View of City Center from the bridge

I had some time to kill on Friday night and seeing how I have been wanting to checkout the new Crystals shopping center at CityCenter in Las Vegas, I finally got in there to see how it all turned out.

Cyrstals was designed by award winning architect Daniel Libeskind who is most famous for designing the World Trade Center in 2003, and also for the Jewish Museum in Berlin in 1990. The latter project really launched his career and he became a one hundred person firm.

Getting to the CityCenter from where I was at Planet Hollywood was a very peculiar experience. I walked to the end of Planet Hollywood outside on the strip side and went down the escalator. You can easily see where access to the walk-over bridge is once you’re on the strip level. I had to fight off a few porn slappers who were hanging out in a group down there by the bridge escalators. Why they thought I would need their little hooker cards they hand out, I have no idea, but two of them got me! And one of them was a woman! I was offended, but my Spanish isn’t what it needed to be to give them a piece of my mind. It could be argued that I don’t have a piece to spare anyway. At any rate, up to the cross over bridge I went and I walked the maze of bridges to Crystals.

Outside of the Planet Hollywood Casino Miracle Mile of Shops

The walk over really is a bit like a maze. There seems to be bridges going everywhere. I took the Crystals route. This shopping center is just massive! It is a 500,000 square foot place altogether.

View of Planet Hollywood Casino from the bridge

The architecture is really quite unique. I usually don’t take to new types of buildings, being more of an old fashioned sort of girl. The three-story sculptural tree house, or as I call it “the huge basket looking thing,” is just as strange looking to me now as when I saw the models of it. I just don’t get it, I guess.

The three story tree house

I do like the wide open space of the place. In some areas upstairs you can see many levels off in the distance. Such is the case with the view of the awesome staircase which was inspired by Rome’s Spanish Steps. That is a really nice feature of the place. You do not feel closed in at all.

A nice spot of flowers inside Cyrstals

I was disappointed to discover there was only one place to eat. Well, there were two places to eat but the restaurant was completely booked for the night due to its special event for the big opening. I found my way to the Coffee Shop. I had a very nice Greek Salad and a chocolate milk while I poked away at my Blackberry. I’m sure eventually there will be many places to eat in there, but for now there is a one restaurant and one coffee shop.

I spotted Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus on the way to Crystals

There is a bit of a hum in the place that reminds me of an old Star Trek episode. I guess this is their interpretation of crystals ringing, or maybe it was one of their unique sculptures that was making the sounds, I’m not sure. It is a new kind of thing, and well, I am not the most comfortable with “new.”

Families playing around with the sculpture named Halo

Speaking of the sculptures. They did put some really cool ones in there and you can get right up to them and touch them. “Glacia” continuously debuts new shapes and patterns as ice rises from a pool of water, and “Halo” materializes a series of water vortices within clear cylinders. I saw some kids and parents playing with “Halo.”

The directory is touch screen

Some shops were open and some had coming soon signs. I did see a few designer names on those signs like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., Roberto Cavalli, Cartier, H.Stern, Christian Dior, Emilio Pucci, Ermenegildo Zegna, Fendi, Gucci, Hermès, Miu Miu, Philipp Plein, Prada and Versace and more. So, you can bet the shopping is going to be good!

The Bridge to CityCenter

They have a shopping Concierge which offers incredible customer service. The Concierge serves as fashion consultants, personal shoppers and more. Whether securing the best table at one of Crystals’ dynamic restaurants; reserving tickets to CityCenter’s hip-swiveling production, Viva ELVISTM by Cirque du Soleil®; or selecting the season’s hottest items, they are there to help. Who ever heard of that in a mall before?

The Roman Steps inspired staircase

CityCenter is one of the world’s largest environmentally sustainable urban communities. Crystals has received LEED® Gold Core & Shell certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, making it the world’s largest retail district to receive this level of recognition. So, you can have less guilt for shopping! I like that.

Great views from the upstairs at Crystals

Crystals is open 10am – midnight daily.

