Bright Lights and Red Rocks

Vegas. 

A dazzling example of the phrase, “over the top”.

As we descended the hills towards Las Vegas, the lights sparkled in all directions and in all colours. Coming from the darkness of the empty desert mountains, the city seemed to encompass the entire valley.

We were lucky to get an overview of the Strip on our way along the highway. Close up, the lights were even brighter and more colourful than they had seemed from afar.

Las Vegas is not a large city.  As a metropolis, its residents merely number in the few hundred thousands.  But it took us two very full days and evenings to merely touch on the highlights of this exaggerated splendor.  To see as much as we could, we concentrated our adventures to the casinos with the biggest names. “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” doesn’t necessarily apply in this scenario. Each of the casinos on our list had their own quirks and charms. The only constant was being forced to walk through the smoky gambling areas in order to reach the interesting shops, the artistic displays, and the theatres.

Being the frugal retirees that we are, we searched out all the free entertainment available. There is an animated show in Caesar’s Palace, the delightful musical fountains of Bellagio, and the amusing antics of people that come to enjoy places like this. We hadn’t realized that our last few days fell on a long holiday weekend in the United States. Earlier in the week, a walk down the main street was comfortable and parking was easy to find. On Saturday, the eight solid lanes of traffic downtown and the masses of humanity squeezing themselves along the walkways and sidewalks made it hard to travel around. We found an early parking spot and walked the Strip for the rest of the day.

The Luxor was intriguing, with the Egyptian Sphinx and temple surrounded by the oblique interior walls of the pyramid. What looks small in the picture actually holds several stores and a large empty space for milling about. Also, to put it in perspective, the horizontal lines on the interior of the pyramid are the hallways to the hotelrooms.

NewYorkNewYork was actually fairly real to life, being closed in and dark, and with lots of little restaurants and cafes littering the promenade. It certainly felt like the streets of New York.

The Venetian was a favourite. The painted concave ceiling created the illusion of sky. The little storefronts along the streetscape were charming and we enjoyed watching the gondoliers poling their craft down the tiny indoor canal while occasionally bursting out in song. As you can see from the emptiness of the shops, this was early in the week.

Many of the casinos were starting to change their seasonal decorations to reflect the approaching Chinese New Year s. In honour of the Year of the Horse, statues of proud steeds and glittering stallions were positioned in the lobbies. We, however, were riding our feet. And those tootsies were getting very tired.  Very few restaurants struck our fancy. Most of the ones inside the casinos were overpriced and busy. A shrimp palace called “Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.” and another place known as “Cheesecake Factory” suited our tastes and our finances. Seems you can’t go wrong with seafood and dessert.

We saw two shows while in Vegas, a Celine Dion concert that showcased her powerful singing, and a very entertaining Cirque du Soleil show, “O”.  Both were extremely enjoyable. And Canadian.  Bonus.

The people we met, in seats beside us, or on the scenic overlooks on the roads, were often Canadian. In fact, there were a few that lived very close to our Ontario roots - a couple from Kingston, and a man from Tweed. Small world, indeed.

Meanwhile, we were very glad that our accommodations were well off the Strip. It was quieter and definitely calmer. It was also closer to other attractions that we appreciated after such overt largess, things a little more up our alley. Red Rock Canyon was an afternoon’s drive, but a whole world away from the glitter of downtown. Especially intriguing were the crossing signs for the desert tortoise and wild burros. Despite our best efforts, we saw neither one.

Another relaxing day was spent driving through the Valley of Fire State Park. We found a place to picnic near a short hiking trail where petroglyphs had been etched along the red canyon walls. There were many unique rock formations in vibrant colours all around us, and it was warm and sunny.  A perfect time and place for a picnic.

The lights of Vegas may rule the night, but as an early riser, I was more impressed by the brilliant red on the cliffs at dawn.

Talk about “over the top”.

W

Fixin' to stay

We did head north, but it was a much more leisurely trip than our last month of travelling. We finally had time to slow down and enjoy the ride. The weather was sunny and dry, warm in the afternoons and cool at night. Ideal weather for travelling the week before Christmas.

We drove up through the San Joaquin Valley, the green grocers of California. With mountains on both sides, this huge valley is flat and fertile. Big fields of crops are on both sides of the highway, intersected by the aqueducts bringing water from the mountains in the north.  Orchards of citrus and pistachio trees are planted in mechanically precise rows and stretch over large areas. Most fields and orchards are bare of any identifying marks, so the game going down the road is “what do you think is growing here?” Occasionally the name of the farm gives us an obvious clue, but rarely did we see anything as blatant as this citrus grove, which spelled out in big signs whether the trees were “lemon”, “orange”, or “mandarin”.

The aqueduct system was built in the ‘60s. An engineering marvel, it turned the valley from the semi-arid desert that it used to be into productive land. It spreads throughout the entire 450 mile length of the valley in a series of canals and pumping stations to get the water to agricultural fields and urban centers alike. Hubby, of course, merely looked on it as a likely place to do some fishing. Unfortunately for our dinner that night, the water was low and the only one successfully catching fish was a blue heron along the canal.

We stopped at the large San Luis Reservoir that holds the water before it flows down along the canals and aqueducts to the south. The state recreation area that surrounds the reservoir is used both for fishing and boating in the reservoir itself, and for hiking and camping in the hills around it. On our hike to the top of one of the hills, we were lucky enough to see a small sample of the elk that had been reintroduced into this area in 1974.

It was a short trip to our final stop of 2013.  The fridge in the trailer was emptied and our clothes moved out for the 2 months we plan to be here. The trailer is being stored, rather than us living in it this time. We settled into my sister-in-law’s house, taking full advantage of the washing machine (and hastily put up clothesline), the full size oven and the abundance of freezer space. It was nice to see how well the lawn and garden plants had thrived during the two years since we had been here last.

There will be a short break over the Christmas holidays, visiting family and sharing meals all around. Then it is down to business. I get to dabble in paint, and hubby will be putting all his energy into maintenance and organization.  

He does love to boss everyone around.

W