One of my favorite places in Las Vegas is Fremont St.

This is a happening place where every night there is exciting live entertainment and the fantastic Fremont St Experience – which is an awesome light and sound show.

Although it is now easy to get to Fremont St from the Strip, now that the Deuce buses run to downtown, I still like to stay in the downtown area and usually stay at the Golden Nugget.

This summer Fremont St is running the ‘Sounds of ‘69 Vegas or Bust’ with live bands playing the music of the era. Which suits me just fine as this is the music I grew up with.

Two of light shows that Val and I caught were Queen and Kiss, both firm favorites of mine.

Fremont St really comes alive at night with showgirls outside a number of the casinos and the whole place is a blaze of color and music. 

So what is the ‘The Fremont Street Experience (FSE)’?

The Fremont St experience is a pedestrian mall in downtown Las Vegas that takes up 5 blocks of Fremont St. From Main st to Fourth St is covered by a barrel vault canopy or Space frame that measures 90 ft in height and is around 1500 ft long which house a 12.5 million LED display. There are also 208 speakers that pump out 550,000 watts of sound while the light show of perfecly syncopated animated images are produced by a bank of 32 computers.

 The Light and Sound Show is presented nightly on the hour from dusk until midnight.

During the day music is played in the mall but during the evening the canopy comes alive with light and music shows  .

Just before each show starts the light on all the building, including the casinos under the canopy are turned off and one of the bidirectional streets that cross the Fremont Experience is blocked off to ensure everyone’s safety.

In between the light and music shows there are free concerts held on the two sound stages.

The Fremont St Experience is a magical way to while away a few hours lost in the sights and sounds  of the light show and definitely an experience not to miss when you visit Vegas.

All the casinos have great meal and drink deals to ensure you are well fuelled.  And once you are replete of the experience it is just a short ride back to the Strip if you haven’t taken the opportunity to stay Downtown.

An example of the light show on the Space Frame. 
 

When Paula and I were in Vegas last year, the Wheel of Fortune game was one of our favorites and we had a few wins. So I had a flutter when I saw but my luck wasn’t in. But I still find this to be a fun machine. I did find a lucky machine at the Golden Nugget though which gave me a few small wins.

One of the Sounds of Summer ‘69 bandstands

Val is wearing one of the ‘Summer of ‘69 Vegas or Bust’ t-shirts that were very popular and similar styles were worn by all the stall holders in the Mall.

Here is Val in amongst the Woodstock crowd

Showgirls on Fremont St 

Binions Casino Fremont St

 Golden Nugget Hotel

During our stay at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casinowe ate at the Plaza Hotel and Casino’s buffet on numerous occasions for both breakfast and dinner. The buffet is well known in downtown Las Vegas as it is one of the cheapest buffets available and people from many different hotels come here to eat for this reason.

Whether you are having breakfast, lunch or dinner at the buffet it is always the same price at only $7.77.

We decided to give it a go after heading to the Golden Nugget buffet and finding that because it was a Saturday we could only partake of the Champagne Buffet Breakfast which was $17.99 each. We really didn’t want to pay that much for breakfast so off to the Plaza Hotel we went.

The Plaza doesn’t have a breakfast buffet as such but instead there is a Brunch Buffet which encompasses both breakfast and lunch and runs from 6am to 4pm. I loved this as it meant I could sleep in and didn’t have to rush down to get breakfast.

Because this is a popular buffet each time we visited we had to queue to get in. Even so, we never had to wait more than 10 minutes but usually it was less than 5mins.  As you would expect, the weekend was busier than weekdays so keep this in mind.

Once seated we immediately wandered up to the buffet to see what was available. I noticed that the selection wasn’t as extensive as some of the other buffets we have been to, but the quality of the food  provided was excellent.

In the main meal service area for the brunch there are a range of breakfast items including scrambled eggs, omelette’s, fried potatoes, bacon, sausage patties, cereals, fruit, fried chicken, sliced meats, roasts and salads. There is a smaller meal service area where the buffet consists of mainly Asian style meals and desserts. So make sure you check out both areas because when we went there on the first night we did’nt realise that there was another buffet area around the corner.

Drinks are free (as long as they aren’t alcoholic) and are provided by waiters who will top your glass up as often as you like.  We both had orange juice and a cup of green tea with breakfast.

We found the breakfast foods to be just delicious. The eggs were cooked perfectly and the fried potatoes and sausage patties were very tasty. I loved those fried potatoes and went back for more.

