LAS VEGAS – RAT PACK ICONS ~ QUIRKY, FUNKY, HIP, HISTORIC

 

The Peppermill (Reno, NV)

 

 

Remaining iconic time machines can be counted on one hand in Las Vegas. Vegas, even more so than Los Angeles, seems hell-bent on erasing its own history. The link below offers a wonderful historic tour of Vegas (old photos with a history of early casinos, hotels, restaurants, etc.) The names of many historic casinos remain, but they are now modern shells of what once was. There are a few exceptions.

Shown on the website link below are a few time machines – the rest are just quirky, fun or historic places. Las Vegas of course, despite the destruction of its pop history, is still a great place to visit (especially if you prefer not to lose your money to the casinos).   While here, enjoy the shows, the incredible pop architecture, the luscious food, thrilling shopping, and breathtaking nature.

 

Link below – This site includes loads of historic information and some great iconic photos

 

 

 http://www.latimemachines.com/new_page_9.htm

100 Things to do in Las Vegas

Sunset in Vegas

photo by Stacie

 

100 Things to do in Las Vegas

1. See the white tigers at Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden: The Mirage
2. Visit the dolphin habitat: The Mirage
3. See flamingos and African penguins: Flamingo Hilton
4. See the brilliant collection of parrots: Tropicana
5. Take in the best show in town from the entertainer of the year: Danny Gans at The Rio
6. See the classic car collection: Imperial Palace
7. See daylight at night: downtown Las Vegas after dark, the $70 million Fremont Street Experience
8. See the world’s largest atrium: Luxor
9. Visit the glitziest museum in the world: Liberace Museum (1775 E. Tropicana)
10. Ride the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world: Desperado (Buffalo Bill’s, Primm, Nevada)
11. Ride the highest roller coaster 1,200 feet off the ground: on top of the Stratosphere (Las Vegas Blvd. near Sahara)
12. Ride the fastest moving straight up and down ride: Stratosphere’s Big Shot
13. View an exquisite collection of fine art: Bellagio
14. Submerge yourself in a magnificent garden of fragrance and color: Bellagio
15. Ride an indoor roller coaster at amusement park Grand Slam Canyon: Circus Circus
16. Visit Madame Toseau’s wax museum: Venetian
17. Love hamburgers and Harley’s?: Harley-Davidson Cafe
18. Go face to face with sharks: Shark Reef (Mandalay Bay)
19. Cant get enough neon: Neon Museum (look for the giant neon horseman at Fremont Street Experience)
20. Watch the dragon battle against the magician: Excalibur’s moat
21. Visit the Guinness Book of World Records Museum (2780 Las Vegas Blvd. S.)
22. See the New York City skyline: New York-New York Hotel/Casino (the Strip at Tropicana)
23. Watch the dancing fountains: Bellagio Hotel/Casino (the Strip at Flamingo)
24. See outdoor lifelike sculptures in Green Valley: (starting on Sunset Rd. at Green Valley Pkwy.)
25. Take a paddlewheel cruise on Lake Mead: Desert Princess (293-6180)
26. Play high-tech video game battles at Virtual World: In Gold Key shops on the Strip at Convention Center Drive
27. See one of world’s largest gold nuggets: Golden Nugget Casino
28. Ride the roller coaster: New York-New York
29. See the world’s largest collection of gambling books: Gambler’s Book Club (630 E. 11th off Charleston)
30. Stroll under a changing simulated sky: Forum Shops at Caesars
31. Only pyramid-shaped hotel in world: Luxor
32. Swim-up to your blackjack table: Tropicana
33. Admire the imported marble swimming pools: Caesars Palace
34. Watch free circus entertainment: Circus Circus Casino
35. See the largest resort hotel in world: 5,005-room MGM Grand
36. Witness a volcano eruption: The Mirage
37. Watch fountain sculptures come to life: Forum Shops at Caesars
38. See and hear animated birds and animals: Sam’s Town atrium
39. Be a spectator at a jousting event renaissance dinner show : Excalibur
40. See the largest Coke Bottle: Showcase Mall: (in front of The MGM Grand)
41. Most unusual sensations: Riding on a runaway train (Excalibur’s Magic Motion Machines), flying through space (Luxor’s Motion Machines)
