For this installment of Away Things, I’m sharing the fun, fast hour we spent last weekend at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas.

This outdoor museum is not only sassy, it’s also surprisingly beautiful. There’s just something irresistible about these out-to-pasture remnants of Viva Las Vegas.

Also known as the Neon Boneyard, the museum features artfully arranged signage from small establishments like wedding chapels and dry cleaners.

As well as big hotels and casinos like the Moulin Rouge,

Caesars Palace,

And the Stardust Inn, which happens to be as old as me.  Don’t we look fabulous for our age?!

The museum also houses several fiberglass sculptures including a giant skull from the old Treasure Island.  Arrrr!

And this peek-a-boo fellow from The Mysterious East.

I had a hard time paying attention to the very excellent tour guide because I was having so much fun snapping photos of the beautiful shapes and colors in all their decrepit glory. But M.J. tells me that the one hour tour features lots of interesting tidbits about the history of Las Vegas.

As an extra bonus, the visitor center is housed in the restored (and relocated) La Concha Motel lobby designed by Paul Revere Williams in 1961. Williams was a fascinating character — a pioneering African American architect who designed homes for people like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball as well as notable public buildings including a portion of LAX. The La Concha Motel is considered one of the best preserved examples of futuristic Googie (think The Jetsons) architecture.

If you have time, I’d suggest popping into the nearby Carson Kitchen—located in a renovated midcentury modern motel known as the John E. Carson building—for some innovative (but not too much so) comfort food. We enjoyed classics like burgers and mac & cheese but the broccoli salad and tempura beans were just ducky–and deserved their own marquee treatment.

Tours to the Neon Museum are available day or night but must be booked in advance.  For more information go here.

Check out Jonah Lehrer’s fascinating article in the March 26th issue of The New Yorker about designer Roger Thomas and how his interiors revolutionized Las Vegas casino décor.  Lehrer quotes Thomas, who maintains a weekend home here in Northern California, as saying that he doesn’t design interiors based on focus groups, but rather he creates “rooms I want to be in.”

Having traveled to Vegas twice in as many years, I can tell you that Thomas creates rooms I want to be in as well. On our first trip I had the pleasure of staying in the Bellagio and this fall I spent some time exploring the public spaces of the Wynn and Encore resorts—all Thomas projects. 

Our Bellagio bedroom was quietly tasteful and included a spectacular view of the Nevada desert best seen from the elegant bathroom’s raised tub. After the jingle/jangle of the strip it was a joy to tuck in for the night.

By contrast,  the vibrant interiors of the Wynn and Encore projects were brash, beautiful and thoroughly entertaining. This Encore casino illuminated with dramatic red chandeliers is a far cry from the sad, dark, maze-like casinos I’ve navigated to find a bathroom driving from Northern California  to Eastern Idaho over the years.

Lehrer explains that the design for the old-school casinos came from a former gambling addict turned casino consultant named Bill Friedman who called for low ceilings in a casino and insisted that slot machines be laid out in a labyrinth.

Thomas had an entirely different vision for seducing customers.

Lehrer explains: “Thomas created soaring ceilings swathed in silk fabric and insisted on clear sight lines for easy navigation . . . [He] imagined an elegant lobby, not filled with penny slots but displaying a massive Dale Chihuly glass sculpture suspended from the ceiling and huge arrangements of real flowers.  Traditional casinos banished clocks and any glimpses of sunlight, to make gamblers lose track of the hours.  Thomas installed antique timepieces and skylights that let in the desert sun. He even broke the rule prohibiting decor in the gaming areas.  While Friedman insisted that the best furniture was the gambling equipment itself, Thomas selected European-style furnishings with scrupulous care.”

For this nongambler, Thomas’s Sin City designs are the best game in town.