What happened in Vegas... was pretty sweet!

And we'll tell you about it.  We all knew that moving from the Grand Canyon to Vegas would be like going from God's natural creation at its best to human edifices and institutions at their... brightest?  richest? and usually most sinful.  In what I began to call the Incarnation of Capitalism, the Las Vegas Strip (old and new) lit up before our eyes.  We had reconnoitered for a delicious dinner of elk steak (another first for me) at Nathan's uncles.  Adding his cousin, a native of the area, to our eclectic crew, we headed into town. They say the lights are bright on Broadway and we had seen the lights of Times Square and Rockefeller Center.  Vegas blinds them all.  The visual overload is impossible to describe.  The old strip is a covered mall and the ceiling is s constant light show (interspersed with advertisements).  The old strip obviously tries to appeal to the old crowd and this summers theme was a throwback to Woodstock's Summer of '69.  After several psychedelic buses, mediocre guitar solos, and suggestively groovy female dance moves, we had seen that strip and could move on.  

One thing I did enjoy about Vegas was that there was no way I could be weird enough to turn heads.  There was no way I could do anything strange enough even to stand out.  It is a city of absolute individualism (if you can afford it).  It is also a city that runs itself on the antithesis of the three monastic virtues: money, sex, and power.  While it is tempting to vow poverty, chastity, and obedience just to get away from it all, some of the  things in Vegas were pretty impressive.  The fountain show at the Bellagio was set to music (sometimes Classical, sometimes rock).  The scale models of Paris, Venice, and New York that they manage to fit into these casinos is impressive to say the least.  It is clearly the triumph of imagination to have a hotel with its own Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe.  The constant slew (or sewer) of pornographic and sexual advertising throughout the city is a little less than splendid.  My theory is that in any city where there are extremes of poverty or sin, one can still find extreme examples of largesse, virtue, and beauty.  The casinos had a bit of that.  After walking a lot from one cathedral of capitalism to another, we eventually got tired enough to go home.  Vegas is a mixed bag; I'm not sure when I'll go back.  Disclaimer, this blog more than any of the others is heavily my opinion... not the entire quartet's.  :)  Allen likes Vegas a lot, but, with all his love for the city, he is smart enough not to gamble here with the "high rollers."

We woke up the next morning and Nathan's uncle gave us directions out of Vegas a bit to the North and West so that we could see the Red Rocks and pass the state park.  It was quite a view of some gorgeous geological formations.  More proof that I often underestimate the desert when I call it ugly.  The desert once we got into California, however, was fairly ugly.  I had the drive on Interstate 15 through to my hometown.  I remember every time why no one lives in that area.  Soon enough, we found ourselves in Hollywood... and the rest is history.