Start at a giant rental car complex a shuttle from the airport. Hot convertibles are a small fraction of a rental in Washington, DC. Thinking myself stuck with an SUV with no sunroof, I glanced wistfully at a row of convertibles, making an audible wish. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard ‘oh, no problem, I’ll upgrade you.’  I chose speed trap catnip colors yellow and black, a twin of the Bumblebee Camaro that starred in Transformers. After begging repeat instructions on taking down the top and other basics — my staff car in DC is a ’66 Corvair convertible, the Camaro seemed a jet cockpit — we were on the Strip driving like frightened little old ladies, wondering why our eyes were blocked by the top of the windshield.

We gobbled grass-fed black angus steaks bigger than my head at a steakhouse called Tender made my lips quiver — and caught Raiding the Rock Vault, a sly show by musicians from past super-groups delivering a litany of rock music — made my ears quiver. Amid the creature comforts of Aria, dubbed by Popular Mechanics as possibly ‘the most technologically advanced hotel ever built,’ I had second thoughts about leaving Vegas city lights.

Bumblebee buzz drowned out the Vegas sirens’ song. Finding the magic buttons that lowered the seat and stretched the legs to race car ergonomics, the car went from neck-craning nuisance to nirvana. It rapidly became an appendage as we headed an hour northeast up Interstate 15 to the Moapa River Indian Reservation, taking a right, past the Muddy Mountains and into Nevada’s oldest state park, the Valley of Fire. Readers, you’ve likely caught glimpses of this fiery gem, as it’s been a backdrop for films, TV shows and car commercials. With red sandstone — hardened sand dunes from dinosaur times — given a molten look by the sun, it’s a natural for science fiction. Here, Arnold Schwarzenegger tumbled down Martian cliffs in ‘Total Recall‘, and Captain Kirk saved the known universe while falling to his heroic death in ‘Star Trek Generations.’ Contemplate the Anasazi Indians who roamed the valley three centuries before Christ, leaving petroglyphs, including of a throwing stick, the atlatl, a tool that acted as an arm extension to hurl spears at a faster velocity.

For high contrast, a quick travel to a spring-fed wetland, in the Mojave Desert, Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge. Imagine ducks and pelicans in the high desert, with raptor overlords including eagles and hawks, with 264 bird species doing fly-bys. Other wildlife ranges from mountain lions to the rare, fearsome Jackolope. Mind the rattlesnakes.

Also en route, the Lost City Museum in Overton, worth a stop to understand something of the remnants of an ancient Indian civilization that were moved when Lake Mead was created in the 1930’s. Check out its offerings.

Our route continued north on 93 then a northwest trajectory on lonesome 375, officially renamed the Extraterrestrial Highway. Nearby is the top secret locale Area 51, the existence of which was recently confirmed in CIA documents. Conspiracy theorists and/or nutballs believe holds an alien spacecraft that crashed. Some of the many UFO sightings are undoubtedly ‘black’ experimental military aircraft, we were doing a large oval around federal lands including benign uses like wild horses management but also highly restricted military areas. The few locals living along the ET Highway, in another eye-blinker, the town of Rachel, have great fun with the legends. One favorite, at funky roadside attraction Cafe Little A’Le’Inn, is a tow truck hauling a small flying saucer.

Next to the saucer is a legit radiation testing station. On the other side of a small mountain range is the Nevada Test Site. Part of it is Yucca Flat, the most nuked site on earth, 739 (!) nuclear tests, of 928 on the entire site, most but not all below ground, some with multiple detonations, from 1951 to 1992.

If you’ve had the bejesus scared out of you by films of boiling paint and buildings blown away by shock waves, then sucked back into the blast vacuum, it came from here. And if you’ve seen sci-fi films about giant ants, tarantulas and locusts, chances are their ancestors hail from the neighborhood.

The tests might have killed Genghis Khan. At least, John Wayne, who portrayed him in ‘The Conqueror’, a Howard Hughes financed film shot in 1955 in a downwind location in Utah. Over three times as many of those working on the film eventually contracted cancer, half of them fatally — including Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead and director Dick Powell — as would have contracted it in comparably sized groups.

