Our hotel - the Excalibur
The Las Vegas Strip
We arrived in Vegas on Saturday morning, picked up the car and headed for the Strip. It is always strange to see with your own eyes places you have only seen on TV or in brochures. I sell a lot of Vegas, and while I am promise I am not trying to mask this trip as a 'work trip', it really was 'helpful' to see Vegas for myself.
As for my impression of Las Vegas. . . I was pretty much 'done' with it by the time we found our way into the hotel parking lot, walked through the smokey casino to the check in desk and up to our room. Probably not a fair judgement - but I am relatively intuitive. And my suspicions were confirmed that I am not much into what Vegas has to offer.
However, I greatly enjoyed going to see STOMP Out Loud, and the Medieval Dinner Show, Tournament of Kings, at our hotel.
But the true highlights were our day trips outside of Vegas. On Sunday we drove to Hoover Dam, one of the world's greatest engineering accomplishments. From there we drove to Kingman, Arizona and worshipped with the Desert church of Christ. They were a warm and welcoming congregation. Fellowship seems all the more sweet when you are away from home. And then we drove about 4 hours to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon is beyond spectacular. Truly breathtaking. I found a great place to get off the trail and out on to a rock overhang. I had seen a couple out there and thought how proud my husband would be to have a picture of his wife out there (since I usually ruin his fun with 'babe...no...be careful...don't do that...) But alas, a group of Chinese tourists thwarted my (rare) attempt at bravery. They created quite a scene by yelling at me . . . first in Chinese, and then very sternly in English - 'NO!' 'DON'T DO IT' ' TOO DANGERGOUS'. As people stopped and gathered, and they continued to yell, I thought it best to abandon my mission. Sigh.
Below is what I was going for (the danger shot)
And here I am stopped in my tracks
In lieu of this, Kari got a great picture of me sitting very safely with my legs hanging over the Grand Canyon. (see above) And in hindsight - I feel like that was quite brave enough. Little did I know that just down the path a little was my real shot at bravery - a tarantula! For those who know me, you know that I am extremely arachnaphobic. But, wow . . . a wild tarantula! I followed it with my camera for a good five minutes trying to get a good picture of it. As it turns out, I think that me taking a picture of a live tarantula made Jason MUCH prouder than risking my life on the Canyon Rim for the sake of a good picture. Good times.
On Monday we set out for Zion National Park. Again - spectacular. Being at the base of these sandstone cliffs and rock formations is so different from gazing down into a canyon. No attempts at bravery here - unless almost running out of gas counts.
Our last night in Vegas Kari wanted to do something memorable. She is probably sorry she chose me as her travel companion because we ended up eating Cold Stone ice-cream in bed. I know . . . I am so wild.
(comments on bravery appreciated)
