Living Las Vegas

At Home in the City of Lights

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Top Vegas Hotels: Bellagio, Luxor, Rio

Roads from the Ashes: An Odyssey in Real Life on the Virtual Frontier, by Megan Edwards

Off-Strip Attractions

I’ve Been Euchred!

Here’s the message that started it all:

Hello Megan,

I must say, I bumped into your site by accident, and I love it! I also share your passion for Las Vegas. Gathering that you are not originally from “Euchre Country,” you may not be familiar with my favorite card game, euchre. I would like to invite you to check out one of our games…

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It’s a Show! It’s a Class! It’s…Cheflive!

Las Vegas… the name conjures images of green felt, showgirls, slot machines, and… food! I myself used to think of the jewel of the Eastern Mojave as little more than a great place to stop and eat when I was on a road trip from California. Sure, you had to weave your way through a forest of one-armed bandits to get to the cheap prime rib glowing so alluringly from under a heat lamp, but hey! It would set you back only (pick your decade) $2.99, $4.99, $6.99, $8.99…

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Empty Bowls in Las Vegas

At the end of March, I attended one of the most delightful and successful fundraisers I’ve ever been to anywhere. No, I’m not talking about a high-end formal ball with posses of celebrities, a multi-course banquet and lavish decorations. I’m talking about eating chicken noodle soup in a high school cafeteria. It may sound humble, but the Empty Bowls benefit sponsored by the Nevada Clay Guild, Aardvark Clay & Supplies, and Green Valley High School, not only raised nearly $20,000 to fight hunger in the Las Vegas valley, but also gave over a thousand people handmade works of art to take home…

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Mt. Charleston Getaway

It must be all the neon that makes people who don’t live in Las Vegas think that the city lies on a vast and arid plain. Driving into town on Interstate 15, the bright lights seem to render the mountains surrounding Las Vegas invisible. When you tell your average Los Angeleno that you can go skiing 45 minutes from Fremont Street, they think you’ve got to be talking about a Disneyland mountain and Styrofoam snow. But as any local knows, they’re delightfully wrong…

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Farewell to the Castaways

In another city, a hotel like the Castaways (formerly the Showboat) might be a prize landmark, but here in Las Vegas, it was just something to get rid of. Once able to claim “the largest bowling alley in the world,” the Castaways’ glory days ended a few years ago in sudden closure after mismanagement mired it in bankruptcy. The doors shut so fast, they practically slammed in the faces of scores of bowlers arriving for a tournament. But things happen fast in Vegas…

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