We could see forever down the ET Highway until it turned into the surrounding mountain ranges. The little old ladies in us had receded. We were now proud men with midlife crises! No cars came toward us, certainly none from behind. I don’t want to encourage this sort of thing, but if you plan to go fast, this might be the spot. Our actual speed is on a strictly need to know basis, my eyes focused not on the speedometer but to watch for cows on the fenceless open range. Like atomic fallout, Bumblebee velocity sped startling bovine growth from miniatures in the far distance to giant steers. Caution. And for that last bump in the road.

The next legs of the trip, highway 6 west, blurred into Old West lore, including Tonopah. A strike in 1900 transformed it into  ‘Queen of the Silver Camps’. Mining has always been and will always be deep in Nevada’s bones, the vast majority of gold mined in the US still comes out of Nevada. The original strike, with buildings and equipment, is now a 100 acre park. Hand dug cracks in the earth descend over 1,000 feet, deeper than the tallest building in Las Vegas. Once burros were lowered, they stayed for life, eventually going blind in the dark. One miner met his demise when the man operating the machinery lowering him into the earth enabled a descent in record time after getting wind of an affair with his wife. I don’t know if they are among the ghosts haunting Tonopah’s historic Mizpah Hotel. The top draw is the occasionally sighted Lady in Red, a prostitute murdered in 1914 by a wealthy boyfriend who was enraged to find out he wasn’t her only lover. An alternate legend has her being discovered cheating on her husband after he missed his train and returned to the hotel. Same outcome.

For a sense of Tonopah’s boomtown era, you can click to enlarge the historic photos here.

Banded sandstone layers at Valley of Fire State Park.

Navigator Bruce Northam awaiting delivery of stone tablets in the Valley of Fire.

An artist in Rachel, Nevada, sketched this and shortly afterwards disappeared.

A future high tech ghost town? Near Tonopah is the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project,
ten thousand mirrors in a two mile wide spiral concentrate reflected solar energy to melt
salt in the 640 foot tower, which is used to create steam and to store heat. Very whiz-bang,
but it lost its contract last year. With some irony, advances in solar panels that make
photovoltaic projects cheaper were among the reasons to pull the plug.

Abandoned mining equipment over large swaths of Nevada are reminders of
how critical mining has been to the state and perhaps of a boom and bust state of mind.

Detail from one of the humbler roadside attractions, The World’s Largest
National Junk Car Forest, not far from Goldfield.

Sand dunes among the vast and varied landscapes of Death Valley,
which straddles the California-Nevada boundary

One of number of welcoming roadside attractions in Nevada’s outback.
Take the tour and see aliens hatched from eggs.

A 24-feet tall miner and his trusty penguin, at the Goldwell Open Air Museum.
A Tribute to Shorty Harris, the prospector who fired up a 1904 gold rush,
by Fred Bervoets. Shorty was said to drink a bit, but was also said to be able to smell gold.

Mounted high in the sky is Icara, a hand-carved female version of Icarus.
by Dre Peters, at the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

Kneeling but still twenty-five foot tall is Lady Desert: The Venus of Nevada,
by Hugo Heyrman, making pixel peeping easy at the Goldwell Open Air Museum.

Detail from The Last Supper, by Charles Albert Szukalski, at the Goodwell Open Air Museum

The best preserved part of Rhyolite, the train station for the former Las Vegas and
Tonopah Railroad, at a later point a casino that ran out of luck.

Salt flats in Death Valley, at Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America,
282 feet below sea level.

Detail of massive Hoover Dam: spend some time on a walkabout to take in the 1933 construction
marvel, and its Art Deco features, in the Colorado’s Black Canyon, on the Nevada Arizona border.
It was built between 1930 and 1936 during the Great Depression, the sort of infrastructure
achievement that seems beyond us now. But 112 people died during its creation,
not including those lost to carbon monoxide poisoning, passed off as pneumonia.

Another damn detail!

Funky towns like Goldfeld are packed with colorful characters. Awfully nice people, gregarious in roadside bars, but perhaps best not to bring up politics.

Coming down Route 95, one arrives in Beatty, Nevada’s gateway into the 5,219.33 square mile Death Valley National Park, which straddles the California-Nevada border. It’s the hottest, driest and lowest place in North America.  But late Fall to early Spring it’s often convertible heaven. If ‘breathtaking’ is overused, it’s still legit here when viewing the varied landscapes, from sand dunes to mountains to salt flats. The silence alone holds your attention, before going 282 feet below sea level at its lowest point, Badwater Basin, or contemplating a record temperature of 134.06 degrees F.

