Las Vegas – Part I
If you enjoy the big city nightlife, Las Vegas is the place to be at! Nice architectures, fancy performances, great varieties of food etc. can be found on the Las Vegas strip itself! Besides, it’s a shopping paradise for fashion lovers and gambling heaven for casino visitors.
Mt. Charleston has the highest elevation above sea-level, standing at 11,918 ft (3,633 m) in the Spring Mountains range. Mining is an important industry at the mountains. Snow residues can be observed at the top of Mt. Charleston even on this very day, when it’s close to 40 °C in the city!
This past winter, the weather in Las Vegas set a record low of 29 F (~ 3 °C). It was a shock to the locals as they are not used to the cold. The fact that it took 24 hours to melt away the snow was very unusual. Talking about cold winter, perhaps I should invite some of them to come visit Canada in the winter someday :P
The famous Las Vegas Welcome sign.
Designed by Betty Willis of Western Neon (a sign company) in 1959, the sign has been there for 50 years, to greet visitors arriving in U.S. Highway 91 from California. The letters were hand-drawn and placed in special, eye-catching diamond shape, outlined with neon, surrounded with chasing lights, and tagged by a row of coins spelling out “Welcome.”
This sign is one of the best known images in the world. Recently, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The desert vegetation can be seen along the highway in Las Vegas.
For shopping enthusiasts, you’d find Las Vegas an exciting city to be at! There are two major outlet stores in the city, conveniently located just off the Las Vegas strip; one on the north and the other on the south. A huge selection of name brands can be found at the outlet centre which accommodates as many as 150 stores!
Prices of merchandise were unbelievable! There is no reason(absolutely no) why someone would not go for name brands, when the prices were comparable with, or even lower than the no-name merchandise. It’s a great saving; very reasonable prices for quality products. Who would say “no” to it?
Shopping lovers, allow yourselves one full day at the outlet center. Shop till you drop!!
Upon our arrival at the outlet store in the afternoon:
The Las Vegas Outlet Center, on the south of Las Vegas Boulevard.
We must have spent at least seven hours in this building. Legs were tired from all the walking (good exercise though), hands were sore from carrying multiple bags, back was pain from long hours of standing, and body was exhausted at the end of all the excitements.
It’s worth the pain though. We had great fun picking gifts for ourselves, family, and friends. It was already dark as we left the building:
The Las Vegas Outlet Center in the dark.
May 7th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
[...] Traveling is one of the many things I enjoy in life. Certainly, it’s among those that I enjoy the most. This is a continuation of the rest of my traveling story to West Coast of U.S.A. in spring 2009, after my posts about Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. [...]