The Las Vegas Strip

South Las Vegas Boulevard ("The Strip") at Night

It's really very amazing to stand on one of the Strip pedestrian overpasses and gaze down the boulevard toward downtown.

On our last trip to Las Vegas, we stayed at the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino (yellow arrow above), the first time I'd been at that venue since it first opened in 1996. It's hard to fathom, but it has been 15 years since I stayed there during its first week of operation.

Many, many years prior to that, during my very first trip to Las Vegas in 1965, all that you see in the picture above wasn't there. The Strip ended at the Dunes, where the Bellagio now sits. Let me correct that. The Hacienda Hotel was also situated much farther down the Strip, where the Mandalay Resort now resides. But it was so far off that we didn't even visit it.

My, my, how things have changed.