Go to Church in San Felipe, or Play in Vegas?

We are having breakfast in the church parking lot, which also serves as a basketball court.  I forgot to pack my dress, but of course no one minded.  What a treat!....both the breakfast and the Sacrament Meeting...which turned out to also be a testimony meeting....as it was New Year's Day.  We toasted 2012 with glasses of premium fresh-squeezed from a street vendor and gobbled up giant cookie-breads from the local paneria.  San Felipe had a new LDS chapel, sitting like a light up on a hill.  In fact, one of the members (a Catholic from the Bronx) told how it had drawn her inside where she found truth after truth and asked the missionaries to explain how that can be.  It turned out to be modern revelation through modern prophets.  This woman gave up everything, including her family (who rejected her and her baptism) to follow Jesus Christ. 

Luke 18:29-30 reads:  "There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting."

With a prayer for safety, and a carload of Chinese-Mexi food, we crossed the border at Mexicali (the only city in Mexico with a real "China Town").  Beggars worked the lines of waiting cars, so we shared our stir-fried and the rest of our pesos with them.

 Newel, the machine, drove straight to The Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, where we were dazzled by rows of chandeliers and tanks of brilliant tropical fish.  Our new rooms were so posh we didn't want to touch anything.  So we just stared at the opulence and curled up in the most comfy beds we'd ever met.  It was the formula for perfect, instant sleep.

Monday morning was a bit chilly for a swim, so we started off with the hot tub.  That's Maya in the Tinkerbell suit.  She flew everywhere, even down the twisting, see-through water slide that zipped through the shark tank.  Here Daddy tried to keep up.

Amazing! Once we were warmed from the hot tub, it was into the pool to swim with the sharks. With your nose pressed to the tank it really was just like you were swimming with these giants...with no scuba gear required. Perfect for a claustrophobic. It was enthralling...really! Arden is at the firepit, getting some BTUs...then back to shooting the shark tank on the slide.

 

Engineer Newel had to get back to his project and Arden needed to get himself back in school... so what do we do without them? Why relax on the giant stuffed lounges and take pictures of shiny buildings and then climb them to get "aerial" views of downtown Las Vegas and the "original strip".

I struck gold!  "The Hand of Faith" was right in the lobby, all along.  This is the biggest nugget known at 61 lustrous pounds.  How did the Golden Nugget ever afford to buy it?  RU kidding?  Bob talked one gambler into quitting while she was ahead, but most seem to think their faith in their bets will make them winners.  Read more about this nugget here.  So did I gamble?  No.  But I did put money in a slot once on a field trip with some of my Earth Science students.  I was trying to give a lesson on what a waste of money it is, and the pull of the handle resulted in the sound of coins dropping and students laughing.

Swimming with Sharks ...in Las Vegas?

My New Year's Resolution:  Go down the 3-story water slide.  I've never been down even a 2-foot water slide in my life.  Bob nixed the idea:  "Act your age; you'll break your back and be an invalid for the rest of your life!"  Actually I was only worried about my feet.  If I don't keep them perfectly warmed, I get frost bite...that's how inferior my circulation is.  But it's a new year, and it's time to stop living in fear (my miserable enemy).  When Bob wasn't looking, I did it!!  When I came up from the water I realized all kinds of fears had been washed away.  The sharks had liberated me!!

I took off exploring (on my own).  Upstairs was another pool with in-water lounges, surrounded by double beds, complete with pillows.  Need I say this was an "adults only" area? 

It could be busy during the day, but I found out "The Retreat" was open late.  When the sun was setting, I had the pool and cabanas to try out all on my own.

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I hastened through the casino next, trying to hold my breath to limit the damage from second-lung smoke.  Outside the half-dome cover over Fremont Street was lit up with ads.   Zip-line enthusiastics went by squealing overhead.  I was invited to be a street magician's assistant.  Fun.  He was from Switzerland and was loaded with charm and talent.  Then I watched spray paint artists create fascinating art with unimaginably quick strokes and clever shielding of areas they wanted free from an added color.  But I was undeterred in my quest.  Focus, Eileen... focus.   I wanted to find... chocolate...the darker the better.  Walgreen's had just the fix I needed.

I couldn't resist taking the above picture of this Fremont Street classic. You really can eat free if your are 350 pounds (minimum). "Nurses" are your waitresses, because you will clog every available artery with the food they serve. At the "Heart Attack Grill" you have to walk in on your own, but they have an ambulance to assist in your departure.  As glitzy as Vegas gets, I kept being drawn back to the shark tank and the giant aquarium at our Rush Tower registration desk.  It had a wondrously well-designed, high-end restaurant wrapped around behind the aquarium.   It beckoned to me each time I walked by.  The fish and I became fast friends, as we had to stay for 3 days before we could get a plane.  They raised the price of our room $20 each day we stayed.  Intertesting.

With plenty of time, I made a movie of Las Vegas chandeliers.  Really!  Ask me, and I'll share it.

I took one last swim, but this time all of the way around the shark tank.  I thought the water would be cooler on the back side (the shaded part of the pool) but it wasn't.  The coldest part was standing under one of the water falls.  I hadn't been swimming in so long...it was a truly FREEing experience.

Below is the poster the hotel has hung outside to lure visitors in.  Come shoot the tube!

We finally flew out...to Minneapolis and then to Orlando.  We flew right over our kids' home on Lake Fredrica.  What a beautiful sight.  Let's play tigers and go fish on the dock!

Steps Toward Hosting

Sorry...one of the first things you'll need to do is sell your home....unless you can afford to maintain more than one home and have compelling reasons to keep yourself tied down. We took a big loss on the sale of our home (closing July 26, 2011) but we are ever so grateful to be out from under the bills and payments. Do you know what it's like to have NO mortgage, utility bills or house insurance and taxes to pay? Try it.

We put our house up for sale February 21, 2011, and headed south in our new RV. It was fringed with icicles and burdened with ice on the undercarriage until Las Vegas heat it it. We were on our way to Quartsite...the mecca of western snowbirds. We heard it touted by a bird who came to one of our many moving sales. There were supposed to be flea markets and rock displays stretching out into the giant BLM boondocking ranges. FREE camping!...along with panning for gold and finding all types of mineral treasures. As a former Geology Major, it sounded too good to be true.