Continuing where my previous post left off, here are things I saw as I headed back south on Las Vegas Boulevard (aka The Strip).

I don’t recall for sure which hotel/casino this belonged to, but it may have been the Riviera:

Here’s the front of the Riviera:

Here’s a ship at the casino Treasure Island:

It is floating in actual water.  Near it, “carved” into the “rock face” is this:

Then at the other end of the Treasure Island lagoon is another ship:

As I was leaving the sphere of influence of TI, I passed these statues, which I believe are related to TI:

It seemed to be popular for tourists to be photographed with their head in the lion’s mouth (I saw at least 2 people pose that way).

Soon I came upon Caesar’s Palace, which I think is one of the larger casino complexes.  It has a lot of statues and fountains:

Here are the main fountains, with a couple of the buildings in the background:

Around this point, I took a picture looking south:

One thing I found fascinating about walking around this area is that it looked like everything was very close together, but then it would take quite a while to walk to a landmark that I’d been able to see for the whole time.  I suspect the reasons for this are the large size of some of the buildings, as well as the flatness of the area (so you can see a long distance.

Here are some features of the Flamingo:

Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall:

Here is the Bellagio:

This place has famous fountains (at least I’d heard about the fountains).  Specifically, there are water jets submerged in their lagoon/moat/whatever, which put on a show every 15 minutes.  I waited a few minutes and got to see it:

I took some video of that show as well, so you can see what the motion of the water is like:

While I found the show impressive, I can’t help but wonder about all the water usage in an area that’s essentially desert.

Back down at Tropicana Blvd., kiddie-corner from the MGM Grand is the Excalibur:

I continued south from there, and came to the Luxor.  That’s the one that’s basically a big pyramid:

With its sky-polluting light on top.  They also have a sphinx and an obelisk sign:

Near the base of the obelisk:

South of the Luxor is the Mandalay Bay, which had one feature worth photographing – these creature statues:

The big casinos peter out at that point, but a ways further south is the Las Vegas welcome sign:

That’s the side you see if you’re headed north.  Going south, you see this:

By this time, I’d spent a few hours walking, and my feet and hip were hurting.  I headed back north to get back to my hotel room.  On the way I passed a motel that had this statue:

Before I made it back to the Tropicana, I spotted a cat:

I had to bump up the brightness on that picture to show something besides the cat’s eyes.  I moved to take a picture from a different angle, and another cat jumped up on a nearby cinderblock wall to get away from me:

I think these cats were feral, as this one jumped into a nearby tree when I got a little closer to it:

I then left them in peace, and ambled back to the hotel.

The following morning I got on the computer and mapped the distance I had walked.  I had spent a total of 4 hours walking and taking pictures, and I had actually travelled nearly 9 miles in that time.  Taken together with the walking I’d done during the day at the conference, it was no wonder my feet hurt.  It took 2 days for them to feel normal again.

Next post: what happened Tuesday night.