoughts on Las Vegas

As I mentioned last week, I went to Vegas for a couple of days for a pseudo-Spring Break with my college roommate. This was actually my second trip out there, but here are a few random thoughts and observations.

1. We flew AirTran from Atlanta to Vegas. I'm not sure I had flown AirTran before, but it was actually a pretty good experience. While the trip was long, it was made a lot better by the fact that AirTran was offering their wireless internet for free for a limited time. I've got to say that being able to talk to people on Gchat on my Blackberry while in the air made me feel like the President of the United States.

2. For our trip out there we did one of those airfare and hotel room package deals. It actually ended up being pretty reasonable, but we chose to stay at the Monte Carlo. I have to say that I wasn't really impressed, with the hotel room or with the casino, and was marginally impressed with the pool. If I were to go out there again (which remains to be seen), I would not stay there again.

3. Sperry Topsiders, even with an insole, make for awful walking shoes, especially when walking 4+ miles a day up and down the Strip. My feet were not happy with me after a couple of days.

4. We went to downtown Las Vegas on Sunday and had a great time. Downtown is way better than the Strip in that there is cheap food ($1 hot dogs, anyone?), cheap booze, cheap tables ($5 blackjack was pretty easy to find), and excellent drink service while gambling. Also, many of the casinos along Fremont were a lot nicer than I imagined they would be, the Golden Nugget in particular. Again, if I were to go back out there, I would even consider staying down there instead of the Strip.

5. Speaking of cheap drinks, if you are on the Strip and looking to get some cheap beers, be sure to go by Casino Royale. It is located on the east side of the Strip, between Harrah's and the Venetian, and looks almost as gaudy on the outside as it is on the inside. If you can handle the vomit smell that seemed to mysteriously linger by the bar, you can take advantage of $1 Michelobs, which can be combined with an easily-obtained 2-for-1 coupon. $0.50 beers are never a bad thing.

6. Part of our decision to stay at the Monte Carlo was related to its proximity to the new City Center that was recently completed. When I was out there last, in fall of 2007, it was mostly a hole in the ground, so it was difficult to imagine what it would be like. Upon seeing it, I wasn't really that impressed. For something that bills itself as a "city center," there was very little effort made create a positive pedestrian environment, particularly one that draws people in off of the Strip, and there was very little interaction between the buildings. Instead, it just seemed like 3 or 4 separate projects that didn't relate to each other at all rather than a "center." The only real interaction with pedestrians along the Strip was the stupid "mall" that was there that you could walk through to get to the other side of the project. Perhaps I completely underestimate the all of the schlubs walking around Vegas, but I simply have no idea how a mall made up completely of ultra-high end stores (Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Zegna) can possibly be financially viable, especially in this market.

7. Speaking of the City Center, we did actually manage to make our way over to the casino at the Aria, which is the new hotel/casino there. It was actually pretty cool, and we both had a good time there.

8. In case you were unaware, Las Vegas is an absolute blackhole of manners, good taste, and style. Believe it or not, people out there actually wear Christian Audigier/Ed Hardy clothes like it isn't some sort of gigantic cliche. Same goes for all of those MMA-related brands like Tap Out and Affliction.

In the Bible there is a story where God tells Abraham that He plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but Abraham asks God if He will spare the cities if he can find fifty righteous men. Unable to find fifty, Abraham goes back to God and asks if He will spare the cities if he can find forty-five righteous men. Again, Abraham is unable to do it, and subsequently asks God if He will spare the cities if he can find thirty righteous men, then twenty, then ten, and he is unable to do so each time. I think we all know how that story ended. I highlight this story because if God planned to destroy Las Vegas but agreed to stay His wrath if only ten well-dressed men were found there, I've got a feeling that Las Vegas wouldn't make it.

9. In spite of its lack of class and prevalence of obnoxious tourists, there were a large number of very attractive women all over the place. This is always a nice perk, especially if you have the confidence to actually go up and talk to them (which my buddy and I are not famous for possessing).

10. There is a double-decker bus that runs between the Strip and downtown Las Vegas called "The Deuce." It is only $3 for a one-way trip, or $7 for an all-day pass. We gave it a try when we went from our hotel to downtown, and after the five mile trip took something like 45 minutes, I've got to say that the "the deuce" is a pretty appropriate name.

11. We got a two-for-one coupon for the ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel and casino, so we decided to give it a shot on our last night there. This was definitely worth it, especially for $7.75 per person. I would highly recommend it.

12. Finally, while there is plenty to be cynical about in Vegas, I would say that the fountain show at the Bellagio is one thing that is hard to not be impressed by. It is free, it happens every 15 minutes, and it seems like it is always set to a different song. It is easily one of the best things on the Strip.

Well, in case you are fortunate/unfortunate enough to be taking a trip to Vegas anytime soon, I hope that this guide will be of some help to you. Also, be sure to check out the website Cheapo Vegas. It is a very useful and humorous guide to just about everything to you need to know about Vegas, including reviews on all of the hotels and casinos in downtown and on the Strip. It was a lifesaver while we were out there, and I constantly was referring to it on my Blackberry.

P.S.- The lack of images from my trip is not due to the fact that they were incriminating, rather it is due to the fact that I only took a few. I apologize that I could not include a Hangover-style photoessay with my review.

