I'm trying to accept the fact that my trip is over, and Heather and I are back
in our respective workplaces. We had a wonderful time in Sin City, and
visiting Hoover Dam, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Zion National Park.
All are awesome places.

Our trip there wasn't the best. Our flight was delayed several hours. We arrived
at about 2 am, (instead of 10 :30) yet there was still a line at the rental
car agency, and at the hotel. By the time we got to our room it was almost
4 am. Once there, we spent Monday through Thursday in Vegas. We stayed at
the Flamingo, and were very satisfied. We enjoyed several meals at their
buffet, overlooking a nice courtyard with water flowing all over,
with lovely, huge Koi, goldfish and carp, flamingos, various rare and
beautiful ducks and penguins. Very cool. Bill Cosby was a "entertainment
guest" at the conference I attended, and I got Heather in to see him. He
was very funny. We also went to a comedy show at the Tropicana, with three
comedians who were pretty good. Don't ask me their names..Besides the
trop and Flamingo, we also visited most of the other big casino hotels
on the strip- the MGM Grand, the Bellagio, The Venetian, Luxor, Treasure
Island, Rio, Caesars Palace, the Mirage, Paris, "NY, NY", Mandalay
Bay, and Excalibur.

Those that are familiar with Vegas in recent years can skip the next couple of
paragraphs. I hadnt been there since the late sixties, so it is very different.
The Bellagio has a fabulous fountain, music and light show right
out front on the Strip, The Venetian (which hosted my conference) has gondola
rides with singing gondoliers, both inside or out. Inside is a long
row of fancy shops lining a canal with the ceiling pretty convincingly
painted to look like the sky at dusk (something we also saw on the row of shops
at Caesars and New York, new York, and maybe others..It seemed ubiquitous.
Mandalay Bay has a water park, complete with wave pool.
New York NewYork has a roller caoster that starts inside, but is mostly
outside, over the replica of the skyline, and Statue of Liberty, even a
harbor tugboat. Paris has a large replica of the Eiffel Tower, with a
restaraunt on the fifteenth floor. Outside Treasure Island is a replica of ship,
and a colonial town inthe Caribbean, on which they do a show complete
with acrobatics and diving. we missed that- the one time we tried, it was
cancelled because the wind was too strong. It was cancelled at the last minute,
and there was already a large crowd there, so it would have been hard
to see. The sidewalks are lined with folks, mostly Hispanics, trying to hand
people cards for call girls, with their naked pictures on them.
It was annoying. They would reach in front of you with these things, even if you were already clearly WITH a woman or a man. (Women teneded to hand pictures of naked men to the ladies) They did this thing where they hit their hands with the cards to make this noise as you went by
There were people inside th entrances of many of the casinos making offers of
free stuff, always as a come-on to attend a time-sharing sales talk.
these things were only minor annoyances. Really, we found most people friendly
and helpful, and we didnt have to wait long for much we wanted to
do. We were pleased with our room at the Flamingo, although the day we left
some rowdys moved into the next TWO rooms, all men as far as we could
hear, banging around wrestling and yelling, apparently, and as we left one guy
got locked out in his underwear and was banging on a door.
Also, early that morning some very drunk man banged on our door, and
insisted he be let in (thought it was his room) I called security, who
helped him to his own room down the hall, but not before he had collapsed on
the hall floor.

In Vegas, we stuck to the Strip We didnt bother to go downtown. We heard it is
the seedier side of town.

We enjoyed the $1 margaritas and Michelob at the Harrahs Casino Royale, just a
few feet off the Blvd. And $2 beers at our hotel, with outside seating. We
spent a while sitting there one day. WE restrqained ourselves at the slots.
Heather showed the most restraint, since she had a number of hours to herself
across a few days while I attended my conference. I think she lost
about $10, all told, and I lost maybe $2. A drop in the bucket compared to what
we spent for food. Meals on the strip werent cheap, but what we had
was good. We DIDNT go to Dennys.

We took an afternoon to go to Red Rock Canyon, which had been touted as a place
to visit, and it was nice, but not terribly impressive, especially
compared with what was to come. Namely Hoover Dam, and a place called the
Valley Of Fire. They are both an easy drive from Vegas. The Valley of Fire was
almost void of people when we went,and quite a sight. We went for a
couple of short hikes there, marveled at the colorful and odd rock formations,
and spotted lots of interesting petroglyphs. We also enjoyed spotting
the lizards and cliff-dwelling chipmunks along the trails.

We drove out of Vegas heading for Bryce up I-15. It crosses over into the NW
corner of Arizona (also known as the Strip- the part of Arizona separated from
the rest by the Grand Canyon) by way of the Virgin River Canyon, which
is quite impressive. We stopped at a little cafe for lunch after we hit Utah.
We were impressed how green it looked compared to SE Nevada (still not
real green, but there are some trees and grass). I think it is the
runoff from the mountains. We were driving through obvious river valleys.

We stayed at Ruby's Inn, a Best Western just outside the park at Bryce Canyon.
Nothing remarkable, but it was fine. We had some time to start looking at Bryce
the day we got there. BTW, Bryce canyon isnt really a canyon. Rather
it is a series of natural amphitheatres
in an escarpment, an obvious edge beetween one layer of rock and another. the
remarkable formations at Bryce were carved from sandstone.

Photos can be seen here under "Las Vegas..."