That was a long drive - 5 hours each way, to the southern rim of the Canyon. But, it was well worth it! It started with the breakfast in the same diner - The Coffee Cup is its name - in Boulder City. Then onward across Arizona's highways to the Grand Canyon National Park. There were many cars and quite a lot of tourists. The elk was around and feeding near the road and people stopped everywhere, making it difficult to pass, to take pictures of the elk, despite the enormous sign at the entrance warning not to approach the elk and other wildlife as it could be dangerous. The digital camera revolution which placed it in everyone's cell phone, made a paparazzi out of everyone. Disgusting.
The Canyon was breathtaking, as I knew it would be, and as I remembered. The vastness of it, the redness, the beauty! It's one of those rare things in life that can be neither described in words, nor captured in pictures--the only way to experience it is to be there! To stand at the edge of the crumbly rock, to look at its belly with horizontal layers of pink rock sliced through by many millennia of floods and winds; to feel its grand-ness and your own insignificance. That's where the Nature made sure to show off its work and put a human into perspective, as if saying: "Look what I can do, and you'll stay just one of my minor creations, small, unimportant and vain, until I make you perish".
We stopped at a few viewpoints, took our pictures, squeezed by the others armed with cameras, clicking and snapping away. All along I craved to sit down somewhere, away from the tourists (impossibility at that touristy photo-stretch of the canyon) put down my camera, let the wind sing to my ears through the ancient rocks and let the canyon talk to me in its many sounds. To allow the heart to fill up with it, if that was at all possible.
The weather must have also been fed up with us tourists, because it sent a huge mass of clouds which slowly cast a deep shadow over the canyon, but not before we reached the end and saw it all. Maybe Mother Nature felt my deep respect for its artwork and allowed us to finish admiring it, before she sent the rain along to wash out the human maggots.
We drove back to Vegas between the two storm systems, with rain lines trailing visibly from the clouds to the left and an impressive lightning show to the right of us. But, other than a few drops on the windshield of our rented Chrysler, we passed through mostly dry.
The problem turned out to be finding a place to eat--we stopped again in Boulder City at 9 PM, but all the restaurants we saw along the way were closed already. So, on we went to Vegas, returned the car at the after hours drop off at Stratosphere hotel and casino and had another Denny's dinner across the street from it, before grabbing a cab to our hotel.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Hoover Dam & Red Rock
Fed up with the Strip, we picked up the rental car I booked yesterday, and headed out of town.
It was a gorgeous day to visit Hoover Dam, though it was hot. Mom had hard time walking under the scorching sun, but enjoyed the view. After walking (a little) across the dam and taking pictures, we drove up to the new bridge they built way above the dam. It wasn't built yet when M and I were married in Vegas 13 years ago, but now it's dominating the view over the canyon, the dam and the lake Meade. As expected, there were hordes of tourists.
After the heat exposure at the dam, we needed a shade and a cold beer, and M guided us to Boulder City, where we sat at a diner in which the present time was still 1955. The walls were of sheet metal, covered with pictures of soldiers and water skiers. There was a long bar along one side, where locals had their lunch and coffee and chatted amiably with waiters and each other. The locals were friendly and chatty with us too - I had a brief conversation while waiting for the loo with a man who lived his whole life in Boulder City and informed me that the winter is "harsh" there with temperatures dropping to around 20 C!
Outside the diner, which advertised mouthwatering homemade cinnamon rolls, but ran out of them, we had an ice cream in a local shop in a strip along the main street. The rest were family houses on beautiful lawns, clean and picturesque, like a postcard from the time long past, on which the colors somehow managed not to fade. Then it was on to Red Rock.
The Red Rock park was something completely else. Breathtaking views of the sand and water washed red sand-rocks, some bleached to pink, with white stripes showing the currents that shaped it in the past, others were red rocks topped with white rocks, then further down the Nature's painter reversed the colors and put white rocks topped with red. We climbed down a little slope, took pictures left and right and realized in how bad a shape mom really is, when she couldn't lift her leg to mount an ankle-height rock climbing back up toward the car. She went over it on her knees, brushing everything off with a smile, but the fact that she is so immobile makes me worried.
After a longish drive around the park and more stops for picture-snapping, it was time for dinner at a Vegas' suburb in a sports bar which had a wing and beer special, so that is what we had.
To crown the almost-perfect day, M and I went for a swim at the hotel's pool in the atrium. It's under the open sky with palm trees and a jacuzzi. It wasn't much of a swim, because the pool was only 3 ft deep, but we enjoyed it. The best part was when M brought two glasses of Californian red wine from the bar and we lounged on the chairs, alone in the pool area, and sipped. Then we sipped some more in a jacuzzi, and finally were washed up enough for bed.
It was a gorgeous day to visit Hoover Dam, though it was hot. Mom had hard time walking under the scorching sun, but enjoyed the view. After walking (a little) across the dam and taking pictures, we drove up to the new bridge they built way above the dam. It wasn't built yet when M and I were married in Vegas 13 years ago, but now it's dominating the view over the canyon, the dam and the lake Meade. As expected, there were hordes of tourists.