Vegas

Tomorrow I'm heading to Vegas for a few days with my college roommate. He has spring break from med school, and I certainly don't mind pretending that I also have spring break, at least for a couple of days. Needless to say, I won't be updating the blog for the next few days (unfortunately I don't have a similar reason for not updating it much the past two weeks), but wish me luck. Hopefully I will return with a few good pictures, a few good stories, and a little extra cash. If you've got any suggestions of places to find cheap food, blackjack, or drinks, please leave a comment. I'll have my Blackberry with me so I can follow up on any ideas you may have.

An English flask, Southern style

This past Friday my brother returned from a month-long study abroad trip to London. Having also gone last year and not bringing me back any sort of souvenir, I made it quite clear to him that I expected him to bring me back something this year since he was fortunate enough to go to London (twice!) while I was not able to go back when I was in school. I did, however, give him little guidance into what I wanted him to bring me, except to tell him that I expected something that I could not purchase here in the US.

So, upon he return this weekend, he produced this flask as my souvenir. At first I wasn't sure what to think, but after reflecting on it a while, I am pretty glad about it.

Now, in spite of how much I love the South, I have never been much a of a "Confederate flag guy." However, I do think that this flask manages to just cross to the better side of that thin line between tacky and charming. It is pewter and was made in Sheffield, England, so it does have a good Anglo heritage. While it isn't another Barbour jacket, it's certainly not something that I would ever buy for myself, but I like it, and am glad that this is my souvenir. Thanks, brother.

Pictures of O'Connell's

As a sort of a follow-up to Lawrence's post the other day about O'Connell's in Buffalo, here are some photos that I took of the inside of the store when I paid a visit (made a pilgrimage?) three years ago. Even these pictures don't completely capture the sheer volume of stuff available there. Really quite staggering. Plus there is an upstairs.

There are approximately 48,000 sweaters in this picture. Note the college mufflers near the ceiling.

Note the wall of ties and sweaters crammed in above the suits

Need a suit?

Need some pants?

Sorry this picture is fuzzy, but please note the stacks of Alden boxes on the back right wall

That is a wall full of shetland sweaters behind those coats

Belted: Emblematic belts

I love belts, probably much more than most people. I think that they are a nice, yet subtle way of adding a little something extra to what might be considered a boring outfit. And I have a lot of belts, probably too many. My favorite type, however, are probably emblematic belts. These are usually made of canvas with a ribbon of some repeating pattern sewn in, and have a leather tab and buckle. At some point, I decided that when I go out of town, especially to a place I have never been before, I would try to buy a belt from that place as a souvenir. Here is my collection:


Purchased one summer a few years ago on a trip down to St. Simon's Island. This is where I grew up going to the beach.


Purchased from Perlis when I went to visit my college friend who lives in New Orleans. The only drawback is that the ribbon part is not as wide a most emblematics traditionally are. As a result, I feel that the canvas-to-ribbon ratio is off.


Purchased from O'Connell's in Buffalo, NY (a.k.a.- "Mecca") when I went to visit my friend one winter.


Both purchased at J. Press in Boston, during a family trip up to New England. Made by Leather Man, Ltd. The lacrosse belt probably gets the most wear out of all of them.


Purchased from Murray's Toggery Shop on a day-trip to Nantucket during the same trip to New England mentioned above.


Belts purchased so that I would actually have something orange to wear to Clemson games during grad school. The bottom one was "custom made" for me by Leather Man, Ltd. before I actually got to school (little did I know how easy it was to find this style all over town).


Purchased at M. Dumas when I lived in Charleston last summer.

I have a couple more in the closet that I didn't include because they weren't technically "souvenir" belts. Out of all of these, I must say that the ones made by Leather Man, Ltd. are probably the ones I like the most. That is because for the tab, they only use a single piece of leather, instead of two pieces stitched together like most of the rest do. For whatever reason, I think this style works better and lays flatter. Additionally, I think that they are well made, and their website gives you the ability to really customize your order, which I think is great.

District of Columbia

I leave for D.C. early tomorrow morning. I will be up there for a week trying to find a job and visiting friends. When I drive up there, I usually take I-85 to I-77 to I-81 to I-66. From what I understand, this is a little longer than taking I-85 to I-95, but I love looking at the mountains more than getting there quicker. It's all about the journey anyways, right?


I took this picture of my way back from D.C. in December

A Trip to D.C. (or: How Many Times Can I Use the Title of My Blog as the Basis for a Pithy Post Title?)

This is not my photo. It is a sweet HDR photo of the Capitol by a flickr user named NearDC

Having finished up my second to last semester of grad school yesterday, I set out early tomorrow morning for D.C. I am going to visit one of my best friends from college, as well as to try to see if I can't round up a job for when I graduate in May (or at least make some good contacts). I have a pretty decent itinerary shaping up, and I've got three meetings and a phone meeting scheduled with some D.C.-area real estate folks, so hopefully things should go well. I love D.C. around this time of year, so even if the job stuff doesn't pan out, it will be nice to be up there.

For the drive up I have a the past two episodes of This American Life which I haven't listened to yet. I also got audiobooks of When You Are Engulfed in Flames and Naked by David Sedaris from the Clemson Library (at least I am getting some of my tuition money's worth in terms of checking out books for pleasure reading, or listening, in this case).

While up in D.C. I also hope to maybe stop by Denim Bar. It's not like I have any money to spend on jeans (I am, in fact, now into my "cushion fund," which is slightly disconcerting), but I would be nice to finally pay a visit to that place.

Anyways, I'm not sure how many posts I'll make while up there (not that you, dear reader, have exactly come to expect new posts on a regular basis, for which I hope you will forgive me), but I will at least return with lots of good pictures.