March 16, 2020: the Night the Lights Went Out in Las Vegas
Visiting Las Vegas is something every American does at least once in their lives. We had planned a Vegas Trip around Kate's cousin Sam's high school senior photo shoot in March 2020.
We had planned this trip long before COVID. Before the masks. Before the toilet paper wars. Before the isolation. Before the Zoom Calls.
Before Las Vegas Closed.
Our Original Vegas Visit Plans
We traveled with Kate's brother Kirk, Kate's cousin Sue, and Sue's son Sam. Kate and Sam participated in group shots with some of Kate's photographer friends. They came from all corners of the US to take pictures of high school seniors among the Las Vegas lights.
Our first misstep was reserving a five-passenger SUV. We realized we needed a three-row with all the luggage we brought with us. We wound up upgrading from a Hyundai Santa Fe to a Nissan Armada. That suited our needs fine. In fact, this truck (and all the onboard tech) was bitchin'. If you have the means, I encourage you to pick one up.
When we were planning this caper, the plan was Kate, Sue, and Sam would go shoot pics. Kirk and I would Uber to various Vegas spots for shenanigans. We changed plans due to the emerging pandemic. We decided that Uber was not a good idea since this virus was airborne. Sharing a car's tiny airspace with strangers was not a good idea. Kirk and I instead tagged along for the photoshoots.
The atmosphere when we arrived was full of tension and Las Vegas hilarity. The tension came from reports of people fighting over toilet paper at Sam's Club and Costco. The hilarity came from ads from a strip club offering a free bottle of sanitizer with every lap dance. Stay classy, Las Vegas.
Photoshoot with Sam
Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!
We decided to get to the sign bright and early to avoid the crowds of tourists. We got there at about 7am. Sam is a natural subject when a camera points at him. Kate has photographed Sam since elementary school. He takes direction well.
The rest of us could use some selfie lessons, but we make do.
Strip Hotels, or "You need permission to shoot with that kind of camera"
At the Cosmopolitan, the eye in the sky caught us taking pics of Sam in front of some beautiful lighting. Security came from two different directions. They asked us to stop taking pictures with the DSLR. We were grilled about whether or not this was a professional shoot. It probably didn't help that we had wand lights with us. Truth be told, we were simply taking pics of a family member. And anyone can get those wand lights from Amazon. (Wink wink!)
The security guards told us we can take pics with our phones. Shooting with a DSLR and specialty equipment requires explicit written permission.
We took pics in front of Excalibur, too! These areas are visible to the public. We were not hassled by the man here.
Skid Row? Sure, let's take pics there!
The area east of Downtown and north of Fremont Street is shady, to say the least. It's a collection of boarded-up apartment buildings and long-abandoned motels. This area has seen better days. The photography options are endless.
I got a bit artistic myself. I was laughing like Beavis and Butt-Head as I blocked the "L" with my head for comedic effect.
We arrived at the High Hat Regency Motel. Kirk and I stayed in the car, leaving the womenfolk and the teenager to fend for themselves. I mean, they had heavy wand lights. Nobody was going to mess with them! It's a cool 1960s retro hotel to take pics in front of, but I sure wouldn't want to stay there. The surrounding area was sketchy. We were there for all of ten minutes, we could not get out of there fast enough!
South of skid row is a bit of a renaissance, where there's an open-air mall and public art installations. We had pizza there. We also found a Zoltar!
The Gold And Silver Pawn Shop, where they shoot "Pawn Stars"
We took a break from the photography after lunch to scope out the Gold And Silver Pawn Shop. It's down the road and round the corner from Skid Row.
Neon Boneyard
I will be honest, I had no idea this was a park. I thought this was a set used by Vegas Vacation. There are two parts to the Neon Boneyard. One part is a walking tour. They include an audio tour that you can listen to on your phone. When we were there we saw the Tim Burton "Lost Vegas" tour.
The other part of the park was rented by the photography group for a shoot with the seniors.
Downtown Las Vegas
Downtown Las Vegas is the "Fremont Street Experience. The street is sheltered and closed to auto traffic. There are many people "living their best life" with half-full cups, leaning against casino walls, and drunkenly screaming. People are flying across the ceiling on zip lines.