Left of Center Art Gallery

I finally went downtown for First Friday. Every first Friday of the month the galleries downtown Las Vegas open their doors and let everyone wander through at night. It is a fairly big deal. Many of the shops blast music or have live musical groups to lure people in. There are people walking around the streets, popping in and out of galleries and having a fun time.

Gainsburg Art Gallery

For the past couple of days we’ve been experiencing a sudden cool down in the weather. A few days ago it was 100 degrees and then it dropped right down to the 70s over night. So tonight it was pretty cool and it was perfect for an evening autumn walk through the stores.

The art wasn't the only hot ticket on First Friday

There are all kinds of stores down there. I haven’t been in that area of Las Vegas since I moved here. It has improved since I’ve seen it last, which was nice to see. There are a lot more galleries now and just generally it looks cleaner and more inviting for a walk.

Bail Bonds

I sort of laughed when I saw the Bail Bonds place all lit up with a crowd and music blaring. Getting bailed out of jail is a booming business in Las Vegas. There are lots of billboards everywhere for various ‘nice guys’ who will bail your sorry ass out of the clinker, should you take that ‘what happens in Vegas, stay in Vegas’ idea a little too much too heart. There are also billboards all over the place advertising certain law firms specialize in going to court for you. So anyway, the Bail Bonds people got into the First Friday action as well.

The Attic

The Attic was an interesting store. They are all decked out for Halloween. At least I think it was for Halloween. Maybe they are always wild like that, I don’t know. They have a very interesting stair case going in.

The Attic's stairway entrance

The art galleries here have interesting names like “Space” and “Place”. It seems all centered around the starving artist idea. As I wandered through some of the galleries, I couldn’t help but notice all the traditional stuff seemed to be missing. This is the daring generation of artists and some of them push that envelope pretty far.

Space Gallery

There was one very busy place I popped into on a whim. It is called the Contemporary Arts Center. They are celebrating their twentieth year in business in Las Vegas and the place was packed with people.

Contemporary Arts Center

I met one of the directors as soon as I walked in. We chatted for a while. I hadn’t planned on being all that impressed with the place, but the more I dug into the art, the more I liked it.

Princess Anne with one of the Directors

He introduced me to Princess Anne. She is handling their wearable art event called Hot Hot Haute. This is going to be a runway show and fund raiser for the Contemporary Arts Center. It will take place on October 24th at 7pm, there at the center. He did his job so well, leading me around that I never got his name! I’m sure he told me, but I thought it was written on all this literature he gave me so I didn’t write it down. I am over fifty, so I cannot depend on my memory. Now I wish I knew his name.

Unusual art at the Contemporary Arts Center

There is a lot of art jammed into this art collective. One of their artists right now is Nancy Rubin, who is doing some of the art for the City Center.

The place was packed

There is an interactive bit where you can touch and scribble on the wall. There were some young guys fooling around with that when I was there.

An interactive exhibit

I was told to please take photos, so I did. As my luck would have it, I was asked to stop. Yeah, it happened again. I was asked to stop by the nice gentleman in this photo. You know what a sore point that is with me. I’m so tired of being asked to stop taking photos all the time.

Okay, Okay, I know he was just doing his job, helping to protect the copyright of the art. So I am putting his photo in this blog post but he gets his eyes blanked out, just on general principal. He didn’t believe me that I had permission, which annoyed me further. I just walked away and continued on my appointed duty, which was to take some photos!

Art displayed at Contemporary Arts Center

Anyway, the Contemporary Arts Center is a pretty cool place and there is so much art to see in there. It is much larger than the other galleries I found tonight.

Some really cool house hardware at Durette's Studio

I made my way back onto the street again. Sandwiched in between some galleries, I found Durette’s Studio. This isn’t art exactly. They sell all sorts of fixtures for homes. They have lamps and door knobs and handles of every sort. At first I thought it was an antique shop. The owner told me no, it was just fixtures from everywhere.

Beautiful Glass Wine Cellar

In the back of this store is the coolest wine cellar I’ve ever seen. It is a glass enclosure to store wine, quite beautifully, I might add. It reminded me of some science fiction movie I saw once with bodies suspected in capsules. Well, anyway, this was a wall of wine being temperature controlled until just the right moment to uncork it.

