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!