Labor Day in Las Vegas! Part 1

As my faithful blog readers know, Chris and I have had the good fortune to be able to visit Las Vegas many times since we moved out to the western side of the country.  From Arizona, it was only a five (or so) hour drive, and while living in Phoenix, we normally made the trek once a year for one reason or another (or for me, one Girls' Trip or another with buddies); however, since we'd been relatively busy in the past few years (moving to another state and buying and selling houses and whatnot), we hadn't been to visit Sin City for quite some time.  Chris' final summer Friday off from work was the Friday leading into the Labor Day holiday, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to head out of town for a long weekend.  After securing Friday off for me as well, we started planning a quick trip to our old stomping grounds!

We'd never headed to Vegas from the LA area, so we were excited to see a whole new set of roadside attractions, alongside the 5 and 15 freeways (not that anything could truly top the Wikieup Trading Post).  Our first highlight was really just a drive by - Chris said, "oh, there's a Cracker Barrel."  I responded with, "that's not A Cracker Barrel; that's THE Cracker Barrel."  Did you guys know that until about six months ago, there were ZERO CB's in the entire state of California?  Now there's one, and we drove right past it!  Whee!

It was on the news and everything!

Our next attraction and first actual stop was a planned one - at Eddie World in Yermo.  Yermo is just outside of Barstow, the largest city between Vegas and LA, and right about halfway in between.  Eddie World takes advantage of this, and it's quite the complex.  It has a Peet's Coffee, an ice cream shop, and a bunch of other food options.  It also has around 8,000 different types of candy, all organized into different sections and bins, with just as many stuffed animals decorating each.  It's pretty darn impressive.

Someone is overwhelmed by all of the choices

Eddie World also had delightfully clean bathrooms,

accompanied by this highly entertaining sign

Since we'd left the house around 9, we hit Eddie World right around lunchtime, and after grabbing some drinks and chips, we sat down in their spacious food court to eat the curry chicken salad pitas we'd brought with us (I had a long run the next morning and didn't want to take chances with unknown food options).  After purchasing some chocolate covered pretzels and using the bathrooms one.more.time, it was back on the road!

Our next stop was Baker, another hour up the freeway toward Vegas.  Baker's claim to fame is having the tallest digital thermometer in the world; it's 134 feet tall to commemorate the record-setting 134 degree heat that occurred here in 1913.  It's pretty impressive, and the gift shop bathrooms are nice, too.

It took some maneuvering to get both Chris

and the top of the thermo in the shot.

But we did it!  Kind of!

After Baker, I was piloting the ship, and down the road a bit, on my left, I noticed some really bright lights.  Thankfully, I had an engineer in the car with me, and he explained (with some Google help) how the shiny spots I was seeing were solar power towers.  The tallest bits were surrounded by mirrors, which focused reflected light onto the towers; in turn, this light caused the towers to heat up molten salts, storing energy for nighttime electric usage.

Hooray, science!

We were getting closer, but we had one more stop to make before we hit the Strip.  Las Vegas is just starting to really hit its stride when it comes to cool contemporary art, and one of the most popular installations is just south of Vegas proper (in the city of Jean).  It's called Seven Magic Mountains, by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, and you can read more about it here.  Although it was toasty, we enjoyed stretching our legs outside of the car and wandering around the installation.  Essentially, Ugo quarried a bunch of giant boulders, painted them bright colors, and stacked them on top of one another.  I'm sure this is a parable for life or our souls or something like that, but whatever it is, it's pretty cool looking (and lots of other folks think so, too - the original demolition date keeps getting moved back, as it's really popular).

Husband inserted for scale -

these are really darn big

Dude, get off that!

This was a neat site and absolutely worth the short stroll from the parking lot.  Just keep an eye out for cacti and creepy crawlies - it is in the middle of the desert, after all.

After the Mountains, we beelined into Vegas and made it to Aria right around our check-in time of 3pm.  I checked us in and got the bags to the room while Chris ran the car down to Treasure Island, one of the last resorts offering free parking in the area (seriously MGM properties - why?  I mean, I know why - you want to make money - but this really sucks.  You already charge exorbitant daily resort fees, and now parking is $20 a day on top of that - that's crappy).  He started the mile stroll back while I logged into class to see how my mentee was doing.

The big car, safely tucked into

its home for the next few days

Once he made it back to Aria, we both relaxed in the room for a bit, eventually getting ready to head to our pre-dinner outing, looking at more art!  Whenever I plan a trip, I check out the Atlas Obscura, to see what neato things we might run across that aren't on my radar already.  In this case, one of them was the Akhob exhibit by artist James Turrell, stashed away inside the top floor of the Louis Vuitton store inside the upscale mall Crystals, right next to our hotel.  Of course, we were early, so we wandered the mall, looking at fancy clothes and taking pictures:

About a month before we left, I called and made us a reservation for LV's free art tour; it included not only Akhob, but a few other pieces displayed in the store. 

One of the other neat pieces - 

when viewed from the bottom, the lights

and cubes make dice,

a nod to Vegas

Akhob was super cool - we walked into a set of gigantic white, spherical room where we put on booties and wandered around as the inside changed colors.  We had guides who answered all of our questions and helped us interpret Turrell's vision.  It was a neat experience, and I'd recommend it for any art lovers or someone who just wants to be out of the heat and crowds for a bit.  You can't take pictures inside the exhibit, but someone on Atlas Obscura has some.  Here's one:

Kinda trippy and super cool

We had dinner at Sage that night inside the Aria (part of our hotel deal included funding for meals in the resort), and just as when we ate there before, it was delicious.  Behold, our lovely appetizer:

Chris had a delicious scallop dish, and I enjoyed a corn risotto.  We also grabbed some dessert - an awesome, fancy schmancy pineapple upside down cake - and Chris enjoyed the voucher we had for the "absinthe experience."  Essentially, you pick your absinthe and someone comes over to prepare it for you in the traditional manner - dripping over the sugar cube, setting it alight, etc.

The absinthe choices (technically, none

of this is real absinthe - dang FDA regulations)

Dripping over the sugar cube

That glass is on fire!

Salut!

Although I had a sip to try it,

anise/licorice is not a flavor I like,

so I didn't have much.

Chris enjoyed it, though.

After dinner, we decided to stroll the Strip just a bit, down to see the dancing fountains at the Bellagio.  We knew we'd be busier the next night, and while you can see the fountains during the day, they're way better once the sun goes down.  Before we started our stroll, we stopped at the store in Aria for Chris to grab an after-dinner indulgence:

Looks like such a bro here.

Made it to Bellagio!

After we watched the fountains sway and dance to Celine's "My Heart Will Go On," it was time to head back and to bed - I was still in training for the Long Beach Half Marathon, and I had a long run the next morning!

Later!

Amy