 Day 166: Hanging with Heather on Fremont Street |
Anytime someone is able to pick up and move out of their small-ish hometown, it’s kind of a big deal. It’s even more of a big deal when that person picks up and moves home to Las Vegas!
Heather, a good friend of mine since kindergarten and another intensely gigantic fan of Kriss Kross (long after the time it was cool to be fans of Kriss Kross), is that person. She decided one freezing Midwestern winter that she wanted to transplant herself into Vegas, and she did it. It’s been 3 years now.
I was excited to finally catch up with Heather after so long away. I believe I had a lunch with her back Peoria the last time I was there, but I’m really crap at keeping in touch with people, even my family (sorry, it’s just the way I am).
Heather and her hubbie picked us up on day 166 for a lovely Mexican dinner followed by a wonderful and interesting tour down to old Vegas on Fremont Street. It was a long way there via the strip, a way they only took in order to give us a more scenic view of Vegas, and we started to pass some pretty sketchy parts of town. Yes, old Vegas is not a place I’d recommend going alone. Or by foot. Or in the middle of the night.
Fremont Street
Fremont Street is a much smaller version of the Vegas Strip with casinos and eateries lining the covered street. Cool light shows display on the ceiling (over the street), which is only made more awesome by the sound of tourists zip-lining overhead. It’s a spectacle just walking around, but the real draw is the vintage vibe of it all.
Remember the days of casinos shelling out coins when you won? The sound of the clanking metal hitting your bucket after pulling the lever down? Yeah, there’s even a casino there that does that.
Another draw to Fremont Street is the quirky cheapness. We found deep-fried Oreos for 99 cents and, our favorite, a beer and a hot dog for $2!
If it’s quirky you want, then how about a crane game where you catch live lobsters. For only $2, you could catch a lobster and have it cooked up for dinner for free.
I didn’t play this game. I thought it was kind of sad seeing the lobsters in there just narrowly escaping death. Poor things!
We had a really awesome time catching up with Heather, and I’m so happy she took us out for the night. I’m almost positive Pat and I wouldn’t have made it down to this part of Vegas on our very short stop if it weren’t for her.
Dare I ask: What do ‘deep-fried Oreos’ taste like?
Actually never had them! We were going to… I mean 99 cents!… but the line was too long to wait. Got margaritas the size of my torso instead.
Fremont street is cool huh? Totally honky tonk is strange but completely fitting. The people are interesting too and they def. have some deals for sure!