When we hit the Strip last we parked at the Desert Passage garage and wandered up to the Flamingo. On the way we passed Paris
Which is very nice to hang around in the summer; there is a big fountain out front that you can get close to and a street side restaurant on a low balcony that is lined with misters, so if you pass by closely you can get a nice cooling spray falling down. There is usually a crowd right there enjoying the brief respite.
When up on the third floor open bar at Margaritaville we looked across the street at Caesar’s Palace. It looks rather interesting from this angle
Especially after the rebuild of the Forum shops and the new tower.
Most of the new casinos have a rather complicated appearance, and are rather nice.
I drive to work down Frank Sinatra Drive, which is along side I-15 and runs behind the big strip casinos that are on the West side of the Strip. Right now the MGM Corp. is working on their new City Center project - $7,000,000,0000+ of work adding basically a whole city; with major casinos, hotels, condos and shopping areas.
The first part of construction was an employee parking garage for Bellagio employees. They used to park on a big flat lot where the construction is centered. The garage has room for over 7,000 cars and opened last week. It’s seven stories tall, and the top looks like it can take more levels if required. They are still working on it, now putting up some steelwork that will probably hold big signs or something on the side facing I-15.
Since the employees started parking in the garage construction has shifted to the big empty lot. I don’t know how many acres it will cover – it is a huge area. So far a concrete batch plant has been built on one side (think of all the concrete this will take, guess it’s easier to mix on site) and digging to lower the area has started. There are hundreds of pieces of excavating equipment, and most of the area looks like it’s been lowered about ten feet so far. I don’t know how low they will be going. Most casinos have very large basement areas, where they put the kitchens and laundry facilities, and have corridors going all over so employees don’t have to walk through the public areas to get to different sections.
The most visible part of the work to me as a commuter are all of the trucks carrying the dirt away. When I drive down in the morning – usually around 6:30am or so – they are hard at work. I usually get stopped by the stop sign people that halt traffic so trucks can come out of the work area. Fortunately the trucks just travel in pairs, so I’m not waiting for a few dozen to come out. These are big side dumps, with long double trailers. They drive south, just ahead of me over to Russell Road, dropping rocks and leaving clouds of dust in their wake. Oh well, as fast as the work seems to be going it should not be too much longer before the digging is done. It is interesting to go by every day and see how the work is progressing.
In another area of town there is another cell phone tower being built. I’ve put in photos before of towers made to look like palm trees.
But this one is being disguised as a pine tree.
Interesting.
And for VG, here’s a little of E Friday.
Last trip to Toys R Us (a big supermarket for kids) we picked up some things she could manipulate, rather than just walk around with. There were several wooden puzzles designed for little fingers.
She likes taking the pieces out and putting them back in.
And here’s a companion to the last posting – I really like the outfit and mostly the smile.
She is always smiling. With our bright Vegas sun she always has a hat on when going outside.
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