Las Vegas, NV

Up early this morning to head to Thrifty, where we picked up a car to use for the next 2 days. We left from there to head west to Red Rock Canyon. This is a small National Park with some of the most beautiful, arid mountainside scenery I have witnessed. The rocks' redness is caused by the amount of iron oxide in the hills. We walked along one of the trails, which took us around an hour and a half. We thought that it may lead us to the top and we would get a view of Las Vegas. In actual fact, the only way to the top is via climbing with ropes, so we settled for the trail. We also drove around the park’s 13 mile road, stopping at various spots to take in the surroundings. I took a few photos, which, more than likely, will not capture the magnificent surroundings in the beauty that it deserves.

Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas

We drove back towards the city stopping at the Las Vegas Art Museum, which is exhibiting works of Salvador Dali (my favorite). The exhibition was mainly of lesser-known works of his, but it was still incredible. There are drawings, paintings, photos and sculptures, as well as a tapestry of his “Persistence of Memory” painting. Most of this exhibit was done when Dali was older than 70 years, but there wasn’t anything there that wasn’t unbelievable. The main painting was “Visions of Hell”, which is one of his “double image” paintings. The painting was originally done to be placed in the cathedral in Fatima, Portugal. It was there that 3 local girls were said to have seen a vision of Mary, who asked the girls to complete tasks in her name. One of theses was to build the church. Because of this, believers, who come hoping for the return of this vision, regularly visit the cathedral. Roberta and I went to Fatima 2 years ago when we were in Europe, which made this painting al the more exciting to see. I’m so glad that we caught this exhibit (or even found it in the first place) as the more of I see of Dali’s work – the greater my fascination becomes.

Dave and Melissa took advantage of having a car and did some shopping on the way home.  Tonight is there 7 year anniversary, and they are going to see Sigfried & Roy tonight at the Mirage. I drove them there and in doing so, got my first experience at driving the American way (on the wrong side of the road). I thought I did OK. Only a couple of times did I turn on the windscreen wipers instead of the blinkers, and it didn’t matter that I kept looking for the handbrake and almost opening the door. At 10pm I met them and Kendra at the Hilton, where we went to dinner at Benihana’s – a Japanese restaurant – for dinner. Here the chef cooks all the food in front of you at your table. We had the most delicious meal and afterwards went for a night out in the Hard Rock. A great night was had by all.