When I first read about the Fremont Street Experience in the guidebooks, it sounded like a really fun way to experience Las Vegas before all the glitz and glamour.  Before MGM Grand and The Bellagio.  Before all the high-end clubs and upscale restaurants.  

Classic Las Vegas.

And in a way, it was.

Our daughter got a (temporary) tattoo from a street vendor, automatically putting us in the "Best Parents Ever!" category, and elicited varying responses from friends and family when we posted pictures on Facebook.

After that it was time to eat dinner, and when we emerged the sun had began to set and Fremont Street became an entirely different experience.  A loud, neon-filled, dirty, run-down, and totally inappropriate place to take a 12yo kid. 

Instead of seeing cheesy Elvis impersonators that we were expecting, we saw many...different...kinds of performers, from a half-naked couple giving and receiving spankings a la 50 Shades of Grey to half-naked women dancing on bar tops.  

Now I will admit the Viva Vision Light Show was cool to see, and there is some good live music, but overall it just didn't have the vintage Las Vegas feel I was expecting.  It might be the experience some people are looking for, but it definitely wasn't for us.  It feels more like the Strip's ugly stepsister more than old school Vegas.

On the upside, our daughter will have some interesting stories to tell her classmates about her summer trip to Las Vegas, including the one about the guy and his blow-up doll.