Las Vegas Trip

We went to LV again this year for the GF's b-day. This is the third time in 12 months we've gone; I'm starting to feel we've done all the A-list things we want to do and are starting into the B-list stuff.

Our first night there we saw Elton John's "Red Piano" show, which is at the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace. The night after that we saw "La R(e with that little "hat" symbol on it)ve" which a water-based Cirque du Soleil-type show. Our third night we saw Blue Man Group.

Not being a huge Elton John fan I was more interested in seeing Nigel Olsen (drums) and Davey Johnstone (guitar), both of whom have been with him for nearly 40 years. His long-time bass player Dee Murray passed away a few years ago. The show ended up being pretty good; some gorgeous production values, a very bawdy show and stage sets and the band was musically flawless. He opened with "Benny and the Jets" which is in my opinion too slow for an opener and the audience reaction was enthusiastic but not high energy. The show really kicked off with the second tune; "Philadelphia Freedom." The production really shined at this point; a huge video screen above and behind him lit up with a very dynamic video to go with the song.

"Someone Saved My Life Tonight" had a very weird video to go with it, too, involving a guy with his head in an oven and a guy in a bear suit. No, really. "The Bitch is Back" feature a shiny-bikini-wearing Pam Anderson pole dancing video. Elton himself was quite engaging and had a very approachable persona on stage. His in-between song patter was somewhat scripted (per a couple of reviews I read after the fact) but it had a natural feel to it and was pretty funny as well.

The GF loved the show, I thought it was good and I enjoyed the giant inflatable tits. I think he has another few-weeks-long-stand with this show in June and then maybe again in the Fall but that might be it after that. He did this show to fill in between Celine Dion's "A New Day" show but that show has ended its run and now they have Bette Midler and Cher coming in so la dee frickin' da.

La R(e with that little "hat" symbol on it)ve at the Wynn was OK; we splurged on VIP tickets for this event which meant we had special seating, champagne, strawberries and our own backstage video monitor that allowed us to see what was going on underwater and back stage. I found that more interesting than the show, actually.

Blue Man Group at the Venetian is a show that combines performance art, mime, dance, science and physics and rock and roll into a funny interesting show featuring 3 guys in blue make up. There is a bunch of audience participation, including a thing at the end that requires EVERYONE in the audience to help. At one point during the "Rock Star Tutorial" segment of the show (we were taught some basic rock star movements such as the head nod and the fist pump) one wag shouted out "Freebird" and the band responded instantly with the intro. Not bad.

We also visited the Atomic Testing Museum, which is about a mile east of the Strip on E Flamingo Rd. This is a Smithsonian Institute museum that is incredibly well done. Why an Atomic Testing Museum? Well, because in the 1950's through 1992 a part of the desert north of Las Vegas was used for testing nuclear weapons, first on the surface and then later underground. There are many photos of mushroom clouds taken from downtown LV; people used to take their lawn chairs onto the hotel roofs to watch the test. The museum captures the cultural context of the Atomic Age and has a lot of interactive exhibits, interviews with people who were part of the program and also discusses the unintended public health consequences of (especially) the surface testing that occurred.

So that's 3 Vegas trips in 12 months for us; I think that's going to be it for a while.

Joshua Tree National Park

All of the photos

Joshua Tree National Park is a desert park northeast of Palm Springs and south of Twenty-Nine Palms, sandwiched between I-10 and CA 62. Palm Springs is a glitzy weekend community for Hollywood types, Twenty Nine Palms is a Marine Corps town.

My Dad, my brother and I went out there a few weekends ago to hang out together, do a little hiking and take photos of wildflowers, which were blooming like crazy in the southern part of the park this particular weekend. JTNP has always been a favorite local destination of mine; it is renown for its rock climbing and its Joshua Trees, from which of course it got its name. It's about a 4 hour drive from Los Angeles, about 3 to 3.5 hours from my house.

We drove out to the southern end of the park, parked along the side of the road along with a few other cars and wandered into a flower-rich field. My Dad and I both enjoy photography and my Dad seems to have specialized in botany photos so this was a good reason to get together, spend some time road tripping and taking photos. I used my Canon 10D with my Tamron 18-200 F 3.5/6.3 lens.

My brother pointed out the lizard on this rock.



Purple lupine.



Mountain off in the distance



The desert doesn't bloom like this every year; we had a fairly wet winter and had some rains into March which is unusual. It was this combination that triggered the large masses of flowers this year. Next month the cacti will bloom.

Field of purple lupine



The Joshua Tree National Park website claims there are about 80 species of flowers blooming out there right now (or were, the season is very short and is ending now, about a month after it began).

This is probably my favorite landscape shot from this trip; purple lupine, canterbury bells and lots and lots of brittlebush and golden poppies.



Sunset at the Barker Dam parking lot.



A Joshua Tree silhouetted against the sunset.