People stopped to compliment Sam on his outfit. He looked like Las Vegas. He would have been comped meals and a room just for walking into the casino, even though he was a few years too young.
Nelson Ghost Town
An hour south of Las Vegas is a ghost town adjacent to an abandoned gold mine. This is Nelson Nevada. It's a bit of a tourist trap. Pay a fee, and walk the property. Get some candy and a bottle of pop in the gift shop. Get lost in the desert where each hillside looks exactly like the next. Take a look at the abandoned cars. Go look at the equipment left behind at the gold mine.
It's a photographer's dream: old cars, old equipment, barns, nooks, crannies, and only twenty dollars a person. You're actively encouraged to take pictures. It's an incredible value.
So Las Vegas does close down!
Holy cow. Seemingly without warning, on Sunday, March 15, Las Vegas shut down. The shows canceled. The restaurants closed. A few casinos remained open, though the slot machines were half-closed to enforce social distancing. The gaming tables and pits were operated with skeleton crews.
We had plans to see Penn and Teller. The hotel hosting that show closed down the show out of concern for the staff, the hosts, and their audience. It would be terrible if that show were a super-spreader event.
We had plans to visit the Shelby Museum. I don't know how large the exhibit is and we also wanted to see Hoover Dam. We decided to cut the trip a day short since everything was closing, including our hotel: the MGM Park.
The only show left to see was Tournament of Kings at Excalibur. Sue made a quick decision to get tickets for Tournament of Kings as we walked through the hotel after Sam's shoot out front of that property.
Tournament of Kings at Excalibur! The Last Show in Las Vegas
The food was good. The action was well choreographed. The crowd was encouraged to cheer and boo to the actors. It was like attending a Medieval themed WWE Smackdown.
Hoover Dam
No trip to Las Vegas is complete without a side trip to Hoover Dam. We went to see Hoover Dam on Monday March 16. We stopped for breakfast at the Coffee Cup Cafe, a diner that was once showcased on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It lived up to the hype.
Empty Caesar's Palace
We returned to Las Vegas after visiting Hoover Dam. We got cleaned up and then hit the casinos. Nobody stayed in Las Vegas after the hotels started shutting everything down. The casino at Caesar's Palace was mostly empty.
I managed to get a few hands of Blackjack in. I am not quick enough to count cards, though I know to let the dealer bust when they're holding 15 or better. So I came out ahead.
The Last Supper at Paris Las Vegas
Our dinner in Paris Las Vegas was great. Our dinner service was excellent. It was so sad to see the staff hug each other as the property closed for the pandemic. We literally had the last supper at Paris Las Vegas. The staff were all uncertain about how they were going to survive.
March 17, 2020: Las Vegas looks like The Walking Dead
There's a pedestrian bridge over the Las Vegas Strip. It joins the MGM properties on either side of the Las Vegas Strip.
This is what the Strip looked like from the pedestrian bridge when there were no airport shuttles. No ubers. No taxi cabs. No restaurant deliveries. No locals cruising up and down and yelling at tourists. No exotic car rentals making exhaust pops.
We walked past the Bellagio fountains several times during our stay. The morning of March 17, 2020, it was EMPTY. The hotel shut off the fountains to encourage distancing.
We're going to go back when things return to normal
We saw Las Vegas in a way few people have seen Las Vegas
I had some time to reflect on the experience of seeing an empty Las Vegas. Very few people get to experience this. The only people left were trying to get out, or they were trying to convince us we needed to take a helicopter ride across the Grand Canyon.
Despite all of the pandemic fears and all of the tourists leaving, there was at least one sign that Las Vegas wasn't going to stop being Las Vegas. That sign was a random local "shaking hands with beef" in the bushes next to the entrance of a CVS, completely living his best Las Vegas Life.
All of the tension surrounding the newly materializing global pandemic broke for just a few seconds after we had realized what we just witnessed.
After the laughter died down, we were ready to return to Nebraska.
But we would like to experience a full Vegas experience, complete with epic shows and crowds of drunken tourists.
And a Pinkbox Donut.
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