City Center

     On my to do list today was to finally go and see City Center.  That would be the new group of hotels and "shops" that was just built in Las Vegas.  It's not really at the center of the city, but who cares, right?

     I parked at the Belagio hotel and figured I would just take the new tram over to City Center, or Crystals, or where ever it went.  I guess City Center is just the name for the group of buildings around there.  On my way to the tram I ran into some...I guess it wa Chinese stuff?  I don't know, but it was still pretty neat.

     I took a couple pictures of the stuff, and then moved on towards the tram.  It wasn't too long of a walk, and there were at least a few neat things to see.  Lots of other people taking pictures, too!

     The tram wasn't really anything special, and so I didn't really take any pictures of it.  The ride was nice and smooth, and the view was nice and rainy.  Yes, it rained and rained in fabulous Las Vegas.  The tram arrived and I get my first view of Crystals, or whatever it's called.  It was really pretty, but maybe should have been renamed Huge waste of space.

     Lots and lots of space to walk around in, but nothing really there!  What the hell?  Why would you have all this space, but not put anything in side of it?  Oh wait, there were some water spout art things, I guess you would call them:

     Lovely, but useless.  And still, all the space around them, but nothing really there.  I don't see the point of having something this big, but nothing inside it.  I've been told a lot of people were laid off after City Center opened, and I can believe that!  There were a good number of shops, but I don't think I would have been able to afford anything inside of any of them!  How about these, do you some how think I could afford even one of these:

     Very lovely, very expensive!  I don't think the people inside the shop even liked me walking by in my t-shirt!  In my second book, "A Writer's Love Story" Robert buys Katie a watch at "Tiffany and Co."  I actually researched the watch online, and it was a real watch that actually cost $8,500.00.  And guess what shop I came across while walking around?  And no, I don't have the money to actually buy an $8,500.00 watch.

     I'm sure they are doing booming business in this economy, right?  Even though the only people who seemed to be inside the store were people who worked there.  That seemed to be the same for most of the shops here.  Not quite Mall of America.  I moved on to the building with the casino.  I thought I might sit down and try my luck on a slot machine.  After losing $2  and figuring out that you have to play the maximun lines on almost every slot machine (Yes, they rigged most of them so you HAVE to play the max lines!) I gave that up.  Then I came across this:

     Yes, that's a "Sex and the City" slot machine.  I couldn't play it because it was mobbed by women playing it.  Mostly old women.  As you can see, the one on the left was in some kind of "pick a dress" bonus mode.  I was busy taking the picture, so I didn't really get to see her play it.  She seemed indifferent to whether she won, or lost.  No one there actually seemed to care if they were winning or not.  They just kept pounding on the buttons.  How sad.  Part of me wants to call "Sex and the City" sell outs now because of the machine, but if someone ever wanted to pay me to make a "Writer's Love Story" machine, you can bet your butt I'd do it, too!  I guess opportunities are opportunities, right?  They had little artsy things like this cactus thing.  You can see me in the mirror taking the picture.  I think cactus needs lots of sunlight, so how do they keep these alive?  Unless they're fake?  Or they just replace them every couple of weeks, which wouldn't surprise me.

     I guess City Center is nice, but it's just so full of shops that regular people can't afford, and a lot of empty space!  The casino was pretty full for a Wednesday night, and they had high table limits, but the place is also pretty new.  I wonder how busy it'll be after six more months when the new wears off?  Not a bad place, but even if I did write a best seller one day, I don't think I'd be in there shopping, or even throwing my money away gambling.  Maybe next week I'll do a quick review of Sunset Station, that place is a bit more my speed.  And closer to where I live, too.