I have been a goooood girl for as long as I can remember except for maybe answering back or screaming at my mom as a teenage. No drugs, no casual affairs, no pre-marital sex, hell….not even short short revealing clothes!! So when we planned to travel to Las Vegas, my friends teased and tried encouraging me to for once cross the self-imposed moral line.

“It is the sin city girl! Go gamble….what if you win a jackpot! Or go for those male striptease bars….ooh!!”

“Nobody knows you there, wear some reallllly shoooort dress…..soak the sun, sweety! Get that niiice chocolate tan!!”

“Sin City“, “The Gambling Capital of World“, “Capital of Second Chances“, “The Entertainment Capital of World” are some of the names by which people world over identify Las Vegas. With over 25 largest hotels having 62,000 rooms in all on the famous Vegas Strip alone, the epithets are obviously apt.

People flock to Vegas primarily for gambling, striptease bars, paid sex and usually remark “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas“.

We reached Vegas on a hot sunny afternoon along with other tourists of the package tour. Our tour guide Angela made all arrangements for the room and keys. We were to be back on the tour bus, two days later in the morning for return journey to San Francisco.

We spent our time mostly out of casinos, one, because kids are not allowed in casinos and we had our 11-year-old tagging along, two, because we really did not want to gamble and set a bad example for our daughter and three, we did not want to get addicted and lose the precious dollars, after all they  say…’ The house always wins!’

We did not go to slot machines, poker tables etc (I don’t even know all the varieties of gambling) but honestly we did not miss doing what most people do in Vegas. In fact we had other things  and only two days to do as family.

Each of the big hotels besides having casinos have some or the other entertainment shows scheduled throughout the day, there are huge shopping areas, variety of food joints and restaurants. The Blue Man Group, Variety show were family friendly shows where we could take our girl.

The free shows of the Bellagio fountains gyrating on 30 different songs are very popular tourist attraction. I definitely loved the fountains and spent much time watching those.

Then there was this fire volcano show at Hotel Mirage, where the fire and music and water were choreographed to enthrall visitors. At short intervals the fire would blow up like a volcano from under the water. Though by the end of show, our faces were red due to intense heat and my nose felt like a tank full of the gasoline.

The Venetian‘s gondola ride was another entertaining experience.

At the old city, near the original Golden Gate Casino, there were zip-lines for the thrill rides.

There was so much to see that of the 25 biggest hotels on the Vegas Strip, we could visit hardly three or four. There were street artists making paintings with spray cans, charcoal, playing musical instruments, people dressed up as Elvis Presley, levitating street-artist……

We could not cover all  of must-eat food joints because there was a huge variety and the three of us wanted to eat three different things at three different places!!

The City of Lights, Silver City……Las Vegas minus its sins was as entertaining as it must be for those who want a taste of this sin city’s lusts and joys. And I certainly did bring back memories which I can share with everybody.

For me…. “What happens in Vegas, can come out of Vegas….it need not stay in Vegas“

This post is also for A to Z Challenge.