So where to stay? I checked in with everyone I knew who had been to Vegas, but only got more confused about the hotel situation. One friend had stayed at Mandalay Bay, but felt it was too far from the action; another liked the Flamingo Hilton due to its central location and lower-than-average prices; still another encouraged us to splurge and stay at the high-end Bellagio, where even the standard rooms feature Italian marble bathroom floors.

So, what to do?

Ultimately we let ourselves be swayed by the only thing that really matters in Vegas: the concept. One can stay in a hotel that attempts to replicate the canals of Venice (the Venetian), the cafés of Paris (Paris – Las Vegas) or the skyscrapers of New York (New York-New York). In our case we made a beeline for the hotel with the coolest theme of all: the pirate theme at Treasure Island. From the Internet I learned that Treasure Island not only had a pirate theme, but a real live pirate sea battle, fought "every 90 minutes from 4:00 to 11:30," in a lagoon built in front of the hotel. What's cooler than that?

We made our reservations (checking back periodically to see if rates had changed – they had and we lowered our room rate by half by checking back every week or so) and were ready to go to Vegas.

The Wedding
Our friend's wedding was to be held early on Saturday morning. We had to be up and ready to go at 9a.m. for a 10a.m. ceremony.

We'd checked in to Treasure Island the morning before, and I was still of two minds about the place. On one hand I was utterly and completely delighted by the HUGE pirate's skull (complete with gold tooth, bandana, and earring) that hovered on a sign above the hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard. However, I was disappointed that the pirate theme ended at the door and was replaced by a more sedate and tasteful "Caribbean hideaway" theme. Before arriving I had concocted detailed fantasies of hotel clerks wearing pirate garb and saying things like "aaarrrggg – checkout is at noon" and "your room on the 16th floor, matey!" It ends up they were just regular hotel-worker types – sure, they were friendly enough, but they weren't pirates.

I did not have much time to ruminate over the inconsistent theme of Treasure Island, though, because we were meeting two of my old college pals in the lobby at 9a.m.

Jeff had flown in from Boston, where he works as an accountant, and Margy had flown in from Sitka, Alaska, where she works for a bottled water company. We made our way through the disappointingly pirate-free casino and were off in our rented blue Dodge Neon for the half-hour ride to Henderson for the wedding.

On the way to the church we chatted and only made a few wrong turns. It's funny to get away from the Strip and see Nevada as it really is. In Las Vegas, and especially by the large hotels, you get the idea that the grass and small lakes on the Strip are supposed to be there. Once you leave the city, however, you quickly remember that you are in a desert – and a barren one at that. Without all the aggressive landscaping and diverted water Nevada looks not unlike photos I've seen of the moon – all harsh, pockmarked landscape baking under a brutally hot sun. (We actually heard a DJ on the radio say, "now that we don't have anymore 120-degree days, we can start to think about Christmas!" It was 87 degrees out.)

Our friends put together a beautiful wedding ceremony that took place in a modern Catholic Church. A fun reception followed where we got to hang out with some more college pals (Jim, the best man, now a lawyer; and Lewis, now a computer programmer). In addition, we also had a great time meeting the friends Chris (the groom, now a U.S. postal worker) had made since 1991, when we scattered away from our little college in Denver.

After the reception, we all agreed to get together and "walk the Strip."

It's a Long Strip
We all met in Louis's room at the Flamingo Hilton, and my opinion of Treasure Island went way, way up. The Flamingo is a casino out of the old school – it's all clang, clang, clang, ring, ring, ring, and beep, beep, beep. Walking through the Flamingo's casino and lobby made me really appreciate the relative sedateness of Treasure Island. No pirates – it's true – but the Treasure Island casino has more of a, well, tasteful "Caribbean hideaway" theme – which I was growing to appreciate. Also add in that my wife and I had seen the live-action pirate battle in front of Treasure Island, and we were wildly impressed. A boat actually sinks, pirates actually fall into the drink, and real fire is actually sent out from the cannons. There's no other way to describe it – it's awesome!

Questions?
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