It’s Twilight Time

Heavenly shades of night are falling … it’s twilight time – a Twilight LINE, actually.

When I arrived at the movie theater yesterday just after the noon hour, I noticed about a dozen people camped out in a line.

What the heck were they there for?

The girl at the ticket office said the people in line had bought tickets to the midnight showing of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the final movie of the Twilight trilogy.

Goodness. Guess that’s what I get for not keeping up with pop culture. The “Twilight” books and movies skew heavily toward teen-aged girls and their mothers. And in fact, marketing has generally been limited toward them, leaving out general adults and young men altogether.

No wonder I’m in the dark about the young Twilight vamps and wolves.

Summer Snow in the Sierras

It may have been 102-106 degrees when I was in Las Vegas a few days ago, but it’s helpful to remember that summer officially began only last week.

I was reminded of that when I looked out my airplane window about half-way between Vegas and San Francisco as we passed over the Sierra Madres.

That’s snow – a LOT of snow – on the mountains!

Cool, huh?

My Hotel Rooms in Las Vegas

I was fortunate to have complimentary rooms at two hotels during my recent vacation trip to Las Vegas – at the Orleans for two nights before moving to The Palazzo for the remainder of my stay.

It had been a couple of years since I last stayed at the Orleans, so I was interested to see what kind of improvements they’d made to the rooms.

They did a good job; I was pretty impressed with the room, the furnishings and appointments.

My Room at the Orleans

Then I moved over to The Palazzo, the sister property to The Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip.

This is an entirely new experience; usually, when I stay at the Strip hotel, it’s Harrah’s.

All I can say about my room at The Palazzo is … the difference in class really shows. The room was luxurious, on a par at least with The Bellagio. There was entirely too much in the room for just one person. For example, there were two high-definition flat screen television sets in the room, and that’s not counting a small flat-screen in the bathroom.

The drapes and Roman curtains were remote-controlled, and they provided wireless internet and an excellent fax/printer for my use.

My Room at The Palazzo

My opinion on the two hotel rooms? The Orleans was nice, yet definitely not on a par with The Palazzo. But, I’m not complaining … after all, the rooms were complimentary.

Las Vegas Natural History Museum

It’s not the biggest museum in America, but it’s nicely designed, clean, and one of my favorites anyway.

Every couple of years, I take a drive into North Las Vegas and spend an hour or so at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, taking in the stuffed wildlife, the small aquatics area, worldwide archaeology, and all kinds of paleontology exhibits –dinosaur fossil displays, Ice Age creatures, and life-sized animals.

There’s an admission fee, but it all goes to upkeep of the museum, which operates in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

To get there, drive north on Las Vegas Boulevard (“the Strip”), through downtown until you reach Cashman Center. It’s just past that; easy to find.

Here are a few photos that hopefully will whet your curiosity:

Ugly-faced prehistoric wart hog

Hungry lion attacking wildebeest
Hall of antelopes and deer
Killer whales and other hunters of the sea

Egyptian papyrus art

So ... go visit! And take the kids; they'll enjoy the dinosaurs.

Hoover Dam

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Las Vegas but I knew it was going to get a bit warm. I could have stayed in my room and shivered in the air conditioning, or I could have stayed in the casino and really cooled off when I lost my shirt.

So what did I do? I jumped into the car and drove south to Hoover Dam. At least it was cool inside the car, although I know it was broiling outside where the temperature was hovering around 100 degrees.

It’s been a lotta years since I last visited Hoover Dam. I’ve always just passed through Boulder City and glanced at the little business section, but never really stopped.

This time, I stopped. I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I parked across the street from a little place called Mel’s Diner. And I do mean small – there were maybe 12 tables inside, and 9 or 10 seats at the counter. But the lady at the cash register was nice, the waitress who took my order was nice, and even the patrons were nodding hello as they passed me.

(Chicken-fried steak … yum!)

When I reached the Hacienda Casino, the traffic slowed to a crawl – a bumper-to-bumper classic two-lane road crawl. And it continued that way for at least two miles. I had seen some signs along the highway (“Construction on the Arizona Side, Highway 93,” and “Expect Delays”) but this was ridiculous.

Well, it turns out that the congestion was caused by the security checkpoint. Every car had to stop while a Fed ranger peeked in and waved us through one by one. It was smooth sailing from there.

They’ve changed the area since I was last there, building a huge parking structure on the side of the mountain. Now you can’t park close to the dam, but rather must walk … and walk … and walk.

