Carl's Blog

Today’s adventure – DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS – and the Fremont Street area. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m going to try my lucky at the Blackjack tables at the Golden Nugget, which the web and locals say is the best blackjack casino for the player. This means it has the best pay out with the greatest chances. Crossing my fingers I can win enough to pay for yesterday’s meals, so I need to win $120.

Ok, let me take care of the elephant in the room as they say. I didn’t win any money. Seems I shouldn’t have played today at the Nugget. The only blackjack tables open were the desired 3:2, $10 bets, but they had a mandatory $2 bonus blackjack bet. So even though I was winning at first, I kept losing $2 because I never hit a blackjack. Eventually, I lost and didn’t have enough to keep playing. So, lesson learned. Don’t play any blackjack game with a busy or messy felt and avoid mandatory bonus plays. The tables at Treasure Island, while having a $15 minimum would have been better for me to play again. I do have one more day here so I’m going to give it one more run but not if I can’t find the perfect table.

With the bad news out of the way, let’s talk about Fremont Street and Downtown Las Vegas.

The streets leading to Fremont were all quiet when I arrived. The only people moving around were those from the city hall and courthouse going to lunch. I did see a couple at the marriage license office taking pictures in their formal attire. As I approached the Golden Nugget from S. Casino Blvd, I stumbled upon St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church. According to their website:

“Historic St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church was founded in 1908. Our present church building was dedicated in 1940.“

Finding a church only a block from the casinos seems out of place, knowing that most of these casinos started by mob money.

So, I entered the Golden Nugget and walked through the casino, lost some money and then headed out to Fremont Street.

The temperature under the covered, dome ceiling was noticeable cooler. While Las Vegas was expected to break heat records today, there is still a cool breeze making the open space pleasant. Now if you could only get rid of the occasional smell of weed. Seriously, that has been a problem everyday here. Cigarette smoke is terrible but that burning, skunk smell of pot is twice as bad. You are walking down the street smelling all the amazing restaurants and then BAM! a cloud of invisible pot smoke.

I walked through the Fremont Street Experience toward East Fremont. Along the way I saw long bars selling draft beers and many flavored daiquiris. I expected to have to dodge other tourists, but there are marked out circles for street performers. Most of these spots were taken by people just begging for money. I appreciated the real performers that would draw your picture, sold flowers they crafted out of cornstalks or the singers/rappers. There was on lady that setup a speaker and backtrack device and sang a variety of Motown hits. I even saw a few fellow tourists dancing like they were at a concert. Oh, I almost forgot “the girls” the ones with the feathers, they were there in multiple colors, spaced out so they didn’t compete with each other. If you don’t make eye contact, they ignore you like you ignore them. At least the Chip n Dale dances had a booth and didn’t roam around. So after making it through all that I was at East Fremont where I had lunch at Hennessey’s Tavern. The burger has Irish bacon and Irish cheese. It was very juicy and delicious. Looking at the pictures, you will see a 60 oz glass, you could get a draft beer or a variety of mixed drinks in that glass. If I had bought one, I would not have been able to standup after finishing it. I could see sharing with a few close friends, but solo… have mercy on your liver.

Oh, I should probably mention the easy at getting to Fremont Street via the Monorail and the Downtown Loop shuttle. It was just that, very easy. The only issue was the time waiting for the free shuttle. A Google search said the shuttle is GPS tracked but didn’t provide a site to use to track it and the shuttle is operated by the city of Las Vegas and not the RTC so it doesn’t show up on that app. If anyone knows how to track the shuttle, please leave it in the comments and I will update with the link HERE.

Here are some pictures from the inside of the Sahara and the Strat.

I refollowed my travel path back to my hotel, thought about getting an ice cream, but decide to wait until after tonight’s show at the Sphere.

I did check out I Love Sugar. If you have a sweet tooth, I’m sure you could find something in this store to make your dentist happy with all the cavities you will have after eating all that sugar.

I can’t really describe the Sphere experience; you have to see it for yourself to understand. Some suggestions when you purchase tickets, obviously pick seats in the center sections the 300s are probably the better seats, but the low 400s below 410 are probably pretty good too. I’m going to limit the pictures and only show you size of the screen.

This is a full sensory event. They had big fans that spread leaves during the tornado. The seats rumbled but didn’t move. There were animated butterflies that flew around and took me a minute to realize they weren’t on the screen. I’m going to keep a few other things secret so you can be surprised if you see the show.

The food and drink prices in the Sphere were crazy. I wasn’t willing to pay $7 for a Diet Pepsi and $15 for a slice of pizza was also to much. I left the show sort of hungry, but after walking another 10+ miles, I decide I could just eat a bag of microwave popcorn that I bought at the market earlier.

And with that I’m going to sign off… One more day of adventure left.