Yes, folks, I have finally made the move. My family and I are now living in Las Vegas and I have this to say: so far, it's awesome. The skies are actually blue here, not the pale beige of the Los Angeles area and other than some high winds lately, the weather has been great. Now, I realize that I arrived just after one of the hottest summers on record in this country, not just Nevada, so I don't quite know how it is to live here when the average daily temp is around 103 degrees. However, like I said in an earlier post, I've never lived anywhere that was considered to be a cool climate, so I think I'll adapt.
Some of the things I've noticed here that differ from California that would not be readily apparent to the tourist visiting Las Vegas:
- 1) There are small, neighborhood casinos about the size of an Applebee's or other family dining restaurants with names like Steiner's, Beano's and (I am NOT making this up) Bilbo's. No hobbits in residence that I can tell.
2) This is something that I kind of picked up during my first few trips to Nevada, not just Las Vegas, but I'm really noticing it now: Smoking seems to be the state pasttime here. Criminy, every other person I see smokes. Recently, they passed a state law or ordinance or whatever banning smoking in restaurants. I can only imagine how well that went over.
3) It seems like there are more churches out here than there are casinos.
4) The Station Casinos are a hidden treasure. The most famous one right now is Palace Station, which is the casino where OJ got arrested for breaking into a room and "rescuing" his old belongings, but there are a bunch of them in the Vegas area. These are the casinos that the locals come to play at and stay overnight. Now, before I actually entered one, the image conjured up in my brain by the phrase "local's casino" included a small gaming floor dominated by dried-up looking little old ladies plunking quarters into the same slot machine, hoping against hope that it'll pay off, with a token buffet or steakhouse that had seen better days. Essentially, what I saw in the riverboat casinos in Shreveport, LA (long story). Nothing could be further from the truth. The Station Casinos are very classy, clean and the restaurants and rooms are very affordable and comparable to what you find in most places on The Strip - except for the hoity-toity places like the Bellagio or the Wynn. Save yourself some cash and stay at one of these places, then go to the Strip (if you must) and party. We stayed at Santa Fe Station and it was great.
5) My entire life, I've been mispronouncing the name of this state: It's pronounced neh-VADDA, not nuh-VAW-duh. I had an aunt that lived in Carson City (the state capitol) and when I was a kid, my family and I would go visit her all the time and no one ever corrected me. It's one of the ways that Nevadans can tell if you're local or not. So, there's a tip from me to you.
Ahhhhhh, they finally fell asleep while I was writing this! No greater joy is known to the parent(s) of toddlers than successfully getting a child to sleep during the day. I don't know what I'll do with the time now! *grin*
More blogging to come.... stay tuned! :)
Take care,
~Rob
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