Room with a view, May 2012
How suite it is, May 2012As we're checking in yesterday, the wife makes some comment to the doorman about how we've been exploring the National Parks, but there's obviously no hiking in Las Vegas (which she is unabashedly pleased about). He replies that there is in fact great hiking about 45 minutes west of the city, in the mountains you can see in the top picture. Being the good wife that she is, she practically insists that I use the time while she's being pampered in the spa to go exploring. So I did.
Mt. Charleston is an 11,000' peak which is possibly the most-climbed mountain in Nevada (who knew Nevada had mountains?). The trail head starts about 7,600', giving the opportunity for over 3,400' of gain in elevation. I headed out this morning and had a great hike. I didn't make the summit, which is a 15 mile hike and takes a good 8 hours. I wasn't even trying to. But I did get to 10,200', and gained 2,600' - both personal bests.
The views were nice, although not at the standards of the Parks. If you look closely, you can see some vacation homes in the canyon. That's about where the hike started.
Wildflowers on the mountain, May 2012
Getting to the root of things, May 2012Later back on the Strip, we decided to go to Venice and have dinner in St. Marks Square. Well, not exactly. We did walk over to the Venetian hotel where the Grand Canal shopping mall is made up to look sorta like Venice might, if Venice was built and run by Disney.
Not-quite St. Marks, May 2012
It comes complete with entertainment. The food was decent and pretty much matched Venice for the cost - $60 for pizza for 2, with a beer.
Fab Four, May 2012
We topped off the night by seeing the production of Phantom that's playing here. The stars in it were great. Since they say the scenery, and especially the chandelier, are really the stars of the performance, that's what you get here. Although I must say the human performers were pretty good as well.
Scene Stealer, May 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment