A Freebie Filled Weekend

It's been a busy but freebie-filled weekend!  Yesterday we went to a nice dinner at a Mexico Restaurant in Boulder City which was tasty and free (compliments of my walking club which pays for our annual Christmas dinner).  We caught a little of the Christmas Parade in Boulder City last night but we only saw the beginning when we were driving by (it was freezing outside so we decided to opt out of watching the multi-hour parade with the rest of the walking group; this was also free and judging by all of the people there, very popular too!).

Today hubby and I went bowling (he gets eight free games this month compliments of the bowling center where he bowls in a league; I remain absolutely terrible at bowling FYI), then we had a free lunch at Steak and Shake (free with hubby's poker comps), then went and picked up gift cards at Famous Daves and Outback which the SIL gave us for our anniversary (and since it is Christmas time the gift cards she gave us came with additional gift cards for free as an added holiday bonus).

Now we are settling down to watch yet another holiday Christmas romance movie (we've seen so many already this season my head is spinning!) after I make us some caramel popcorn (super easy, there are several recipes for this online).

Keeping the Guests Entertained

In order to keep our guests entertained and save money at the same time, I literally keep a list of free things to do around Las Vegas.  This way if our guests come here with nothing specific to do (some come here to attend an event or convention in which case we don't really need to entertain them) we have a ready list of things for them to do so they will see the highlights of Las Vegas and won't be bored (although oddly enough the kids and grandkids come here and seem to not want to leave our living room which is weird, I guess cyberspace is more interesting than a major tourist destination?).  Anyway, here are the top 10 free things we always make sure our guests do to see the best that Vegas has to offer:

1. Take a photo in front of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign (it's a kitschy, iconic things that all tourists should do at least once).
2. Go down to Fremont in the evening (see the overhead light show, the free bands, the weird people, the Container Park, and the shark tank at the Golden Nugget).
3. See the Hoover Dam (there is free parking on the Arizona side and people can take a short walk across the dam or a long hike through the tunnels and up to the bypass bridge).
4. Visit the Ethel M Chocolate Factory (free tour, free candy samples, and a really nice cactus garden to look at).
5. Watch the Bellagio Fountain show and see the Bellagio Conservatory (both an wonderful to see and excellent photo ops).
6. See the parks (with our free passes we take people to see Red Rock Canyon, the Valley of Fire, the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort, Spring Mountain Ranch, and Lake Mead National Park).
7. Walk the Las Vegas Strip (there are dozens of free sights along the Strip to see including the Linq, the casinos, the Flamingo Bird Preserve, the Mirage, etc).
8. Go to a rodeo event at the Southpoint (most weekends there is some sort of rodeo event--from cutting horses to bull riding, etc--which are both free and exciting to watch).
9. Go see unique things that our guests are particularly interested in (free car museum, astronomy in the park, a wonderful free genealogy library, a walking club event, etc).
10. Go to a free community event (I check several websites each week to see what kind of free,  one-time events are happening each weekend around the city, these usually include art shows, community fairs, music events, etc).

Our Entertainment for the Day

A while back I made a list of 1000 things to do in Las Vegas so when I am bored and don't know what to do I just check the list and "ta da" instant plan for the day!  So today after checking the list we decided to go to Spring Mountain Ranch State Park (our annual pass expires in November and I am trying to collect enough park visits to get a free annual pass for next year) and then we headed over to the Police Memorial Park which we had never been to before (and it turned out to be a really nice, quiet park we will definitely visit again!).

My Free Entertainment Today

What I find entertaining might not appeal to everyone but since I am kind of a tech geek, I spent my day vicariously at DefCon via Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and various tech sites that were reporting on the event.  While DefCon, the huge hacking conference, is literally right down the street from me, I didn't attend in person.  Most of their topics are way beyond my ability plus when I checked a couple weeks ago, all of the workshops were full with waiting lists.  Joining 20,000+ people at an event isn't really my thing.

It was rather fascinating to see all of the news and drama as it happened in real time though.  In one case a guy reported that a woman he brought to his room last night stole all of his stuff (a common thing with in-call hookers in the city), another guy was escorted out of the conference by the police because the police saw his tweet about an "attack".  The guy meant hacking attack, not like, an October 1 style attack.  The kids group were tasked with hacking voting machines because it was considered too easy a task for adult hackers (yikes!), the Wall of Sheep is always fascinating (if the people at the conference can hack into the attendees cell and computers because they used unsecured WiFi their name gets put on the wall to shame them), some of the badges the attendees wore were exploding because of the batteries (eekkk), and I think someone(s) hacked into the host casino's customer comps system.  So much interesting stuff and still two more days to go!

10 Free Entertainments This Weekend

One of the things we love about Las Vegas (yes, I still want to move but hubby really really wants to stay here) is that there is free entertainment everyday here.  This weekend is particularly busy...

1. There are Elvises (Elvii?) everywhere as the National Elvis Festival is being held here this weekend.
2. The FIFA World Cup will be tomorrow morning and it will be showing in every sportsbook as well as on TV and probably every bar in town.
3. Ditto Wimbledon tennis finals.
4. The BMX Nationals are in Vegas this weekend and it is free to watch (we may go tomorrow).
5. There was a free concert on Fremont this evening (The Cult).  We watched other bands (see above) but didn't stay long enough to watch the Cult.
6. People are actually storm watching tonight as there is a huge thunder and lightening storm going on as I type this.
7. The World Series of Poker is wrapping up this evening.  We've watched the finals several times so didn't go today but someone is going to win $8.8 million dollars which is pretty exciting to watch (and it's free for spectators).
8. There is a summer concert series every weekend in neighboring Henderson (I'm guessing they wrapped up early this weekend with the storm going since it is an outdoor concert).
9. There is people watching everywhere if that is your thing (and so many different people to watch--from the rich and beautiful on The Strip to the weird and mostly naked on Fremont).
10. We were at the Fremont today and I watched a wedding take place.  This sort of thing happens randomly here all the time!