More Wine

They also have wine for sale in there and have frequent wine tasting events. I think it would certainly be worth checking into if you’re in town during one of their events.

Funky Recycling was selling buttons

First Friday was a fun time. It starts early enough in the evening so there is still plenty of time to hit the casinos afterwards. Who knows, you might find that perfect piece of art for your living room back home. If you happen to come here in the first week of the month, check it out.

Mural on side of one of the buildings

Bellagio

My Aunt was in town for the past few days, she just left this morning. I was going to go see her at the Bellagio on Monday night but I had come down with a mild flu so I thought I’d better not. I’d really rather not spread viruses on the Strip and ruin people’s vacation. So I quarantined.

Yesterday, I was doing great once again so I met up with her on the Strip. The first thing she tells me is that she’s not feeling so good and she had called the gift shop looking for Alka-Seltzer. The lady in the shop let her know she was about the twentieth person to call that morning looking for the same thing. She assumed a whole lot of people were sick with the flu.

Nothing spreads a bug faster than people on airplanes. I can’t say that I blame them for boarding sick. I would do the same thing if I came down with a virus just before my long awaited fun time in Vegas. Just to warn you though, the flu is here and it is going to continue spreading here until it runs its course. You might want to pack your favorite remedy in case you get it. Wash your hand constantly while you’re here.

We did a little window shopping because she didn’t look like she was going to drop over dead or anything. She thought she should get a bite to eat to settle her stomach so I took her to Olives restaurant in the Bellagio. I told her about the tapenade they serve and she couldn’t wait to try it.

Tapenade at Olives Restaurant

I’ve eaten at Olives restaurant a few times now and have always loved it. Generally, I’m there in the early afternoon to help others nurse their hangovers, so nurse duty with my Aunt wasn’t putting me out at all. I did call in back-up, however. I figure if we’re going to have some fun, one of my favorite guys should join us.

I have had a lot of friends and family coming in and out of town this month. It seems June is the favorite month to go to Vegas and visit me. So double duty happens sometimes so I can visit with everyone.

Bread Selection

My Aunt was asking where the bathroom was, well, for ‘just in case’, so it seemed she was getting worse, not better. She was having a much tougher time of it than I did. My stomach didn’t bother me at all, it was the other flu place that got to me and a real nasty headache to kick it all in. Initially she wanted a hamburger and then later changed her mind. A little bit later she was really glad she ordered nothing. She did have some of their awesome tapenade and bread, though.

Dining Area at Olives

My buddy showed up and all the introductions were made. He wasn’t hungry either, but I couldn’t just not order something because I love the food in there! I ordered the little portabella pizza they have and my aunt made a mad dash for the lady’s room. I presume, the little bit of bread, olives and ice tea she had was going to be all she was going to have for the rest of the day.

So, Aunt Cheryl didn’t last long after that. She was turning pasty pale and not talking much for fear something was going to come spewing out. She felt so bad, but she had to go back to her room to just bake this flu bug out and then fly home in the morning.

Portabella mushroom pizza

And then there were two of us. My friend and I ate the little pizza, I don’t remember what they called it. It was mighty good, as always. It was a bit sharp though. It sure it a good thing my aunt didn’t try it. I was stuffed full of all that wonderful bread, the tapenade (a ground olives spread) and pizza. I didn’t leave a lot of room for dinner.

So what do a stuffed lady and a cute guy do after all that? Shopping!

We took a walk down to the fountains, but it was in between shows and we didn’t want to wait. So we kept walking in the summer sun and 102 degree heat. Margarittaville was the goal.

It is a cookie jar!

It is easy to walk to Margarittaville from the Bellagio, but only if you do that from the East side of the strip. We walked down the west side. Silly us. We eventually figured it out. Everything looks easy when you start to go somewhere in Las Vegas, until you start to go somewhere. Casinos that look so close are really a couple miles away. Just crossing the street over there turns into, “OMG, you can’t just cross the street there!” You find you have to takes escalators, cross bridges, turn left, go right and eventually you are across the street. So, a couple of bridges, a full flight of stairs, an escalator and three bums begging later, we arrived at the corner to cross the street. Easy!

