Las Vegas
July 2-4, 2005

Jeannie and I planned a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate the Fourth of July. We each drove there - Jeannie from Laguna Hills and myself from Phoenix - and met at the Imperial Palace Hotel on the Strip Saturday afternoon. We both had a very long drive that day. No matter what direction you're coming from, it takes a long time to drive into Vegas on a holiday weekend. We called each other throughout the afternoon to keep each other company while we were both gridlocked, an hour or two outside the city. Wildfires were common in Arizona at the time, and I had to pull over for a good half hour while firefighters tried to put out a blaze that had jumped the highway about an hour south of the Nevada border.

Five miles short of the Hoover Dam, all traffic came to a crawl. I could only assume that construction was taking place on the road up ahead, but I was wrong. The dam is situated in a canyon, and to get to it you have to drive down switchbacks through the mountains. Once you're close, there are several parking areas on the side of the road, where people are moving in and out, causing traffic to slow even more. Then of course there's the amazing view of the Colorado River and the dam, and people slow down trying to take it all in. There are sidewalks and crosswalks all along the dam, so you're forced to move cautiously along the length of it to avoid hitting pedestrians, until finally you come out of the canyon on the other side and can pick up speed again - an hour and a half later.

Staying at the Imperial Palace turned out to be a pretty smart idea. It's in a central location on the Strip, it offers direct access to the monorail via a walkway in the back, and because it is lesser known and a little older, the rates were very reasonable. The room wasn't much to speak of, but we had a great view of one of Harrah's walls, and plenty of time to get to know everyone on our floor while waiting for the nearly non-existent elevators. No matter - we didn't plan on spending much time in the room anyway - it's Vegas, baby!

Some of the weekend's highlights

	Eating at the restaurant America at New York New York Hotel & Casino. The America restaurant has a huge mural hanging from the ceiling depicting the entire US of A, with 3-D objects of major landmarks and well-known offerings for each state. There was the Arch in Missouri (see pic at right), a railroad spike in Utah, Elvis in Tennessee, crabs in Maryland and Delaware, tobacco leaves in North Carolina, Lewis & Clark in Iowa, and so forth and so on.
	Visiting the Bellagio which is always decked out for the holidays. At the conservatory and botanical gardens you are sure to be dazzled by the creative and extravagant displays and decorations. There were animatronic eaglets in a nest that were bigger than me! An adult bald eagle soaring overhead, replicas of the Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument, and other Americana scenes - like children picking flowers and selling lemonade.
	Our "last supper" at the Bellagio. This was our last formal meal before skydiving the next morning. We ate at the Cafe Bellagio, where I had my first creme brulle (yummy!) and had a great view of the botanical gardens.
	The wildlife habitat at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino. Just outside the hotel near the hotel's pool and waterpark, is a sanctuary boasting more than 300 birds! There are flamingos (of course), African penguins, Mandarin ducks, African Crowned Cranes, and more. And to my delight, there are lots of turtles! I have yet to be there at the right time to view the feeding of the penguins. Next time...
	The Gilcrease Bird Sanctuary is not on the Strip, but rather the northwestern part of Las Vegas. We ended up here because we wanted to do something a little more relaxing on Sunday afternoon. There were lots of exotic birds and birds of prey here - everything from canaries to ostriches. I was pretty upset because all of the animals looked malnourished and mistreated. The facility was in a residential neighborhood on a large property, and appeared to be understaffed. I was suspicious of the entire operation and was ready to report them to the authorities, but decided to research them first. After all, the facility was in plain sight with lots of residents living nearby. If there were problems, certainly they would already be known. As it happens, the sanctuary is a bird rehabilitation center sponsored by the Wild Wing Project. These animals were brought here *because* they were being mistreated and malnourished.
	Ethel M Chocolate Factory & Botanical Garden. This was another Sunday activity, and though the factory itself was a disappointment, it was memorable because of how much fun we *thought* it was going to be. You walk past two large rooms where the chocolate is made and get a free piece of chocolate at the end. The entire tour takes about one minute. We spent more time in the not-so-spacious botanical garden out back. The garden seemed just bigger than the size of my parents' backyard, just with a lot more plants and trees with identifying labels next to them.

Skydiving

While making arrangements for the trip, I decided it was time to take the plunge and go skydiving like I have always wanted. I found a skydiving place just outside of Vegas in Boulder City, where - from 13,500 feet - we would get a view of the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Las Vegas, and three states: Arizona, Nevada, and California. Monday morning we headed out bright and early and arrived at the Boulder City airport where the skydiving company was located. By 8:15 am I had signed my life away! We had to sign paperwork saying that we are aware of the risk we are taking, that we know this risk could result in death, and we release the company of all responsibility if we are injured or killed. Jeannie got to the Emergency Contact section and made me aware of something. Neither of us had told our parents we were jumping. If something happened to us, do we want them to get a call from complete strangers at some skydiving company they know nothing about? I was so confident that no harm would befall us, that I put my parents' names down anyway. In fact, Jeannie and I had come to an agreement, that if either one of us had even the smallest of bad feelings about what we were going to do that day, that we would back out. We were reassured by the fact that this company has been in operation for over 15 years, and in all that time has never had a serious injury or a fatality. Even Eloy, Arizona - the "skydiving capital" - can't say that.

