Around the area

Well hello! As we are yet to commence the official casino reviewing, I thought I'd do a quick write up on a couple of my favorite places in the area - Fremont Street and the Neon Boneyard Museum - both downtown in "old" Vegas. The Neon Boneyard Museum is located at 770 Las Vegas Boulevard North and tours can be booked either in person at the museum, on the website - http://www.neonmuseum.org/ or by calling them at 702-387-6366. The museum is an approximately 2 acre plot of land featuring the neon signs, rescued from the older casinos. The museum tour generally lasts around an hour and is great - I'd recommend a tour early in the morning if you're visiting in mid summer - the temps by 9am can be pretty crazy here in Vegas by that time - the tour does offer umbrellas for shade and the guides try their very best to get you in the shadows too whilst undergoing the tour. It's well worth a trip for sure. The tour is also available at night - all the signs are lit up however, this tour is in very high demand so I'd recommend booking early. As yet, we have not had the pleasure of doing the tour at night however now we live here, we're definitely going to do it at some point this year. The museum is also near the Las Vegas 51's minor league baseball team stadium - take in a game - do the museum night tour .... that's going to be our plan of action we think! Here's a few snaps from the Boneyard tour ...

Another grand old time is going to Fremont Street downtown. The first time we ever went there, Mr G played poker in Binions and I sat outside drinking frozen cocktails watching the world go by...and other than the older casinos, that's exactly what Fremont is for - people watching. You'll never get bored of sitting having a cocktail or five and watching the characters wander up and down - you'll see Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, KISS, feathered showgirls (young and very very old), old men in mankinis, guitar players, singers, corn husk weavers ... anything you can think off in street entertainment, you're likely to see it there. Now, onto the casinos - you've got the classics like Binions, Golden Nugget and 4 Queens - all fantastic places to me (and will be reviewed as part of this blog). Whenever I'm on Fremont I always think of the U2 video for "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" - it was (obviously) filmed in the 80's before the canopy was put over the street - which is a great bonus in the summer! It also shows an amazing light show on an evening. Last time we were down there it featured Green Day - video of them, some of their videos and all of their music - it's a sponsored show but happens every hour on the hour and changes constantly. The official name for the light show is actually Viva Vision and it really is spectacular. You can fly on the SlotZilla zip line as the show is going on but remember, make sure you're not full of food and frozen cocktails before riding it!