The African Queens

Well, all right, we're only AFRICAN queens because we spent an hour in the Kalahari on Friday. And of course we spent the next day in Venice (here's one of the "living statues" that show up here and there around the Venetian, that I didn't get to show you on the last post). But we're certainly royalty in all other ways, and besides one of the high spots today involved a boat that reminds me of the one that Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart took down that river in Africa. Hence the title.


Speaking of yesterday, here's another picture of our heroine Xiaoming with some more movie royalty. Not too hard on the eyes, is it? Anyway, it's Day 3, and we needed to find ways to make it as unique in its way as the other two had been. And we did!

We were up early today--11 a.m.--and proud of it. We lounged around on our computers for a bit, and were off to eat right on schedule. We had a great fresh Mexican dining experience at Rubio's here in Summerlin, one of a really nice chain that started in San Diego 30 years ago. I hope it finds its way to Austin soon--Karen and crew will really enjoy the food here, I think.

Bought gas for the car--first tank full since 5/17--exactly one month ago. The price has been at $3.17/gallon at the nearby Shell station, but in honor of my purchase, it came down to $3.13. And I hope I don't have to buy another tank for another month (or more, actually, since I'm leaving for Maine on 7/18, a month and a day from now). That is one of the real pluses of not having to drive to work (though I admit I have taken the car more often than not--it's HOT! Although that's a very good reason to leave the car home, where it's covered and stays cool. I'll have to be a better girl about that).


Then we headed east and eventually south into the desert (where we stopped and took a picture or two of the scenery--how do you like the view?) and then up into the hills. What a multiplicity of environments! We began here in Summerlin, a fairly upscale part of Vegas. Heading east on Summerlin Parkway, passing rows of tall crowned palm trees, we crossed into a much less upscale part of the city, predominantly little Mexican convenience stores and check-cashing establishments peppered with the ever-present local casino. Then at the eastern edge of the city a lower-middle class area with neat small homes, few trees, but fairly wide streets--and straight ahead the mountains. And suddenly, you're in those mountains, and there's not a dwelling to be seen. Just like someone pulled a switch. We drove through twisty passes in the mountains for a while (with me wondering silently, since we didn't seem to be turning south, the way the very stylized map said we would, if I had missed a turn somewhere)--and suddenly, we saw in the middle distance a tiny patch of blue-green: water!


Well, it wasn't Lake Mead but, when we got there, it turned out to be a real oasis in that desert: tiers of VERY nice homes and condos, with lots of lush patches of grass and terraces with stone retaining walls speaking of more development yet to come, and palm trees: quite an inviting mirage out there where there had been not very much for quite a few miles. Did I saw we had paid $5 at a checkpoint along the way just before that oasis to get a day pass (well, 5-day pass, actually) into the Lake Mead Recreation Area, the first of its kind in the nation, begun in 1963, I believe, so it's as old as my darling daughter is.

Anyway, a few more miles of arid land with dramatic mountains all around, and there was more blue-green--well, really green-blue: it was Lake Mead, fer shure, this time, and the water is greener and greener as you get closer. We passed Boulder Beach, named I believe more for nearby Boulder City than for
actual boulders lying around the beach, because there seemed to be few of those. But it was a sandy beach with cars and campers parked all along its edge (no worry that the tide will eat the sand out from under them and maroon them, which is a concern on beaches like this along the Gulf Coast) and people clearly enjoying the water (forgot to ask about the temperature of these lakes). Lake Mead is very deep, so I expect it doesn't warm up too much. But this lake was not (or didn't seem to be) so deep, so I wonder if it isn't something like bathtub water, which even the Gulf Coast water becomes along the shore after a long hot summer.

We drove on and up and over and around and up some more and through and between and up even more--and then suddenly downward into the Black Canyon Valley--and suddenly, where the high-tension lines became so numerous and close together that you were almost threading your way through them--there was the dam down below us. With these HUGE cantilevered sections of the new highway that is under construction high above us!!! Truly amazing feats of engineering here in 2007 and 2008, maybe not to rival the engineering of the actual building of the dam (1931 through 1935--and finished ahead of schedule at that!) but certainly impressive.


