The two weeks in which plants vanished, Pt. 3

So I end up in Vegas.  To be honest, I wish the memories here were still fresh, because a lot of the time there was a lot of conflicting thoughts on the subject.  I'm opposed to the city on principle, seeing as how they've pretty much annihilated the aquifer underneath the city in the span of a few years, and yet they continue to waste tremendous amounts of water.  Pretty soon they'll need to completely truck all their water in, or they'll build a massive pipeline and get all their water from some poor other state.  The city of Las Vegas is just a giant waste.  I guess that's why they call it Sin City.  Oh well.  I know some cool people from here, so I guess it's not all that bad. 

Anyway, my first observation of the place, as unbelievable as it seems, is that it's hot.  Very hot.  Being outside was pretty difficult task.  Also, a less noted observation is that it smells really bad.  The city smells awful.  Outside it literally smells like garbage and semen.  Inside any given casino there is a ton of cigarette smoke poorly masked by even more perfume.  Also, I'm sorry if I'm coming across as bitter about the trip, because I'm not.  It's just the casinos that I have a beef with.  You see, I can't gamble, because I'm not 21.  I begrudgingly accepted this long before coming.  However, I also discovered that you can't even stand around in a casino if you aren't 21.  You literally have to keep walking around.  I couldn't even watch my parents gamble.  Which meant that I got to spend some quality time in... malls.  And sometimes the hotel room.  Not fun.  Another complaint: everybody on the Strip is really creepy.  From the dudes advertising their peep shows or whatever-things that dealt with boobs flicking their cards at you, to 6'7" black men walking around dressed up as Wonder Woman, Vegas is... uncomfortable.

That pretty much covers it for the shit stuff.  I saw two shows, one of which was Cirque du Soleil - essentially a bunch of gymnasts on crack, which was spectacular - and the other Penn & Teller, a duo of comedy magicians.  Who were crazy and a little demented, but also spectacular.  One of their tricks involved revealing how the sawing-a-woman-in-half trick worked, only to accidentally send the blade through the exposed midsection and send blood and guts flying everywhere.  I think that pretty much sums it up.

Also, I visited Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Zion National Park, and, of course, the Grand Canyon.  Describing these won't do them any justice, so I'll upload some pictures of each later.  Each was spectacular, although I think the best from a spectator's perspective was Zion National Park.  The Grand Canyon is actually not all that pretty (the Colorado River was running completely muddy brown at the time, for example) although it is perhaps the scariest thing you'll ever see in your life standing at the top.