Going in or coming out, stop at the Goldwell Open Air Museum, with its impressive sculptures including a wild take on The Last Supper, next to the ghost town of Rhyolite, a once thriving gold rush town that came to grief and generated a mining stock wipeout. As if we need one these days, it’s yet another reminder of how fast a sure bet can hit the skids.

At its peak, Rhyolite wasn’t so small. Within a few years of its founding in 1904, it had up to 12,000 people walking its streets, drawn here by the discovery of gold, all having high hopes of endless riches. Electricity crackled through a town that was lit up 24/7. Tracks were laid; trains arrived and departed constantly, with freight coming in and gold ore going out. Schools opened, expanded, and rang with the laughter of children. The laughter of adults emanated from 45 saloons, numerous dance halls, and an opera house. The Bullfrog Miner’s Union was a force among the 85 mining companies ripping through the surrounding hills. Then, after the financial panic of 1907, only a few hundred people walked these true boulevards of broken dreams. Shortly thereafter, only a few dozen souls remained. It’s almost frightening to deconstruct one’s mental pictures, from vibrant growth to a fast demise, to the last resident’s death in 1924. The town’s former sense of whimsy survives in a house constructed of 50,000 bottles imbedded in adobe. One of the best-preserved structures is the former train station, later an unlucky casino, while remaining portions of the four-story Cook Bank, with skies framed through windows, inside and out, appear as evocative ruins. Here, architecture shows its barest bones.

Ghost towns exercise the imagination. Their evocative emptiness invites the mind to fill in a picture of what once was. Such places are studies in absence, hollow shells whose animating communities have long since evaporated into history. Each is a physical record of a moment in time when a city that had built itself up from nothing seemed, for a time, to be unstoppable, before just as suddenly collapsing, quickly abandoned and forgotten.

A decompression discovery on the way back is a top grade winery, Pahrump Valley Winery. Paired with a first class restaurant, the wines of this relative newcomer will amaze, as they have in blind tastings across the country.

Time then, for Vegas, and stories that remain there. And for Bumblebee withdrawal. Next time the outback will more easily draw me out of city lights. My navigator, intrepid traveler Bruce Northam from NYC’s Chinatown — 152 countries and counting — pronounced this one of the best trips ever, ‘a top ten, maybe five, and it’s not even a foreign country.’ No, it’s a different planet.

Note: As travel returns, road trips with easy social distancing will lead the way. Nevada’s outback is a contender. Explore the Travel Nevada tourism site.

The post Nevada Outback appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Random Acts of Canine Kindness

Cedric the Dog takes a well-deserved break after an ill fated attempt to shut down a white supremacist rally in Alabama.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. – Harry S. Truman

Question: In the Lennon/McCartney composition, ‘Norwegian Wood,’ what exactly is Norwegian Wood?

Scroll down for the answer

7 Things You Should Always Wear on a Plane

Courtesy Caroline Costellos

Be the best-dressed (and most comfortable) person in the cabin with our guide to in-flight apparel.

7 Common Travel Crises and How to Conquer Them

Courtesy Denise Caiazzo, Travel Planners International

Travel advisors are well-equipped to handle just about anything travel-related. Give them a destination, a budget, and a few key interests, and they can whip up an entirely personalized itinerary that will make a client feel over-the-moon, as they make their travel dreams come true.

But what happens when an unforeseen travel nightmare occurs? We’re talking, “I can’t find my passport and I leave for my trip in a week!” or “Surprise, a bad storm hit, and all flights are canceled.”

10 Crazy Las Vegas Tours Everyone Should Experience at Least Once

Courtesy

ed**********@sm***********.com

You know about the celebrity chef restaurants, world-class residencies, and high-limit tables in Las Vegas. But there’s another side of Sin City just begging to be explored. On your next trip to this neon-draped desert city, check out these unique Las Vegas tours that’ll have you rethinking what a weekend in Vegas really means.

The Best Navigation Tools to Keep You on Track on a Car Trip, Here or Abroad

Courtesy Catharine Hamm, L.A. Times

7 Travel Gadgets You Don’t Need & What to Buy Instead

Courtesy Nevin Spearman‎

There are all sorts of gadgets out there that promise to make traveling easier but often fall short. Some are cheaply made and fall apart after one trip. Others are just impractical, a realization that only comes after lugging them around the globe. Below are some of the not-so-great travel gadgets we’ve either purchased ourselves or have spotted in the wild, and the handy alternatives that you may find more useful.