We drove down and around the hairpin curves that lead past the gift/food building (of course) and suddenly we were on the bridge across the dam itself. Did I say, by the way, that Xiaoming was leaning out the window, lovely black hair flying all around, taking picture after picture of all of this? No? Well, she was. She's quite the cameraperson, as the pictures throughout these blogs have, I hope, demonstrated. We went across the damn dam, pulled off into an overlook, got out and took a few pictures of the backside of the dam from the land, and then headed back across the dam and up again and over and under and--all that, following the bread crumbs that we had been foresighted enough to strew in our path so that we could find our way out. Let me just pass on one statistic about that dam: the concrete that was used to build it, if laid out in an 18-foot wide road, would pave the way from California to New York. AMAZING! And again, I say, AMAZING!


Okay, back a few miles into the Lake Mead Recreation Area, and we found the Lake Mead Cruises sign. Follow that 2-3 twisty miles, and you're suddenly staring a small paddle-wheeler in the face. Turns out that's the Desert Princess Too; our vessel was the Desert Princess herself--and we were two queens well worthy of her. We were about 3/4 of an hour early, so we bought postcards and (Xiaoming's suggestion--brilliant!) actually wrote them out! Otherwise, they'd have come home with me and gone right into my stationery drawer, where I'd find them years from now and. . . . But no, they're written, addressed, stamped, and will be mailed tomorrow. What a gal I am!

The cruise was just spectacular (I have overused just a few adjectives this weekend, haven't I? Maybe I should invent some--or use the one that Jon-Michael used on my birthday card: "supercalaefragelistikexpaladoshis" ("P.S," he noted, "I like cheese.")) None of that really does justice to the things we saw on that cruise: Spectacular lava peaks towering over piles of colorful "painted rocks" next to the water; all around the rim of the lake this 20-foot strip of white rock that had, at some point, been under water and so was no longer brown like the upper reaches; little coves, occasionally populated by a boat and a family diving off the backend, their own private nevada, if you will; and then
a U-turn (quite an accomplishment for a stern-wheeler) and we're heading down this narrow twisty passageway that opens up to reveal--Hoover Dam! The backside of the dam, which Xiaoming and I had been looking at from the eastern shore just 3 hours earlier (and which you see in the picture above). Amazing!

Oh yes, all of that and we started off with dinner--did I mention that? Roast beef for me and salmon for Xiaoming--a decent meal, but, as she just pointed out to me--and I agree--we didn't go for the food: we went for the scenery--and we were not in the least disappointed. And we got a lovely pastel sunset thrown in for good measure. It was great, and another MUST-SEE item for any Vegas itinerary. As we disembarked, we were met with a row of photos that were taken as we embarked: a large photo, two small ones, and a magnet ($20 for the lot). Yes, I know, Xiaoming has hundreds of photos and she is uploading them as we speak so that I can pepper these three blogs with some of them. But I'm a sucker for something as permanent as a magnet: how could I NOT buy the package. So I bought, and here we are in wind-blown splendor (and it was very windy: Xiaoming was afraid that the sunglasses she rescued from the clutches of George Clooney would get snatched off her head by the wind (most of the time they're holding her hair back: she pointed out that they were a fashion statement, not a functional piece of equipment), so she actually wore them on her face, where they were more secure. And the end of THAT particular story is that they made it home with us.


We're here now, it's 1 a.m., Xiaoming's packing, and we'll have time for a quick nap, I guess. Her flight leaves at 6:25 a.m., we want to be there by 5 a.m., since the security line is unpredictable and likely to be long even at that hour. So we'll leave here around 4:30, which means she has to get up at 3:30!!! Two and a half hours, if she dropped in her tracks right this minute! Me too, because I plan to go to work as soon as I get back here, so that I can leave early and put pictures in my blog tomorrow (er, tonight!) and post this.

Okay, folks, that's it for a while: a smorgasbord of Vegas's delights and pleasures, which will, I hope, entice you here some day soon. I'm leaving you with a symbolic (but representative) picture of a typical road out here, which just goes on and on, into the future. Let me know when to meet your plane, and we're on our way!

