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Las Vegas - Part 6
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
ATV Action Tour's Grand Canyon, Sir Galahad's Pub, Siegfried and Roy and David Strassman
Day 6
This was the last day of waking up early, but we waited all week to see the Grand Canyon with ATV Action Tours. We, however, didn’t expect for it to rain as it rains so rarely here. In fact, it rains so rarely, some of the locals were coming out simply to see the rain. For a desert community, it doesn't rain often and they weren’t that prepared for it when it happened.
The ATV Action Tours, tour guide/van driver tells you stories the entire way to Hoover Dam. When he stops on the Arizona side to change the clock one hour past the time zone and allows you to look around and take some pictures. Hoover Dam is bigger than can be described. Not as big as I’ll describe the Grand Canyon, but so big you’re left wondering, "How in the world did they build it?" I mean, it’s so big, I’d get a fear of heights if I even stood within feet of the edge.
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Cows in the desert next to the Joshua Trees | |
Anyway, we jumped back in the van and rode another two hours to the Grand Canyon. The countryside was the entire forest of Joshua trees, which are much more cactus-y looking than on the cover of the infamous U2 album, and do indeed look like a forest. A forest of alien trees, but a forest just the same.
After that, we went off road and drove through more of this forest in the desert, until we got to the west rim.
Each rim is different, and people have their preferences. The west rim is famous because it is untouched. It is Native American land, and they won’t allow even a guardrail. The advantage is that you can see the Grand Canyon as it really is.
On this day, there was an benefit to the rain. I walked down one plateau until I was nearly in the center of the canyon, and as the rain began, everybody ran back to the van. I stayed two minutes longer and spun around. Alone, just me and the Grand Canyon, and it leaves you feeling small. You see so much of the canyon from this point, as it goes on as far as your eyes can see. The entire horizon is filled with this canyon, and all you are left thinking is how amazingly small you are in comparison.
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Alone in the Grand Canyon | |
Back on the bus, I admit I slept the whole way back until we got home since it was a rainy day—which as I said happens once every decade or so, so sleeping was the best idea—and when I woke up, we were back on the strip.
We went straight to Siegfried and Roy's show, as this was the show everybody mentions in Vegas. Siegfried and Roy is the standard. This is the show to which all others are judged. There are even now copycat disappearing lion shows, but nothing like Siegfried and Roy.
Their show is hard to describe, but I will do my best. Imagine the dreams and nightmares of a magician. Imagine those dreams involve magic, and of course a few white tigers. Now here is the key: Imagine those same magicians spending a few gazillion dollars to make those dreams a theatrical production. Now imagine more costumes, lights, and firecrackers than Broadway has to offer.
This is Siegfried and Roy. Did they perform tricks? Yes, I guess so, but they weren’t tricks as you’d expect, but more expressions of their views of the magical world throughout. They not only make lions appear and disappear, but do it in such a way through the lens of the magic and imagination of the child in us all.
After Siegfried, it was time for our final show of our Vegas trip, David Strassman’s show "Dummy." David is a ventriloquist who makes it quite known that he is schizophrenic. OK, he doesn’t use that term, but with a bit of armchair psychology, you’ll start to think that he might be. He switches from "dummy" to "dummy," while retaining a personality, not only for each dummy, but for himself. He will switch from aggressive to nice to happy to sad, depending on which puppet, and not make a mistake.
There are ventriloquists who make the standard joke out of insulting the dummy and back and forth, but David will make the "joke" be to witness these personalities come to life. Needless to say, we enjoyed it.
After the show, we were now downtown at the Golden Nugget anyway and took the opportunity to see the Freemont Street Experience. It was raining, and we sat on a bench with the rain pouring and the Freemont street experience light show above. A fitting way to end the trip. Relaxing under an electro-light show while watching the Vegas brides walk by in their dresses.
We woke up the next morning, ran to the airport with time to spare and caught the first flight out on Spirit Airlines. Then it was to La Guardia and taxi service a'la Dad to home.
Summary
Overall, I would say it is certainly possible to "Do Vegas" without gambling, although it seems to make the casinos rather upset. The abundance of shows and free shows is outstanding. While before we got there, we got nervous about what to do, we were being offered free show tickets left and right. Yes, the temptation for gambling is quite real, but the number of shows that you can see, tours, and other activities allow you to make Vegas a great home base for exploring the region, too.
Read Part 1 | Read Part 2 | Read Part 3 | Read Part 4 | Read Part 5 | Read Part 6
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