Enjoy Las Vegas

The so-called festival of lights in Kiener Plaza was also a festival of commerce. Some of it has a bit of the huckster in it. The awning just to the right of the statue of the runner says Enjoy Las Vegas, maybe selling some package tour you may regret buying. The one on the far right is selling replacement windows.

We've been to Las Vegas, or maybe better said through it, a number of times. We spend the first or last night there on trips to Death Valley, our favorite place in this country to clear out our heads. We're not really into Vegas. We don't gamble. You can get some decent rates on hotel rooms. Lots of restaurants (of varying quality - the buffet at Luxor was awful), Seen some shows - Cirque du Soleil - flashy but yawn; Paula Poundstone - pretty funny. We'd rather be away from the lights, way out in the dark of the desert night.                   

Torreadors and Sphinxes

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A bit more from Vegas while I pull together some STL stuff. As I have mentioned, we stayed at the Luxor, built with over-the-top Ancient Egypt themes. The building itself is a 15 story black glass pyramid with a fiberglass sphinx out front and topped with a blinding searchlight pointing into the heavens (see Wednesday's post). So what's with a Mexican restaurant in the lobby? The Aztecs and Mayans had pyramids but I don't think that's the connection.

Like everything else in Las Vegas, it's about money. Something to pull the visitors in. The guest rooms of the hotel are inside the walls of the pyramid and there is an atrium within that. This pic was taken from the walkway near our 9th floor room, looking down at the top of the restaurant. The mural is very attractive but this crenelated aluminum something over the tables is a puzzle. No one like Escamillo in sight, either. Made me wonder who would win a fight between a toreador and, say, Horus.

After taking the shot, we got on the elevator to go eat there. All of the elevator cars are decorated with this image of Pharaoh Akenaten and his family. Weird, weird, weird. But how many visitors to Las Vegas know their bullfighters from their ancient rulers with Marfan's Syndrome? Who cares?

Leaving Las Vegas

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Home now. Although we love the desert we had about as much of Las Vegas as we could take. It seems to appeal to so many of our basest desires, although if you are open minded it does cultivate a sense of irony.

These scenes are of the front of the Luxor Hotel and Casino where we stayed. Good deal, comfortable, horrible food. We've been to the real Luxor and I want to tell you that there aren't any slot machines in the temple. The name has been defiled.

Something was different about the place. We hadn't spent a penny in the slot machines. After dinner on our last night, we thought about throwing away some quarters. That's when we realized that the sound was different. The incessant electronic warbling of the machines was much quieter than on previous visits. The metallic rattle of quarters cascading into steel trays after a win was completely gone.

As we walked among the machines we noticed that the slots where you fed your quarters were taped over. The slot machines have no more slots. They now take only paper money, some with a minimum of $5. So you can't lose just 75 cents for amusement. The stakes have been raised. The frenetic sensory experience of the casino, the sounds, the rhythm of feeding in your coins, has been taken away. We went back to our room.

No new local material so I may continue this theme for a bit.

STL DPB On The Road: Hoover Dam

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We drove out to Hoover Dam on our last day in weird, weird Las Vegas. It blocks the Colorado River, the most important source of water in the American Southwest, creating huge Lake Mead upstream. It's an engineering marvel and has been around for 80 years. We took a short tour through one of the hydroelectric turbine halls. The guides were over the top, wisecracking you can take as many dam pictures as you want. Har.

The shadow in both shots is the brand new highway bridge over the Colorado just downstream. The road used to go across the top of the dam. It was slow and the heavy trucks were a risk for structural damage.

The bottom pic is a Las Vegas teaser. It's a view of the Excalibur Hotel and Casino, an architectural absurdity with a King Arthur theme. More Vegas photos tomorrow if I have time to edit. I actually have to work on the plane home.

STL DPB On The Road: In The Mojave Desert

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The Internet service in our room doesn't work so this is going up late (I'm at the Starbucks of the Luxor Hotel right now). We have not slept in the pyramid yet because the place was packed when we got in late Thursday night and there were no good rooms left. They will move us today. And, just to keep complaning, one of my camera bodies wasn't working yesterday but I cleaned the battery contacts and it seems okay now.

We drove south yesterday into California to visit Mojave National Preserve. Gotta get on the road for Death Valley now so just a few scenes. More to come.

STL DPB On The Road: We Hate This Place

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Oh, it's late. Here's a crummy iPhone shot of our arrival at the airport.

We do not like Las Vegas, not at all. Well, I have a morbid fascination with photographing it. We don't gamble and we think most of the shows are insipid. The city is American garish at its most extreme. So what are we doing here?

We love the desert. We will eat and sleep in the city but take day trips into the wild, open country every day. Mojave National Preserve, Death Valley, Zion National Park in Utah and Lake Mead are on the agenda. Lots of that to come. Now to bed.