France’s Fascinating ‘Wine Treatment’

Courtesy Melissa Banigan

In Strasbourg’s Hôpital civil, a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape would be prescribed for bloating, while a Côtes de Provence rosé was used to treat obesity.

5 Dangerous Hotel Habits You Can Break Today

Courtesy Joe Cortez

Many travelers believe their hotel rooms to be one of the safest places they can find while abroad. The hotel room becomes an immediate home away from home, giving travelers license to drop their guard as if they were in their own bedrooms. However, what they don’t realize is danger always lurks right around the corner — even in hotel rooms around the world.

Why Adventure Travel Professionals Must Care About Overtourism

Overtourism has become a buzzword of sorts in the travel and tourism industry, but understanding its complexities is the first step in addressing it. We recently shared insights about what exactly overtourism is and why it is a growing phenomenon in our professional sector. To further the discussion about how to tackle this challenge, we want to share our thoughts about why everyone working in the adventure travel industry must be proactive in preventing its further growth.

National Enquirer Theme Park Opens

National Enquirer Live! has opened in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Among the exhibits is a re-creation of the 1997 fatal car crash of Diana, Princess of Wales. Another National Enquirer Live! is coming to Branson, Mo., in late June. And no, we’re not kidding… PS, remind me to miss it.

Alabama Voted As The State Americans Would Least Like To Fly To

Courtesy 10 Yetis Digital

New research has found that Alabama is the state Americans would like to fly to the least, with 35% of Americans saying they wouldn’t fly there, with Nevada and New York making up the rest of the top three. California, Hawaii and Vermont were voted most desirable.

How to Complain Effectively at a Hotel

Courtesy Charlyn Keating

Demand satisfaction when you have a valid complaint

 

“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”

By John Keats

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.

Send Deb your favorite travel poems

Behind the Bucket List: What Americans Really Want in Travel

Courtesy Tours.com

What do Americans want when it comes to Bucket List travel? A group from Provisional Living wanted to find out not only what’s on those lists, but why and how they got there. What they found was pretty revealing.

MORE

Are Airlines Tracking Your Flight Searches (and Raising Prices)?

Courtesy Caroline Morse Teel

Ms. Caroline Morse Teel, Senior Editor of SmarterTravel, investigates whether or not searching for airfare makes the price go up. Also: perfume on a plane, tipping when gratuities are included, who can sit in an exit row, and more.

MORE

Overtourism is a Problem; Here’s What We Can Do

Courtesy Milena Nikolova, ATTA

By now, it should be crystal clear that a major issue plaguing the travel and tourism industry is overtourism. Still unsure what overtourism really means and who it concerns? We recently explained the concept in detail and unpacked why every single person and entity working in the adventure travel industry needs to be aware of and care about overtourism.

MORE

These US States are the Most Fun ⁠– And the Least ⁠– According to WalletHub

Courtesy WalletHub

The measure of “fun” is subjective. But that doesn’t stop us from trying. To that end, WalletHub recently released its 2019 ranking of most fun states in America.

MORE

10 Safety Mistakes Women Shouldn’t Make When Traveling Alone

Courtesy  Caroline Morse Teel, SmarterTravel

Solo travel can be exhilarating, freeing, and helpful in learning new things about yourself. But solo travelers, especially females, can also be more vulnerable while alone on the road. We spoke to some solo women travel experts who shared their top safety mistakes to avoid when traveling alone.

MORE

Chinese Tourism to US Declines For First Time in 15 Years

Data from the National Travel and Tourism Office found travel from China to the U.S. fell 5.7 percent in 2018 to 2.9 million visitors. It marked the first time since 2003 that Chinese travel to the U.S. slipped from the year prior, The Associated Press reported.

MORE

Customer Satisfaction in Airline Travel

A combination of newer planes, better ticket value, and improved customer touchpoints have driven overall satisfaction with airlines to its highest point in history.

