The Las Vegas Adventurer

Today’s guest post is from Mary Jo Manzanares, Travel & Culture Channel Editor and travel blogger at Flyaway Cafe.
Bing, bing, bing. . . the bells, whistles, and bumpers of pinballs fill the air at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, while on display is the world’s largest pinball collection.
Established as a non-for-profit corporation, the museum showcases games from the 60’s to the present. It’s pure pinball, so deposit your coin and see if you can play well enough to rack up those additional games. The museum is family-friendly (no violent games allowed), and prices for the games …read more

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This is a guest post from Mary Jo Manzanares, Travel & Culture Channel Editor and blogger at Flyaway Cafe
 

Arrive in Las Vegas to a beautiful sunny day, and around 90 degrees.
Checked into my hotel, got settled in my room, and then met up with some friends for a little Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream. 
Cold Stone is located at the Excalibur Hotel & Casino (in photo).  I’ve never really loved the medieval theme of this place.  All those knights and princesses running around, and lots of kids and families.  But you gotta love the place for the ice cream. …read more

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Las Vegas has added yet another unique attraction to its list of must-sees: North America’s first ice lounge!
The 2,000 square foot Minus 5 Ice Lounge at the Mandalay Bay opened this week as the first permanent lounge made completely of ice in North America. Minus 5 has five other locations around the world in Sydney and Gold Coast, Australia; Auckland and Queensland, New Zealand; and Viseu, Portugal.
All the ice is carved and crafted by hand and machine, from the bar to the chandeliers to the drinking glasses. Minus 5 serves vodka-based cocktails or just vodka straight up.
This isn’t just any …read more

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This picture would have about summed up what I thought of Vegas before I lived here: Cruising the Strip in a pink Caddy with Elvis on your wedding day – it doesn’t get more old school than that!
[image: flickr]

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It must be hard coming up with new and original themes, especially in Las Vegas. Take, for instance, the new nightclub opening up at the Palazzo:
Lavo (latin for “to bathe or cleanse”) is a “bi-level restaurant and club that balances Mediterranean dining against Vegas-style performance art — most notably, in both stairwell wall nooks and a $5000 copper tub in the dining room, you’ll witness barely clothed stripper/Cleopatra hybrids engaged in bathing rituals while enjoying grapes and wash-towels served by bald midgets.”
However, it doesn’t end there. Taking a glass bridge lined with worn tile walls and stone wash basins to …read more

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Take your Vegas vacation way off-Strip – and three miles up!
Skydive Las Vegas offers a unique view of southern Nevada — rather, whatever you manage to take in before the jitters take over! At 10,000 feet you’re all but guaranteed to see the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, the Colorado River, Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, and Mt. Charleston.
A free shuttle picks you up on the Strip (you need to call 1-800-875-9348 to find out where) at 8:00am and 12:00 noon and also drops you off when your day is done. You can, of course, save a bit of …read more

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Arguably the biggest and best dive bar in Vegas is also known as the “Happiest Place on Earth,” though the kind of entertainment it offers is vastly different than the ol’ mouse ears!
From the minute you enter the Double Down Saloon you know you’re not going to be getting anything froofy. But then what else would you expect from a bar that created the bacon martini and “Ass Juice?” You only live once, right?
They serve everyone: “bums, punks, hipsters, bohemians, rockabilly greasers and regular joes.” The atmosphere is, well, don’t step foot in the door if you’re OCD about cleanliness. …read more

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Craving some star gazing but don’t want to travel to LA or New York? Madame Tussauds may be able to fill the need!
The wax museum has been a part of Las Vegas since 1999 when it opened one of its half dozen worldwide locations on the Strip. It’s located on the moving walkway between the Venetian and Las Vegas Blvd just off Spring Mountain.
The Las Vegas museum focuses mainly on celebrities, whereas other locations around the world feature celebrities, sports stars, historical figures, world leaders and in the case of the London location, a Chamber of Horrors! Each figure …read more

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Only in Vegas! The hottest cup of coffee isn’t at Starbucks, it’s at SexxPresso – Las Vegas’s first “erotic coffee shop” where drinks are served by lingerie-clad baristas!
The drink sizes and drink names are suggestive too, of course – try ordering a cup size A, B or DD (20 oz!) Pleasure Cup (cafe mocha) or Porn Star (chocolate covered cherry latte) with a straight face! This is definitely one coffee shop that doesn’t take itself too seriously (always a bonus in my book).
And they do actually have more on the menu than the usual espressos, lattes and “slap-accinos!” Drop …read more

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From now until September 1 visitors to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum will get a unique perspective on crime solving: The CSI: Crime Scene Insects exhibit, which was put together by forensic entomologist M. Lee Goff, a consultant on the popular CBS show, CSI. Some of his cases have even been used as storylines on the show!
The exhibit contains actual examples of what crime scene investigators study when insects are present at a crime scene (bugs are referred to as the “cleanup crew”), and even includes a re-creation of a courtroom scene with taped testimony of forensic entomologists …read more

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