After the heat exposure at the dam, we needed a shade and a cold beer, and M guided us to Boulder City, where we sat at a diner in which the present time was still 1955. The walls were of sheet metal, covered with pictures of soldiers and water skiers. There was a long bar along one side, where locals had their lunch and coffee and chatted amiably with waiters and each other. The locals were friendly and chatty with us too - I had a brief conversation while waiting for the loo with a man who lived his whole life in Boulder City and informed me that the winter is "harsh" there with temperatures dropping to around 20 C!
Outside the diner, which advertised mouthwatering homemade cinnamon rolls, but ran out of them, we had an ice cream in a local shop in a strip along the main street. The rest were family houses on beautiful lawns, clean and picturesque, like a postcard from the time long past, on which the colors somehow managed not to fade. Then it was on to Red Rock.
The Red Rock park was something completely else. Breathtaking views of the sand and water washed red sand-rocks, some bleached to pink, with white stripes showing the currents that shaped it in the past, others were red rocks topped with white rocks, then further down the Nature's painter reversed the colors and put white rocks topped with red. We climbed down a little slope, took pictures left and right and realized in how bad a shape mom really is, when she couldn't lift her leg to mount an ankle-height rock climbing back up toward the car. She went over it on her knees, brushing everything off with a smile, but the fact that she is so immobile makes me worried.
After a longish drive around the park and more stops for picture-snapping, it was time for dinner at a Vegas' suburb in a sports bar which had a wing and beer special, so that is what we had.
To crown the almost-perfect day, M and I went for a swim at the hotel's pool in the atrium. It's under the open sky with palm trees and a jacuzzi. It wasn't much of a swim, because the pool was only 3 ft deep, but we enjoyed it. The best part was when M brought two glasses of Californian red wine from the bar and we lounged on the chairs, alone in the pool area, and sipped. Then we sipped some more in a jacuzzi, and finally were washed up enough for bed.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Las Vegas Strip
Today was a full day of the strip, at the end of which all three of us concluded one day of Vegas is quite enough! After a breakfast at Boulevard Mall, where I managed to buy the SIM card from T-mobile and officially got us connected to the internet, we headed to the Venetian casino, where mom was sufficiently and appropriately amazed. After that was a long-ish walk to the Paris casino, with stops along the way, dinner at McDonalds (I know, I know, but the overpriced and underserved food in overcrowded casino restaurants didn't appeal to us after the whole day), the fountain show at Belaggio, Margaritas in a Mexican bar across the street from the fountain, while waiting for the nightfall, another fountain show and quick feel of the night on the strip together with crowds, and back to the hotel around 9. We booked a rental car for tomorrow - god bless the Internet on the phone, which flows freely now - and tomorrow we'll be going out of town.
A few quick observations - women, especially young ones, dress up at night, although some may say they undress. There's a lot of flesh, some pleasant to look at, some not so much. Lots of mini skirts barely covering sensitive parts, lots of legs. At some point at night a girl ran by barefoot from one hotel toward another, in an undershirt, wearing nothing down but the bikini bottom. Ah, Vegas.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Las Vegas
My mom is visiting, she arrived last week and, since she believes she wouldn't be able to endure such a long trip again, we wanted to make this time memorable, so we booked a surprise trip to Las Vegas, leaving today.
The flight was uneventful, but good. Landed in Vegas in time, found the hotel--Renaissance hotel on Paradise rd. away from the strip, to stay away from the noise and bustle.
After settling in, we went for a walk with mom to the strip. It was almost an hour of slow slog through the desert heat. Finally there and famished, we found Dany's restaurant for dinner, which was disappointing mostly because they didn't serve alcohol. We were fantasizing about beer ever since the first breath of that overheated air. Finally, mom couldn't walk any longer and we managed to take a cab back to the hotel.
After dropping mom off to rest, M and I returned to the strip. Vegas is crowded during the day--that is, the Strip is crowded, away from the Strip, it's a desert--metaphorical and real--but at night the crowds multiply tenfold. Walking the street becomes a fight for survival, and it became a bit too much for our tired minds picking the way through the crowds waiting for the Treasure Island pirate show. Finally, we stepped on the street going back to our hotel and tried to hail a cab. After about 20 minutes and numerous cabs zooming past empty, we went, pissed, to a hotel and grabbed one there. It turns out in Vegas cabs are not allowed to pick up fares on the street, it has to be at a taxi station - either at a hotel, casino, or any of numerous other spots. Who would've known!
The flight was uneventful, but good. Landed in Vegas in time, found the hotel--Renaissance hotel on Paradise rd. away from the strip, to stay away from the noise and bustle.
After settling in, we went for a walk with mom to the strip. It was almost an hour of slow slog through the desert heat. Finally there and famished, we found Dany's restaurant for dinner, which was disappointing mostly because they didn't serve alcohol. We were fantasizing about beer ever since the first breath of that overheated air. Finally, mom couldn't walk any longer and we managed to take a cab back to the hotel.
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