Leaving Las Vegas, Too

The Missus and I just got back from the other Las Vegas. If you've never been there you definitely need to witness it at least once. The city's only real reason for existence is to take people's money, and truckloads of it. When you consider the fact that all these casino-hotels, which are massive (the picture above was taken from the 64th floor of thehotel at Mandalay Bay), have enough people coming to them to keep them going is amazing. They all have one or more shows (which aren't cheap). Many have mall-sized shopping areas that are filled with high-end stores. Expensive restaurants owned by celebrity chefs have flourished in recent years. The gambling seems almost like a side business these days, and it's all growing. We saw several large construction projects while we were there, some were hotels, others were residential. One evening I sat on the balcony outside our room watching the planes land at the airport, which was only a few miles away. It was almost like a parade. They'd line up way off in the distance, then come in one after the other. Vegas is proof of how much wealth there is in this country. It's simply astonishing.