The weather here couldn’t be better. It’s hot during the day – high 80s – a desert hot that warms you all the way through to your bones. In the evening it cools down 20 or 30 degrees, and the next morning you wake up to sunshine all over again.
During the week we ate at Binion’s Café (OK), MGM Grand (really good), Rio Buffet (extremely good) and Pampas (excellent!). One night Randy fixed halibut, and truthfully that was as good as anything we had in a restaurant.
One of the first things we did was go to Gold and Silver Pawn, which is featured on the Discovery TV show “Pawn Stars”. In this pic, Randy and Aaron are in the shadows under the sign.
On TV the building looks big outside and spacious inside. NOT!!! It’s just a small, one story building. Inside is the main room with a cattle-rail like the ones you find at Disneyland, to direct people down one side of the store and back up the other side. They are enlarging the building now, and although the outside is still being framed-up, the inside of the addition is being used to double the size of the main room, but it’s still not nearly as spacious as it looks on TV. The main characters weren’t there, but Chumlee did show up. He said he could only stay about 10 minutes, so everyone could take pictures and if they had something to be autographed, bring it to the counter. He was very friendly and nice to everyone, posing and signing as much as possible, but it’s odd that everyone was lining up to get a picture with him, just because he’s on TV.
One night we went to the Terry Fator show. He is amazing! He’s a very talented ventriloquist and a wonderful comedian. He works with a series of puppets, giving each a different personality. His bit with a member of the audience was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. And he seems to be a very nice guy, because the profits from his memorabilia was is donated to the military. Terry seems to know he’s blessed and isn’t greedy about keeping every dime to himself.
Since none of us were hard-core gamblers, we went looking for other things to do outside of Vegas. One day we drove out to the Hoover Dam, which is less than 30 miles away. Highway 93 used to run over the dam but recently they build a new bridge that bypasses it, so you have to turn off the highway to get to it. From the new bridge you get a great view of the dam. It’s not possible to get a picture of the dam without a bunch of cables in the way, but this is a working landmark, and not concerned with such things.
Nevertheless, it’s a beautiful dam. I love the way the curves of the dam work with and against the curves of its surrounding structures. Lake Mead, behind the dam, is really low now. The valley sides look whitewashed, but that’s the demarcation of how much the water level has dropped.
The next day we made the 280 mile drive to the Grand Canyon. It look over 4 hours to get there and the same to get back, but it was worth it! Words can’t describe it, and pictures will never do it justice.
One fun thing that happened there is that we found a herd of elk, and they are so used to tourists that they totally ignored everyone. We didn’t see the sign that said not to approach them until after we’d approached them, but they ignored us anyway.
Closer to the buildings some deer were milling about, looking for something to snack on. This buck is checking out the hay that is stored for the mules that tourists ride.
People in Las Vegas will do anything to make a few dollars. Folks dress up in super-hero costumes pose for pictures for tips, some do magic tricks, and one guy offered to let you take a picture with his boa constrictor for $5. I ponied up the money and loved it!
You are crazy girl. Are you headed our way in Az.? Let us know, we would love to see you.
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