Daytime Return to the Strip

We took some more time Tuesday afternoon to see additional attractions on the Strip. Again we just parked the car and walked our legs off. We started at Caesars Palace, a mega resort which was the first themed hotel/casino built on the Strip. It, as well as several other hotels which we visited in the course of the afternoon, just reeks of opulence. A Roman theme pervades the hotel; there are marble statuaries and 18 fountains similar to the ones we saw in Rome when we visited there a few years back.

At the Bellagio hotel lake we stopped again to see a water show, which was equally as beautiful as seen at night. On the lobby ceiling of that hotel is a Dale Chihuly Glass Sculpture.

The Bellagio has two fine art galleries. Organized in partnership with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, one of the galleries currently features 20 works by Claude Monet: Impressions of Light. I enjoyed seeing that exhibit. The Bellagio also has a conservatory and botanical gardens which are simply beautiful. The Chinese children statues pictured below are made up of mums, carnations, poms and craspedia flowers.

Outside of the  Mirage hotel there is a lagoon with palm trees and cascading waterfalls. Here a volcano erupts hourly, spewing smoke and fire. Even more spectacular are the fireworks and burning of pirate ships at the Treasure Island hotel. This seemed to us to be the largest free show on the Strip. Temptresses of the sea sing and dance while fighting off pirates. Stunt men dive off the ships as their ship is fired on and sinks.

Okay, time to move on to the sublime. At the Venetian hotel we passed by upscale Grand Canal shops and  came to St.Mark's Square where we watched gondoliers on the canal. There are indoor and outdoor gondola rides available at that megaresort. The lobby has a garden with a large cascading waterfall at one end. A large butterfly dominates the opulent scene. And here I must stop, I do hope that I have given you a little idea why  people across our nation and around the world consider Las Vegas a prime vacation destination.