Following are some of the key findings of the 2019 study:

MORE

Pickpocket-Proof Clothing: 10 Garments to Protect Your Stuff

Courtesy Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon

Nothing sours a trip like having your belongings stolen by a pickpocket. But chances are, if you travel frequently — or just happen to be unlucky — a sticky-fingered stranger will one day secretly separate you from your stuff. Since traveling sans cash, credit cards, and other valuables isn’t an option for most of us, I’ve rounded up a passel of pickpocket-proof clothing and accessories that’ll make you less of a target for thieves.

MORE

Close Encounters of the Near-Death Kind

Courtesy Richard Collett

It was a hot, humid day in Manila, and I was sat on the rooftop of my hotel, five floors high, working on my laptop and enjoying the occasional sea breeze that flew in from the bay.

MORE

The NOAA Marine Debris Program

Earth Day has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean good habits have to go away too! You can keep up the momentum, reduce your waste footprint, and do good for our planet, no matter where you are.

MORE

Beatle Beat Trivia Answers

Question: In the Lennon/McCartney composition, ‘Norwegian Wood,’ what exactly is Norwegian Wood?

Answer: An inexpensive pine wood from Norway, popular in the 1960s.

The post Behind the Bucket List, Beatle Beat appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Sin City

I am rushing this TGIF edition on the 8th floor of a hotel in Las Vegas Nevada. No, I’m not on some important mission. I’m just my wife’s driver to her conference. It took us about 5 hours to get here from Los Angeles, CA.

The last time I was here was over 20 years ago. Several times between then and now I had been given free hotel accommodations through some special promo but I just was never interested. Even on my way coming here I wasn’t really thrilled about coming here. I wonder why?

This is my second evening here and I have yet to go to the famous “strip.” I asked some of the locals what they would recommend I visit and none of their suggestions got me interested. Yeah, they’re got shows — big deal. They’ve got dancing lights … yeah, maybe. They’ve got night life galore … hmmm, not that interested. They’ve got casinos! So? Everything they touted, we have in Los Angeles as well.

Nevada used to build curiosity with it’s slogan that used to be “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” If you didn’t notice, they haven’t used that in the ads ever since the mass shooting from a deranged lone gun man a few months ago. I guess the secret is out — nothing good happens in Vegas.

So what’s the draw for Nevada? Nothing! —- At least for me. Sure I’ll probably take some selfies with scenic pictures but call me a Puritan because I have no craving for anything here in Vegas whatsover. I guess that’s a good thing.

And then it dawned on me why I was not interested. “Sin City” is still “Sin City” but so are a whole other cities. The cancer (if you can call it that) has metastasized. Now that’s pretty sad.

But this is just me.

TGIF people!

Joke of the Week

Big Mistake

Shared by Ray of Burbank, CA

Videos of the Week

The Muppets Do Bohemian Rhapsody
Sent by Art of Sierra Madre, CA

Here’s a classic.

WATCH VIDEO

The History of Thanksgiving
Sent by Art of Sierra Madre, CA

How well do you know your history?

WATCH VIDEO

Don’s Puns

From Don’s collection of puns

Parting Shot

Thanks to Don of Kelowna, B.C. who shared this photo

The post The Best Seller appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Dining

PIERO’S – The cab driver was right: the osso bucco was outstanding, as good as any I’d ever had in Milan. Piero’s was located across the street from the Vegas Convention Center in an area that was desolate and a tad eerie in the early evening. Thinking of Vegas’ mob history, I almost wondered if this new cab driver was taking me for a ride. But my senses were calmed when we arrived at the 35-year-old iconic Italian-American restaurant. Piero’s has been popular from the early days of the Rat Pack to contemporaries like Mick Jagger and Justin Timberlake. As we were handed our menus, I noticed a few shady-looking characters in expensive suits dining there, as well. But this only added to the ambience. It only seemed fitting that the restaurant was used in the Martin Scorsese film, ‘Casino.’ I added Piero’s signature Miami Stone Crab appetizer to my order. It was expensive, but still worth every bite.

OSCAR’S – The theme at Oscar’s is “Beef, Booze & Broads,” mirroring owner and former Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman’s philosophy on life. Located in the Plaza Hotel’s second story, the venue is situated in a glass dome with 360-panoramic views of the exploding downtown Vegas Art District. You can’t miss it for there are attractive looking women waving down at you from the glass dome window, beckoning for you to come on up. There’s a swagger at Oscar’s, and the experience is all about fun. My standards had risen considerably after dining at Piero’s, but I wasn’t disappointed with the beef and booze, a classic gin martini. And, yes, I did spot another location used in ‘Casino.’

