you're just dead people that didn't die yet

I'm in Vegas, baby! [censored] and I were out of the hotel in the Grand Canyon before 8:30am, which is practically unheard of for my typical travel desires. I had set my alarm for 4:30 with the intention of getting up and watching the sunrise, but that intention died a silent death when the alarm went off and I reset it for seven. So, we got ready, repacked, and checked out so that we could start the drive to Las Vegas.

The drive was actually quite lovely; there's something really strange and amazing about the scrub-filled desert and the rocky, surreal landscape. Some aspects reminded me of the Deccan Plateau in India -- when a bunch of us expats went to Hampi (the Hampi Dance is your chance to do the Hamp), we saw all sorts of boulders strewn about like they'd been tossed there by giants back before all the giants were killed by a meteor (I was totally an A student when it comes to prehistory). And that kind of rock collector's dream was in evidence all throughout western Arizona -- like the rocks didn't form in a nice, sedate layering system but were dropped from the sky, shattered, and then rounded up into mounds. Pretty cool stuff, and it's no wonder that I keep thinking about writing postapocalyptics.

Luckily, I came up with an idea for a Regency series while I was driving, which I need to write down before I forget. And then, my brother and I got to Boulder City, Nevada, where we had lunch at Boulder Dam Brewing Company. We didn't have beer because we're losers, but my burger with pepperjack cheese and spicy sauce was pretty delicious. Then, we backtracked to Hoover Dam and went through the visitor center/observation deck. Hoover Dam is definitely a marvel of modern engineering and human ingenuity. Regardless of what you think of creating entire cities and farmland empires out of a desert by damming up a river and hoping for the best, Hoover Dam is an amazing accomplishment. They used enough concrete in it to pave a 16' highway all the way from Seattle to Miami, and completed the project two years ahead of schedule. Looking at it from the observation deck, it was almost impossible to comprehend how such a thing could have come into existence, particularly 80 years ago -- back when all those companies had to coordinate via letter, telegram and primitive telephone rather than email and video conferencing, and when people got paid 60 cents an hour to hang five hundred feet over a cliff stuffing dynamite into holes. If you're in the Vegas area, I highly recommend seeing it.

So after Hoover Dam, we came to Vegas, stopping at a Walmart (which, as usual, included the dregs of humanity + a kid whom I'm pretty sure was selling drugs in the parking lot) to grab a couple of things before checking into the hotel. I'm so in love with this place -- I've never been to Vegas before, but the hotel I chose seems to be a winner. It's called Vdara, which makes no sense, but it's connected to the Bellagio via a skywalk and is also next to the Aria, so the location is awesome. And, the hotel feels more intimate and posh than it would if there were a smoke-filled casino in the lobby, so I'm pretty happy. [censored] and I took showers and got ready for the evening, and then had dinner at the buffet at the Aria. The food was mostly good, and the desserts were amazing -- and I had two glasses of wine, which made me realize how much I've missed having that sweet nectar cross my lips. Then, we walked outside and and back up the strip towards the Bellagio, stopping to play some slots along the way.

The interior of the Bellagio was even more incredible than Aria, with huge masses of live flowers everywhere. At that point, I'd lost my budgeted gambling amount on slots (likely because the first slot machine I played was Lord of the Rings themed, and you know they program those to just take money from nerds), and I decided to spend my money on alcohol instead. The bartender ID'd me (and was either fishing for a bigger tip or was genuinely surprised that I'm almost thirty), then made me a mojito with a light dusting of powdered sugar on the mint leaf and enough alcohol to make up for my losses. So I drank the mojito, [censored] played some more slots, and we came back to Vdara, where we've been watching Comedy Central ever since.

And now, I should sleep; we're going to explore Vegas some more tomorrow before [censored] boards a [censored] in the late afternoon. Then, I'll have a few hours tomorrow night to do some people watching (or writing) before driving back to Palo Alto bright and early on Sunday morning. Goodnight!