Vegas, Baby!

Las Vegas, Nevada was never at the top of my wish list of places to visit.  Deep down, I think I am afraid that I am a potential gambling addict and never wanted to take the chance.  On top of that, I have asthma and cigarette smoke is my nemesis.

But, my husband is a tournament poker player.  He's gone pretty far in the ranks of the Pacific Northwest region, but has yet to make it all the way to be staked at the World Series of Poker.  Now that we live so close and the World Series of Poker is in full swing, he really wanted to go and see his poker idols in action.  So...  I tagged along for the ride to see if Las Vegas is what I imagined it to be. 

I may not have arrived with a completely open mind, but for our two day/one night visit we arrived in "style".  We were able to get an AirBnb condo high up in the Trump International Hotel and felt pretty flashy: car valet, shuttle to casinos, 42nd floor!  (Well, actually, the 42nd floor is more of a wish on the part of Mr. Trump.  The numbers in the elevator when you enter on the ground floor (after 1 Lobby) go from 34 to 50.  So, counting the 1st floor, I think that made our floor actually the 10th floor.  Is that nitpicking?  Who skips 31 floors? Maybe it's a gamblers' superstition thing.  Are 7, 13, and other numbers before 34 unlucky?  I am unable to find the answer to this, so far.  But apparently, 13 and all numbers ending in 4 are unlucky.)

Valet area in front of Trump International Hotel lobby

Yes, this is called a "condo".  Technically, it does have a "kitchen": refrigerator, two-burner stove, and a microwave oven.   There is a little living room, desk area, too, in front of the huge window overlooking the back of Las Vegas and the Erotic Heritage Museum.  (Yes, Heritage, Las Vegas is a city with a long erotic history.  But, I'm still musing over the idea of the advertised live Puppetry of the Penis.)

The aforementioned Erotic Heritage Museum, as viewed from our window

So, after our early afternoon arrival, Steve and I split up.  He Ubered over to the Rio for some fan appreciation of the World Series of Poker and was able to see and get pix of some of his poker idols in their natural habitat, while I headed for the Strip on the free Trump shuttle.  I was dropped off under the Caesar's Palace Forum Shops and preceded to get lost in what appeared to be an underground village of high fashion shopping complete with twilight sky overhead, at 2pm.  45 minutes of wandering past Gucci, Balenciaga, Louis Vitton, Chanel, etc.; stopping 3 employees to ask directions; and 3 escalators later; I headed out into the 105 degree heat to "walk The Strip".

After 40 minutes walking along The Strip upstream on the crowded sidewalks, those air-conditioned shops and my air-conditioned condo room were looking awfully good.  I realized that I was going to have to apply the Spanish lifestyle to this adventure - never be out on the street between 2 and 5pm in the heat.  

Later... Steve and I hit the entertainment row next to The LINQ and ate our dinner at the very new and very fine In and Out Burger.  It was delicious.  These are the #3 cheeseburger meals, with fresh lettuce, tomato, onions and special sauce on the burgers and fresh real-potato fries.  Mmmm.

As the sun went down, we walked up to The Bellagio and passed this Eiffel Tower replica in front of The Paris Hotel.  On our recent trip to Europe, I missed seeing Paris and this Tower.  I feel just a little bit better now that I've at least seen a replica. 😎

Steve and I are both plant and garden lovers.  We've visited many botanical gardens and big public gardens, mostly in the Pacific Northwest and Europe.  The Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Garden was a little disappointing, but when I think about it, very Las Vegas.  It reminded me of the Home and Garden Shows in the Spring - lots of potted or temporarily planted flowers in strictly planned shapes and designs.  Here are the two halves of a cut lemon (created with yellow chrysanthemums).  It has two lemon leaves on the other side that really look like slugs to me, if slugs had flowers for antlers.  Maybe these would be female slugs, high-end expensive ones.

Yes, that is Steve making a shameless sexual joke at the lemon's expense. What happens in Vegas...

Bellagio has 120 horticulturists, but I just can't take it seriously.