Blues in the Night

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It's Day Two in the 3-Day Wonderland Saga, and dawn finds our heroines--well, frankly, dawn and most of the morning, found our heroines oblivous to the wonders of all but sleep. We were out until 1:30 a.m., and one of us was still suffering a bit from jet lag (that would not be your faithful scribe but her trusty companion Xiaoming), so we slept the sleep of the blameless and innocent. And got up at pretty much high noon. Okay, so we'll admit it. We slept the morning away. But this is Vegas. What happens here STAYS here--and generally happens at night! Anyway, we meandered around--Xiaoming did NOT work out today. Look, folks, when you're hitting more than one casino, you're WALKING. A LOT! So lay off about the working out already!

We got dressed and this time our destination was the middle of the Strip: a casino I had never been in, the Venetian. What a beautiful building that is. From a ceiling that is a replica of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, to gondolas that ply a canal that is always in cloud-speckled sunlight (that's it above). Today, though, we heard from a gondolier himself that the gondolas stopped plying anything toward the evening because the wind was so strong it pushed the gondolas where IT wanted them to go, not where THEY were supposed to go. I had no idea the canal was out in the open, but I guess it is for a certain distance--long enough that the elements determine the schedule. Well, we weren't really going to go for a gondola ride (it had originally been on Xiaoming's extensive itinerary for Saturday and Sunday--but she decided she'd ridden in a real gondola in Italy, so she didn't need to do this one in Vegas). We started off with a meal in the Grand Lux Cafe--and this was the best meal we had all weekend. We shared some seared raw mahi-mahi medallions dipped in a kind of soy sauce, then shared a Salad Caprese (lots of greens, big slices of mozzarella (on The Sopranos, it's called Moozadel), thinly sliced parmesan and an excellent dressing), and we shared a margherita pizza (with lots of cheese and tomatoes). Absolutely fab, as they say.
And no chance of overeating, either: each serving was just right for two. Our waitress, Trish, had just returned to her native Vegas from Dallas (Xiaoming's home), and she got me thinking, because she said she has started a list of "Things You Don't See in Dallas." It's long. And growing. I told her I was going to mention her list here, so we have a picture of her. And I highly recommend both her AND the Grand Lux Cafe.

Our next stop was--well, Xiaoming went to the restroom, while I sat down at a nearby slot machine with $20--and stood up with $38.75. That was nice. Our NEXT stop was a ticket booth where we purchased tickets for the 7 p.m. "Blue Man Group" show (hence the title of this episode, for those who need it pointed out to them!) More about that in a mo', but we had 1-1/2 hours to kill, so we headed for Madame Tussauds' Celebrity Encounter. More than 100 life-size and life-like wax statues of celebrities and famous people, from Abraham Lincoln and Muhammad Ali and Elizabeth Taylor and Hugh Hefner to John and Jacquie and Princess Di and Angelina and Brad to Elvis and Freddie Krueger and Johnny Mathis and Ole Blue Eyes. We must have taken 100 photos in this exhibit--of which I'm picking just a few, to spare you, although these were really life-like renditions. And the really good news is that Xiaoming's glasses got yanked off her head by George Clooney (she swears she never saw him move) and for a while we thought she'd never see them again--but someone found them and returned them to the box office--and she still has them.




Okay, now we were ready for the Blue Man Group. I had seen the show, but Xiaoming had not--and it was in a new venue. I saw it at the Luxor two years ago, and it was fabulous. But it is now in the Venetian, in a theater built especially for the three blue guys, and it was just as exciting the second time around. And Xiaoming enjoyed it, too. The first five rows are provided with "ponchos" (plastic bags) that protect them from flying--well, debris? cereal? paint? whatever! We were about five rows behind that and almost caught a flying marshmallow. NO JOKE! Xiaoming was on the aisle and looked stunning in her off-white lace-strapped frock, and she was certainly considered by one of the wandering blue men as the audience participant he was searching for at one point, but no, he picked someone else. Anyway, this show is--well, it's a show-stopper. It's sensational. It's a treat for every one of your senses. It's a MUST-SEE item for any Vegas itinerary. Count on it, if you come see me!

