As of the moment I'll have made this post, I'll have been quite a few days removed from being over in the desert, but not without having enjoyed this past week that was over in Las Vegas! Compared to last time (slightly over a decade ago), the city has grown tons, but, obviously, still revolves mostly around the "hospitality" industry, specifically casinos/hotels/resorts...
Contrary to last time I was in Vegas, though, when we stayed at the Golden Nugget, we stayed at the Mandalay Bay casino/hotel/resort, and, honestly, having now experienced both, I'd take having to ride around everywhere to avoid the noise along Fremont Street! That being said, there was a ton of traveling required to get from the Bay to just about everywhere, and not like Orlando, either, when we could just catch a shuttle bus every day and night, and make it from/to the parks - thankfully, there were pedestrian overpasses all along the strip, allowing people to walk above the traffic to get around... There were also the exact same trams as Orlando (as in, made by the same manufacturer; looking the same inside; etc.); the main difference there being the air-conditioned/covered tram platforms...
The reason I mentioned the air conditioning to begin with was 'cause it was absolutely necessary to stay near a source of air conditioning at almost all times, given the 100+ degree temperatures outside, with barely any winds outside, or insulation inside to keep the heat out of various "nooks and crannies"... For the most part, though, once one got away from the entrance to whichever building, that usually meant relief from the heat!
Initially, we simply visited a few casinos along the Strip, while waiting for night to fall, along with (naturally, for my sports-loving self) getting a look at the T-Mobile Arena, and also made sure to become familiar with the ground level of the Bay, including this mini-aquarium (closer in size to the aquarium in Point Pleasant, N.J., along the boardwalk, I'd say), before taking in the view from the "revolving" restaurant atop the Stratosphere tower, and the observatories (indoor right below an Empire State Building-esque outdoor observatory) right above said restaurant!
While doing that, we made sure to prepare for the Cirque du Soleil show we had already pre-ordered (tickets, that is), and, indeed, the following day, after visiting the Stratosphere, we visited "The Armory", the official in-arena store of the (Las) Vegas Golden Knights and the team's soon-to-be home, the aforementioned T-Mobile Arena, where, after getting chased from the main entrance of what was to be a trade show that evening, I got a woolen cap with one of the team's secondary logos, a "clashing swords" logo similar to what you might remember the Buffalo Sabres wearing when they re-introduced their blue-and-gold color scheme about a decade ago; after that, there was a buffet inside the Treasure Island casino right before the Cirque du Soleil show, and, honestly, with all the acrobatic acts and flashing lights everywhere, my thoughts almost immediately returned to Disney, and the company's touring ice shows (Disney on Ice), with the occasional figure skating tricks thrown into those performers' routines, along with the numerous live shows inside the parks themselves, regardless of whether they involved people, or simply things, such as the buildings and whatnot, and the theater itself reminded me, personally, of the Theater at Madison Square Garden, with its round shape stopping abruptly right in front of the stage, an enclosed mini-concourse, and a similar seating capacity, also (about 1,500 at TI, compared to about 2,000 minimum at the T@MSG), and has light/sound systems just about everywhere one looks, which, when compared to outdoor setups, such as PNC in Holmdel (right off the GSP), or, since I already mentioned it, Disney, which has anything from "standing room only" setups (in front of the Magic Kingdom Castle), to open-air seating areas (EPCOT's nightly fireworks show; Hollywood Studios' water show), which, unfortunately, unlike the rest of those locations, are left completely open to the elements, forcing people to "take cover" in the event of rain... Now that I mentioned that, I wonder which design is more common at the company's Paris location?
The following day, after taking in that marvelous (yet also something I admittedly would never want to actually take part in) show, there was this mini chocolate factory located over in Henderson, about 15-20 minutes away from the Bay, that occupied our morning, along with this Harley Davidson store that serves as the unexpected location of the "Las Vegas sign" (which is located right out in front of the store, before waiting for night to fall to (re)visit Fremont Street, across town from the Bay, and, honestly (advance apologies for mentioning Disney yet again), I went from merely thinking I needed hearing protection after Disney, to almost actually following through on getting some after stepping foot (back) under the "dome" stretching along Fremont Street, which had no fewer than about a half-dozen different live performances that night, from country, to disco, hip-hop, jazz, rap, and just about every style of music getting just blasted in a radius of about a few dozen feet each, along with various neon lighting displays, almost like 20th century-era Times Square, all buzzing away along either side of the street, leading to massive amounts of "sensory overload" for even, surely, the most "normal" people there!
Overall, the thing that stood out above all others was the cost of just about everything there, from simple things as convenience/drugstore items, to restaurants, where I honestly thought, before the week, that places like L.A., N.Y.C., and Tokyo, in particular, would be the most expensive, but Vegas somehow manages to blow even the most expensive places in those other cities "out of the water" with how expensive it is, from 2-liter bottles of juice/soda/water/etc. arguably being cheaper, ironically, than other smaller items, and places like Starbucks, which are already expensive just about everywhere, being taken to even higher price points - you could almost say that prices there were "through the stratosphere" expensive! Between that night and the return flight back over here, though, the last afternoon was spent at the Bellagio, specifically just walking through the building, getting a sense of its massive size, and also checking out a few of the places along the Strip before making sure to be out in front of the hotel to head back to the airport a few minutes away from there, where, despite some finger swabbing (presumably anti-radioactivity tests, which might come much more in handy in the foreseeable future, God forbid), we experienced about the easiest/fastest check-in process to date, and prices returned to more "reasonable" levels, instead of "downtown Vegas" levels!