Very over-the-top Las Vegas style flower display

This is the display under that over-the-top hanging flower arrangement (yes, I'm laughing).

But, the Bellagio at night - Las Vegas at night - makes up for all the ridiculous masses of shopping, the soulless flower displays, and the hordes of tourists (and strangely not-out-of-place people in costumes on the street) by just turning on the Lights.

The Bellagio at night 

The Paris Hotel across the Bellagio lake

The Flamingo across the Bellagio lake with the High Roller wheel in the background

Being pushed, shoved and rubbed up against was the price to be able to take a photo from the railing along the Bellagio Lake when the "dancing fountains" started.  It was definitely worth the price and happens every 20 minutes until midnight.  The fountains danced to Cher's "Do you believe in life after love?" and then a Beatles song as we walked along the street side railing to go back to the shuttle.

For our last day in Las Vegas, we went back to the Flamingo and looked at the Flamingo Wildlife Habitat in the daylight.  There is something about flamingos - they are so ugly beautiful.  They speak to me.  Fortunately, the flamingos appear to be treated well and the grounds are green, lush and wonderful to walk through.  There are waterfalls, at least 4, and huge koi in the ponds.  I think it's my favorite place in Las Vegas.  (The Mirage Hotel has more and bigger fountains, but they are baking in the hot sun - and, let's face it, they just don't have any flamingos.)

Steve at the bottom of one of the two huge flamingos outside the casino

Signs reminded me that flamingos get their pink color from what they eat - shrimp and algae .

This area had many waterfalls and a huge pond.

The Venetian, though, is second runner up for my favorite.  The architecture is amazing, with inside and outside canals complete with gondolas and gondoliers.  This gondola below is going under the bridge and that gondolier really has to stoop to avoid getting whacked on the head.

Outside canal at the Grand Canal Shops.  There is more to the left and right.

 Of course, the Grand Canal Shops are more of the same - many, many shops, like Gucci, Ferragamo, etc., but with gondola rides.  One could get lost in here, too, which is probably by design.  Notice the twilight lighting and the fake sky ceiling, similar to the Forum Shops.  You have to give them credit for going all the way with the over-the-top structures and it works.  What's that saying - go big or go home?

Inside canal next to the Grand Canal Shops

This was a fascinating shop (can't remember the name) on the ground floor of the Forum Shops across from Caesar's Palace.  The robot sculptures were created by one particular artist and they are for sale.  Some of them are as tall as a very tall man and cost tens of thousands of dollars.  The saleswoman told me that they come apart easily for transportation.

This is a poor photo of what looks like the monster from the movie, Alien.

This appears to be Gollum from The Hobbit, my favorite character by the way,  My Precious.

The front window of the unknown shop.  That sculpture is at least 7 feet tall. 

 We were so exhausted by the heat and too much walking that I took the photos shown below on the way out of town; willing to just see The Luxor from the outside.  I actually like these sculptures and the walls with hieroglyphics carved into them better than the all glass pyramids.

The sphinx at the entrance to The Luxor Hotel

The Luxor obelisk next to the Las Vegas Monorail

Maybe someday I'll go back to Las Vegas and see the inside of The Luxor.  I bet it's beautiful.  I did love the Vegas lights, but who am I kidding, there is no freaking way I'm going back to Las Vegas.  Not in this lifetime.  Once was enough to satisfy my insatiable curiosity.  In fact, that sound was me ticking the box - Las Vegas, check!

The Phoenix Art Museum (Again)

Yes, as I pointed out in July 2017, this Tyrannosaurus Rex is sitting caged outside the entrance to the Phoenix Art Museum.  Apparently, it wasn't there from the beginning.  It was added later, along with a few other sculptures, preceded by a rather inventive ad campaign.

This tree, which takes up an entire wall, is mesmerizing.  It's actually just a looped video of a swaying silhouette, but look at it!  It goes through all the seasons - leaves change color, fall, blow away, branches twist and turn - mesmerizing. [However, it looks like you'll have to use your imagination because this video doesn't work on the blog for some reason.]