And another MUST-SEE item was the next one on our list: the Stratosphere. It's the tall needle-like building (like the ones in Seattle and San Antonio), with a revolving restaurant near the top, and in this case, some really insane rides 3 stories above that! Don't even ask: they make my stomach knot up just thinking about them! We opted for a drink in the Romance lounge, on the 107th floor
(bypassing the Chapel on the 103rd floor, where weddings with just about any theme you could ask for take place several times a day--we saw the leftovers from two of them while we were up there). After a drink overlooking the restaurant on the floor below, which did indeed revolve at a quite-noticeable pace, though I expect the diners down there weren't as aware of it as we were (1 revolution every 80 minutes, we were told), we headed for the 108th floor, which is for observation (the 109th floor is where the insame people go for those rides I mentioned).

And what a view!!! We walked all the way around and saw EVERYTHING (though we usually didn't know what we were seeing). Vegas is literally a light-filled shallow bowl all night long. The lights extend for miles and stop abruptly at the mountains on all sides. It is just unbelievable--until you've stood there and seen it! Well, when we had had our fill of that (which took a while), we had our second meal of the day (10:55 p.m., the last customers allowed in) at Roxy's Drive-In, complete with singing waiters. Ours
was "Bobby Darin," singing (quite well) "Beyond the Sea." After an early breakfast, Xiaoming tried out "The Crazy Armadillo," while I tried out some slot machines. Both of us were quite satisfied.

But the night was still young. At least in Vegas, it is. So back into the car (thank the early gods of the Strip for their decision to have LOTS of free parking at any and all casinos!) and back down the strip (the Stratosphere is at the far north end) to the center of it all: Caesar's Palace. The Venetian is truly beautiful, with murals and arches and buildings reminiscent of Venice and other parts of Italy. Caesar's Palace is opulent. No other word. I felt VERY much the country mouse there, and my money vanished into thin air--like magic! But Xiaoming had hoped that a friend had made a reservation for her at "Pure," one of the most exclusive nightclubs on the Strip. Turned out the reservation didn't exist, but--ever the resourceful young lady, Xiaoming found a couple of guys who were more than willing to get her in there on their reservation. So she had some fun in "Pure," and I had pure losing hands at some slots and a couple of tables. Anyway, we were home by, well, all right, I'll come right out and say it--3:30. There! And proud of it.


We came home (by way of the famous Las Vegas sign, which we were able to take a good picture of, since it was so late) and weren't immediately tired, so we started to watch "The Cooler," one of my favorite Vegas movies, but we didn't get 20 minutes into it before we both crashed. So I headed for my bed, and Xiaoming spent another night on my sleeper sofa (which, by the way, she testifies is very comfortable--so all who are considering flocking to my humble abode can rest assured that the nights here will be comfortable).

Enough for another blog posting. Watch for the 3rd installment, "The African Queens," coming soon to a blog near you.

Return to Wonderland

Well, I'm not really returning to Wonderland, 'cause I haven't left except for a quick weekend in Austin to celebrate some birthdays (Jon-Michael and his Grandma Punkin' Pie both had birthdays within two weeks of each other--so we celebrated together). Otherwise, I've been right here, but it's been so busy out, what with work and play and sleep--there needs to be another 8 hours everyday to be used for whatever discretionary purpose fits one's mood--and I'd write my blog more often.

Regardless, I'm baaaaack, and hopefully I'll keep at it on a regular basis now. So here we go: That's the airport (McCarran--one of my least favorite airports ever--but it shorely is full of glitz and glamor!), where I picked Xiaoming up on Thursday night


The most immediate blog-worthy event has been the visit of my friend Xiaoming. The exciting picture above is just ONE wall in the baggage claim area at the Vegas airport. Xiaoming is someone I met in Austin when she was a student at UT. We decided this weekend that was about 5 years and 4 months ago (but who's counting), and despite the difference in our ages and background, we've remained pretty darn good friends. Anyway, she decided to visit me this weekend and became the first of what I hope will be a steady stream of visitors. Have I got an itinerary for you! Consider this weekend with Xiaoming to be a kind of trial run. I now know a huge bunch more places to take people to show them ALL sides of this great and amazing city of Wonderland. So read on, folks, enjoy the pictures. Xiaoming took almost 220 pictures: I'm going to include some of the best and most relevant, starting with the two of us at dinner on Thursday, the first night. Anyway, between the words and the pictures (which, as we know, are worth thousands MORE words), you'll be convinced to put me on your list of people you MUST come visit.

