Off to Vegas, baby!

I spent my childhood and adolescence exploring various countries around the world. After marrying Papaya Daddy, I finally ventured beyond the Eastern and Midwestern states in the good old US of A and have been amazed to discover how much there is to see and do in my very own home country. Imagine, I used to think the entire Southwest was one big boring flat desert with an occassional Saguaro cactus bettering the landscape. If you had asked me where the Grand Canyon was, I would probably have said "Colorodo" - because how could something as spectacular as that be in a wasteland like Arizona? And I thought California was all Hollywood - I had no idea it contained landscapes like Yosemite or the Sierras (which amazed me on our honeymoon). How wrong I was!

Well, tomorrow I get to continue the exploration of my incredible home nation by venturing into Nevada and Las Vegas. Papaya Daddy is attending a snazzy medical conference called "Got Resus?" at one of the big casino hotels on the strip, where he will learn various advanced ways and means to resuscitate various ages of people in various situations (and will even practice invasive trauma procedures on either mannequins or chunks of pig flesh, I'm not sure which). Meanwhile, I will tow the two kids around to see and do what there is to be seen and done in Vegas (for free). I have been trolling internet sites to find out what you can do in Las Vegas if gambling doesn't appeal to you and you don't need to get married or divorced, and I have am amazed. This city is a strange country and culture unto itself! It's like a weird, off-color Disney World for adults with exhorbitant prices for the more spectacular attractions.

Just one example: there's an entire Venice streetscape inside one of the hotels, with canals and gondolas and gondoliers. For a mere $18 per person, you can stand in line for a couple hours and take a 10 minute gondala ride. I've been to the real Venice before, and I think it costs about the same there for the true experience. (Needless to say, this isn't one of the things I'll be doing with my kids.) Crazy, crazy!

Thankfully, we won't be staying in the strip, since I'm not sure how long I could stand to be near casinos. We'll be in a nice, clean, chain inn and I'll navigate the Strip traffic every morning to get Papaya Daddy to his conference. We plan to have fun. I'll let you know when we return what we think about yet another new experience in this fascinating & varied nation!

P.S. I'm certainly not sad to be leaving the Hopi Reservation tonight. Currently (according to The Weather Channel), the wind is blowing steadily at 37 mph and gusting to 58 mph. You get painfully sand-blasted every time you step outside and visibility is about 1 mile. Even though it's sunny, everything (including the sky) is brown. Just the sound of the wind constantly whistling around and through the windows is starting to drive me crazy. The Papaya asked if our house was going to blow away. Our metal folding chairs are blowing across our yard. Time to go pack. GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!