Human Watching and Other Shenanigans in Las Vegas
One fine Friday afternoon, we were enjoying our coffees at Blue Star Coffee in Salt Lake City when a text came through. My sister let us know that they were leaving for Las Vegas and had extra room for us if we wanted to tag along. The catch was this: they were leaving in 20-30 minutes! So we hurried over to their place, packed up our stuff for the weekend in 9 minutes and hit the road...
What followed were a couple of days of fun, mischief, and much of observance of the societal and cultural phenomena that seem to only exist in Vegas. What happened and what did we find exactly? Perhaps it'd be easy to show you... Check out the video below:
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If you're super curious about the human watching games, but don't have a spare 8 or so minutes to watch the video, heres the gist:
3 Free Games to Play in Las Vegas with NO Budget:
1) Who's the Hooker?
This should be self-explanatory, yet I'll explain anyway... It seems to us that most females (and some males, too) reserve a special (particularly promiscuous) wardrobe just for trips to Las Vegas. Thus making it incredibly difficult to tell the difference between the prostitutes and the "typical" Las Vegas tourist. The game comes in here: you must take turns guessing which people around you are the hookers and which are simply out for a night on the town. Simply guessing is all in good fun and can be entertaining, however, if you really want to make it interesting, incorporate some betting (monetary or otherwise) and verification. This would require the guesser to come up with a creative way to approach the individual and find out which of the two options they are without getting slapped or arrested 🙂
2) Pre-Vegas / Post-Vegas
This one would actually require flying in or out of the Las Vegas airport (sorry van dwellers). We came up with this one while waiting to fly from Las Vegas to San Francisco for our "San Fran No Plan Adventure". Again, quite simple: observe the passers-by and do your best to determine who is just arriving (typically wearing something shiny, sparkles in their eyes, and have a bounce in their step) and who is ready to get the hell out. Verification again takes this game up a notch and is much easier than verification for "Who's the Hooker?". If you're too scared to approach strangers to ask, verification can often be achieved simply by observing whether the person continues walking out of the airport or ends up sitting down at a departure gate.
3) Soundtrack Match
This became our personal favorite. We spent over an hour sitting outside Treasure Island at 3AM watching the people spill out of their limos or taxis and others stumble out the front doors, past us and onto the strip. The game: come up with an appropriate soundtrack (pop music or otherwise) for the approaching person or persons and sing it. Most people won't even think you're strange, as nothing seems to be too strange for Vegas. Disclaimer: don't sing offensive songs (i.e. Sir Mix-a-Lot's "I Like Big Butts") within earshot or the person may catch on and become a danger to you 😉
Additionally, I wanted to share a few thoughts with our van dwelling followers...
3 Reasons Why Las Vegas Could be a Van Dwelling Mecca:
1) 24 Hour Bathroom Access
For those van dwellers who don't like to "carry their shit around with them" (we fall under this category), midnight potty runs can be an incredible hassle. Not in Las Vegas. Not only can you cruise into a nearby casino to use the bathroom unnoticed, chances are it may be the cleanest, most beautiful bathroom you've ever used 😀
2) Unlimited Overnight Parking
We've gotten pretty good at stealth parking over the past couple of years. That being said, there are still some nights when we find ourselves driving around for an hour or two looking for the perfect place to hunker down without any issues. In Las Vegas, this headache is virtually eliminated as it's perfectly common for cars to stay parked in casino garages overnight whether they're staying at that casino or not. Our understanding is that the casinos generally frown upon sleeping in your vehicle in their garage (of course), but if you van has any kind of window block-outs (curtains, cardboard, blackout tint, whatever), this should be a non-issue.
3) "Free" Swimming and Other Perks
Get to know which hotel/casinos check for key cards to enter (Tropicana, for example, does not). You can respectfully ease in and out of the various pool areas for a "free" dip without any issues. For those who gamble... meals, rooms, entertainment, and much more can be comped if you know how to work the system right (Just google it for a plethora of available tips).
So there you have it! A few extra tools to get you through your next Vegas trip without breaking the bank.
Have any Vegas tips or tricks of your own? We want to hear them! Let us know in the comments below...
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i love vegas free parking! Woooo! Thanks for the game tips 🙂 I also like collecting trad-able escort cards and find the forgotten drinks. Vegas is great fun for vandwelling!