42. See midnight idol Wayne Newton’s multi-million dollar mansion on Pecos at Sunset
43. Get married: any of the 24-hour chapels along Las Vegas Blvd. south from the Strip to downtown
44. Get your picture taken with one million dollars: Binion’s Horseshoe (displayed in a glass case)
45. Visit the Eiffel Tower: Paris Hotel & Casino
46. Best place to see one million dollars change hands: Caesars baccarat tables
47. Best place to see the origin of a light beam that is visible for 250 miles: Luxor
48. Best place to see female bartenders: Coyote Ugly nightclub (inside New York New York Casino)
49. Take the complimentary monorail between MGM Grand and Bally’s
50. Switch to sneakers (largest athletic shoe store, Just For Feet in Caesars Forum Shops)
51. Best place to put your valuables: hotel’s safe deposit box
52. Best way to put a whammy on your competitor: The Psychic Eye occult bookstore (953 E. Sahara Ave.)
53. Cheapest way to get to around: Shuttle bus
54. Fastest way to get to around: Taxi
55. Coolest way to get to around: Limousine
56. Best place to buy or repair a watch, bracelet or any jewelry: The Jewelers (several locations)
57. Listen to some tunes: KOMP 92.3 FM (rock), KLUC 98.5 FM (Top 40), Big Band KORK 920 AM (easy listening), KJUL 104.3. FM, KNRP 89.5 FM (classical), and KMXB 94.1 FM (80’s to present hits).
58. Best place to visit small town America: Boulder City, where gaming is still illegal
59. Watch the surf at the wave pool: Mandalay Bay
60. See bartenders juggle flaming drinks: VooDoo Lounge on top of the Rio Hotel
61. Catch up on the news: Channel 8 (CBS affiliate), Channel 3 (NBC affiliate), Channel 13 (ABC affiliate), Channel 22 (CNN Headline News), Channel 20 (CNN)
62. Buy reading material for plane trip home: Bookstar (3910 S. Maryland Pkwy. near Flamingo), Waldenbooks (Fashion Show Mall on the Strip)
63. Best odds at tables: Binion’s Horseshoe
64. Best casino for covering large bets: Binion’s Horseshoe
65. Biggest poker room on the Strip: The Mirage
66. Biggest poker room downtown: Binion’s Horseshoe
67. Best sports books for style: Las Vegas Hilton, Fiesta
68. Place a drive-thru bet on your favorite sporting event: Fiesta
69. Best sports book for action: Stardust
70. Worst gambling bets: Keno and coin push machines
71. Best places to bet the horses: Stardust and Las Vegas Hilton
72. Best get-a-away from the STRIP: Red Rock Canyon
73. Best historical tour: Hoover Dam
74. Best place to watch boxing: Caesars Palace
75. Best place for coffee: Starbucks (several locations)
76. Best place for people watching: Fashion Show Mall (on the Strip) and Caesars Forum Shops
77. Best bet: The Detroit Lions will not be in first place by December
78. Best places to meet new friends: Hard Rock Hotel
79. Best late-night dancing: The Rain (inside the Palms Casino)
80. Best hotel for western dancing: Sam’s Town
81. Best place for dancing on the Strip: Caesars’ Cleopatra’s Barge (except Monday)
82. Best place for jazz on the Strip: Drai’s at the Barbary Coast (Flamingo and the Strip)
83. Best place for jazz downtown: Monday night at the Four Queens
84. Best place for upscale shopping: Forum Shops (Caesars), Fashion Show Mall (on the Strip), and Bellagio.
85. Ride in a gondola: Venetian
86. Eat the famous 99 cent foot long hot dog: Slots-O-Fun (on the Strip between Spring Mountain and Sahara)
87. Shop for antiques: Antique Row (Charleston Blvd. at Eastern Ave.)
88. Largest selection of western boots: Sam’s Town
89. Shop for Western apparel: Adams Western Store (1415 Western Ave.)
90. Buy your own slot machine: Ancient Slots (3127 Industrial Rd.)
91. Best bowling: Cosmic Bowling at the Suncoast
92. Best place to get Romulan ale: Quark’s Bar, Hilton Hotel
93. Best ice rink: Santa Fe Hotel/Casino (northwest Las Vegas, off of the Strip)
94. Indoor tennis courts: Green Valley Athletic Club
95. Best reason #1 to rise early: to see the sunrise over the desert
96. Best reason #2: For an early jog (great track at Las Vegas Hilton)
97. Best reason #3: To beat the breakfast crowd
98. Tour the cactus garden and sample chocolates: Ethel M Chocolates (2 Cactus Garden Dr., Green Valley 458-8864)
99. Tour the Ocean Spray Cranberry World West (1301 American-Pac)
100. Gamble.

