Las Vegas trip Wrap-up

Couple days late on this, but seems like I haven't stopped moving since we touched down at the airport. Needless to say our flight back landed safely, and I managed to finish reading my book on the plane. Our final day in Vegas was a travel day, almost entirely. Lisa managed a short run before her parents drove us to the airport. However, with a 3 hour flight, and losing two hours to time zone changes, it ended up being a long day. To top it off we went right form the airport to dinner with a good friend who is in town for the week, so we didn't settle in at home till after dark.

So now that I've had a couple days to decompress, I can start to think about some of the various things that I saw in Vegas. One of the first things that struck me was how much the gambling culture is so pervasive. There are gambling machines everywhere, and I mean everywhere. From the moment we landed I saw slot machines in the airport terminal and signs for gambling in just about every establishment around the city. Gaming was pretty much the main form of entertainment around the city, which didn't do much for someone who's not a big gambler. Having grown-up in a State that only legalized some forms of gambling in my lifetime it was wild to see it being so engrained. One can't help but wonder what the addiction rate is like around Vegas, and how large the treatment industry is in comparison.

Many people who talk about Vegas also comment heavily on it's 'Sin City' reputation, and specifically the availability of legal sex workers along with scantily clad women dancing on bars. To be honest I didn't really find myself very shocked by any of this while I was there. On The Strip there are constantly people handing out pamphlets for what I assume are brothels, and there are billboards around town advertising escort services, but I really never saw much in the way of scandalous behavior out in the open. I occasionally saw a woman dancing on a bar in a skimpy outfit, but frankly they were wearing far more clothing than the teenagers at the local gym swimming pool. I think the most provocative thing I saw was a brief glimpse of a woman walking around with her top body painted (therefore wearing no top).

As for other forms of entertainment, I managed to get to both The Strip and to Freemont Street. By far I found Freemont Street to be the more fun and engaging place. The Strip felt very manufactured, and everything of interest was tucked away inside the massive buildings that lined the street. It felt like a busy Manhattan street at rush hour with everyone trying to simply get around the city. The Strip didn't feel like an 'experience', just a main street where you could find everything. However, on Freemont Street everything was out in the open, and the entire street felt like a festival or a fair. It didn't feel fake or contrived either, it was genuine, authentic partying and decadence. There were people selling food, casinos that opened right on to the street, neon signs everywhere and music stages all along the street, playing different types of music. Within a few short blocks we got to experience beer, food, gaming, music, dancing and a light show on the roof that covers most of the avenue. If I only had a single day in Vegas, and really wanted to feel like I had visited 'authentic Vegas' I would hit Freemont Street again.

There was certainly more to Vegas though than the bright lights of the city. Perhaps my favorite part of the trip was getting to experience the desert environment, which is different from anything else I've been to in my life. I managed a decently long run, surrounded by nothing but rocks and sand and little scrubby plants. On one day of the trip we headed through Lake Mead Recreational Area and got to see amazing landscapes of mountains and hills, as well as the large Lake Mead itself. We also got to visit Hoover Dam, which as amazing and huge as it is, pales in comparison to the landscape in which it is embedded. The colors of the terrain were very distinct from what I see around home, and it gave me a sense of being in a movie where everything is generated by computers and camera trickery.

Perhaps one of the largest differences that I noticed is in how the city looks from a distance. The place in which we were staying was outside of town a bit, and so we had a breath-taking view of the city in the distance. Amazingly you could see everything. The Strip was clearly visible from 20 miles away, as was everything in-between.

Once I returned home to Minnesota, it struck me what the difference was. There were no trees. The reason that I could see the entire layout of the city so clearly, and from such distance, was that there were no trees to block my view. In Minnesota if you climb a tall hill and try to look out over the expanse of the two downtowns, you will see the skyscrapers reaching upwards, but they're rising out of a canopy. Even if you could find a hill as high as the ones that we were driving up in Vegas, you'd never be able to see any real detail of the Twin Cities, because of our dense urban forest.

Realizing this as we returned home made me understand just how different these ecosystems really are. Then, recalling all of the water reclamation issues that Vegas has to deal with, in order to keep functioning, while I'm driving next to multitudes of lakes and rivers in Minnesota, shows an incredible aspect to the human spirit. In the span of a few hours I traveled between two completely distinct ecosystems. Both of these ecosystems support human life, and in fact human beings thrive in either environment. In Minnesota we've had to build our cities to withstand the power of water when it overwhelms and floods. In Vegas they've had to build their cities to conserve and protect the preciousness of every drop. In Minnesota we must survive harsh winters that force us to construct shelters from cold that would kill us. In Vegas a cool morning is a welcome relief from the heat of the day.

