I just noticed that the knobs go to 11... This giant guitar is on the front of the Hard Rock Cafe on Las Vegas Boulevard. I was flipping through some old picture from a trip two years ago, and happened to notice. I must have somehow missed that small fact when I was there in person.
I know a fake when I see one. And that's how I knew that these two so-called Statues of Liberty weren't the real thing. For one thing, the one above is made of jelly beans. There's not way it could have survived sitting in New York harbor for all these years if it were made of candy. The seagulls alone would have reduced it to a shadow of it's former self. And the one below? Well, it's not in New York harbor, so how could it be real?
Yes, yes, I admit it, I actually shot both of these in Las Vegas, and both at the New York, New York resort. They try to fool you into thinking you're really in New York, but it's not so easy to do.
There are lots of cool things to see in Las Vegas, but I'm afraid those ugly yellow fire trucks aren't one of them. Yellow? Come on, that's just crazy. You can do better than that!
I thought this big American flag was pretty cool in the Harley Davidson Cafe on the Vegas strip. It's made up of hundreds of chains suspended from the ceiling, each one painted so that when it hangs it has the right colors in the right place. Then the stars are poking through with little lights that flash. And those bikes move along a conveyor so that different ones are displayed at different times. At least that was the idea, I didn't actually see it move while I was there.
I couldn't tell from up in the balcony if this was real metal chain or plastic. I tend to think it's plastic due to the weight issue, but if you can suspend full-sized Fatboys from the ceiling, then a few hundred logging chains may not be a big deal.
OK, I'm gonna start throwing up some of my Vegas pictures today. I'm still pretty beat from all the travel, but I feel the need to start sharing some of the pictures from Sin City. I'm sure some of you are familiar with these glass flowers that cover part of the ceiling in the lobby at The Bellagio. If you don't remember them from the last time I posted some pictures, then maybe you remember them from the movie Ocean's Eleven.
This vast forest of glass was made by Chiluly, a well known glass blower with a tendency towards the grandiose.
I have no idea how many flowers there are in this bouquet, but it's a lot. 500? 1000? I know that I wouldn't want to be the one who has to dust them. And heaven forbid you break one. I'm sure it happens pretty frequently, but it's got to look bad when you're the one that shatters a work of art.
Well, here I am, back from Las Vegas. Actually, I got back late last night or early this morning, depending on whether you call my plane landing or my going to bed 'getting home'. Anyhow, I'm beat, so the traditional sharing of the pictures is going to have to wait a bit. I actually got plenty of sleep high in the sky over Vegas, but I was working hard when I wasn't sleeping. Hopefully, the photos will be worth the wait. Anybody want to sponsor a return trip for me?
The view may be great, but it comes at a cost. This morning at 1:30, the fire alarm went off. There didn't seem to be anything wrong, but that didn't keep us from having to troop down fifty flights of stairs with 1000 or so of our new friends. It was actually a little over 50 since we had to go down into the basement, then back up several flights around the building. Then an hour and a half of waiting until the place was declared safe. Trust me when I say that I fell asleep pretty quickly after that. And I don't think I'm going to get anything done today... But it's still a great view.
Last night I showed you the view from my room in Las Vegas, so here's the building I'm staying in. My room is in the upper left hand corner of the building. It's 56 stories tall and we're on the 50th floor, next to the last room before that little set-back. We were going to put something in the window so we can tell which room is ours, but it would have to be pretty big to be visible from almost 500 feet below.
Wow! I have free internet here in Vegas. Well, it's not really free, but I've got it. This is the view from my room on the 50th floor of the Vdara hotel. Pretty snazzy, eh? Going to bed now, more later, maybe. Tired...
In a few hours from now, I'll be flying back to Sin City for the first time since 2006. That's when I took the picture above looking down on Las Vegas Boulevard from the surprisingly tall Stratosphere Tower. I'm sure I'll make it up there again this trip, so I'll bring you back some pictures that will hopefully rival this. Wish me luck and I'll see you all when I get back!
Hmmm, I'm not sure why the Sarasota Outboard Club had a "Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas" sign outside their building last night, and a cheesy one at that, but it gives me an excuse to tell you I'll be headed to Vegas in less than three weeks. I'll be there for almost four days of picture taking, and I'm sure there'll be a little merriment thrown in as well. Been a long time since I was out there, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Here's this week's calendar page for you. It's the ceiling of the Bellagio check-in area in Las Vegas. After I saw it in person last summer, I went back and watched Ocean's Eleven, and you can see it in there, too. (The newer Ocean's Eleven, with George Clooney, not the old one with Frank Sinatra.) These giant glass flowers are designed and created by none other than Dale Chihuly.
You may have thought the Las Vegas pictures were over, but you'd be wrong. On the last day, the two of us left rented a car and drove out to Hoover Dam. It's less than a half hour drive, and well worth the time. You're out in the desert for just a little while, then in some low mountains, then there it is, one of the largest structures built by mankind. It's so big that I didn't get many good pictures because we were so close. Shown above are the intake towers on the Nevada side that direct the water to the turbines. The dam sits on the Nevada-Arizona state line, but after seeing the lights of Vegas, I think I know where most of the power must go. The water is the most amazing green color for some reason I don't know. I'm used to green and blue water here in Florida, but it's not even close.
In honor of the shuttle finally making it up to orbit today, here's a little something I shot in Vegas. This is part of the show at The Fremont Street Experience. It's a giant display erected over the entire Fremont Street, and once an hour they put on a show. This show was all about flight, starting with the Wright Brothers and ending with the space shuttle. To tell the truth, it wasn't all that impressive of a show. I caught a second one later with dancing girls and lots of fire, and it was much better. I tried to see the shuttle launch Saturday, drove all the way over to the east coast and was within 10 miles or so of the launch pad when they scrubbed it. It's usually only a three hour trip but it took 4 and a half to get there and more than 5 to get back, due to all the tourists out for the launch and the vacationers at the beach. I was sorely disappointed. But third time was the charm, and they finally got her into space today. Hopefully the landing will not be a problem.
There are still plenty of shots I want to bring you from my Vegas trip, I just keep running out of hours in the day. When I first started telling folks I was going to Vegas, one sharp wit asked why, since they didn't have any birds out there for me to shoot. Well, the joke's on her, because I did find a couple of birds to shoot. The fellow above is some sort of crane whose name escapes me, and the guy below is a flamingo. Where did I find these feathered friends? Why at The Flamingo, of course. They had a small aviary out by the pool with plenty of ducks and ibis and, of course, flamingos. You could also get your picture taken with a large number of colorful parrots. I felt like I was back in Florida for a few minutes.
The high temperature in Las Vegas during my trip was 112. My flight came in around midnight, and it was still over 100 degrees. With temperatures like this (even though it's a dry heat), you can imagine I spent quite a bit of time inside when I could. The casinos make sure to have plenty of stuff to see inside, so I didn't have a hard time keping myself and my Canon busy. This floral display was on the ceiling near the check-in desk of the Bellagio. I don't remember seeing a sign or anything, but this could only be the work of Dale Chihuly. There were thousands and thousands of these glass flowers, each almost two feet across, covering an area maybe fifty feet wide by 200 feet long. It must take a week to dust, although I'm not sure how much dust can settle on the ceiling...