When I visited the Museum on Wednesday (June 20, 2018), so much was the same as it was almost a year ago.  However, there were a few new exhibits and this one took my fancy.  I'm a librarian (retired), after all, and this, my friends, is about BOOKS!  I wish I could have captured the mattresses, pillows, bed headboards, and spiral stairs that accompanied many of these exhibits.  My photos really only give you a small inkling of the look of the whole exhibit.

There was a room where overlaid video showed people dancing (modern dance) to a song from my generation -  The Look of Love by Dusty Springfield.  The overarching theme, in my opinion, was Love.  You can hear it in the music; see it in the man and woman dancing, in the titles of the book jackets and book covers that are mounted in a variety of ways, and read it in the huge oval installation comprised of book inscription pages.  There is a whole, six foot deep, wall of hundreds of silver-looking chains hanging from the ceiling, which you have to pass through in order to get from one side of the exhibition to another,   There appeared to be one Museum attendant whose job was mainly to untangle the chains after a few people traveled through. And, there is another area that has dozens of dangling mirrored balls, disco balls if you will, that are hanging only a few inches from the floor with a few feet between them. (No one walked through the disco balls, I guess because there was a path around them and it might actually hurt.)

Valeska Soares did a wonderful job! http://www.phxart.org/exhibition/valeska-soares

The installations are all very large.  This Green piece is about 8 feet tall - all book jackets.  If you can enlarge the photo, you'll be able to read the titles.

This Red piece is the entire corner of the room.  There were also floor pieces, like carpets with the center cut out, scattered around.

This is the oval of inscriptions.  Some are handwritten by the other or a gift-giver.  The majority are the printed dedications by the author.  What you see is a collage of single pages covering at least twenty feet of wall.

Close-ups of the individual pages.  Some are pretty fascinating.

I liked this wall best of all.  It's so colorful and most of the titles are easily read.  Of course, your neck may start getting uncomfortable trying to read the high up titles, if you "middle aged" as I am.  Also, these sections of library stairs are awfully cute, and tempting.

This was my second choice.  Bookshelves with the actual books, but they are all variations on beige and brown.  If you look very closely, you realize that every single title appears to contain the word Love.  Many are written in languages other than English, but you can still see the word Love - Amour (French), Amor (Spanish), Amore (Italian).   At least, those were the ones I recognized, but the fonts appeared to be very similar and, at first glance, the piece is rather drab.

The Girl Playing Guitar  (Pieter Janssens) is still my favorite in the whole museum.  I love the light, the detail and the fact that this is one of the very few paintings from the 17th century that I've seen that shows a female doing something for enjoyment, something other than yard or house work.  She seems so calm and content.  Of course, being an introvert, I suppose the fact that her back to the viewer 

Last, this is the painting from the 13th century that makes me giggle.  Not because of the content, but because this is the painting that my husband was looking at so closely that his nose almost touched.  He was reprimanded by a very upset docent after he did it the second time. [My giggle may actually be more of a nervous titter because the docent was very much in the right.  This is an irreplaceable treasure and ANY touch can do irreparable harm.  The signs say to stay at least 18 inches away for very good reasons.  We should be very grateful that the exhibits in this Museum are not behind bulletproof glass or a 3 foot velvet barricade as some were in Europe.]  Yes, the background is really gold leaf.  It really is magnificent, but it's no Girl Playing Guitar.

This is going to be my summer - inside with air conditioning: museums, movies, power walking the indoor shopping mall, streaming and reading or streaming in our (very nice) apartment.  It isn't even full summer yet and today, my friends, it was 111 degrees Fahrenheit just West of Phoenix, Arizona.  Yes, we had to purchase two humidifiers to make our apartment livable.  Before that, I literally shocked myself turning on any light switch, our skin started looking more than usual like parchment, and don't get me started on dry and cracking feet.  This place will suck the moisture out of you and you have to drink H2O all day long.  But, as you can see from this blog, it has its beauties.  We seem to discover more every week.