I am over Las Vegas now. I don’t need to return again … ever. I probably will go back because it’s the kind of place you end up having to visit periodically. And that’s okay. I don’t hate Las Vegas. I am just over it.

A few other thoughts:

1. Someone needs to tell Las Vegas that it is not a world-class city like New York or Paris and therefore shouldn’t charge prices like it is. Pricing I ran into: $3 coffee, $2.50 soda, $30-$50 entrees, $15 cocktails, $30 per person cover charges for clubs. I admit I don’t know how to work the Vegas system, so I guess I’m one of the suckers who support all the people who do know how to work the system. Yes, I am bitter about this.

2. We ate food. The best meal we had was at Table 10 in the Palazzo. I had a lamb dish that was surprisingly good.

3. I ate the lamb dish while sitting on the restaurant’s “terrace.” Which was in a mall. The view:

4. Waiters in Las Vegas are pushy. They want you to know your drink order right away. If you don’t know, they pressure you to know. And if you still don’t know, they go away for 30 seconds and come back and expect you to know. Then they want you to leave as soon as you are done with your meal. I think that when you are paying between $30-$50 for an entrée, you should be able to sit there for as long as you want.

5. I wanted to go on a gondola ride, but when I realized it was right off the strip and everyone stares at you while you do it, I decided to take a (blurry) picture instead:

6. This trip forced me to finally get a cell phone. For some of my friends, this should be exciting news. Now when people take out their cell phones and start fiddling them in the middle of a conversation, I can do the same thing.

7. Casinos are fun to walk through. When I wasn’t eating, that’s generally what I was doing: walking through casinos and taking pictures of people. My camera did surprisingly well in low light.

8. Here is a picture of a strip seen through some bushes:

9. The trip home was delayed for an hour because there was fog in San Francisco. I don’t even know what to say about that.

10. Sorry this post is so negative. It’s what Las Vegas does to me. Here is what it does to other people:

(Taken at the gate in the Las Vegas airport.)