The friend Denis is visiting works at the J. Paul Getty Museum. His name is Paul. He had the day off yesterday, so he took us on a tour. The museum is on a hill, so we had to take a tram to get to the top.
The architect of the museum used a theme of 3 foot by 3 foot squares. It was in the floors, windows, and walls.
We first looked at some paintings, then some rooms furnished with period furniture and sculptures. I liked this bed. It was ginormous.
We took a break to walk down some outside stairs. It was a perfect opportunity for a senior picture:
Paul is an expert on the life and work of a ground-breaking photographer named Paul Outerbridge. He gave us lots of background info on a show of Outerbridge’s work at the Getty. It was cool.
At dinner, I met a friend of Paul’s who has lurked a little at Bradaptation. Denis told Paul about Bradaptation and Paul told Gene. Gene visits with some regularity. It was fun to talk with him. If you comment today, say “hi” to Gene!
After dinner, Gene drove us to Hollywood, where we walked the sidewalk in front of the Kodak Theatre. It was awesome. I had a lot of trouble deciding whose handprints to get a picture of. Because of Vegas, I decided it had to be Frank Sinatra.
Today was a travel day. Las Vegas and Los Angeles are about four hours apart. The time is spent almost entirely on Interstate Fifteen. It was exciting to be passing so close to the Mojave Desert. I was hoping to stop and see the desert close up, but there wasn’t any opportunity.
The landscape looked like this the whole way:
Denis took a picture of us in the car:
There were signs advertising beef jerky that was caffeinated. We simply had to stop. As it turns out, the beef jerky was pretty revolting. It had a weird texture and a strange aftertaste. The store also sold dried fruit. We got some dried pineapple. It was delicious.
Pulling out of the parking lot, I looked down the road and what did I see? The world’s largest thermometer! We stopped for a picture. Thanks for the heads-up, Deborah!
After settling in to the hotel and taking a swim in the pool, Denis’ friend took us for dinner at a Vietnamese vegan restaurant. I couldn’t pronounce the name of the dish I had, but it was a really good mix of noodles, raw vegetables, “chicken” and “beef”.
Yesterday I got all the Las Vegas basics crossed off my list.
I was going to try not to gamble at all, because I thought it would be a fun thing to claim – that I’d been to Las Vegas, but never gambled. Well, as I was watching Denis play slots, he stuck a dollar in the machine I was sitting in front of. It was a penny machine, so there wasn’t a lot of pressure, but I was still nervous. After losing a bunch of times, I won! I cashed out and was able to give Denis his dollar plus 39 cents.
Denis did a lot better than me. He was risking more money, but he won $150. What’s really impressive is that it was on a penny machine. His jackpot was actually 15000 points.
Also checked off my list: watching the musical fountains at the Bellagio.
And, most exciting: I saw a show. It was Cirque du Soleil. The show is called “O”. It involves lots of water on the stage. There was diving and swimmig and acrobatics. I got teary when it was over. I didn’t want it to stop. Or perhaps my eyes were leaking because it was 12:15am and I was starting to self-destruct. As I post this, it’s 4:40am in Baltimore. Criminy!
Today we begin Phase Two of this trip. We’ve rented a car and we’re heading to Los Angeles. Denis wanted to visit a friend, and I said “What the heck! Let’s do it.” Apparently I said this two months ago when Denis was planning this trip. I have no memory of the conversation, but it sounds fun to me. We’ll fly home from Los Angeles on Saturday.
Yesterday was a walking day. We saw many amazing sites. The hotels out here are incredible. They all have themes and they are all ginormous. Here are a few samples:
The Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas:
The Statue of Liberty at New York New York:
The Sphynx and pyramid at the Luxor:
The most shocking event of the day was a possible sighting of the Japanese Illuminati. At first, this looked like just an ordinary man:
Look at the strange marking on the cuff of his pants. Could it be the same symbol I saw at the restaurant in Baltimore?
I spent the late afternoon at the pool. It was overcast and cool. Perfect weather for lounging and reading a book. …until an extremely rude couple sat down next to me and started blaring music from their iPod. What the?
I finished the evening by watching the pirate show in front of Treasure Island. It was a little disappointing though. Instead of a good guys versus bad guys show, it was pirates versus sirens, who were more than a little slutty. I was worried about all the little kids in the audience.
So I usually have done trips to unusual destinations (destinations that aren’t Nebraska) during my spring break. Denis has been a good travel buddy for these trips. Because he wasn’t free and because I was short on cash, I stayed home this past spring break. He said he could get vacation days in June, so here I am in the unusual destination of Las Vegas.
Denis has a friend who lives here, so she picked us up from the airport. We went directly to a Philippine restaurant called Goldilocks. Apparently, people from all over the west coast drive hours to come to Goldilocks. Philippine people, that is. I was doing my part for affirmative action by being the only white person in the restaurant. The chicken adobo was good, but Denis makes a better arroz caldo.
After lunch (which was really second lunch because of the time change), we went to the hotel. We’re staying at The Venetian. It is absolutely HUGE. I guess that’s not really saying much. All the hotels on the strip in Vegas are huge.
We walked around for a while. There are many amazing sights. In our hotel there is an area that looks like outside but it’s actually inside. The ceiling is painted to look like the sky.
We had dinner a little before 6pm. My body was wondering why I was eating at 9pm. But it soon forgot about that when I proceeded to stay up well past midnight on my body-clock. I thought the food in Las Vegas was supposed to be cheap because they wanted everyone to gamble all their money away. The food is NOT cheap.
Today we have no definite plans. There is plenty more to see on the strip, so it’ll probably be more walking. Even though it doesn’t seem right to just lay around by the pool, I still want to do that. Maybe today’s the day for that too.
