Ah 'Merica

What a strange and wonderful place my native country is! Driving through the vast landscape is one of the best ways to reconnect with just how diverse the landscape is.
We departed last Monday to head east to Doug's native Minnesota. We made Las Vegas our first stop as we found a good summer hotel deal and it made for a soft start as it's only about 4 hours from our house. We decided to stay in the historic downtown area rather than the strip in part because of the deal, in part because we kind of like this older area of town. The downside is that it is also a bit seedier and has a coarser element present than the strip. Even so, the hotel was nice with a lovely, clean pool which we needed since it was 114F outside! My favorite feature were these lovely lounge chairs set right in the water. You really stayed nice and cool even in the roasting sun. We enjoyed some refreshing beverages and a wander through Fremont street while looking for somewhere to eat. Elvis impersonators, neon signs, loads of people and music surrounded us. We played a little on the slot machines and I was feeling very proud of my $20.00 win, enough to buy us dinner! We knew we had a long drive ahead in the morning so decided to tuck in fairly early.
Unfortunately at about 3.15 a.m. we were awakened to the sound of fighting in the room upstairs from us. It escalated to rather loud noises and crashing furniture and when the man threatened to throw the woman over the balcony, we decided to call 911. Again, the loose gun culture of the US had us spooked and we were just glad that a full on shoot out didn't begin. The police came and took the man away and things settled down. Still, after waking up a few hours later, we were ready to get on the road. Bye bye Vegas. Heat, alcohol, hard times, and bad decisions make this town a little hard to take for long periods of time. Fun entertainment and people watching unfortunately laced with lots of sadness too.
We got on our way and the drive east through Nevada, a small part of Arizona, Utah and on into Colorado offered beautiful views. This area of the US just dazzles with beauty as dramatic rock structures dot the landscape. We finally landed in Glenwood Springs, CO and enjoyed a lovely stay in a nice roadside hotel. There wasn't time for us to enjoy these hot springs. Would've been more fun in cooler temperatures as well. The owners of the hotel were Polish and had immigrated 20 years ago, bought this hotel and are thriving.
The following day took us from ski sloped mountain sides, through the Rockies alongside of water for much of the interstate to the plains of Nebraska where the road didn't bend and farmland spread out for miles. There's something about those wide open spaces that I love. It's very soothing to be able to see for miles around and I think good to remember where our food is grown. We landed in Lincoln, Nebraska, home of the University of Nebraska where clearly everything is about Big Red and the Cornhuskers. The next morning, we took a great tour of Memorial Stadium thanks to the fact that Doug's best friend from MN has a daughter on the track team there. The facilities are unbelievable and amazing. Thought about my dad often as the American Football scene there is historic. Quite a legacy really. To enjoy the privilege of being a top US athlete at a top University here is really a special treat. It was neat to get an up close and personal look at a school like Nebraska.
From there it was a mere 6 hour drive to Doug's mom's house. Heading north on I-35 I was surprised to drive by my dad's birthplace, Nevada, Iowa (pronounced Nevayda, not nevahda). We also ran into the only bad weather we had on the entire journey as the skies grew black and torrential rain pounded us. I had to slow down to about 20 miles per hour as the road just disappeared under the heavy rainfall. It was over as quickly as it began and the home stretch was pleasant and beautiful.
Now we are in MN for the week. The main reason for being here is to be present for the interment of Doug's dad's ashes near the family farm in Dawson, MN where 6 generations of Fondells are buried. We'll also attend the wedding of the daughter of a close friend from college and enjoy seeing some of our MN friends. 
It's gorgeous in MN right now...like the perfect Swedish summer with mild, sunny temperatures, low bug factor and almost no humidity at all.
I had forgotten that summer isn't oppressively hot everywhere. It's nice to relax and revel in these lovely summer days.

