Shortly after arriving in Las Vegas I took the hotel’s shuttle to The Strip to see what I could see. One of the first things I ran into was a rollercoaster that came out of the side of one of the casinos. The ride was fun, but very short.
The Stratosphere is an impressive structure. At 110 stories tall, it allowed me to get a good view of the entire valley. I think that was a Britney Spears video on the enormous video screen.
From the top of the Stratosphere I could get a good view of the “Sleeping Indian” hills in the background. Natives of the area called those mountains. It took me a while to figure out what they were talking about :)
The other buildings in the area looked very large while I was on the ground, but they didn’t seem very big from the 110th floor.
One of the many stores in the Stratosphere was an Oxygen Bar. This place sells O2! The shop was advertising a natural high from the increased oxygen in your system. Kind of like taking a trip to Las Vegas after living a mile high I guess. :)
The Mirage has many different attractions. This large waterfall fountain was very nice.
Their garden was also very nice.
They had dolphins too. Cool!
I kept thinking of Flipper.
The baby dolphin was considered a “miracle birth”. At five months it was still very adorable.
The hotel emphasized over and over that this was not a show. They were just playing with the dolphins and letting us watch. Ok, whatever. You should have seen the flips!
Eek, I must be lost. I thought I was in Nevada, USA!
I was playing with High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. I took a series of pictures of the same scene at five different exposure levels and then used software to combine the five images into one HDR image.
I was playing with High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. I took a series of pictures of the same scene at five different exposure levels and then used software to combine the five images into one HDR image. Note: I turned off the light between this shot and the last.
After I had all the HDR images of my $40 per night hotel room I combined them into a panoramic image. Note: the couch has light on it from the lamp that is not lit. Whoops. :)
My hotel was in a very nice area of Las Vegas. This luxury condo structure was across the golf course from where I was staying. I heard varying reports of the cost of these condos. One person said that they start at 1.2 million, while another said that they started at .75 million when the unit opened. Let’s just say that these condos are out of my price range.
I stayed at the Suncoast hotel/casino for $40 per night. I would recommend this place to someone who would like to visit the area and not be right on top of The Strip.
Las Vegas “mountains”. A very nice view from the edge of an elegant golf course.
Do you see the two rabbits in the shadow?
My hotel, the luxury condos, and a very nice golf course.
I was pleasantly surprised with the abundance of colorful flora on my walk.
Some young blossoms and a seed pod on a yucca-like plant.
Palm trees of many different sizes.
Some very pretty flowers.
Some type of fruit tree behind a private wall inside a very nice neighborhood.
Detail of the fruit.
Nevada knows how to treat their pedestrians. New Jersey could take some lessons here - we call these sidewalks. :)
Neat flowering plant.
Drinking bee.
There is something different about some of those trees... I can't put my finger on it. :)
Seed pods on an interesting tree.
Some very nice blossoms.
I liked the spiral pattern that could be seen from the top of this plant. I was hoping I didn't make a fool of myself by falling in it as I took a picture from my tip-toes.
This is the same plant, it wasn't as interesting from this angle.
This tree’s blossoms looked a lot like those of a Penstemon.
Another shot of the Penstemon Tree.
A very very colorful flowering bush.
Detail of the flowering bush's blossoms.
Wow, that is a big bush. I love the flowers.
My training center.
I am building a mental list of things I don’t want to see at an airport: abandoned luggage, smoke, balancing elephants, oh, and Blue Screens of Death! This must not have been the screen that controlled my plane though because I made it through ok. In all seriousness, I did see this BSOD on an overhead screen near security in the Las Vegas INT airport. The message is referencing a problem booting to the physical disk. It could be a bad hard drive.
