las vegas, grand canyon

Luxor hotel at night.


Just got home from a 12-day trip to Nevada and Arizona, mostly spent with my sister and her family; I'll be posting photos over the next week or so.

Got home to a big pile of e-mail, so thanks for your patience while I catch up. Congrats to Andrea Dale, who has been invited to be Filk Guest of Honor at Context (Oct.1-3, 2004)! Amanda Snyder's birthday is today!

The photo at the top of the page is of our hotel in Las Vegas, The Luxor. Apparently the 42.3 billion candle power pillar of light can be seen from the space shuttle.

Here's one of the interior:





I took the above photo from a balcony hallway on the way to our room. Riding the elevator for the first time is a tad unsettling at first. The elevators go from the interior base to the tip of the pyramid in a slanted shaft at a 38 degree angle; you can definitely feel this, especially at the beginning and end of the elevator ride.

I was amazed at how cheap the rooms were ($79) considering the location and quality, though I assume they're more expensive during their peak season. And I guess the hotel is hoping they make a lot more than that from gambling in the casino. :-)

In case you're curious, we didn't do much gambling in Vegas. For one thing, it's illegal for children to even -watch- anyone gamble; families are allowed to take children through casino areas since most hotel lobbies ARE casinos, but no lingering to watch the slots. But also, none of us are gambling types. While waiting outside a restroom, however, I did stick a quarter into a slot machine...AND WON A WHOLE DOLLAR!

The main focus of the Las Vegas portion of our trip was seeing The Cirque du Soleil's "O" at the Bellagio. This $120 million production has been drawing 99%-capacity crowds and was recently voted Best Show on the Strip. The 1.5-million-gallon pool of water contains several hydraulic lifts that are used throughout the performance. But what makes this my all-time favourite live show is the seamless integration of live music, light and staging effects, dance and acrobatics, all of which are amazing.

Before I visited Las Vegas for the first time, I had envisioned it as a sort of seedy, tacky, run-down place I'd never want to spend time in. My impression after two visits? Ok, so it IS sort of seedy and tacky, but most of the tackiness is so over the top that it's fun. :-) You can drift through "Venice" in a gondola, gawk at the Statue of Liberty in "New York", ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower in "Paris", climb a stone sphinx, and ride the bus with Elvis...where else can you do all this in one place?

I'll be posting more photos/reports from the rest of the trip soon, but here are some pics from the Grand Canyon part of the trip, like this lizard we encountered on a hike:





Jeff and Sara on part of a trail:





And some Grand Canyon shots:





















Trip pics to be continued tomorrow...

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