Two very distinct places, only a few thousand miles apart. But humanity adapts. Even over the course of a few days I learned to adapt to the surroundings, not even noticing that groups of trees were no where to be found. Then returning home I adapted again to the reality of a cooler, more northerly sun. Somehow, we find a way to survive, and even strive to travel, so that we can see other places, and other environments. We seek to see how humanity has learned to adapt and persevere all around the world.

I guess that's one of the lessons I learned by taking a gamble and visiting Las Vegas.

Las Vegas trip Day 2

Today was a day of relaxation away from the strip. It started out with a small run up a 300 foot incline and back down, followed by a nice quiet breakfast with just Lisa and I. Once her parents got back from church we headed out to our big adventure for the day, Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.

One of the things that is amazing about this area of America is that you can often find yourself in the middle of nowhere within just a couple of minutes of leaving the suburbs. We turned the opposite direction from Vegas and within 30 seconds we were over a hill and in a vast expanse of mountainous desert. We headed down the road into the Lake Mead recreational area and towards the marina where we had a paddleboat cruise scheduled for us. 

The cruise was a VERY relaxing time on a beautiful afternoon, despite a slight bit of pink-skin from the sun. The narration on the boat explained the history of the lake, and history of Hoover Dam. The cruise went around a portion of the lake and then headed toward the top of Hoover Dam. Seeing the dam from the top was cool, since after the cruise we were planning to walk the top of the dam. After returning to shore we headed down some winding roads to the historic site of Hoover Dam.

Hoover Dam is a project that has fascinated me for a long time. I've seen a couple documentaries on how it was built, including the construction of the diversion channels that allowed them to build the structure. Seeing it in person was amazing, as it is much higher than it seems from pictures. It was truly vertigo inducing and I couldn't even stand to look over the side for very long. We walked along the top of the dam to the Arizona side and back. It was truly one of the highlights of the trip for me. 

After the dam we hit a small casino on the way back, before heading to Freemont Street for the evening. Freemont Street is an interesting experience. It's as busy and crazy as the strip, but it's much more akin to a festival or fair than the strip is. On the strip you need to go into the various places to get most of the entertainment. On Freemont Street, there are stages and street performers everywhere, and even the bartenders get into the act with juggling routines during the light and music show that plays every hour. Most of the casinos are focused on being 'on the street' more than drawing people into a fascade.

After getting some dinner we split up and Lisa and I headed down to a beer garden so I could sample some more brews that I can't get at home. Then we met up with her parents again and sampled some of the shows at the various stages. One in particular has a woman doing the acrobatic act with two sashes hanging from the rafters as they twisted and turned themselves up and down. It was quite impressive to watch.

Now we're settling in for our final night here in Vegas. Tomorrow is a day of travel, especially since we lose two hours going back to central time. Hopefully I'll have some time tomorrow night to digest a bit about the whole Vegas culture and reflect a bit here on the blog. 

Las Vegas trip Day 1.5

Meant to put together this entry last night, but was frankly just a bit too tired. That's because yesterday afternoon and evening was our 'day on the strip'. We headed down to Las Vegas blvd a bit after noon and parked our car at the end of the strip where the show we were seeing was. We then walked down to where we had plans to meet up with some other family that live around here and have a nice lunch at a steak frites place.

Of course we had to toss a few bucks in a couple slot machines, which we promptly lost. I'm not a huge gambler, but if I know I'll be at a casino I'll save out a few bucks to putz around with. Between Lisa and I we often can make it last a bit, but not yesterday. I think we finished off our allotment in about 15-20 minutes. Oh well.

The lunch was very good, a beautiful blue cheese steak with crispy frites. By this point though, Lisa had pretty much lost her voice from our illness, so it turned into this funny moment where her relatives are asking her how life is going and she's looking at me to answer. At certain points complicated hand gestures were involved, but I think I managed to convey all the right information!

Afer lunch we headed back down the strip with the goal of hitting a place called M&M World. It's a 4 story store dedicated to... M&Ms (duh). We caught the cheesy 3-D movie that they show to the kids, and did some shopping for some souviners. Personally I was astonished by the WALL of M&Ms. Absolutely huge and included flavors I've never had before. 

