Radio silence has ended.

Hello world! I've been hiding out here at home, resting up and getting healthy in preparation for NaNo. Karen Mahoney and I are doing our own modified version (30K in 30 days). Anyone else who'd like to join us (ahem Jon Zawrotny!!!!!!!) is welcomed to. I plan on posting daily progress here.

What follows is the remainder of the highlights from our Vegas trip earlier in the month. I promise it won't be another half millenium between now and when I post again.

Vegas highlights, Part 2

Attractions

Aside from walking through the various casinos, we took in several of the shows, exhibits and general sights along the strip.

Stratosphere Tower
This was the coolest thing about the Stratosphere. At the very tippy top of the Stratosphere, they have a viewing deck with both indoor and outdoor levels where you can get a breathtaking view of nearly the entire city. As a hotel guest, we got in free before 2:00 and we’re cheapskates, so we only saw it during the day. It must be a sight to see at night with all the neon and lights though. Incidentally, the gift shop up there had the nicest shirts for nearly decent prices.

For those of you who aren’t faint of heart, there are also three rides at the top of the Stratosphere. Two of them dangle you over the side of the tower and either spin or almost-drop you. The third is the kind that takes you up to a certain height (in this case, the top of the needle-like structure at the top of the tower) and then drop you really fast -- also known as The Kind Of Ride Where That Girl Lost Her Legs. We were not stupid enough in the mood to go on any of them.

Lion Habitat at the MGM Grand

This is totally cool. MGM has built this gigantic lion habitat inside the casino and get this -- it actually resembles the kind of environment a lion might actually inhabit out in the wild! You’ll understand why that’s so novel a little further in the post. Anyway, it’s enclosed in glass, including a glass tunnel on top of which the lions sometimes lay. You can walk right into the tunnel and see the lions up close. It was great. They were so fun to watch. There’s a video in an adjoining room that discusses the habitat and the lions (there are twenty-something who are rotated through the habitat, two at time) and how they’re prepped for the habitat, etc. It’s sort of playtime for the lions. They chew on ginormous rawhides. It was hilarious! We visited the habitat several times throughout our stay and at one point there were two young males on display. It was a riot to watch them with their trainers -- their lazy, playful behavior reminded me very much of behavior I’ve observed in my dogs.



Tiger Habitat at The Mirage

Mmmyeeeaaah. ‘Habitat’ seems like a strong word for the enclosure the gorgeous tiger was napping in (with the tip of his/her pink tongue hanging out -- too cute!). Perhaps ‘whitewashed concrete room with pool and risers’ might be more accurate? No rawhide for this kitty, that’s for sure. I’d tell you not to waste your time here, but you walk by it on your way to the Secret Garden, which was worth going to.

The Secret Garden at The Mirage

This is an outdoor exhibit of several different kinds of large cats, including various kinds of tigers, leopards and white lions. These enclosures were much better, with actual plants, natural water sources and, in most cases, playmates at the very least. The only one that bothered me was an especially tiny enclosure for a leopard (if I’m remembering correctly). We had a great time watching the cats hang out. One of them was having a blast ripping up the sod and tearing it apart. He was hilarious.



Cirque du Soleil -- “O”

Cara and I are both huge fans of Cirque and seeing a show was on our must do list for the trip. I’d seen the Varekai and Delerium shows prior to O. I wasn’t overly fond of Delerium. Varekai is my favorite so far in terms of straight acrobatics but O was filled with breathtaking imagery. Beautiful, haunting tableaus both lovely and frightening at the same time. It was amazing. I wish I could see it again. It was so inspirational -- it was as if I could feel the show stirring the creative juices inside me. I want to write the book of those images. I’ll go so far as to say it was worth traveling to Vegas to see this show alone.

Folies Bergeres at the Tropicana

I wanted to see a showgirls show. We were in Vegas, for crying out loud! And what better show to see than the Folies show, where Vicki Pettersson danced prior to becoming a published author? So Ben and I went to the 8:30 show, which I assumed was the early show and therefore the ‘covered’ one. Not that I cared -- it just happened to be the only time that we could get tickets for that day. It came as a bit of a surprise when the girls emerged topless! The show was great. I’ll admit I was a little weirded out by the topless ballet sequence, but everything else was great fun. I have about a billion questions about showgirls now, which I plan on pestering Vicki with as soon as I can pin her down. :)

Madame Tussaud's

Last, here are a few of my favorite images from our visit to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. First, here's me with Angelina. Oh and Brad Whats-his-name. For those of you who don't know me, my obession with Angelina runs deep. Deep and shameless, people. What can I say? She's perfect.



And this one's for Karen Mahoney. God I love this man!!



But this, this is my favorite. This is my darling husband exercising his right to free spee-- er, gestures.




This hereby concludes my (unintentionally) month long review of our trip to Vegas. Very fun place, very overwhelming. I highly recommend the long weekend visit and wearing VERY COMFORTABLE SHOES.

I'll be back soon with some writing related items to post. Hopefully tomorrow, but we're trying to get through the first season of Heroes before NaNo (Hello!? Thursday!?) and I haven't been writing the last couple of weeks so I really need to blow the dust off the ol' WIP before settling in with a 1,000 word daily goal. But I'll do my best.

I hope all has been well in your corner of the world...