Xiaoming's visit began literally on Thursday night (that's us at Primo's restaurant, where we certainly started things off elegantly--overlooking some more of Las Vegas's gilt, the Strip!). However, we didn't get into true Tourist Mode until Friday morning--LATE Friday morning. Xiaoming actually got up at 4 a.m. to do some work on the internet for her job (she's an analyst for Accenture, based in Dallas but working since November in Chicago). After about 1/2 an hour, she went back to bed, got up around 8:30 and worked until 1:30 on her computer. Then she was free for the rest of the weekend. So off to the Strip we went.


We didn't have much of an itinerary on Friday, but we "did" three casinos on the south end of the Strip, near where I lived when my motor home was my abode. We started in the Luxor, which is the pyramid-shaped casino (that has a huge spotlight shooting straight up to the stars in the night-time); here's one of three huge pools outside the hotel/casino. We went through King Tutankhamen's tomb (well, a replica of it, full of replicas of what was found in the tomb in 1922--the first time the tomb had been visited in nearly 3300 years, except for one batch of grave robbers shortly after the tomb was closed and sealed. The replicas were made of wood gilded in gold paint, but they looked real enough to give a sense of what it might have looked like when Howard Carter peered through a little hole into the tomb, with the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon panting at his shoulder asking, "What do you see? Do you see anything?", and answered, very slowly, "Yes, yes, wonderful things."

Did I say that we started the day at Pharaoh's Pheast at the Luxor? Here's Xiaoming relaxing after our pheast! Anyway, after Egypt and the Valley of the Kings, we moved directly to the nearby IMAX theater in the Luxor and watched "Lions 3D: The Kings of the Kalahari." What a show!!! An hour of spectacle and drama, personified as only National Geographic can do it. I am truly in awe of the camera work: in that intense heat (sometimes as hot as 130 degrees) with absolutely nothing to hide behind or otherwise use to disguise a man (presumably) carrying a camera, those intrepid photographers managed to get shots clear up the elephant's trunk, right inside the lion's flea-bitten ear, inches away from five of the cutest lion cubs you'll ever see. Talk about "Mr. deMille, I'm ready for my close-up now"!!! This was wonderful--AND in 3D. The shots taken by helicopter, slanting around the desert just inches from the ground truly took your breath away. You found yourself leaning right and then left, to compensate for the tilt of the helicopter. Wow! I'm going back someday soon to see the other show, on "Dinosaurs." Anyone wanna come with?


After that, where could we go but to the other two casinos that are grouped with the Luxor: Mandalay Bay, where Xiaoming (ever one to sniff out a bargain) bought a lovely green silk dress (which she wore today--and looked absolutely stunning in!). By then it was already 10 p.m., which, of course is a bit early for the party scene (Xiaoming's other passion, besides travel). But she struggled and found a dance club, while I partied in my own way. Yes, folks, I gambled, with a bit of success for a while, but ultimately not. The casinos on the Strip are much more expensive than the local casinos, where I've learned to be much more comfortable. A slot machine that requires pennies in the local casinos wants nickels on the Strip, one that takes nickels locally insists on quarters on the Strip; table games like 3-card poker and Texas hold 'em bonus poker, two games I enjoy, have $5 minimum bids in the local casinos but want $10 or $15 minimums on the Strip. For those of you who want to do a little game-playing when you come here, I recommend sampling the casinos on the Strip, but don't discount the locals! Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves, and (finally) headed home, past the palm trees that we couldn't see 'cause it was dark--but here they are in the daylight.


For those who don't want to spend forever reading one blog posting, I'm going to call a halt here and pick up the adventures of Xiaoming and Patsy in Wonderland in our next exciting chapter, which we'll call "Blues in the Night," for reasons that may soon become clear.

Enjoy the pictures, though--here's an extra one of Xiaoming at my house before we started out on our big adventure--and start planning now for a visit soon. You'll LOVE it!!!