On the beer front I did manage to find some craft brew around this town. On our way down to the M&M store I saw a little storefront for Sin City Brewing Company, so I stopped in real quick and got a glass of beer to go (no open container law here...). Then while waiting for our show that evening I found a place in the Monte Carlo that had 100 taps. They also did flights, so I did a flight of local brews that included a really tasty American Brown ale by Tanaya Creek. The cool part is that none of these are beers I can get locally so it's a nice treat out here.

We ended our evening with a Blue Man Group show. I had only seen them in YouTube videos so this was a fun treat. The show was bright and loud and fun. They had some of their traditional music played on percussion pieces made out of pipes. There was a fair amount of comedy, and some really cool light effects. Perhaps the funnest part, was a song at the end where they got everyone in the audience to stand up and shake their butt while the song listed off dozens of euphamisms for your 'butt', such as "The place where all burritos go" and "The reporter at large". Ended up being a good time, and oh, Lisa got hit with Jello. 

We considered hitting one more pub before bed, but decided we were done for the night so we came back to the room and relaxed with some HGTV before calling it a night. The plan today is to hit some other sites, such as Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. Then it's back to a Minnesota spring tomorrow.

Las Vegas trip Day 1

Our flight was un-eventful, but it did remind me that I'm not a fan of flying. I love traveling, hanging out at airports, and getting places quickly, but I hate actually being in the air. Strangly, I love landing, with the slow, quiet glide into the airport. Funnily enough, Lisa hates landing.

After landing we proceeded to meet up with Lisa's parents and head out for some food. One thing that I've noticed is how much a two hour time difference feels weird. It's not like when I went to China and everything was just totally reversed, but it's enough of a difference that it feels odd. 

Our first stop was a small casino on the way back to Henderson, NV. We got some food and played a few games before realizing we were getting quite exhausted, and that on MN time we were looking at midnight. So we headed back to our room and collapsed into bed. 

This morning we started out the day getting up slowly. This was good because the first thing on our agenda was a run. Because we were sick this week we're low on miles so there's no way we could skip running this weekend, with a race coming up next Saturday. We headed out and quickly realized that all the hills we drove down last night were not in our imagination. It's a solid climb up to get out of here. I managed 7 miles back and forth, however the first half was incredibly slow and included a total of almost 600 feet of climb. Many of the hills are super steep as well, so even on the run back I couldn't just go all-out, I had to control my run and slow it down so I didn't just fall into a barrel roll down the hill.

On the upside, this is my first visit to the desert, and the chance to run in scenery that was completely foreign to me is amazing. I was surrounded by a type of environment that I've never run in before and it was fascinating. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see more wildlife, but considering that many of the creatures I could have encountered might have been slightly danerous I guess I'll be happy. Overall, the run was slow and a bit of a slog once the hot sun started to push the temps up, but given that I just left 8 inches of snow behind I won't complain.

In fact, as I'm writing this I'm relaxing on our balcony, enjoying a beautiful day. It's a bit of a break in what will be a somewhat busy evening visitng The Strip. I'll post about that experience later tonight, or tomorrow. 

Las Vegas trip Day 0

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted on the old blog, but now I have something interesting to talk about. Tonight we leave for a trip to Las Vegas to visit my wife's parents who live out there most of the year.

So far the trip has started with a bang, and our flight doesn't even leave for 8 hours. Yesterday both Lisa and I came down sick. Lisa got tested positive for strep throat, and although I didn't test positive, I insisted they give me a prescription to bring with for the trip. Then last night it REALLY hit. I haven't had a night of feeling that sick in a long, long time. I was seriously starting to plan how I'd just get Lisa to the airport alone and stay back in Minnesota for the weekend.

By this morning things have healed up quite a bit, and I'm back on track to make the plane flight. As Lisa was stating, the worst case is that I end up needing to recuperate more in Vegas... next to the pool... in the sun...

Which brings up the other interesting aspect of this trip. We got a good 7-9 inches of snow last night around here. Today has been an absolute mess on the roads, and so we're going to have to plan to get to the airport pretty early. So far our flight is listed as only delayed 15 30 minutes, and hopefully it will stay that way.

If all goes as planned my next blog entry will be from Nevada where the high will be in the mid 70s all weekend long.