Las Vegas Blvd. between the strip and downtown turns kind of sleazy just after the Stratosphere Hotel. A few years ago they decided to designate a different route for going downtown and created a Y in the road to get people off of Las Vegas Blvd. So now a lot of places are shuttered on the old street. I figure they’re going to demolish everything eventually and add more hotels. That would mean the end of a lot of little weird wedding chapels that are all over Las Vegas. A good number of them are on Las Vegas Blvd. and they are funky operations to say the least. Since many of the big hotels will do pretty much the same ceremony I suspect that the days of these little joints are numbered.
This photo epitomizes, to me, the construction scene near the strip on Las Vegas Blvd.
Drive towards downtown and it looks more like this.
A favorite sight is this wedding chapel that offers a drive through wedding. Note the idiotic palm trees that have been planted all over the place by the city.
One of the most popular chapels is Graceland named because the weddings are done by an Elvis impersonator. Getting married here has to be a real goof.
Coverage of the CES Show itself, links:
CES Coverage Day One
CES Coverage Day Two
CES Coverage Day Three
CES Coverage Booth Babes
CES Coverage High-End Audio
Smartalix’s CES Retrospective #1
Smartalix’s CES Retrospective #2
Smartalix’s CES Retrospective #3
First Off-Topic Report: Construction
Second Off-Topic Report: Tacos
Third Off-Topic Report: World Market Center
If you think palm trees are idiots, try hanging out with a soft maple!
Elvis has left the web site. Thank ya very much!
John, Is that you buzzing around town on your scooter?(first pic)???
Oh No! What will happen to OG’s*. Good Times, Good Times.
*Olympic Gardens
#1 – I don’t know about overall intelligence, but I’ve found that talking with most trees is like talking to a board.
I was married in 2005 at the Graceland Wedding Chapel, and it was indeed a really fun time, and yes, totally goofy.
At least some of the palm trees that grow in Las Vegas are apparently native to the area, though not everyone agrees they’re native. There are small wild groves of Washingtonia palms at two springs near the road along Lake Mead, and a big grove near the town of Moapa.
When I lived in Las Vegas, we had a Washingtonia in our yard. Nice tree that didn’t need much water.
On the wedding chapels: they always seem to be busy, probably because they cater to the quick wedding couples with modest amountss of money. The three chapels you have pics of are the busiest, with “Wee Kirk of the Heather” in fourth place.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that land between the Stratosphere and Downtown becomes a lot more valuable in the near future, as the casinos and timeshares start building from the Strat on north.
Somebody once told me there was a drive-in divorce place too. How does that work? I mean, who keeps the car? Does the other person have to walk home after? Or do you go in separate cars?
Don’t worry… Soon the mass corporate Disneyfacation of every last square inch of American real estate will be complete…
Once “Project Destroy the Spirit and Essence of Every Last God Damn Thing Anyone Anywhere Holds Dear” is complete, they will launch phase two, aka “Project Suck The Living Soul Out Of Every Last Man Woman and Child Who Ever Gave A Rat’s Ass About Anything Authentic”.
God Bless America.
My wife wants us to renew our vows at the Graceland chapel in a few years.
OhForTheLoveOf, Come on, tell us how you really feel!
Regarding the Idiot Palms. . . . The truth is that the ONLY palm which really belongs to Las Vegas is rarely seen there. All of the other 15 or so species are from farther away. But four species aren’t as exotic as they may seem. Washingtonia filifera is ONLY native to the United States in the Western Deserts at springs…except for a few small locations south of the Mexican Border. The more Common Mexican fan palm, ( a close cousin ) is not native to the U.S.A. at all although it’s range starts just south of the border as does Brahea. Meanwhile it is a very common palm in Las Vegas…perhaps the most common. The Wsdhingtonia filifera -however- encompassed a huge region that extended all the way to Colorado and Oregon at one time and the Nevada – Utah border was pretty much the epicenter of this Palm’s ancient 70 million year distribution. Colder Winters eradicated it to the north and it retreated SOUTH to where it is found today along springs in Nevada, Arizona and California. The real idiots might be botanists who KNOW better who have knowingly called certain PHOTOS of groves of Washingtonia filifera, – Washingtonia robusta when they label photos of natural areas north of Las Vegas. BIG mistake… In fact these botanists KNOW there are NO Mexican Fan Palms at Warm Springs. – But it appears to have been done deliberately to garner empathy from People like you – who then feel that ALL palms in the area are idiots… or exotic plants when actually those OTHER palms, a few less than honest botanists [who have a lot of money riding on getting RID of the palms] and Las Vegas are possibly the only things truly exotic.
Is it me, I take the comment about the Palm Trees pretty serious. I love trees, specially Palms. This makes Vegas unique beings these trees were trucked in many years ago.
The huge hotels are ridiculous.