Losing Money, Gaining Weight

These two things are easy to do in Las Vegas!  Lurking around every corner are numerous ways to lose money.  The only way to enjoy being in Las Vegas is set a strict budget ahead of time and stick to it.  If you want to gamble a little, decide ahead of time how much you are able to lose, then quit when you reach that limit.  Then it's like spending money on a movie or a day at Disneyland and you don't get into trouble.  The problem with Vegas however is that if you don't find other things to do, the temptations of the casino, especially the slot machines, are ever present.  So we decided that we'd spend one afternoon seeing a film.  The Descendants was showing at a hotel complex a short walk from our hotel so we ventured down there.  We were alone in the theater for a very long time and in the end, only about 5 other people joined us!  It was nice to watch a film with no one sitting in front of us while being able to rest our feet on the seat back in front of us!  The Descendants is a beautiful film, a real tear-jerker, and we all loved this wonderful film.
The other thing that is easy to do in Las Vegas is over eat!  You can spend a lot of money on food in Vegas but you can also get really good deals. We had stumbled on a Travel Zoo deal that offered a 4 course meal with a glass of wine for $30.00 a person in a lovely restaurant that was about a 15 minute drive from downtown.  What a meal we enjoyed!  The food was beautiful and abundant.  Our appetizers were meal size and we were all very happy with our choices: Flat bread covered in roasted chicken, melted cheese and caramelized onions for me, mini-hamburger sliders for my dad, mini-sloppy joe sliders for Doug and a huge plate of calamari for my mom!  Salads and main dishes followed and three of us had enormous steaks while my dad worked through a huge plate of shrimp scampi and pasta!  My mom's filet was the size of a softball and our ribeye steaks were melt in your mouth perfect.  At this point we were all stuffed to the gills but dessert awaited us!  This course was a total train wreck!  Classically American in their size and calorie count, we could not believe what the waiter set down before us!  Doug had the only civil dessert of the bunch, a beautifully prepared Creme Brûlée.  My mom ordered a deep fried peanut sandwich that you dipped into chocolate sauce.  It was the most decadent dessert I have ever seen!  My father and I indulged in deep fried oreos accompanied by a chocolate sundae!  I could not believe how crazy these desserts were!  I didn't quite finish mine but also could not believe how much I had eaten!  It is easy to understand why many Americans are overweight...too many people eat like this as a habit rather than as a special occasion.  Even the waiter was impressed that we "killed the entire meal"!  It was a real treat to enjoy such a dining extravaganza!  Good thing we ended the evening by heading downtown for a walk!

48 Hours

That's about how much time I can spend in Las Vegas on any given trip.  I enjoy being there for a small amount of time to take in the bizarre spectacle that this unique city is but after that, the seedy and sad qualities of this so-called "sin city" take over.  But I have to say, we did enjoy our 48 hours there this time around!  My dad had gotten a crazy good deal on rooms at the Rio...(two nights free for one room, $25.00 a night for the other...crazy good deal, right?).  The Rio is off the strip but close by and the rooms are all suites so they are huge.  The view from our room was great!  A free shuttle took us to the heart of the strip so it was really a very nice and easy stay.  The thing about Vegas is that it imitates reality so the huge hotels on the strip reflect world city themes.  Italy is seen in the Venetian, (by far my favorite hotel for its sheer beauty and elegance), Caesar's Palace, which has grown ginormous in size, and the Bellagio, with its own "Lake Como" in front that boasts the best water fountain show and the most stunning hotel lobby I've ever seen.  For some reason, I just could not bring myself to take pictures of the fake canals in the Venetian even though I thought the entire hotel complex was stunningly beautiful in a bizarre, copy cat kind of way!  Further down the road is the Paris complex which sports an Eiffel Tower that is one-third the size of the real deal across the pond and a miniature Arch de Triomphe.  
We enjoyed walking around the Strip and taking in the grandeur of these huge hotel complexes.  Many offer free entertainment to try to lure you into their casino and the best free show remains the Pirate show at Treasure Island.  It's a classic tale of girls vs. boys as the Sirens of the Sea seek to lure the bad boy pirates onto their ship.  Filled with dancing and acrobatics, and shirtless men jumping into the water from the ship, with a good measure of pyrotechnic fun thrown in, it was a fun spectacle to take in.  My favorite show however were the water fountains outside of the Bellagio.  Running every 15 minutes after dark, these 5 minutes of music, water and light dazzled.  We stayed for two performances and the beauty of the dancing waters was mesmerizing.
I think Stockholm could install something like this downtown outside of the palace and it would be so lovely and wonderful to watch all summer long.  Of course, it's never dark in the summer so you couldn't light the water in the same way but the music and dancing waters would definitely attract a crowd and what better place than a city filled with water to give it a try!
I enjoyed walking around The Strip and taking in the sites and sounds of Vegas.  The huge hotels, the free entertainment, the bright lights and big city atmosphere is fun...for about 48 hours!