An Honest Look

Many people have asked me what I thought about Vegas and I thought it might be a good idea to explain my thoughts on the blog. I know that people have mixed opinions of Vegas due to its reputation for gambling, sex and prostitution. It is called “Sin City” for a reason.

Here are my personal thoughts; take them for what they’re worth. I know there will be people who won’t agree with me or who are more conservative than I am. If you’re thinking of ever visiting, maybe this will help you.

A little background on D and I may help you understand where I am coming from. Both of us were raised in pretty conservative Christian homes and neither of us was exposed to a whole lot that would be considered immoral. Since becoming adults, we have both been able to form our own opinions on various “gray” areas. We are still relatively conservative, but probably not as conservative as many of our friends/family/acquaintances.

I think I mentioned this before, but we both absolutely loved Vegas and can’t wait to go back. There are so many things to see and do that aren’t related to gambling, sex, etc. Are those things available and in your face? Yes, to a certain degree. (I’ll go in to more detail later). Just exploring all the resorts and shopping could take you a week or longer. We were there 2 full days and only got about halfway down the strip and I know there are things in that half of the strip that we missed.

We were warned by a few friends before we went, so we were prepared for the men that stand out on the sidewalks passing out “cards” for girls. Most of the time, they were out in the evenings, but we did see them a couple of times throughout the day. These guys are everywhere but it’s pretty easy to ignore them. We obviously never took any of the “cards” and just walked on by. If you don’t know, these cards essentially are of either partially nude or completely nude women that men can call. I’ll let your mind take it from there. There are cards all over the streets and sidewalks from people who dropped them. For me, this was something that I was very easily able to look past. Does it bother me that women pursue this profession and have such little respect for themselves? Yes, but at the same time, it didn’t really phase me. I knew it was there, but since it didn’t personally affect me, I wasn’t bothered by it or offended by it. As I said before, it was very easy to look beyond that part of Vegas and enjoy the many other great features.

Did we gamble? Yes, we most certainly did! Once again, in my mind, gambling can be a gray area. I see the addiction as wrong, but to enjoy it for a bit, doesn’t bother me. I believe I mentioned in a previous post, that we met a friend of mine at Paris and played Blackjack. We spent a little more money than we had planned but we were able to control ourselves and I think we did reasonably well. We’re both still a little ticked that we lost so quickly and would love a chance to redeem ourselves. Thankfully, both casinos close to us are at least a 45 minute drive. Otherwise, we might be in trouble! I kid, I kid…somewhat. Since we both have addicting personalities, we are very aware that we can’t do this too often or we’d be in serious trouble. We’re both very competitive, which doesn’t help either!

Would we take kids to Vegas? I haven’t fully determined how I feel about that yet. There are a lot of kid-friendly resorts, shops, shows, etc. but at the same time, I’m not completely sure it’s appropriate to take a child. I know for most of our friends, I would not recommend they take their children. I think it all depends on the ages of the kids and how much you are willing to explain to them. Because there will be lots of questions asked! We did see quite a few kids, but it seemed like most of them were babies in strollers. No way would I ever do that! It gets so crowded at times that I would hate, hate, hate to push a stroller through some of those places.

I don’t know if this helps anyone but I’ve been thinking about this since we got back. I thought it would at least be worth my time to share my thoughts and maybe help one person. If you have any other questions, please let me know! I’d love to talk about it!