Plus, the new visitor’s center was closed, so there were no tours being given. So there were people walking everywhere. I refused to be one of them, so I drove over to the Arizona side and took some pictures from the parking lot there, foregoing a walk along the top of the dam.

As I drove back, I stuck Pinchy out of the window and took some pictures of him that way. Then, I decided to drive into the parking structure, pay my $7 and at least get some pictures of the entire dam from on high. I have to say I did decide to walk along the dam, but when I found out the elevator wasn’t working, I said forget it.

The walk down wasn’t too bad (there were 150 steps, according to an old panting feller I met as he huffed and puffed his way back up the stairs) but good thing I checked the elevator. It was out of commission. So a quarter-way down, I thought better of it, turned around and headed back up.

It was just too damned hot. Fifty pounds ago, I would have, but not in 104° heat.

So I just jumped back in the car and headed back to Las Vegas, getting back to my hotel in late afternoon. Boy, the A/C in my room felt good.

Chocolates and Cacti

About 25 years ago, almost to the month, I attended a printer’s convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center with the company in whose building my office was situated.

One of the joy rides we took during the afternoons when we’d “display exhibited” ourselves out and needed a long break was a tour of the Ethel M Chocolate Factory in Green Valley.

It’s not real close to downtown Las Vegas, where our hotel was, and it took about a half-hour to get there by surface street – one rider plotting out directions on a large street map.

Yesterday I decided to check it out again and see if anything had changed in the two-and-a-half decades since. First of all, it didn’t take quite as long as the first time, thanks to Google and its maps.

The Factory Tour

You know what? The factory itself and the tour haven’t changed. You just enter the building, walk down a hallway with large glass windows on the left side, and watch the workers making the candy. The first time I was there, no work was being done. But yesterday, there they were, all dressed in white, making the sweet stuff.

At the end of the hallway, say 100 feet or so, was a nice lady who was handing out samples – little coin-sized pieces of chocolate candy (dark, white, and milk), and peanut brittle.

“If you want peanut brittle, you can choose one of the chocolates,” she said. “Otherwise, you can have all three chocolates.” Now what was THAT all about? Oh well, free is free.

Then you exit through the candy store where people were buying candy like it was going out of style. Here are a few pictures I took during the factory tour:

Packing peanut brittle for shipment

Cheerful free-sample lady

Sugar-Free means no calories?

The Botanical Cactus Garden

Twenty-five years ago, when I first saw the cactus garden, it was small, no bigger than master bedroom-sized. And all the cacti were small, like the ones you find at flower shows in little pots.

Yesterday, I was amazed at how large the cacti were, and how they’d been organized with paths between and identification signs for all of the varieties.

Here ya go … some cactus pictures. I know, I know, they’re all green with very little color, but after all, they ARE cacti and they DO live in the desert:

Saguaro Cactus

Lobivia Cactus

Red Barrel Cactus

Just goes to show you … Just because you’ve been somewhere before, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go back and see how much things have changed.

Besides, if you’re lucky, you might even get some free candy to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Las Vegas 51s Baseball

Every year, I try to get to a professional baseball game. Most years I’m able to attend a Major League Baseball game, but it looked as though this year just wasn’t going to pan out.

Until last night, that is. I went to a baseball game. Admittedly, it wasn’t a major league game, but it was the next best thing as the Las Vegas 51s, the AAA minor league affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, hosted the Sacramento Riverdogs, who are affiliated with the Oakland Athletics.

What a night it was!

I got to munch on peanuts and drink a beer, while talking to some of the wonderful people who were seated around me. And speaking of seats, I was near ground level, in the third row of the blue seats, right behind home plate looking down the first-base line. Home plate was only about 20 feet away from me.

I got to cool off when the sun went down and the 97-degree heat from the late-afternoon sun cooled down to a comfortable warm summer baseball evening in the high-70s.

I got to watch kids and young adults compete between innings in the bat-spin race, the pitching game, the beat Cosmo around the bases race, the race to see who could jersey-up first, and the load up the serving platter game.

Speaking of Cosmo … he’s the team mascot, a weird-looking dude with big eyes that’s supposed to represent a visiting alien from another world (re Area 51, for which the team is named). One little girl behind me was calling out for him to get closer, then when he did, she screamed and hung on to her mommy for dear life.

I got to hear a crusty ol’ fan to the left of me ring his little desk bell in time to the music, blow taps on his bugle when the Riverdogs relieved their pitcher in the middle of the inning, and belch out his beer-breath approval when the 51s scored. He was an equal-opportunity heckler, yelling out disparaging remarks to 51s, Riverdogs, and umps alike. Amazing, the epitome of a baseball fan.

