The Vegas version of 'Free'

I've traveled all over the world, but have never been to Las Vegas...until now.

It's simple. I do not like traveling to locations (1) with lots of tourists, nor (2) where everyone else goes. Las Vegas was on my 'no go' list for both those obvious reasons. People in my life who I'd believed had never been out of the province were saying to me, "Oh Vegas? I love Vegas! Check out the free show at TI!" [C'mon! We all have our own pretensions.]

One word I noticed a lot of was 'Free'. Sites give tips on the free stuff to do in Vegas...and at first blush, things are free. Free drinks at slot machines. Free shows. Free slot play at casinos. Shall we deconstruct?

• Sit at a slot machine and pump money in, esp. when the cocktail waitress walks by, and she'll bring you a drink. Tip her, and she'll be faster next time. Hmm...that sounds like you're paying for something. I prefer the honesty of $1 beer at the Sahara bar.
• Enjoy the free shows in the casinos, and all you have to pay for is drinks. We saw Dian Diaz and her hot 7-piece band play at the Fontana Bar in the Bellagio. A $14 cocktail later, we enjoyed a great band. They need the high price drinks to pay for 8 professional musicians. It was a great cocktail...
• Sign up for the players' club at any casino and you get some form of free slot play deal. The worst is at Hooters -- you get to run $100 through ten $10 spins at dedicated never-win slots. Plus the staff are rude. The best were the ones where you get your card and can play the free cash on any machine, once you'd bet some of your own.

Especially un-free was sitting. You want to rest your dogs? You gotta pay. Drink, eat, play slots...you sit, it costs. I saw a couple of benches here and there, and the Bellagio has the only lobby with seating that I remember, but otherwise, nothing.

But some of the so-called free stuff was amusing. For example, we joyfully sucked in to a 2 or 3-hour presentation & hard sell for a time share to get $125...which extended our eating out budget quite nicely.

Besides the no-place-to-sit problem, and the constant temptation to drink, some activities were fun and free:

Ah. Fremont Street. I truly did not know about the fabulous hourly shows. My man set me up for that. Thank you, honey. The lions at the MGM.

The shows at Circus Circus. Everyone once in awhile, it's good to see a clown. Especially one that isn't too creepy. [On a side note, we stayed at Circus Circus because it had great room deals. And I spent time in a carnival, not to mention I appreciate the absurd, so it seemed well-suited. No cable TV in the rooms...only 3 regular English stations, 3 Spanish stations, and Clown TV -- a bunch of clowns running around Circus Circus doing stuff...weird and, uh, not-wonderful!]


Yes, then the usual. The Bellagio fountain:By the time we caught the Deuce that night, we'd seen the fountain run 5 or 6 times. Not sure why the bus was late, but it arrived with some poor girl puking out the door. [I say 'poor girl' not because I have any sympathy for someone who drinks to that point, but because her 'friend' was filming the whole thing.]

The Mirage volcano:


I think the best free stuff was the people watching. The random brides doing the things we were all doing, like signing up for a players' club (here at Binion's, to get her picture taken with the $1,000,000):
And the best moment, was finding this lovely cowfish swimming gleefully around a big aquarium at Caesar's Palace:Please share with me your favourite things to do in Vegas. I'm sure I'll be going back to that 24-hour amusement park someday in the not-too-distant-future, because it isn't really travel, it's just joining the party!

Lori

Cheating or Convenience?

Through the wonders of a Flickr-friend's holiday pictures, I've had an Aha! moment.

I must admit, this picture did not surprise me, instead it made me think: "Of course!!"


Of course there are professional teepee-makers. Why wouldn't there be?

My meeting-addled brain can't think of any parallels in other cultures at the moment...Please help below in the comments!

Lori

Random Questions

...arising from a roadtrip.

In this day'n'age, with the Internet always so there, able to be referenced at a moment's notice, you feel its absence when on the road, in a car. (No, I don't have an iPhone/Blackberry/what-have-you to do this on the road...plus we were traveling in areas without service!)

On our last road trip (this last weekend actually, the pictures are here), Metro and I had a number of questions/speculations. This time, we wrote them down. And now, I'm going to share them with you, because perhaps you'll enjoy them too.

Some were generated purely from the geography:

• Anarchist Mountain in BC's Boundary Country...were there really anarchists there? What's the story?
• Boundary Creek Provincial Park in Greenwood. Check it out. Looks nice.
• Why is the town of Salmo called Salmo? Was there a Mr. Salmo? What did he do?