A lot of people wanted to jump out of a plane on the Fourth of July, as the place was pretty packed that day. The "jumpmasters," or skydiving instructors, took groups of 8 people up at a time. Jeannie and I were in the second group that morning, which gave us a chance to watch the first group dive. It was exciting watching the first 8 parachute down from so high up that you couldn't even see them until after their parachutes had opened. And even more exciting knowing that was going to be us in a few minutes. Each of us had to be fitted with a harness, which would later be attached to the front of the jumpmasters' harnesses. We sat packed together on two long benches in a small plane. Before we took off, someone looked out the window at the tarmac and saw a horned lizard ("horny toad") sitting there looking at us! I was very happy to see the herps had come out to wish me well. I haven't seen a single horny toad since I moved to Arizona - but of course I do see one moments before I jump out of a plane in Vegas!

There were a few people jumping with our group that day that were traveling with a tour leader from Trek America, an adventure tour company. There was "Colin from New Zealand" (cutie you'll see in the video), and a girl from England, and I'm not sure where the other girl was from. The tour leader told us a little about his job. He takes people - particularly foreigners - to various parts of the country where they tour national parks, go rock climbing, skydiving, white water rafting, and other outdoorsy activities. It's a great way for the active-minded adrenaline junkies to see the country!

My jumpmaster's name was Brian, and I didn't know this until after I returned to Phoenix, but he is one of the Flying Elvi. This is a ten-man stunt skydiving team that was made famous in the Nicolas Cage movie "Honeymoon in Vegas." They now make special appearances in commercials and on TV shows, and at special events around the world. If memory serves, they even parachuted down to the Arch at Fair Saint Louis a few years ago when I was there, and performed on the Budweiser stage immediately after landing.

I once saw a South Park episode with a talking towel on it, named Towelie. It was one of the funniest things I had ever seen, and Jeannie and I quote him all the time now. I don't watch South Park very often, and had never heard of Towelie myself, but assumed it was a pretty obscure character. So I thought the line I quoted on the plane was just an inside joke between me and Jeannie (I mean really, who knows Towelie besides us?). After saying the line (this was off camera): "Oh man, I am so high right now, I have no idea what's going on," I looked at the tie-dye-jumpsuit-wearing jumpmaster sitting next to me, who was staring at me with his mouth open. "What?" He just stared and said, "I love you." I was stunned: "You know Towelie???" He just kept staring and repeated, "I love you." It was hilarious. I said the line again just before I jumped out of the plane - that time was on camera.

I can't do justice describing the feeling of falling through the sky at 125 mph from a point 13,500 feet up, so I'm not even going to try. But I will tell you that your mouth gets dry beyond belief, which is why I am licking my lips a lot during the video. One of the British girls who jumped before me was so scared when she got to the door her jumpmaster had to pry her hand off the plane (you can hear her screaming as they jump out - she sounds just like the woman being attacked at the beginning of "Jaws"). Me? I couldn't get out fast enough I was so anxious to jump! There was one moment during the jump when I actually got a little scared. It's critical when diving tandem, that you are attached to your jumpmaster as tight and as close as possible. But it's also critical that when you land, there is some give between the two harnesses. So during the dive, the harnesses have to be loosened a little. I guess Brian forgot to tell me that. I felt him loosening my harness after the chute had opened, and I yelled, "What are you doing?!!" I figured he wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't safe, but he could have warned me first! We did these spirals, where he grabbed one of the cords and pulled really hard. We were spinning horizontal to the ground and I felt like I was in a blender! It was awesome! Afterwards I was lightheaded and my feet felt like they were going to fall off - it was such a rush!

During the freefall - the best part of the entire experience - I saw one of the pairs of divers soar past us really fast, facing downward. My first thought was that something went wrong and they were going to be too close to the ground before they could open their parachute and they were probably going to die! Of course that didn't happen, and everyone was fine. I only found out later that it was Jeannie! Her jumpmaster asked her if she wanted a video of her jump and she said no. He said, "Perfect! So we can do all this stuff I'm not supposed to do and it's not caught on camera!" They did a forward flip out of the plane, and then soared head-down at 170 mph! She was the last one out of the plane, and the first to land! We met up with "Colin from New Zealand" after we jumped and he, Jeannie, and I were just aching to go back up again. Too bad they were completely booked that day. I would not have hesitated putting more money down and doing it all a second time!

Videos

Lust For Life The music is Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life." Seemed appropriate. Now if only there was a song called "Adrenaline Junkie" (Jeannie's new nickname for us). Added 10/23/05

Bellagio - Time To Say Goodbye The Bellagio Hotel has a large lake out front with fountains that have been programmed to "dance" to music. The song they played was Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli's "Time To Say Goodbye." Added 10/23/05