The Silverton is well known to travelers arriving by car from Los Angeles. It's the first large casino you come to with a genuine Las Vegas address. RVers and truckers know it well, too. The Silverton's RV park is one of the nicest in the city, and there's a TA truck strop right across the highway. Continue reading »

Las Vegas Weddings: A Brief History, Celebrity Gossip, Everything Elvis, and the Complete Chapel Guide, by Susan Marg With over 170,000 marriage and renewal ceremonies each year, Las Vegas easily out-distances its nearest competitor, Reno, for the claim of "Marriage Capital of the World." In Las Vegas Weddings: A Brief History, Celebrity Gossip, Everything Elvis, and the Complete Chapel Guide, author Susan Marg traces the evolution of the wedding industry in Sin City since 1933. She provides a fascinating look into dozens of chapels currently operating in Las Vegas, part of a thriving wedding industry that contributes, she estimates, over $1 billion each year to the local economy... Continue reading »

If you ever had the thought that a city in the desert lacks the ability to look suitably Christamas-y, all you have to do is head to the Ethel M Cactus Garden to find out that you're very, very wrong. For the eleventh year running, the destination best known for delectable chocolate (another thing you don't expect to find in a desert) has flipped the switch on a quarter of a million Christmas lights... Continue reading »

Here's a great irony. Las Vegas, the city best known for being fake, is surrounded by some of the best natural scenery in the Western Hemisphere. Oh, I know you've been told Sin City is an unnatural blight in the middle of the most unattractive and inhospitable landscape to be found on the planet, but trust me, you've been misinformed. Continue reading »

The Stratosphere Tower is nothing new. It opened in 1996, which makes it practically a senior citizen in Las Vegas years (which are sort of like dog years, only more so). I moved here in 1999, but I happened to be passing through in 1995, when maybe 200 of the tower's eventual 1,149 feet had risen from the north end of the Strip. Continue reading »