Downtown Las Vegas

I have a fascination with downtown Las Vegas. If you've never been here before, it's important to understand the difference between the Strip and Downtown. They are both located on Las Vegas Boulevard, but the Strip is considered all the properties south of the Stratosphere, which is all the modern hotels, like Mirage, Wynn, Bellagio, Palazzo, Aria, the Venetian, New York New York, and so on. Most of these properties have been built since the 1990s, with a few exceptions, like the Riviera (1955), the Sahara (1952) and the Circus Circus (1968).

If you drive northbound on Las Vegas Boulevard, you eventually will pass the Stratosphere and you will leave the Strip. Then you'll start time-warping into the 1950s, or so it feels. It's the Vegas of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and the Rat Pack. You'll encounter such gem motels at Fun City and The Yucca Motel. You'll pass all the tiny little chapels where you can get married at any time of the day by Dolly Parton or Frank Sinatra or the King himself. There's even a drive through chapel!

A little farther north, you'll come into the Fremont Street area, which has all the great old hotels, like Binion's, the Golden Nugget and 4 Queens. Down here, it's much cheaper than the Strip, and the gambling's good, or, so I hear. The city has been trying to keep it going, to foster growth and interest, because I think everyone that lives here knows this where the real culture of the city is.

Anyway, it's my favorite place to photograph; seems I'm always thinking of my next project down there, photographing old hotels and chapels that seem so sincere in their tackiness, it is endearing.

Here's a series of photos I took three years ago, and is still one of my favorites.

Anyway, here are some photos I took last Saturday; I wanted to take more buy my camera died, so here's what I got.






















I drove past this place, and stopped to take pictures because Gold & Silver Pawn is the star of the show Pawn Stars, which you can see here.





Here is a line of people waiting to get into the store. I don't think anything special was happening; just a line of tourists, but there were still velvet ropes and a bouncer. Hah! Made me laugh to see such a big deal for a pawn shop.

A woman came out while I was photographing the place and said to the waiting line "It's not as big as you think!"

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Currently listening to "Dance Floor" by Apples in Stereo