I have never been a real fan of Las Vegas, for what I would consider obvious reasons. It feels overbearing, expensive, fake, gaudy and gross. My apologies if you love it, but my Pacific-Northwesterner sentimentality for all things honest just feels lost in Sin City. That said, our pal Nicole Bittner loves it. Or maybe I should rephrase: Bittner loves old signs. Especially ones with flashy neon. So when we had the opportunity to travel to the desert in the middle of winter to scope out some signage at the very cool Neon Museum and do a little bit of “research,” we jumped at the chance.
The Neon Museum is a non-profit striving to restore old signs from the days of Vegas long past, when it probably would have been more incredible to visit. Nicole catalogued the visit in photos (which you see now) and brought the images back to Portland for inspiration. It was, of course, a little bit drizzly when we woke up, and we might have been a little woozy from having one or seven margaritas the night before. But the museum is incredible. Seeing such monumental pieces of history so close is a great way to spend 18 hours in Vegas, just make sure to get some In-N-Out too.
