Vegas

My birthday celebration this year was in Vegas. Originally, I was going to visit the Grand Canyon. However, meeting Mary changed that. Specifically, a friend, an archaeologist, of hers was going to be in Boulder City, a short drive from Vegas. That and Mary's familiarity with Vegas and its surroundings tipped the scale.

One of the nice features of this trip was this: departing New England in the midst of pouring rain and temps in the 50s and heading west to dry desert temperatures near 100. Ahhhh....

Coming from that geographical context, I was inspired to snap some photos as we passed over the Rockies. Check them out. Remember: You can see a larger version of each one by clicking the picture.


Finally in Vegas, I was pleased to pick up my car rental—a PT Cruiser. It proved to be very practical in the desert heat—i.e., easy to cool and to keep cool as well as easy to drive.

Unfortunately, our arrival in Vegas was tainted by a major computer problem at the Mirage registration desk. Close to an hour passed before we finally got our keys and headed for our room. Ugh.

Fortunately, that was the worst of the hiccups for the trip. The service at the Mirage and elsewhere was excellent. That was a welcome contrast to the lousy service I got at a bed and breakfast in Gettysburg last year.

A friend suggested trying a gondola ride at the Venetian. Here's a shot of what that would entail.



Expand it. Notice the pedestrian and auto traffic close by. Also, check out the gondola and its passengers in the foreground. No cover. The temps were close to 100. Yeah, it's a dry heat but too oppressive for my tastes. Pass.

The Vegas strip pretty much bored me after a few hours. Among other things, it made me wonder if the number of zombie movies pouring out of Hollywood could be explained by the intense number of pedestrians pouring onto the Vegas strip at night, walking in a sluggish, zombie-like fashion.

Anywho, on my birthday night, we took in a show at the Mirage. We saw Cirque du Soleil's
The Beatles Love performance. Yawn. It had its moments but for the money I laid out I was expecting something exotic, some kind of big finish. Nope. If we had kids in tow, it would have been an appropriate choice.

The next day, we headed for the desert to see the Valley of Fire. This was cool. However, as we got deeper into the desert, I paid attention to the fact that gas stations were few and far between. In fact, on the whole excursion, I saw exactly 1 gas station. So, I gassed up at the first station even though my tank was close to full.

Some shots and comments from the Valley of Fire follow.

This patch of rock gave me a surprise. While walking across it, I kicked a stone. When it skidded across the rock, it produced a hollow sound. The baked boulders are hollow! Yet we could walk across them safely.

Another tourist snapped this pic for us. Getting to this spot was slow. We trekked up a bumpy dirt road off the main paved road to get there. But the view was worth it.

Mary and I just liked the contrast of the white boulders rising abrubtly out of the red stone surface around it.

Here's the road home. It was a nice contrast of green grass, black mountains, the valley of red rock and especially the man-made, well paved road through it all.

That's it for tonight. More pics to follow.