From Las Vegas to Lubbock

The last stop on my vacation was Las Vegas. Last summer I flew over Las Vegas on my way home from Seattle. I remember flying over barren desert and then suddenly, as if out of nowhere, there was the Las Vegas strip lined with oversized hotels and bustling activity. It looked so exciting from the plane!

Vegas from a plane is a lot different than Vegas on foot. Yes, it is an exciting place. There is A LOT going on at ALL TIMES of the day. But Vegas is also a lot like a theme park: fake and often overpriced. There was fake Rome, fake Venice, fake Paris and fake Egypt:

There were a number of fake Elvis's and other impersonators, all of whom were pretty disgusting up close. We chose to pose with this wax replica of Elvis:

And yes, there was lots of fakeness of this nature:

The gambling in Vegas is just as gross as the Elvis impersonators. The Casinos are large, cavernous rooms with low ceilings and no natural light. The decor is as loud as the slot machines: clashing ornate carpets and wall papers with flashy lights everywhere you look. As you enter --- no, as you merely walk by --- you are hit by a unique casino odor that is probably the result of 24-hour business and numerous ashtrays littering the various gambling stations. As I see it, gambling is a form of entertainment. Like bowling or putt-putt, you pay to play. If I ever take up gambling, I'm going to need a classier gambling location than Las Vegas.

Despite the fakeness and the unappealing casinos, I LOVED the Vegas leg of our trip. First, we saw the Blue Man group, which was nothing like what I expected and very entertaining.

I also LOVED the Bellagio fountains. They were so much fun to watch. Chris took this great picture of the fountains at night.

In fact, I really liked the Bellagio hotel as well. The lobby was decorated with lovely Chihuly glass.

But the best part of Vegas was our hotel. Chris and I went from five days at rustic campsites to three nights in a luxurious room at the Trump Tower. While many things in Vegas are overpriced and fake, the Trump Tower was neither of these. It was a classy, relaxing, five-star oasis in the middle of Vegas. There was no casino and no fake theme (i.e. Rome, Paris, New York). Nor was there a mall in the hotel, freeing us from the bustling miles of corridors found in other hotels. Instead of all this, there was a quiet, elegantly appointed lobby,

equally elegant rooms,

amazing views (we were on the 58th floor and could even watch the Bellagio fountains!),

and bathrooms fit for a king (that's a TV in the mirror!).

We went to the pool and were waited on like we were at a restaurant. We went to the spa and had our sore muscles massaged. We took full advantage of the complimentary valet parking. And most importantly, we didn't break the bank. To say that we were sad to leave would be an understatement. Not only was our vacation over, but we were leaving the relaxing world of luxury.

We ran out of energy to go to the Grand Canyon. The thought of setting up yet another camp site was just too much. We opted to instead lounge around in our hotel room in Vegas. But we did make it to the Hoover Dam on our way home.

The Hoover Dam is the polar opposite of Las Vegas. It is not fake. It is over 6 million cubic yards of concrete. It is not tacky or disgusting. It is over 6 million cubic yards of concrete. It is not overpriced. It is free to look at the over 6 million cubic yards of concrete. The Hoover Dam was very hot, however, bringing back memories of our stop in Death Valley.

Twelve hours after leaving the Hoover Dam we parked our car in Lubbock and looked at the odometer: 4,522 miles roundtrip. We emptied out the trunk and were faced with two options: 1) return to real life by carrying everything upstairs, sorting it out, and doing loads of laundry, or 2) never return to work and become full time bums. We chose option one, although option two was tempting: