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This semester has been really intense, so I have not been writing in my journal and, therefore, I don't think I ever mentioned that we were going to Vegas for Spring Break. My dad turned 70 on his last birthday, and I think this had some sort of goading effect on him, as in he realized that he doesn't have all the time in the world to do various things that he wants to do; my grandmother (his mom) only decided she wanted to travel once she was too infirm to do so. Anyway, long story short, my parents invited Bobby and me to go with them to Vegas for Spring Break, so here we are.
The funny thing is that, when I was a kid, Vegas was constantly held over us as the crowning achievement in vacations, always set for next year. Next year, next year ... considering that, prior to about 1:30 PM EST yesterday, the furthest west I'd been was West Virginia, next year never came then, but I guess it finally has now.
The flight was uneventful. Our past few flights have been to Europe, and it's seemingly impossible to get a flight from the east coast U.S. to Europe that doesn't leave at night, so it was nice to fly during the day for once, rather than trying unsuccessfully to sleep and arriving exhausted. The highlight of the flight was flying over the Grand Canyon and the desert more generally. I loved the desert as a kid (in my imagination since, as noted above, "next year" never came!) and the closest I've come to this point is the dry forest in southern Puerto Rico. The middle "flyover" states were pretty uneventful except that the roads were very, very straight, and I was in the midst of thinking that the world looks pretty much the same everywhere from the air when the landscape began to change, and the earth went brown and then red, with the mesas sketched in long, graceful curves, the stretches of red-brown land occasionally broken by mountains, some of them with snow at the tops. Then the Grand Canyon, which was ... grand.
Vegas looks pretty much like it does on movies and TV. This is going to be an interesting experience, for the people-watching alone. After we arrived last night, we had dinner reservations and tickets to see the Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show Love. I was tired from the week leading up to our departure, which was crammed with preparing for a week's absence from my various obligations, and already footsore and hungry, being as it was hours past suppertime by my mental clock. It was only a two-block walk, according to Dad; Bobby and I, never having been here before, took him at his word. It wasn't a two-block walk; it was almost a two-mile walk that made us late for our dinner reservation, to say nothing of the fact that I had no energy for such a walk, and my feet were dead by the time we got there. I love walking places--I think it's the best way to get to know a place--but last night was not the night for it.
The show was great. There were two young men two rows in front of us who looked like Beavis and Butthead and showed up drunk with huge drinks in their hands who got kicked out after the one passed out in his seat. It's Vegas, I guess! Given the costs of show tickets, though, to say nothing of the probable cost of those drinks, that was an expensive no-shit story to tell their friends, if getting kicked out of a Cirque du Soleil show is worth bragging about. I guess to some people it is! It definitely added a little something to the show, especially considering that a theme in the show was challenging authority, so there are hippies on the stage being accosted by cops in riot gear, while two kids that look like Beavis and Butthead are being dragged up the steps by a blond woman in a business suit. An interesting contrast and sad commentary on the rebellious nature of my generation!
Then we took a cab back to the hotel.
It is now a little after nine. I have pruned by email inbox and answered/handled what I must; Bobby is snowboarding today. He would find a place to go snowboarding in the desert! So I'm with my parents all day today. I'm going to call them now to see about breakfast, then plan to spend the day by the pool, but before anyone gets too excited that I'm loosening up in the sin-saturated desert climate of Las Vegas, Nevada, I'll be reading for grad school while I do. I did get all of my writing assignments done, so I won't have to write while I'm here, but the reading is unavoidable.
The funny thing is that, when I was a kid, Vegas was constantly held over us as the crowning achievement in vacations, always set for next year. Next year, next year ... considering that, prior to about 1:30 PM EST yesterday, the furthest west I'd been was West Virginia, next year never came then, but I guess it finally has now.
The flight was uneventful. Our past few flights have been to Europe, and it's seemingly impossible to get a flight from the east coast U.S. to Europe that doesn't leave at night, so it was nice to fly during the day for once, rather than trying unsuccessfully to sleep and arriving exhausted. The highlight of the flight was flying over the Grand Canyon and the desert more generally. I loved the desert as a kid (in my imagination since, as noted above, "next year" never came!) and the closest I've come to this point is the dry forest in southern Puerto Rico. The middle "flyover" states were pretty uneventful except that the roads were very, very straight, and I was in the midst of thinking that the world looks pretty much the same everywhere from the air when the landscape began to change, and the earth went brown and then red, with the mesas sketched in long, graceful curves, the stretches of red-brown land occasionally broken by mountains, some of them with snow at the tops. Then the Grand Canyon, which was ... grand.
Vegas looks pretty much like it does on movies and TV. This is going to be an interesting experience, for the people-watching alone. After we arrived last night, we had dinner reservations and tickets to see the Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show Love. I was tired from the week leading up to our departure, which was crammed with preparing for a week's absence from my various obligations, and already footsore and hungry, being as it was hours past suppertime by my mental clock. It was only a two-block walk, according to Dad; Bobby and I, never having been here before, took him at his word. It wasn't a two-block walk; it was almost a two-mile walk that made us late for our dinner reservation, to say nothing of the fact that I had no energy for such a walk, and my feet were dead by the time we got there. I love walking places--I think it's the best way to get to know a place--but last night was not the night for it.
The show was great. There were two young men two rows in front of us who looked like Beavis and Butthead and showed up drunk with huge drinks in their hands who got kicked out after the one passed out in his seat. It's Vegas, I guess! Given the costs of show tickets, though, to say nothing of the probable cost of those drinks, that was an expensive no-shit story to tell their friends, if getting kicked out of a Cirque du Soleil show is worth bragging about. I guess to some people it is! It definitely added a little something to the show, especially considering that a theme in the show was challenging authority, so there are hippies on the stage being accosted by cops in riot gear, while two kids that look like Beavis and Butthead are being dragged up the steps by a blond woman in a business suit. An interesting contrast and sad commentary on the rebellious nature of my generation!
Then we took a cab back to the hotel.
It is now a little after nine. I have pruned by email inbox and answered/handled what I must; Bobby is snowboarding today. He would find a place to go snowboarding in the desert! So I'm with my parents all day today. I'm going to call them now to see about breakfast, then plan to spend the day by the pool, but before anyone gets too excited that I'm loosening up in the sin-saturated desert climate of Las Vegas, Nevada, I'll be reading for grad school while I do. I did get all of my writing assignments done, so I won't have to write while I'm here, but the reading is unavoidable.
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