The Fremont Street Experience…
Today I went over to Nick and Terry’s about 2pm to work on their van, trying to trace out 3rd party alarm system that had malfunctioned.
And, as Nick said “We spent the day tilting at windmills”. We never were able to figure out how the system works so we could change how the electric door locks work.
About 5 pm Nick, Terry, and I drove back over to our rig to pick up Jan and go to supper at Claim Jumper. But it was not to be. When we got there the parking lot was almost empty and a young lady was telling everyone that they were close until Wednesday for some remodeling.
When Nick asked about another good place to eat, she suggested Cheesecake Factory across the street. So off we went.
Nick and Terry had never eaten there, although Jan and I been to several other locations.
We all had appetizers so we would have room for cheesecake. I mean, why go to the Cheesecake Factory if you don’t have cheesecake.
And as with our previous visits, everything was really good.
Then it was over to the north end of the Strip to Fremont Street for The Fremont Street Experience.
Fremont Street is really what’s left of Old Vegas, before casinos started expanding down the Strip. In the mid 90’s the local merchants and casinos looked for a way to revitalize the area and bring the tourists back.
What they come up with, was a canopy 90 feet high and 1500 feet long, spanning 4 city blocks, Fremont Street became a pedestrian mall with a movie screen / light show overhead. Click any of the following pictures to see larger versions.
The canopy / screen is what you see held up by the tree-looking supports.
And this is what it looks like in action.
Along with the video show is a sound system pumping out 550,000 watts of music.
Although the original version used colored incandescent light bulbs, in 2004 the system was upgraded to a display consisting of 12.5 million LED’s.
They have a different show every hour for about 10 minutes. Right now they are running shows with tributes to Don McLean, the Doors, Queen, KISS, and others.
We all agreed that this was the best thing we’d seen in Vegas so far.
More tomorrow…