Totally cute mini margaritta glasses

We hung out on the balcony there at Margarittaville to stare at people. We took each other’s pictures. None will appear here. After looking at every single T-shirt in the place, he settled on a favorite. A couple of interesting items caught my eye but I didn’t buy.

Bally

My friend was staying at the Paris last night so I went up to take a look at his room. I don’t think I’ve ever been inside the Paris at all. We all talk about how crappy it is, but have you ever been inside? I hadn’t and I was really surprised! It looks an awful lot like New York New York in the casino, only with a French flare to it all.

I dare to enter the Nonsmoking Floor at the Paris

The room was really quite nice. It was small, like most rooms are in Las Vegas, but it was nice. I don’t personally care for all the French thing they had going on, but it was clean, neat and nicely put together.

Room at the Paris Casino

The location is great there being in the middle of the strip. You’re close to all the action on the left and all the action on the right. Bally’s Monorail stop is just a few steps away and that will get you to everywhere else.

Room at the Paris Casino

So! Remember to wash your hands lots and lots while you’re here! I wouldn’t want you to have to spend your vacation in fabulous Las Vegas’s finest toilets.

The view from the Paris

So plan ahead. I used to use the TripAdvisor website a lot and read a lot of reviews on hotels when I used to come here to visit. So I would balance the budget against the reviews and then book online.

Today I had a new idea! Youtube. Yep, people do videos of the rooms they stay in and then put them up on youtube! Who knew? It is totally cool. You can actually tour the rooms online and decide where you want to sleep.

There will always be some variation between the room you get and the room they got, but you get a pretty good idea about the hotel by watching these videos. When they say they stayed in a Wynn Tower room, this is not the same as a standard room. Those will be completely different. So you need to pay attention to those little details.

There are an awful lot of good deals going on these days in Vegas and it is possible you’ll pay the same rate for a snazzy room with great service as you will for an offbeat room downtown.

If you want to get great deals, sign up for all the casino’s mailing lists for the places you like. They will send you their specials right in to your email in box. You probably won’t find some of those great deals on their websites.

Also, when you’re in Las Vegas, always sign up for whatever player’s card they have. That will likely get you even better specials and comps sent to you.

So here are some videos I snagged for you to take a look at so you can see the difference in the rooms.

First, the Luxor. Good grief, the guy couldn’t put a shirt on?? That is just not attractive. Anyway, here is his room review:

Now, New York New York:

A room at the Bellagio:

The Venetian:

Now let’s go downtown, and do the Plaza:

And the Golden Nugget:

And then back to the strip to see one awesome Tower Suite at the Wynn:

Have fun planning your trip!

But really, when you think about it, you CAN sort of accomplish that “stays in Vegas” in a way. Check out this old commercial from the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority:

So, I was thinking… where does one buy a wig these days if they wanted to do that?

Well, Serge’s Showgirl Wigs, of course! Sort of a hokey name, but not at all a hokey store.

Wigs Everywhere

I went in and spoke to the nice ladies there and they told me all about the place. Serge’s is a pretty cool wig shop. They have everything in there that a girl could want to hide her hair.

Scarves and Falls

They have the little scarves and hats you can wear to hide from a bad hair day. They have falls, partial type wigs, full wigs, and they can even style your wig for only $35.00.

Prices really depend on what you want. They really vary. You could get out of there with spending about $200 for a nice synthetic wig, or lots more depending on what you want. They have an outlet store also and from what I understand they start at $80.00. I didn’t check out the outlet store as I was pressed for time that day.

Mary helped me and we tried on lots and lots of hair. It was pretty fun. She was very patient with me. By the time I left my hair was all smooshed from having so many wigs on my head. It was hard for me to believe that it was synthetic hair on my head as they looked so real! Of course, you can always opt for the real hair wigs, but those things have to be restyled all the time. The synthetic ones will fall right back in to shape when they get wet. This is very handy after a night of jumping around in fountains, falling down drunk in puddles and wet t-shirt contests… you know… the usual Vegas fun for a modern gal.

