I’m headed out on a family trip this Saturday.  We’re going to see Arizona’s Grand Canyon and then enjoy the entertainment in Las Vegas.  What are some fun geeky things to do there?

This is not my first visit to the sights.  When I was thirteen or fourteen, Nanny (Grandma) and I went to Las Vegas as an extension of a larger tour that included Zion, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon.  In Vegas, I got treated to comedy shows and saw the construction of the Mirage.

Five years later, I still not eighteen, we went again to Las Vegas with my nuclear family.  The best thing we did was watch a magician get hazed by a drunk.  When “The Magnificent Steve” vanished and re-appeared —"Steve, oh my G-d you’re alive!"—Steve even picked him as a volunteer.

Then we went to the Star Trek exhibit at the Hilton.  When you enter the area it is like stepping into Quark’s bar on Deep Space: Nine with space-themed slot machines.  Everyone lines up for his or her tour:

From Wikipedia: “Initially, a group of about twenty visitors enter a rather confining room… Once inside the room, one of the ride directors begins speaking about the Experience and seems to be intentionally making it sound unexciting. During this initial lecture, a small device displays scenes from several Star Trek movies.”

Sound boring?  I was cracking up at the ensign’s jokes.  First, you hear a loud explosion that knocks the lights out and he asks us, completely deadpan, “Is everyone all right?  I thought I heard a grown man scream.  Oh, sorry sir.”

Suddenly you’re on the futuristic bridge.  He quips, “It’s three- hundred years in the future and we’re still in [country U.S. invaded].”

If you know something geekier and more fun that what I’ve seen and it’s something that a family of non-geeks wouldn’t mind, please speak up soon.  I can’t and don’t want to drink or gamble, and the Internet already has adult entertainment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Experience
Edit: It’s the magic of Steve Wyrick http://www.lvol.com/bios/e36.html