Strip ‘looks normal again’ as Vegas reawakens
One of Las Vegas’ hottest spots on Friday night: the Fountains of Bellagio.
This place had everything.
Knockoff Minnie Mouse kicking it with an off-putting Yoda trying to hand off his lightsaber to passersby. A Seattle tourist exchanging numbers with a man selling balloons on a stick so he could 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’s 5) wrapped around his wrist, one of his 60 snakes.
It was a pandemic Friday night on the Strip, the first since casino capacity limits lifted from 35 percent to 50 percent.
Raissa Angelica sipped a combo frozen daiquiri/piña colada, her mask pulled down to her neck while Frank Sinatra serenaded the 7:30 p.m. water show. It’s her 31st birthday 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 were eager for a vacation.
“I was actually really surprised to see like how busy it is,” Angelica said.
Meanwhile, her maskless boyfriend sent off the balloon street vendor, telling him, “I’mma hit you up, Rolando.”
The serpent handler, a man who identified himself only as Petiene N. of Henderson, said he likes showing people snakes aren’t as scary as they’re made out to be. He waved to a familiar worker driving a golf cart down the Las Vegas Boulevard sidewalk about 7 p.m.
“It’s good for them, too,” getting them out in the sun, he said.
‘Shark bait, hoo ha ha!’
Three generations of family members took turns posing in front of the Siegfried &Roy statue outside The Mirage.
It was a first Vegas trip for three of the four women, visiting from Dallas and Miami. All four women wore masks, while about half of the crowd walking the boulevard did the same.
“This is like a relief for me,” said 20-year-old Azialynn Lachaine of Miami. She and her mom, 41-year-old Khadishia Frias, said Las Vegas had more mask compliance than Miami.
Along with them were 66-year-old Maria Frias of Dallas, mother of 49-year-old Aneury Ortiz of Dallas and Khadishia.
“As long as you take care of yourself, wear your mask, wash your hands, you should be fine,” Khadishia Frias said.
Nearby, a woman in a black sash with golden letters danced to the 8 p.m. Mirage volcano pyrotechnics show and was overheard quoting a Disney Pixar movie: “They initiate him in the volcano and then they’re like, ‘Shark bait, hoo ha ha!’”
Farther south, a man with his mask pulled down, riding the escalator up to an elevated walkway into Bellagio, surveyed the crowd of people on Las Vegas Boulevard and commented to a friend.
“Actually looks normal again.”
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.