 

Joke of the Day ~ “After you, Dear…”

 

“After You, Dear…”

A journalist had done a story on gender roles in Kuwait several years before the Gulf War, and she noted then that women customarily walked about 10 feet behind their husbands. She returned to Kuwait recently and observed that the men now walked several yards behind their wives.

She approached one of the women for an explanation. “This is marvelous,” said the journalist. “What enabled the women to achieve this reversal of roles?” Replied the Kuwaiti woman: “Land mines.”

the others….

 

Quote ~ Aging and Health Food

(A previous life-sized people sculpture by jag)

 

Older people shouldn’t eat health food…they need all the preservatives they can get.
- Robert Orben

Online FUNERAL PLANNING ~ Plan your own going-away party…

 

 

Funeral Planning, the Online Way (free)

You may not be able to choose when you go to your final resting place, but you can customize your send-off for FREE on these two funeral-planning websites.

• Archive your life   • Let your friends and family know your wishes.  • Design your farewell celebrations.   • Be remembered the way you want.  • Create a public or private profile that reflects your personality.

Plan and share funeral details – including choices for music, and where and how burial will take place. Loved ones can have online access to your wishes.

Very thorough sites that include information about writing an obituary, taking care of your pets, designing your own headstone, readings, locations, music preferences, burial at sea, caskets, funeral costs, video memorials and much more. You can download music, add photos, create your own remembrance page or even share your feelings in our forum.

For inspiration, the site also features a number of descriptive ‘featured funerals’ of others. Example: For Pennsylvanian man, Henry Smith, being surrounded by his favorite things was important in death. His wife stated that everyone who knew him knew that he was the most at peace in his leather chair, watching TV, so that’s how he was remembered. At his memorial, Henry was placed in his reclining chair facing a TV that played sports highlights; a pack of cigarettes and a beer laid on the table next to him.

 

 

Online Funeral Planning Links:

UNITED STATES online funeral planning website – MyWonderfulLife.com

            https://www.mywonderfullife.com/

 LONDON  – YourDeathWish.com

 

            http://www.yourdeathwish.com/ 

 

Photo by

 

http://www.everlifememorials.com/

Quote of the Day ~ Kindness

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hummingbird Man

A welcome visitor at my window each day

 

I read somewhere that the red dye used to color the (boiled) sugar water might be harmful to hummingbirds (although I doubt it as it’s widely used with no apparent ill effects…).  As shown in the pic, I use plain uncolored sugar water - just in case, and the hummers still flock to it like crazy.     

This post is dedicated to the Texas Hill Country’s “Hummingbird Man“ (RSF).

 

Native American Legends and Mythology

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A Mayan legend says the hummingbird is actually the sun in disguise, and he is trying to court a beautiful woman, who is the moon.

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To many of the Pueblo the hummingbird is a tobacco bird. In one myth Hummingbird gets smoke from Caterpillar, the guardian of the tobacco plant. Hummingbird brings smoke to the shamans so they can purify the earth.

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There is another Aztec legend which says the god of music and poetry took the form of a hummingbird and descended into the underworld to make love with a goddess, who then gave birth to the first flower.

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The Pueblo Indians have hummingbird dances and use hummingbird feathers in rituals to bring rain. Pueblo shamans use hummingbirds as couriers to send gifts to the Great Mother who lives beneath the earth.

 

Always a Texan at heart….

 

 

 

 

My hometown – Sweetwater, Texas

Sweetwater was aptly named because of its oasis of sweet water among other bitter gypsum streams. The area was known as Mobeetie by the Kiowa Indians, the word meaning sweet water. Due to the good water, many different groups called the area home. At the time Sweetwater was named the county seat, on 12 April 1881, it didn’t even exist as a real town. But that lack was rectified with growth coming as the railroad came to town. Sweetwater was incorporated in 1902.

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When I was three years old my Mother took me to see Elvis Presley at the Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of the event. My Mother did though, and she sometimes reminded me that I wouldn’t sit still and all I wanted to do throughout the show was have her run me back and forth the bathroom causing her to miss precious moments of Elvis’ live performance…!

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Elvis article from the Sweetwater Reporter

http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/arevisionofelvisintexas.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

Quote of the Day ~ Gardening Advice

 

photos by stacie

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When weeding,  the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it.  If it comes out of the ground easily,  it is a valuable plant.       ~Author Unknown