Viva Las Vegas! Been a brilliant week. Did everything we wanted to do and got some pool time in as well. Went to Circqu de Soleil early in the week and was absolutely astounded. The athleticism of the performers and the creativity of the set design was incredible. The set was a coliseum style with only a few hundred in the audience looking down on an area that was essentially a lake with multiple platforms hidden underneath it that would rise out of the lake at various times. There was high-diving, acrobatics, trapeze artistry, dancing, synchronised swimming, the lot. There was a hole in the roof about 30 metres above from which the performers would hang by their feet and then drop into the pool below with a metre or two to spare either side. How they found the people that could do all this I do not know but they had SO much talent.
We also did the obligatory journey to the Hoover dam and the Grand Canyon. Early start and then a 12 hour bus trip but well worth it. The mighty Hoover Dam has now been superseded as an engineering marvel by a new highway built across the canyon actually above the dam. Difficult to imagine how they could have done that. It was then on to the canyon. It's the third time I've been there in my life and it still has the same effect. Makes you realise just how short your life is in the overall scheme of things when what is essentially a little creek has carved something like that out of the desert over the millennia. Carpe Diem!
It wasn't all gorgeous scenery and beautiful dancers though. There was ten pin bowling, where Christine demonstrated the extreme aspect of the sport by slamming the ball into her ankle during the delivery motion (impressive, yes?). Despite the effects of what was obviously a very painful injury, and the distraction of some barely concealed laughter from her husband (I know it's bad, but you had to see it) she still managed an honourable draw on one leg. No rematch though, far too dangerous. And speaking of dangerous, our next activity was a trip to the Gun Store that Chris and Sarah told us about. Insane! There are infantry regiments in Australia, I'm sure, that have less firepower than this single shop. Everything from handguns to heavy machine guns and rocket launchers (what the hell does anyone need an anti-tank weapon for? Someone's parked across your driveway again?) Even more unbelievable, you can fire all of this stuff with live rounds! Needless to say, Christine was in seventh heaven. She selected the 'ladies' package (there was also a kids package for the under 12's - parents take note, it's never too early to make your children lethal) which consisted of a couple of dozen rounds each on the AR15 (an assault rifle) and a Berretta handgun. Watching Christine line up on the range and blast away whilst attired in a pretty pink and white dress with some lovely pearls was hysterical. Less hysterical was the fact that she has an eye like an Annie Oakley. She put every round from each weapon on target. Even the instructor was impressed. All I could think of was how I didn't get her a birthday card... Anyway, decided to have a go myself and fired off a few rounds from a WWII British Sten gun for historical purposes. My real excitement for the week though was a visit to Bauman's rare book store. They had, amongst other things, first editions of Samuel Johnson's English dictionary, Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Couldn't afford any of it, but fun to see.
We're off to Vancouver tomorrow where the temperature is closer to 16c than the 40 it is here. Bring it on!
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