Living Las Vegas

Real Life in the Shadow of the Strip

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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

Close By, Clean Cut, Slot Free

Every once in a while, I find it pleasant to remember that there are cities in the world that don’t have slot machines in their grocery stores and video poker on every corner. You might think I’d have to travel to California or Arizona to visit this kind of sin-free community, but good clean fun is ever so much closer. Boulder City is only a half-hour drive from Las Vegas.

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Death Valley Lives!

Although Death Valley has a reputation for being one of the most arid spots on the planet, this year it doesn’t even come close. So far this season, the valley has had over six inches of rain. That may not sound like a huge amount to someone from Seattle, but that much water in the desert goes a very long way. Serious flooding washed out Highway 190 between Pahrump and the valley last year, and it’s still closed. Many of the scenic drives inside the park remain impassable.

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Mushroom Clouds over Vegas

People like to watch stuff blow up, and nowhere in the world is there more proof of this fascination than Las Vegas. Hotel implosions — even after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 made them politically incorrect — still draw ogling crowds. But they weren’t the first big bangs that lured curious observers to southern Nevada, and they definitely weren’t the largest. That distinction belongs to the mushroom clouds created by atomic bombs detonated in the 1950s at the Nevada Test Site.

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Sharks on Parade

Everyone knows that all the sharks in Las Vegas are in casinos, and nowhere is this more delightfully true than at Mandalay Bay. Shark Reef is a beautifully designed aquarium that boasts not only sharks but also a fascinating array of other aquatic creatures, some of which you can even touch.

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Over the Hump to the Brothels in Pahrump

Prostitution is illegal in Clark County, even though billboards offering “Full Service Ladies Direct to Your Room” suggest otherwise. Those are personal dancers, understand? They come to your hotel room and dance for you. That’s it. Well, okay. You can take them to the movies or out to dinner, but if you thought those billboards were advertising more than a little innocent social interaction, well, you’re just wrong! There’s no prostitution in Las Vegas. Everybody knows that for that sort of thing, you have to go to Pahrump!

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