While they may tell you that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, they’re not entirely correct: some of it escapes onto the internet!

So here’s the lighter side of our recent trip to Las Vegas.

Let’s start with the drive out. Somewhere between the Cajon Pass and Victorville, we saw a warehouse with this banner. We had to wonder what “really living” furniture was. Trees grown into the shape of chairs, perhaps? A topiary table? We didn’t get the camera out in time to snap a picture, but we caught it on the drive back.

Then there was the moving truck. Somewhere around Barstow we got caught behind this veeerrrryyyy sssslllooooowwwwwlllly moving truck, with the company name and phone number spray-painted on the back. We joked that it was “Henry’s Moving… slowly.” (About 45 MPH on a 65 or 75 MPH highway.) What was really odd was that, two hours out, we’d run into a car from our own area code. Once we could get out of the lane, we passed them and left them way behind. Perhaps 45-60 minutes later, we made a stop in Baker. Bathroom break, new drinks, top off the gas tank, and stop at Alien Fresh Jerky. We pulled onto the freeway…. and there was Henry’s Moving.

Speaking of Alien Fresh Jerky, perhaps they get their supplies from the flying saucer perched above Las Vegas’ Fashion Show Mall.

It’s actually a big ellipse, if you look at it from across the street, but approaching it from half a block down the strip, it looks like some aliens stopped by to shop, and couldn’t fit their spaceship in the parking garage.

On Tuesday, Katie noticed one of the buildings near Paris Las Vegas had a sign that said, “plan.” A day later, it said, “plane.” Once we realized they were in the process of putting up a new sign, we checked things out and discovered the Aladdin was being converted into the Planet Hollywood. One more Vegas icon bites the dust, (and one more joke from the Disney film gets dated). Sure enough, the next day it said “planet.” For some reason they didn’t continue on the next side on Friday.

Of course, even with all the newish hotels on the Strip like the Wynn, Venetian, Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Trump whatever all trying to project an image of Las Vegas as a classy destination, there are still some remnants of more… shall we say, traditional Vegas entertainment, such as this sign on the New Frontier.

Now, I’m not so sure about the wisdom of eating seafood in the middle of the desert, but the Wild Wild West goes all-out: steak, shrimp, and eel! (though they spelled it kinda funny) 😉

I recall someone talking about the Disney-fication of Las Vegas. Excalibur has the Fantasyland look going, and New York New York, Paris, the Venetian, and Rio all have areas that imitate their namesake cities like Main Street, U.S.A. or New Orleans Square. But I think Toon Town is taking things a bit far.

And finally, I’ll leave you with this image of a billboard above the “World’s Largest Gift Shop” which houses Toon Town. The motif for Souvenir Heaven seems singularly appropriate for Las Vegas.