I got to overhear a guy in front of me say his name was Craig, so I tapped him on his shoulder and introduced myself. As I said, you meet the nicest people at baseball games.

I got to stand and sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” led by three boys up in the press box.

I got to trudge back up a hill to the parking lot and search around for 20 minutes before I found my car (a rental, and y’know how hard it is to remember what make, model and color it is).

But best of all, I was one of the first 2,000 through the gates, which meant I got a bobble-head doll – Carrot Top in a 51s uniform! I know just the spot for him. Carrot Top can stand (Sit? Bobble?) next to AA Mississippi Braves manager Phillip Wellman. They can bobble to each other for as long as they want, 24/7.

Who won the game? The home team, of course: Las Vegas 51s 12, Sacramento Riverdogs 10.

I love baseball.

Summer Grazie Gifts Extravaganza

I’ve moved over to The Palazzo in Las Vegas for four complimentary nights as an invitee to their slot club‘s (Club Grazie) Summer Grazie Gifts Extravaganza.

Although I had no idea what the gifts extravaganza was, I was soon educated upon checking in – they gave me a special letter explaining it, and when I could attend, which is pretty much all day until the end of this week.

Because I had played the slots on my February trip to Las Vegas, the points I earned had increased exponentially because of a multiplier formula they used.

I had 59,730 points, and to me that sounded like a big deal. So, I went to the event, walking into an exhibit room with all kinds of goodies there for the taking if you had enough points – high-end brand-name electronics, luxurious crystal, the latest toys and game for men and women, fashion duds, gardening equipment, beach gear … all kinds of good stuff.

There wasn’t much that was calling out my name, so I spent 57,000 points on a $100 Best Buy gift card, which I know I can use.

What I really wanted to get was the beautiful red Mini Cooper convertible. But I was a little shy on points. The blasted thing was going for 16 million points – (16,000,000!).

But good news is that I still have 2,730 points left in my account. Maybe if I gamble enough, I can earn the 15,997,270 points I’m shy.

Whattaya think?

The Jacksons Were Here!

As I was flipping through the channels of the TV set in my room here at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas, I chanced upon the hotel’s “events” channel.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this scrolling up: The Jackson Family reunion!

So … seeing as I had about 15 minutes before the reunion wound down, I hunted down Salon G and took a peek inside.

Naaah. it wasn’t the famous Jackson family. I knew that from the start, of course, but I just wanted to make sure.

Because … what if?

A Crackling Road to Vegas

I’m in Las Vegas this week. Oh, I didn’t tell you? Sorry ‘bouddat.

Anyway, it was a pretty uncomfortable journey this time. My fine china composure experienced a few cracks along the way. Crackle crackle.

First of all, I was on a 757. I hate that plane. It’s narrow – really narrow. Six seats abreast, three on each side of an aisle a darned sight narrower than two feet wide. So when the carts passed by, the flight attendants were always bumping my shoulder even though I kept my exposed elbow pressed against my left side.

Behind me on the Honolulu-San Francisco flight were three young girls (I’d say high school) who were jibber-jabbering away for the first hour or so, carrying on a teenager-themed conversation amongst themselves and their friend across the aisle. They didn’t stop until the movie started.

Then, there was a little kid sitting in the middle seat. That in itself wasn’t too bad; this child was pretty well-behaved and quiet throughout the five-hour flight, sleeping practically all the way across the Pacific, waking up only when we were about to disembark.

The problem was that he must have been dreaming he was running. He was lying crosswise on the seat and his feet were practically in my lap. Which isn’t intolerable (I’m a pretty patient guy) – just when he moved them, kicking a little to get comfortable.

The connecting flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas was pretty inconsequential, thank the Lord.

But then … after I picked up my rental car, I drove quite a long way to try out a restaurant that I’d read about – Beach Café in the southwest area of Las Vegas not too far from the airport.

Turns out it was just a hamburger and sandwich place. You need to order at the counter, pick up your food when they call your name, then take it to the table – not the kind of place I write about in my restaurant blog.

So I left, then drove back down the road to a place called Ambrosia Café that I’d passed a few minutes ago. No luck there either, it’s a pizza and hamburger place. Heck, I figured I’d drive to the Las Vegas Outlets and eat at one of the chain restaurants there, so I could have something to post in my restaurant blog.

Guess what? I missed the turnoff and was headed toward Henderson and Green Valley Ranch Casino. So I went all the way there and had a very late noontime breakfast at The Original Pancake House, the best decision I’d made all day.

And that’s when the crackling stopped. I’m having a wonderful day now!