Las Vegas / Palm Desert: Tuesday, May 1 - Las Vegas

Last night provided a bit of excitement, but a little background first.  CET (Caesars Entertainment), which owns Caesar’s, Harrah’s and many other properties on the Strip and around the country, has started a new project in Las Vegas.  They are taking the space between the Imperial Palace and the Flamingo Hotels and turning it into an area of restaurants, shops and entertainment anchored by a giant “observation” (ferris) wheel at the rear.  It’s called Project Linq and is scheduled to open (I believe) next year.  Next to the Imperial Palace is a small casino called O’Sheas which has to be torn down to make room for the project and hence the excitement last night.  O’Sheas is only one or two stories, but behind it is a taller parking structure that had to be imploded and last night was the scheduled implosion.  The implosion was scheduled for between 1:30 and 2:30 AM and Las Vegas Blvd. was closed as well as all pedestrian access.  We couldn’t see it from our hotel, but we could hear it.  About 1:30 we heard a couple of sharp cracks which we thought was the implosion, (we found out later it was only small charges set off to weaken the building), but at 2:30 there was a very large explosion and rumbling that went on for what seemed like quite a while.  We couldn’t see anything out the window, but after a bit visibility got worse and worse as a giant dust cloud covered everything, it was like being in very dense fog.  Our very first Las Vegas implosion, I wish we had a vantage point where we could have actually seen it.

Now on to our day, after sleeping in we got up and took the monorail down to the MGM Grand.  We gambled a little there where I continued my “break even” ways and then started walking down the strip to Planet Hollywood.  We looked around PH a bit and then had a late lunch in the café there, then continued our walk down to the Paris Hotel.  A bit more gambling and then back on the monorail and back to Harrah’s.  After resting a bit and then more gambling at Harrah’s, we decided we’d go down to watch the Bellagio Fountains and then go to Caesar’s and find a good place to have dinner.  The Bellagio Fountains are one of our favorite things and once again they didn’t disappoint.   

Las Vegas Blvd. from a pedestrian overpass

The Cosmopolitan

The Bellagio

Val in front of the Bellagio

(I took a video of the fountains, but I was unable to upload it so it may have been to large, I will try again when I get home.)

After watching a few shows, we walked over to Caesars Palace and started looking for a good place to eat, but after realizing it was already 10:30, neither one of us wanted to have a big meal so late so we settled for splitting a sandwich at the food court.  Not exactly the gourmet meal we had planned.  Then it was back to Harrah’s, a little late night gambling and then off to bed.