Sunday

600am and out to Red Rocks Canyon. Drove the loop tour and saw some interesting rock formations. Very few people. More motor cycles than people there for the hiking/sights. The loop being one way and perfectly paved drew dozens of sport bike riders "mildly exceeding" the posted 35mph. Sounded neat at first echoing off the canyon side. An hour later it was pretty annoying. And I am a passive fan of the sound at that.
If you have 27 year old bonded front teeth, I do not recommend Nature Valley granolla bars. Jaw muscles easily exceed molecular fracture tolerances. 1/4 front tooth down the hatch. Didnt even feel it till I finished the first bar.
Colud have been much worse.

Hiked up a trail who's name I do not recall to a waterfall. Was hopefull given the heavy rain storms that came through the day before there may be some running water. A pretty rugged hike. A guy with 2 kids and a boxer came along a bit later as I was farting with the camera settings. I overheard him say to his kids that he was sorry but forgot his phone in the car and can't get a picture. I offered to take it for him and email it to him.Turned out his brother is the drummer for The Killers. If I have heard of them, they must be pretty big. Observed tour of hot colored 3 wheeled hybred scooter/horse chariots piloted by a mix of tourists, some of whom looked terribly out of place to the point they may have lost a bet.


Rio Car equivelent: 2010 Black Honda accord coupe loaded with leather, lowered, but tastefully, stock exhaust.
Headed to Rio for dinner at Carnival World Buffet. Billed as the largest and  best in Vegas. It was the size of a small Kroger and had 300 choices. Food was very good. Many veg options. I don't get why Americans are overweight.

Drove over to Ballagio parking garage and dug out the camera. Time to play with some night photos and see/record the fountain show. (TBC)

Sat: Dam big and vice versa

6.5 million tons of concrete. 7.2 trillion gallons of water. More neat numbers: lake at pool level could cover PA with 2 inches of water. More incredible is that TS Lee dumped 10 or more inches of rain on 20 eastern states. According to NOAA. Anybody? How many Lake Meads were dumped by that storm?

Boulder City had some intereting life sized animal lawn ornaments. Giraffs and horses.
Dam tour was interesting. Short as in you only get to see a diverter tunnel and bank 1 of the top of the turbines. $7 was well spent however. The guide knew her material very well, but only seemed to have 1 setting. Loud and silly. It would have been fine if the group of 20ish adults were in fact 1st grade school kids. I was expecting a telletubie to pop out of a doorway at any moment and someone in the group to get slimed.

Lotus of Siam for dinner:

Would never have given it a thought had I not read about it.

The nails accentuate the frame i think.

Dozens of pictures with owner/chef with famous/quasi people Every wall is covered. A couple of boxes of trim nails at least.

 Rated as the best Tai in Nevada. Very hyped. 830 pm. 1 hour wait at the bar. Was entertained chatting with a gentleman who works at the Forum Shoppes at Cesar's. Charming chap. Saw immediately I would have to work in mentioning my girlfriend as it was clear, interest was, shall we say, in the air.

Red Tai was great. May try another dish there as it is a mile from the hotel.

Need to look up "mang" in Tai

Buy one drive-through wedding get 30 day same as cash divorce financing coupon

Friday

Casinos are not all created equal. Madalay Bay for example understands light. Color, intensity, positioning, direction, intentional use of shadows etc. If Apple designed a casino I imagine it to look like Mandalay.  Car equivalent: 2012 BMW M3 Sedan

Riviera....well perhaps in 1974 light bulbs came in one setting...on. Then in 1983 someone figured out how to make them blink.               Fast.          They added mirrors and chrome sometime after that. The effect somewhat akin to adding 3 microphones and a 400 watt amp to your 10 year old sons drum set. You could but WHY for gods sake? If the designer of the Hasbro game Operation designed a hotel/casino it would perhaps please the senses better than Riviera.

Friday:
9am Check out of the Circus. Car Equivalent = 1992 Chevy Caprice.

Back to the Expo. More great shots to be had in the model studios.

He was on of the models on Thursday. I did not get any shots of him as there were too many people to get a decent shot.

Lunch in Mandalay. I have never seen interior lighting as amazing as this. Hope to go back to get some photos. Perhaps spend a day photoing casino interiors.

2pm to the fashion mall to get some shoes and a couple shirts at Dillards. 65% off sale. Bonus.

I heard the education system is bad in Vegas. This is sign made the point clear to the point of alarming.

Check in to Riviera. Car = 1978 stretched and lowered rust spoted Vega with underside neon and 20 inch Chromies

Against better internal voice judgement, saw the show Crazy Girls. It was a human incarnation of the hotel. Embodying it's likeness to a T. Well done Riv!

The window view also on par with the establishment:

Thursday (Water)

735am vegas. Flight was delightful. Oxygen masked stayed stowed.

Seat cusion bouancy not tested.

As the $24 budget vehicles from Alamo do not have power windows/locks...umm...decided on a silver 2.5 Jetta. As much as I never liked the looks (ask TJ) Its a great driving car. Interior design is nice and German however the materials are less than ideal. Great bottomend. Surprisingly so. Very simular feel and sound to BMW 330i. Of course being used to the FIT, anything other than a Kia Rio will seem powerful by comparison. You can get this car for 18k? Interesting.

Observed frail homeless man accepting a few dollars from passerby. Looked up with a nod to the giver. 5 min later I bought two 32oz dasanis a few blocks down the street. Walked back and offered the man the second water bottle. He stood, looked me in the eye and bowed 3 times saying "bless you friend" Unlike most in bloomington these folks "look" truely homeless.

Shot the manadatory Vegas sign. Said hello to Bigbird. Has an afroamerican dialect? Whole knew?
8-1130am Walked the southern end of the strip from Excaliber past NY NY, Tropicana, MGM, Montey Carlo. 12 headed to Sahara Camera to pickup my 24-105L and the five pound dumble 100-400, (for sunsets)  Had a good Korean veggie noodle lunch. Headed back to Mandalay for Photo Con.1-5pm  Mandalay is beautiful. Very classy. Expo was fantastic. Met Scott Kelby. Very humble guy for a "photo rockstar author" I have 5 of his 74 books on the subject. Pretty much ignored all the gadget booths, went strait back to the 4 "studio shooting booths" Each booth had a pro photog or 2 talking about how they set up the light for the shoot and basic camera setting suggestions. I learned alot from George Simian. http://www.georgesimian.com/ on Fridays visit.

630 pm checked into the Circus. Not as Circussy as I imagined.  Car equivalent: 1985 Cutlass Sierra.

Room was better than expected for the rate. 33rd floor view was neat. The little things were there too. Organized the 3 kids (camera and associated support gear). Having 3 bags that "russian doll" into one roller carry on giving a total of 28 pockets not counting my 10 pockets in my cargo shorts, to loose, I mean put camera stuff in creates "neat" moments of "where the hell did I put that lense cap" Pretty much have an efficient system figured out now. Sleep 930pm.