Sonora Pass/Leavitt Lake

oh the Sierras how I love you...

Wag More. Bark Less.

I saw that on someone's car yesterday and thought, "yes yes yes!" Such a simple, clear and useful mantra.

Wag More. Bark Less.

I don't know about y'all, but I can always use a little less bark in my life and I like as much wag as I can get. :)

Las Vegas Sucks. KA Kicks Ass.

Wow. I really hated Las Vegas. Wow. It is a really terrible place. The smoking. The food. The overconsumption. The lack of recycling. The flagrant misuse of water. The idea that this is someone's idea of a perfect adult playground. The 105 degree temperature. Wow. I thought it was far closer to hell on earth than desert paradise... but then again, I'm an athletic liberal married non-smoking vegetarian female in my mid-30's. Perhaps this place was not really designed for me.

However...

...the whole reason for going was to see a Cirque show (Dave's B'day present to me) and, well, that actually exceeded my expectations (something that happens VERY rarely.) We saw KA. We had intended to see either Love or O, but neither of them were playing during this particular week. Zumanity was also on hiatus. This seemed irritating at first - the fact that 3 out of 6 Cirque shows were dark during the day and a half we were to be there - but I think it all worked out for the best. We probably wouldn't have chosen KA if the others had been playing. I thought KA was fantastic. The theatre was huge and beautiful and detailed and simply breathtaking. The show was not nearly as obtuse and french canadian as usual. it was actually really creative and exciting. And the stage.... holy shit... the stage. it turns in/around/up/down, i think, in 8 or 9 directions. it was incredible. it did everything but wipe your ass. the stage was like a main character in the show - that's how cool it was. so yes. if you are in Vegas, (and if you are... I'm SO sorry.) GO SEE KA.

Other Tidbits:
1) when we got there the cabbie asked what 'cold' place we had come from since he was so tickled that we had our North Faces with us. He said that we were lucky that we were there during a cool spell (103-105 is a cool spell) since it had hit somewhere around 116-118 during the whole past week. excuse me? what? that is just wrong.

2) we stayed in the Luxor because the room rates were insanely low (we paid more for one Cirque ticket than we did for 2 nights at the Luxor!) And well... it seemed kinda fun to stay in a pyramid. We reserved a non-smoking room in the pyramid on-line only to get to the hotel (and after standing in a cattle like line that was worse than the airport), we were told that all the non-smoking pyramid rooms were taken and we'd be upgraded to the Tower. Well that would be lovely for most people since the Tower rooms are newer and everyone told us that they were much nicer, but Dave and I wanted to stay in the PYRAMID, cause, well, that's what we wanted and what we had already PAID for online. Grrrrrrrr. The woman checking us in was not really interested in hearing this at all and just repeated that we were being upgraded. Ok, fine. I just wanted to get out of the cattle line. So we stayed in the Tower and yes, the room was lovely for how much it cost us... but still... this may be the only time I ever go to Vegas and I just wanted to stay in a silly, black pyramid.

3) On Monday, we were able to walk from Mandalay Bay/Luxor to Paris/Bellagio. That was all we could handle before we both hit a wall. The overstimulation wall. I think I'm so overstimulated in my general daily life, that it's the LAST thing that I want when I go away for vacation. We liked Paris. And thought the Excalibur was funny. All the other ones were kinda all the same flashing light/loud music/smoky/casino/bar/too many people thing over and over and over again.

4) We were told by our cabbies that business is down anywhere between 30-50%. From our viewpoint, it still seemed insanely overcrowded there for a Sunday-Tuesday visit, so I cannot imagine what it's like during a booming fiscal year.

5) And finally... why would you bring your whole FAMILY to Las Vegas?!?!??!?! It's so clearly designed for ADULTS. There are HUGE posters of scantily clad women EVERYwhere. There are men on the street willing to shove escort service cards into the hands of fathers holding babies. Why would you bring your kids to this awful place?!?!??!

Ok. I think I'm done now.