JEAN GEORGES STEAKHOUSE – Anthony Bourdain once said that his death row meal of choice would be bone marrow. If you’re like Tony, then the Jean-George Steakhouse is the place for you. It’s also a very vibrant and hip restaurant  Was that The Clash playing on the sound system? Award-winning chef and owner, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, personally selects only the music he likes. Located in the Aria Hotel’s Food Court, this is indicative to his approach, putting his spin on the traditional American steakhouse by adding a strong dose of energy, along with innovative gastronomic creations.

Attractions

MOB MUSEUM – With my interest in the underworld, I was quite anxious to visit the museum. One of the first things I noticed was large photo of Bugsy Siegel, with the caption: “Don’t worry, we only kill each other,” which Siegel once said to a nervous, potential non-mob investor in his new Flamingo Hotel. Bugsy’s words were self-fulfilling, for he took a bullet in the eye by his own gang when his dream project went hopelessly over-budget. This and more are on-display in the new Mob Museum, housed in the former federal courthouse and U.S. Post Office in the new Art District. Built in 1933, the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The mob was also responsible for bringing in entertainers like Frank, Dino and Sammy to Vegas, but kept their underworld presence low-key due to patrons’ fear of gambling in what could be a dangerous venue. Of course, Vegas has always been a wide-open town. When prohibition ended, many citizens expressed surprise that there ever had been a prohibition. One of the museum’s iconic artifacts is the brick wall where members of the Bugs Moran gang were lined up and shot and killed by members of Al Capone’s gang.

CIRQUE du SOLEIL’S LOVE  – I was one of those kids whose life changed when I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan TV Show. Many friends were surprised that I hadn’t seen “Cirque du Soleil’s LOVE.” Ok, I had the CD by Sir George Martin, the Beatles’ long time producer, but hadn’t actually seen the show. It’s a psychedelic journey through the ’60s, told through 30 of the Beatles’ original recordings, re-mixed by Martin and his son. The show is a seamless blend of Beatle songs and Cirque du Soleil’s acrobatics, dancing and visual effects where performers are dressed in Beatle costumes and characters from their songs. It’s the closest thing to attending a Beatles’ concert. The ad lib between the Fab Four, recorded at studio session, was so clear that you actually felt that you were in the same room with them.

FOOT RESCUE at CANYON RANCH – Let’s face it: Much of the Vegas experience is strolling down the strip, basking in the almost Felliniesque excess of architecture and attractions. And your feet do get tired. The Venetian, Canyon Ranch Healthy Feet Center is devoted to advanced foot health and comfort. I opted for a foot/gait analysis, which monitors how one moves, assessing the biomechanics of your gait. This was followed by my first foot massage, then a health food lunch at the Canyon Ranch Spa Club where I ordered “The Healthy Elvis” – a banana, peanut butter on whole wheat grain bread sans the deep frying. I felt better, but still couldn’t sing.

BELLAGIO GALLERY OF FINE ART – The last thing I expected to do in Vegas was to attend a genuine art show. But there stood the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art Exhibition, which offers a welcome reprieve from the hustle bustle of the city. The new Samurai: Armor from the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Collection honors the culture, lifestyle and art of the samurai warrior. Spanning hundreds of decades of Japanese history, more than 50 pieces of samurai armor are on display. The exhibition feature objects that were used both for combat and ceremonial purposes, conveying the complete story of the samurai, who not only fought in battle, but also practiced poetry and calligraphy. To honest, I could have used a little protection when negotiating the crowd at the casino tables.

ARIA Resort & Casino – Unlike the carnival-like ambience of many properties, ARIA Resort & Casino, with its contemporary architecture, muted colors and natural light, seemingly stands alone as a relaxing haven, yet still with the attractions of a casino, designer shops, big name shows, cutting-edge restaurants, spa and pool at your fingertips. If I weren’t for the fact that I wanted to see more of the city, I could have spent my entire time in Vegas at the property. But I will return, and see once again how Las Vegas has changed.

For a Comprehensive List of the 100 Best Things to do in Las Vegas, visit Jen Reviews.

The post A Return to Sin City appeared first on Traveling Archive.