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| - A few posh friends of mine came down to visit and for some strange reason they wanted to see the Fremont Street Experience. I only say strange because these are the kinds of friends who feel at home in places like the Bellagio, Wynn, or Venetian. Apparently, they saw a Vegas special on the Travel Channel and thought the Fremont Street Experience would be a "delightful" place to visit.
I tried my best to convey to them that the Fremont Street Experience and Downtown area aren't exactly the nicest of areas. The majority of the people there aren't the same people who are staying at the Bellagio... Or at a nicer property on the Strip. I told them them they shouldn't expect to see any of their fellow Baccarat players there. Against their better judgement, they were insistent on seeing the place... and really who am
I to stop them. Onward...
About a 8-10 minute drive from the Strip, we head into the Downtown area. I always park at the California Hotel and they validate, up to four hours, if you stamp your parking ticket near the casino cage. Otherwise its about $1 an hour or something. We head out the door and start walking that one block to Fremont Street.
Right outside the door is a homeless guy begging for some change. My friends seem a little unfazed since there are tons of homeless people begging for change in San Francisco. About half a block down, we see another vagrant asking to borrow a dollar. A friend cheerfully tells them that he just lost all his money to the casino and wanted to know if he could borrow a dollar so he can win it all back. A little classless but hilarious since we were somewhat tipsy.
We get to the Fremont Street unscathed and started walking towards the Plaza. If you've never been to the Fremont Street Experience, its a large covered canopy that links several smaller hotel/casinos together along several blocks. On the ceiling plays a light show every hour. Sometimes there are people performing or street vendors selling goods.
Tonight we got to see the Globe of Death, in which up to three motorcyclists drive around inside the steel globe in a uniform fashion without crashing. We continue to walk towards the Golden Gate Casino when this happens...
"Oh no, I dropped my sweater.", says the female friend.
We turn around and retrace about 20 steps before we see it. And when I say "it" I don't just mean the sweater, but the strange scene in front of us. We see a burly African American man, who's probably homeless, pick up the white small sweater/cardigan and shoves it under one arm. He then proceeds to take off his ratty t-shirt, lays it on the ground, and then starts to fold the shirt like as if he was working at the Gap. He ever so gently places the t-shirt in his sack and then starts to put on the sweater/cardigan. Did I mention he was a big burly man, (180+ lbs) putting on a SMALL sweater? He totally stretches it out while trying to squeeze into it. He gets it on and now starts to zip it up. He gets about 1/4 way up and cant seem to zip it up any further. He looks down, happily satisfied, picks up his stuff and walks away.
The bunch of us stood there speechless for about 2-3 minutes trying to process what just had happened. Questions raced in our minds asking ourselves if we really did see what really just happened. A friend broke the silence with, "So do you want me to ask him for your sweater back? He looks like a nice guy." The female friend just shook her head in disbelief and we just started walking again.
We visited Binions, Golden Nugget, The Fremont, and the Four Queens. We got to the point where the Fremont Street Experience ended and the Fremont East area begins. Now the Fremont East area isn't as nice as the Fremont Street Experience. Instead of being in the middle, you are now on the regular sidewalks. The atmosphere goes from bright touristy to a little shadier.
I ask if they want to continue down this road on towards the El Cortez and whatever else was down there. "I guess it doesnt hurt to check it out.", someone answered. Ooooooookay. We get about 40 steps in and like a scene straight out of COPS, a police cruiser pulls over a vehicle and two more cop cars come blaring in from the other side as to surround the suspect car. Needless to say, my posh friends did an immediate 180 and started walking really fast back to safer FSE. I was walking behind them trying to hold my laughter and the best way to describe my feeling is that jingle bells line that goes "LAUGHING ALL THE WAY HA HA HA."
Afterwards, we headed back to our car and the evening was nearly over. My friends were eager to get back to their hotel suite to shower away the grimy feeling they felt. I think one of my friends summed up the whole night best when he said, "The Travel Channel lied to us."
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