That about does it for this summer, though, barring some sort of "long weekend" somewhere rather close by (which we have done in some past years, anywhere from Cape May/Wildwood in this state, to as far away as Bar Harbor, ME, and Montreal, QC, at least specifically within the month of August, from what I remember), although I'd gladly forgo anything of that sort this month to instead conserve resources for this fall/winter, and next summer!
You might have thought I would be holding off on attending any more sporting events between returning from Vegas and the end of this month, but, instead, I was at the Giants' preseason opener last weekend, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and, honestly, despite the "exhibition" nature of the game, not every player out there during the preseason will simply become a "benchwarmer", needing to hope, in some twisted sense, that their team implodes enough that they basically get forced into regular-season action; certainly, some of those players will become starters some day, so those games might be "time-wasters" for us fans, as well as the (regular season) starters, but definitely not for the coaches, or the players seeing the field by then!
The offensive side of the ball definitely seems more "unfinished" than the defense, at least for the Giants, particularly the offensive line, at least within the starting/backup units, but, even so, the defense definitely still has some things to figure out, particularly in the corners, where they might have to count on rookies to complete the defensive secondary this season, but, overall, right now, the team seems poised for a similar season to last season, again, as always, barring injuries, since that seemed to be when the game "opened up", albeit against the 3rd/4th-string defense, which wasn't exactly helped by all QBs not related (descendant/family tree-wise) to a 70s-era NFL QB/certain recently-retired future H.O.F. starting QB getting stopped short of the end zone every time they crossed midfield, although, in fairness, basically all of the offensive starters rested the entire game, while some of the defensive ones played a few 1st quarter series before sitting and watching the 2nd through 4th strings try their luck, but, again, just as long as the regular season doesn't reach all the way down there, there should be similar things to last season, this season!
I'd say the same things about the Jets, also, in their preseason opener the following night against the Tennessee Titans (at least in the 50 minutes or so of that game that weren't interrupted by CBS 2's (within the N.Y.C.-area, or perhaps via satellite) PGA Tour golf coverage), except all levels on both sides of that team need re-working in time for the regular season, if they even hope to be on the "outside looking in" of the playoffs, instead of looking at another top-5 pick in next spring's draft!
Attendance-wise, obviously, being in the preseason, there wouldn't be sellouts anywhere, I don't think, but there were way too many PIT fans at the Meadowlands Friday night (out of a crowd of, in my estimation, between 30 and 40,000 early on, which dwindled as the game moved along, which you might be able to tell in my images there), although the rather dull-sounding P.A. announcer sure didn't help matters - thankfully, he wasn't like the guy who seemingly kept stumbling over everything at the FDNY-NYPD game @ Barclays last March, but at least this announcer should've gotten fans making noise in situations other than third downs...
...meanwhile, there were way too few fans of anybody/anything Saturday night, including some controversy over whether the team was "fudging" its attendance figures for the game, which, frankly, shouldn't even come close to mattering this time of year...
As for the collegiate level, that starts back up at the end of this month, and, honestly, so as to have something between now and the beginning of the college hockey season, I'm looking at the following games that weekend:
Holy Cross (FCS) @ UConn (Hartford, CT; Th. 8/31, 7:30 P.M.)
Fordham (FCS) @ Army (West Point, N.Y.; F. 9/1, 6 P.M.)
(#10) Washington @ Rutgers (Piscataway, N.J.; F. 9/1, 8 P.M.)
Morgan State (FCS) @ Towson (FCS) (Towson, MD; Sa. 9/2, 6 P.M.)
CCSU (FCS) @ Syracuse (Syracuse, N.Y.; Sa. 9/2, 7 P.M.)
"reach" games: Akron @ Penn State (State College/University Park, PA; Sa. 9/2, noon), Youngstown State (FCS) @ Pitt (Heinz Field, Pittsburgh; Sa. 9/2, 1 P.M.), North Carolina State v. South Carolina (Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC; Sa. 9/2, 3 P.M.), Louisville v. Purdue (Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN; Sa. 9/2, originally scheduled for 3 P.M., but changed to 7:30), BYU v. LSU (NRG Stadium, Houston, TX; Sa. 9/2, 8 P.M.), or Virginia Tech v. West Virginia (Fedex Field, Landover, MD; Su. 9/3, 7:30 P.M.)
(unfortunately, as that season winds down, we won't be getting winter weather anywhere close to this that winter, I'm afraid, nor will we see places looking very "festive" after the month of December...)
...in other college hockey news, seats like these are apparently available for Union @ BU (Sat., 9/30):
(although tix haven't officially been released yet, for that or any games that weekend, so IDK about whether to jump already, and risk possibly getting scammed, or wait, and have that game be close to sold out, being that it is the scheduled opening weekend up there and all that...)
...finally, a very "spiritual" article:
