I have a blog?!?

2006-06-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

I always forget about this blog thing. I guess I could put some content in, since I'm basically wasting time on a Friday afternoon. Too much paleomagnetism rots the brain.

I went to Las Vegas for the first time last weekend. All I can say is, "yuck". To quote a wonderful movie from my youth, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." Seriously. Absolutely everything in that city is designed to separate you from your money. I stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton, which is off the Strip but connected to Stip hotels by monorail ($5 per trip per person each way). The Hilton is okay, but the restaurants we went to at it seemed pretty cheap - basically Denny's quality food but twice the price (granted, we didn't go for the most expensive places - I hear Benihana is excellent). There isn't really anything to do but gamble, hang out at the shadeless pool in 105 degree weather, sit in your room and watch World Cup Games (guess what we did?) or pay bucks to go to the Strip. Want a bottle of water? That'll be four bucks. Want a shady spot by the pool? You can rent one by the half day, only $40. Want to play a little blackjack? $10 minimum bets across the board. Hell, even the MGM had $5 tables (the lowest I saw).

That said, the Strip is pretty impressive. Huge hotel after huge hotel. Most of them, however, seem flashy and empty of everything but extremely shallow people with gambling problems. Pretty much all of Vegas is skin-deep; some of the casinos have interesting architecture on the outside (Luxor, Excaliber), but once inside they all just funnel you into nearly identical casinos. Boring. But wait, what about the shows? They might be good, but at a minimum of $40 per person (for the fricking Star Trek Experience at the Hilton) I'm going to have to pass (and did).

There are exceptions. The MGM Grand was incredible. The sheer number of high-quality (and expensive) restaurants is amazing. And each one seems to be beautifully designed down to the last detail. We ended up eating at the bar of Emeril's New Orleans Fish House (didn't want to wait for a table), which was excellent for ~$50 a person including a few drinks. Did I mention the restaurants are a little on the expensive side? The public space in the hotel is simply enormous - I think the entire downtown of my hometown could just about fit in "restaurant alley".

Likewise, the Bellagio was pretty impressive. And enormous (so is the MGM - it is absolutely incredible how much air-conditioned space there is in Vegas). The fountain show out front is short but kind of neat (and the rail around the lake seems to be packed for each show). Inside the lobby is a gorgeous ceiling/sculpture made up of hundreds of blown glass... things. They look like the big glass platters you might see in high-end jewelry shops, attached to the ceiling and lit from behind. There is also a very nice, very large miniature trainset with little wooden sculptures of lots of American landmarks. Sort of funky, but so nicely done it is worth seeing. They also have dancing fountains set into a sort of jungle-themed area, which are pretty neat (they shoot little arcing streams of water that sort of chase each other around, winding through the trees and over the walkways). Pretty cool.

Aside from the casinos, there really doesn't seem to be much to do - though I suppose there are probably all kinds of clubs, which some people are into, but I'm certainly not one of them. Nothing to do outdoors, but then who would want to be outside in the desert in the summer? It is garish, noisy, shallow, busy, and generally a place I will try to avoid to the best of my ability in the future. So, why'd I go? A good friend of mine was getting married there. Which was cool. I'd just never go to Vegas just for Vegas (although all those restaurants in the MGM are calling to me... and the lions were cute).

Snow Day

2006-01-24T22:47:00.000-08:00

Angela and I went snoshoeing up near Tahoe this weekend. It was a beautiful day, clear and sunny and cold. We ended up just up the hill from Incline Village (so I guess we were in Nevada, but that's okay), in the hills (mountains) on the southeast edge of Tahoe Meadows (which you can hopefully see in the map below).

(The guy in red is our friend Jaron)

Trot Trot Trot Gobble Gobble Trot Trot Trot

2005-11-19T10:33:00.000-08:00

Busy weekend. Too bad I'm not going to share it with the likes of you.

I have a Blog???

I have a blog?!?

Snow Day

Trot Trot Trot Gobble Gobble Trot Trot Trot