Some were generated from roadside observations:

• No Tresspassing signs -- does putting one up an prerequisite for being able to actually shoo people from your land? If you don't have one up, can you still oust people you don't want?
• Roadside crosses -- there was an anthropological study done on these (at least one). Look it up. What a weird phenomenon. When/Where did the practice start?
• Fudge as a tourist attraction -- This one has always bothered me. Hell's Gate for years had nothing to do once you got over to the other side other than to buy and eat fudge. Is this just a Canadian tourist stop/trap phenomenon, or do other countries subject their tourists to it as well?

Others just arose from the depth of (mostly) Metro's brain:

• Are there such things as grasshopper breeders?
• What is the difference between an alpaca and a llama?
• What is the story behind the zuccamelon again?

More questions came up, but not when we had paper and pen available. C'est la vie!

We've not gotten around to looking any of these up, so feel free to offer up any resources. Or regale us with your own questions that niggle...

Lori

What will 2009 bring?

For me, it's bringing a job shift in 4 weeks. Literally packing up my stuff, and shifting to a different work location -- 4 blocks away and a level of government down. Talk about mixed feelings.

But 2009 is also a year of intentions I have set for myself. Would you like to hear them?

• I will be producing and directing a play. I've decided that I just have to create my own opportunities to direct in this town. (More on that later, as it unfolds.)

• I am going to get more physically active -- just 'cause it is going to happen. Raincoaster is attempting to share her exercise video fetish with me, by giving me a wealth of DVD workout fromage: Cardio Burlesque, Tahitian Cardio, and Belly Dance with Veils, to name just a few. I also intend on getting into snowshoeing, and back into X-country skiing.

• I'd like to go camping this summer. We totally missed out this last year, because Metro misunderstood "I don't like setting up in the dark and dining on lukewarm canned stew heated over a tiny burner, shivering" to mean "I don't want to camp ever" so he proceded to fill his weekends with plays, poker and sailing. What this intention really says is that I intend on filling as many weekends this year with activities my husband and I do together.

• Speaking of activities I'd like to do more of...I want to do more roadtrips, preferably with the hubby. I found this fabulous article on How to Road Trip that includes invaluable rules such as "The driver controls the music" and "No bogarting the Twizzlers"! Reading this just makes me want to go!
  

Here's a piece of open road from one of our recent day trips:


So what are your intentions for 2009?

Share with us, we'd love to know!

Lori

The Omnivore's 100

Ripped shamelessly from casa az: yet another list...

So, you know the drill:

"Copy the following list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
Cross out any items that you would never consider eating."

I've had 75 out of the 100. I've noticed that a lot of interesting things aren't there -- like 100-year-old eggs, geoduck, live octopus, or bo-shin-tang (dog stew). I've not had live octopus, but I have had live sushi.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (I'm going to assume yes, since I tried many stinky soft cheeses in Paris, yum!)
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or Head Cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam Chowder in Soudough Bowl
33. Salted Lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac
37. Clotted Cream Tea
38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu (aka pufferfish) (didn't know it until I was done...best damn fish ever!)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S'mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings [maybe not, now that I've looked them up!]
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill [depends on how old...]
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess fruit pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang Souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom Yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose Harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole Poblano
96. Bagel and Lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

How about you?

Lori

Can Pass Air

Press releases abound today for the launch of Canada's new get-through-customs-easy-like program: CANPASS Air.

C'mon people! Did you not run this past a couple humans with even a mild sense of humour before the launch?!?

What's next for the border? CanPass Gas?

Make me proud!

Lori

Goodbye Oliver...I barely knew you!

I just got an email today from Metro's sister...linking me to an article in the Toronto Star about the sudden death of Oliver Schroer -- Canadian composer and violinist.

I first experienced his music on an Easter Sunday CBC special called "Churchgoing" (no where near as religious as it sounded...included readings and a Monty Python sketch!). Metro and I were driving and suddenly this song came on:




Schroer had actually done the Camino de Santiago through France and Spain:

He had just released his CD, Camino, to critical and audience raves. Camino was recorded over two months in 2004 as he and two friends walked the Camino de Santiago, an ancient trail that wanders across France and Spain. Schroer stopped in churches along the way to play his violin.

(Hmm...the Camino is a pilgrimage, not merely a trail. Silly newspaper!)

The music recorded along the way, with rudimentary equipment that he and his friends carried for 1,000 kilometers, was soaring -- violin pieces played in old cathedrals along the way. It appealed to me also as an architecture buff, as you can almost hear the expanse of vaulted ceilings in this music. I immediately went out and bought the CD, and it is now one of my favourites, that I force friends to listen to all the time.

But in the end, succumbing to leukemia at 52, it will be his attitude that stands out:

His acceptance of his imminent death comes from how he has lived.

"As an artist, I found my own unique voice and have been able to publicly express that voice. I've gotten to collaborate with different wonderful musicians. What more does an artist want?

"I'm one of the burning-bright guys who fire it all up and then go down in flames."

