More Las Vegas Pics

I am an early riser.  Even while in Las Vegas, I stayed on Milwaukee time (convenient for timing the taking of my blood pressure meds) -- but while the hotel room alarm clock said it was around 5:45 a.m. each of the three days of my visit when I got out of bed, in my head I knew I had slept late because of the 2 hour time difference!  It is a rare luxury for me to sleep until 7:45 a.m.  But this was a vacation, after all. 

Rising early in LV has its advantages.  For one thing, you get served in the coffee shop right away :)  For another, the streets are uncrowded, the stores in the giant shopping complexes attached to the poshest of the hotels aren't open yet, and you can get great photos.  So, my last day in town, the only day that was decent enough to get out and about early, I went for a nice long walk to revisit some of my favorite places, and I took some photos.  I didn't get as far as I wanted; I was out for 2 hours; Isis was coming to get me at noon and I was back at the IP by 11 a.m. to cool down and stretch out on the bed for a rest-up.  But I did visit the Venetian, the Palazzo and the Fashion Show Mall :)  Top photo - one of the fountains outside the Venetian.  It's so blatantly phoney, but it's so well done, I love the Venetian.  It also has lovely vistas and the attention to detail in re-creating the phoniness is astounding.  I always see something new.  As per usual, the Venetian is under construction - you can see the crane hovering above yet another mighty tower on the left of this photo.  Look - no people!

A view across one of the roadways outside the Venetian (I was taking one of the ramps toward the Palazzo shops), showing Treasure Island and one of the large digital display signs for the Mirage.  Check out that sky - gorgeous color, heh?  And look - hardly any people - just a few are visible.

A photo looking north toward the construction site at the Venetian.  No traffic! 

This is one of those unexpected vistas that crop up so often in Las Vegas, and to do it justice the photo really should be larger.  This is a shot taken from that walkway I was taking up toward the Palazzo shops, and I was struck by how lovely the garden was, with its palms and cypress and carefully pruned evergreens.  The Wynn, and behind it, the Encore, hover in the background.  Look ma, no people!  Or cars!

Here is another photo of the same front garden area, from a slightly different angle. Wish I had a backyard that looked like that!  Notice the "hanging" greenery on the top of the concrete ediface across the center of the photo going toward the left.