The girls at Serge

So next time you are thinking of coming to Vegas and you want to do some things you would not ordinarily do, you might consider planning a trip to Serge’s Showgirl Wigs first. You know, we have to protect our fine reputations.

As an odd note to this story, if you look closely at the photo with the salesgirls, you will see a photo of Willy Nelson on the wall. I don’t know why Willy would be on the wall at a wig shop… But there he is.

Serge

Serge’s Showgirl Wigs
953 E Sahara Ave
Las Vegas, NV 89104
Phone: 1-800-947-9447
Local: (702) 732-1015

They are maybe 1/2 mile from the strip.  Which is good, because you’re probably going to be in a hurry.

There are plenty of jewelry shops in the casinos.  I don’t know how many of those shops are going to still exist in the new year.  I keep hearing rumors about all kinds of shops preparing to close in those casino shopping areas.  I don’t know if this is true or not but it might be a good time to take advantage of the specials they are offering.

I was just given a cluster ring which belonged to my grandmother.  She passed away years ago, but her husband just passed away last year.  My family decided I should have it.  I was wearing the ring at the time of the shopping trip and asked one of the clerks what kind of stones were in it.  As it turns out, it isn’t rubies, it is garnets.  I didn’t know garnets sparkled so.  This ring means a lot to me.  With all the remarriages in my family, it seems what would normally be passed down to me always takes a left turn in to someone else’s family.  This ring means a lot to me, as I finally have something from my relatives to pass on.

There were many sparkly things I would love to have. It became apparent that maybe I need a boyfriend.

I have some peculiar superstitions.  I don’t know where I pick these up, some of them are traditions and some are just part of my evil, little mind, I suppose.  For example, New Year’s Eve.  I am VERY superstitious about New Year’s.  That kiss at midnight means everything to me.  That is the guy I will be in love with for the rest of the year. Without that kiss, the love affair is likely over. Stupid, I know, but I’m really serious about that one.  Another of my ‘things’ is that I will not buy my own jewelry.  All my jewelry was given to me by boyfriends.  With the exception of grandma’s ring, that was something else entirely.  But my diamonds, rubies and sapphires were from loves of the the past.  I guess if you think about it, all were given to me by ‘loves’ or ‘Loves’.  Haha, I made a funny.  Which cheers me up about not being asked to spend New Year’s with the man I want to spend it with. Hmm, on second thought, no it doesn’t cheer me up at all.

So this trip I was on a mission to find emeralds.  I have no emeralds.  I have fallen in love a couple of times since I received those sapphires and rubies from husband #1, but I have not received any more rings and necklaces.  Well, except from my mom of blessed memory.  She filled in as a “Love” until a “love” came along to take up the slack.  Well, mom has been dead for about three or four years now.  I’m afraid I’m on my own.  But I won’t buy them, I can’t.  To buy my own jewelry would to be curse my love life for all eternity.  So I window shop and wonder if I will ever have an emerald.

I saw a lot sales going on.  Some stores were offering 20% off and some were offering up to 50% off their jewels.  Oddly enough, I saw hardly any emeralds.  A sign?  I don’t know, but they were tough to find.  There are always diamonds aplenty, but I don’t care much for them.  I like stones with color in them.  Go ahead, call me weird, everyone else does.

I did see a couple of emerald rings.  But they were so light in color I didn’t even recognize them as emeralds. What’s up with that?  Is someone culturing these stones now too?  I want a real one, a deep, dark, brilliant green stone.  As green as the forest moss.  It seems this elusive stone is as scarce as the men who are in love with me.

So, I’ll keep shopping.  Surely when I see an deep green sparkle from the alarm wired window, my life will change. It’ll be a sign of romance soon to come.

On my latest trip there I picked up Polly the Insulting Parrot. There was a rumor going around that a bunch of airline pilots were staying at the Sahara, right across the street from this gift shop.

When one pilot got one and showed it to another, he ran over there and bought one. I guess this went on all day with pilots running in there to buy up the foul mouthed parrots.

Now I have one of my own.

Polly scares the crap out of me if I forget and leave him turned on. He talks when he detects motion. So I’m minding my own business milling around the house and then I hear this!