May we all have this acceptance when our time comes.

Lori

How many can you name?

So, how many countries can you name in 5 minutes?

I got 52 out of 195...27%

5 minutes passes fast when you're trying to type, and remember how to spell Uzbekistan.

How 'bout you? (No cheating now...tell us the results from your first try!)

Lori

Monsters bring me back...

I apologize for the hiatus in blogging. I'd run into a couple of things I thought might be worth writing about, but nothing seemed...oh, I don't know, significant enough for a return.

Until this morning. I've visited Thailand, but obviously I never watched TV. This commercial found at BoingBoing Gadgets:



Great stuff!

Lori

Five Inventions I'd Really Like to See

I thought I'd enter endtech's contest from this blog (as well as from the Book Nook).

So, for my list, the wonderful things that we see on TV or in movies that I would really like to be real:

Number 1, The Barbie Suitcase -- you know the one. I was watching My Fair Lady (again!) the other day, and off goes Eliza in a huff, with one itty-bitty little suitcase. A couple of scenes later, the housekeeper, Mrs. Pierce, tells the Professor that Eliza's taken all of her clothes!



Number 2, The Portable Hole
The Warner Brothers/Looney Tunes portable hole, a must have for, well, everyone. Hide a multitude of sins, don't worry about losing your house keys...

Number 3, The Transporter
Need I say more? But it wouldn't be "beam me up", I would be getting beamed over to Paris for an afternoon at the Louvre!

Number 4, Rosie, the Jetson's maid
Again. Does anything need to be said here?

Number 5, Viable Space Travel
Wouldn't it be cool to have the options? Tired of backpacking around Europe?!? Why not head out to the outflung Earth colonies, or visit an alien world?

What would you add to the list?

Lori

A flash from the past, and a challenge

So, yesterday, I was blogging over at Gusto.com about great meals I've had. (Yes, I do have yet another blog, but this one is travel-related, and dwells in the very fun and supportive community that is Gusto. I know I've mentioned it before, but I still go over there almost daily to check out people's new reviews, blog posts, pictures...Seriously, if you like travel, check it out.)

Well, you know how it is...you start reminiscing, and suddenly you're remembering being 13, eating your first meal in a Greek restaurant, a couple of weeks before taking off for an educational tour of Europe. This being the modern age, I did a search for the company, New World Educational Cruises, and the ship, the S.S. Uganda.

Yes, you see rightly. That's a link to the Wikipedia page for a random ship. In 1982, the year after me, my sister went on the cruise:

In 1982 the ship served as a hospital ship in the Falklands War with the affectionate callsign of "Mother Hen". She was called up to military duty while cruising - discharging her bemused passengers of school children, who were on an educational cruise, in Naples. When the SS Uganda docked in Naples reporters turned up their microphones to hear a ship full of school children singing Rule Britannia. The SS Uganda then set off for the South Atlantic after a 3 day refit in Gibraltar. She returned to Southampton to a heroes welcome on 9th August 1982.

That's my sister, one of the bemused school children.

Two years later, she was laid up, rusting, in the River Fal and despite efforts to keep her steaming was eventually sold for scrap and, rebadged as the SS Triton, taken on her final voyage to Taiwan (no school children aboard this time - and a crew of just 21) where she anchored awaiting breaking.

She was driven ashore by a typhoon (Typhoon Wayne) on 22 August 1986 near Kaohsiung, Taiwan and there she lay until broken up in 1992.

And a sad ending to one of the most memorable times in my young life.

"So, what's the challenge?" I hear you ask.

The randomness of finding a Wikipedia entry for this ship, my own little bit of history, just struck me.

What isn't covered by Wikipedia?

Here's your challenge: Find me something real, something tangible, that has not been subjected to the (sometimes dubious) Wikipedia treatment. [No fair just searching things like "raincoaster", raincoaster!]

The prize? How 'bout sharing a case of beer with me in our hot tub, next time you're in Penticton?

Go to it!

Lori

A week hiatus...

It's been a busy week.

What else would a bunch of women do on a full moon? Dance nekkid in the yard?

First of all, I aged. Gracefully. Thank you to those who left me messages of goodwill, those who thought them, and those who ignored it and just had a good Friday night. My gaggle of local female friends are now eager to start meeting every month to, well, drink wine and laugh. I'd say it was a successful party.


I then went off to the Lower Mainland for some errands and friends. This time, my normal feelings of great, undefined potential while driving across the Port Mann bridge did not well up. Instead, I was hit with a feeling of dread -- of traffic, of expectation...of hangover. Ah well.

Oh, I had a good time, but I felt pressed for time, unplanned, and totally unimpressed with the traffic.

Anyway, I'm back. And I won't be traveling the Hope-Princeton Hwy at night again anytime soon. Gads.