For dinner the menu changes to include lasagna, pasta, fried chicken, roasts, baked ham, salads, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, corn, lemon chicken, Chinese noodles, soups, spring rolls, sweet and sour pork and more.

Again, the variety of foods at the dinner buffet is not as extensive as you might find at some of the other buffets in Las Vegas but everything is tasty, well presented and the quality of the food is excellent. We absolutely loved the fried chicken and always had a piece at each meal.

The desserts included chocolate pie, apple pie, coconut cream pie, cheese cake and sugar free desserts. There were also cookies and fresh fruit. We did find that the desserts weren’t always replenished and at one point we had to ask for a particular pie from the chef as there was only apple pie and some cookies left to choose from.

Overall this buffet is great value for money. So if you are on a budget but  still want a great tasting inexpensive meal then this is definitely the place to go when you are in Downtown Las Vegas.

One of the great things about Downtown Las Vegas is that everything is so close to walk to. We simply strolled out one of the doors facing Freemont St and we were right in the midst of everything that was happening.

The Strip is full of enormous hotels that take up acres of land so walking from one end of The Strip to the other takes a long time and more if you go into the various casinos for a look around.

So walking down Freemont St at night was an enjoyable experience and the atmosphere is intimate and friendly as tourists and locals alike mingle to watch the entertainment and take photos for each other in front of the attractions.

The majority of the casinos face Freemont St so there is easy access to them and the Plaza and Main St are nearby.

We had an excellent view of the Plaza from our hotel room at The Golden Nugget.

The entrance is pretty impressive with all the lights and the effect on the parked cars was interesting.

Freemont St at night.

Daylight saving began today so we ended up having brunch rather than breakfast.

If  you are looking for an inexpensive place to eat where the food is plentiful and really tasty, then you can’t go past the Lucky 7’s restaurant at the Plaza Casino in Downtown Las Vegas. Meals cost $7.77 (before tax) so it ends up costing us $16.74 for two, a great deal really.

After brunch we headed back to the Golden Nugget hotel and decided to play the slots and lost of course. We have been having a lucky run so I guess it was inevitable that our luck would run out eventually. The weather is quite warm so we walked down Fremont Street for a while and then headed to the bus stop to catch the shuttle to the factory outlets.

We waited for one hour and ten minutes for a shuttle that never arrived although the sign says it runs every 30 minutes 7 days a week. However, the time wasn’t wasted as we whiled away the time chatting to the locals as they came and went. I amused myself as always taking photos of things that strike me as being odd or different such as this sign.

Our first encounter was with a Polish lady who stopped to admire our ARA sandals and enquire as to where we got them.

We told her that we had brought them in Australia and how comfortable they are when you are doing lots of walking.

She went on to inform us on how most of the casinos and hotels are owned by Chinese and that they also now own the Bank of America. She also talked about how drug dealers are targeting elementary schools and giving drug laced candy to young children.  A sad reflection of the times.

In 1974 she had the choice to go to Australia or come to the US. She chose the US and said she wished she had chosen Australia. She earns minimum wage and has no hope of leaving the States for a holiday or to return to Poland. She seemed really happy to have someone to chat to for a while and she was very informed about a number of different topics including currency.

After she moved on we talked to a lady in a wheelchair who wasn’t sure what day it was but hoped it was Sunday as she was going to church.

Next to arrive was an elderly man who was bent over. Paula gave him her seat and another chap who had arrived earlier but had’n't joined in conversation before now, also stood up and it turned out the he had previously met the elderly gentleman and the conversation about age and bus catching became animated topics.

It turned out that the elderly gent was 82 years old and he kept saying how he couldn’t believe how he had reached this age. He kept repeating “Live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse”. He suffered with a bad back as did the other younger guy who was 46. Lower back pain is associated with money worries, according to author Louise Hayes, and they all looked and sounded as if this were the case. Apart from their ailments they discussed the prescription drugs their doctors prescribed and the varying affects the drugs had on them, quite scary really.

We have found that when drugs are advertised on TV they also have to disclose any possible side effects. These are more often than not worse than the problem. One that we found particularly bizarre is a drug that has possible death as a side effect.  We think it would be better to put up with the runny nose and  the condition which was sinus trouble, which is not life threatening, rather than risk dying.

So after spending an interesting hour plus, people watching, we decided to go back to the room and do some work. We will give the factory outlets another go tomorrow.

A cup of tea would go down a treat but there is no coffee maker in the room and to get a pot of tea with taxes , room delivery charges and tips would cost around $17.00.

Fortunately there is a Starbucks in the lobby which is a much cheaper option.