Another landmark pushed aside for economic “progress.”
Sorry about the delay wrapping up the last day, it’s never really that great anyway. This day is always spent packing (taking back more than we came out with too), catching a couple of quick things and then waiting it out at the airport, the only other free wireless hotspot. Our flight also didn’t land in Austin until after midnight and it takes another day to recover from the travel plus getting our cats re-acquainted with us.
Although I was no big fan of Stardust, I was saddened to hear about its demise to make way for another monstrosity a la Wynn or Venetian. I only visited it once to have dinner during my four-week stay in 1997 but Stardust was featured in the movie Swingers when Mike and Trent go to Las Vegas thinking they’ll score comps by just dressing nicely. Upon further reading, the interior casino shots were done downtown but the movie had established or wanted to maintain the impression of the comical events taking place in a Strip casino. And although the movie that made Jon Favreau (Mike) and Vince Vaughn (Trent) more famous is quoted to death by annoying frat boys, I think it changed my opinion about dressing up in a nice suit and having a good time on the town. I guess that gives Stardust an indirect responsibility toward my growing up.
I always thought Stardust would be a survivor too. The owners would go through a massive remodelling or overhaul like Aladdin did. Then again, everything went badly for Aladdin which is why it’s slowly morphing into Planet Hollywood so throwing in the towel may have been the better decision.
We walked farther north on the Strip to see what else can be seen. Not much in my opinion but give it another few years as the land these other remnants of Vegas from the Fifties through Seventies become too expensive to maintain. Then they’ll be plowed over for other monstrous Wynn, Harrah’s or MGM-Mirage projects. Somara took a few more pictures, namely of the New Frontier which lies between Stardust and TI. We always have a few laughs about the place since José had to finish his first stay there when we got married. I’m still amazed he comes back to Las Vegas after his experience there. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t reside in the shadows of casinos which have more impressive features covering up their pricetags. It’s like Milwaukee’s vicinity problem with Chicago.
Then to the airport for the rest of the day waiting for our 8 PM flight. I know, I’ll get non-stop tickets for earlier, I just have a phobia about missing my plane that dates back to 1992. Waiting more than two or three hours is excessive and an old conclusion. I did use the spare time to tutor Somara on iMovie. Turns out she knew more than I thought (or maybe I hadn’t been paying attention), her only difficulty with it has been text to put on top of the clips. Check this out.
Despite the flight landing after 1230 AM, the house being nippy and the cats doing their “we’re starving” routine, it was great to be home. Now to recover, get back into the grind of work (today wasn’t a total disaster, only one ugly e-mail to contend with), plan for the holidays and scheme for the next trip in 2007.