One from Las Vegas’
hottest places on Friday evening: the Bellagio fountains.
This place had it all.
Knockoff Minnie Mouse kicks off with a repulsive Yoda who tries to pass his lightsaber to passers-by. A Seattle tourist exchanges numbers with a man who sells balloons on a stick so he can take his girlfriend to a strip club and buy her a lap dance for her birthday. A man with a ball python (her name is Aime and she is 5 years old) wrapped around his wrist, one of his 60 snakes.
It was a Friday night pandemic on the Strip, the first since the casino’s capacity limits were raised from 35 percent to 50 percent.
Raissa Angelica sipped a Frozen Daiquiri / Piña Colada combo, mask pulled down to her neck, while Frank Sinatra serenaded the 7:30 p.m. water show. It’s her 31st birthday on Sunday, and she and her boyfriend, 42-year-old Rob Macentire, were visiting from Seattle. It was their first time in Las Vegas and the couple really wanted to go on vacation.
“I was really surprised to see how busy it is,” said Angelica.
Meanwhile, her maskless friend sent the balloon vendor away and said, “I’m going to beat you, Rolando.”
The snake handler, a man who identified only as Petiene N. of Henderson, said he likes showing people that snakes are not as scary as they are portrayed. He waved to a familiar worker who was driving a golf cart down the sidewalk on Las Vegas Boulevard at around 7:00 p.m.
“It’s good for her too,” he said, putting her in the sun.
‘Shark bait, hoo ha ha!’
Three generations of family members took turns posing in front of the Siegfried & Roy statue in front of The Mirage.
It was the first Vegas trip for three of the four women who came from Dallas and Miami. All four women wore masks while about half of the crowd walking the boulevard did the same.
“It’s such a relief to me,” said Asialynn Lachaine, 20, from Miami. She and her mother, 41-year-old Khadishia Frias, said Las Vegas has more mask requirements than Miami.
With them was 66-year-old Maria Frias from Dallas, mother of 49-year-old Aneury Ortiz from Dallas and Khadishia.
“As long as you take care of yourself, wear your mask, wash your hands, you should be fine,” said Khadishia Frias.
Nearby, a woman in a black sash with gold letters was dancing to the 8pm pyrotechnics show of the Mirage Volcano and was overheard quoting a Disney Pixar movie, “You initiate it into the volcano and then say she: ‘Sharkbait, hoo ha!’ “
Farther south, a man with his mask pulled down was surveying the escalator to an elevated walkway to Bellagio, surveying the crowd on Las Vegas Boulevard, and commenting on a friend.
“Actually looks normal again.”
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.
