Summer Road Trip: Days 7-9

Here we are in the wilds of...well, Arizona at the moment, but when we last left our saga, I was in Las Vegas. 

Bright lights, big city, etc

Monday

We got into Vegas Monday afternoon/evening, and...look. I'm not going to bitch about Vegas a lot. But I will say that I've stayed in a lot of hotels over the past week, and Vegas frustrates me some.

Everything in this picture is artificial except Michelle

See, I was in Las Vegas...oh, 20-ish years ago with Heather; she had a conference and I tagged along. And I knew that the Strip isn't all that interesting unless you're a) rich and b) wanting to gamble (I am neither, so I read something like 8 books that week). But things like food weren't terribly expensive, because they wanted you to spend your money in the casinos. 

This time, though, everything was exorbitant. You can connect two devices to the wi-fi, anything after that is $15 a pop, stuff like that. And if the experience had been worth that, I wouldn't care, but it...was kinda mediocre. Everything in Paris smelled of smoke because there's a cigar bar (and people are allowed to smoke inside, gross), it's continually loud, and there's such a constant churn of people that no one has time for you.

But, with all that said, we did have some really good times in Vegas, so let's talk about that!

Monday we didn't do much of anything; we got in and hid in our room and ordered room service because we were tired from driving. So...not much to report there. But...

Tuesday

We had a couple of fun things going on!

First thing: We went to the Mob Museum!

This thing (of ours)

The Mob Museum is exactly that; a museum dedicated to organized crime. It's something I actually know a little about because of a couple of books I worked on for White Wolf back in the day, at least the history, so it was fun to see some familiar faces and know a little of what the hell was going on. But the Museum, of course, is pretty darned in-depth, and while it shows how we've glamorized organized crime, it never shies away from presenting in pretty stark terms what assholes these people were/are.

I mean, drugs are great, but artichokes are necessary for minestrone

CLEVELAND! WOO!

Dice jail

There's also a few special exhibits/experiences you can pay for. We did two: One was the forensics lab, where we learn how law enforcement uses SCIENCE! to catch criminals. 

(Look, it has become very popular to say "copaganda" every time cops get brought up in anything like a positive light. And I get it. ACAB and all, I'm with that. But like...sometimes they do catch actual criminals, and science is involved, and that's kind of cool to learn about. And although the vibe was pretty positive, I never got a Dragnet/Law and Order kind of "cops are basically good" vibe, it was much more "here is how this sciencey stuff works." Cool? Cool.)

Michelle doing SCIENCE!

Bones and other evidence

This isn't the science lab, but those are costumes from the movie

The other thing we did was a moonshine tasting, so we descended into the depths of the museum, past all the Prohibition-aganda and booze-aganda (see, I can do it too). 

And to their very own on-site still!

I'd never really tried moonshine (which is whiskey made from a certain percentage of corn mash), and they had several that were really good, in very small tasters because moonshine is no joke, ABV wise. So after that, we stumbled toward the gift shop (I'm kidding, we were perfectly sober) and headed back to the hotel for dinner.

We had dinner at Nobu, for which I didn't take any pictures because I don't like to photograph food, but it was really good (again, though, the food was kind of marred by the ever-present cigar smell). And after that? ZOMBIE BURLESQUE!

I don't have photos from the actual show, of course, but you can see more here. Suffice to say it was funny, sexy, and had some really amazing feats of dance and physical prowess (and a burlesque dancer named Jessica Rabid, which really tickled me. The name, I mean, she didn't, I was sitting too far away from the stage). 

From there, sleep!

Wednesday

Next morning, we got up early and fucking fled. Next stop, Los Angeles!

Well, on the way, we found a little diner called Peggy Sue's in the middle of freaking nowhere.

Pictured: The middle of nowhere

Which is the safest part of nowhere

Peggy Sue's was a 50s-themed diner that also had a park complete with diner-saurs!

Gorillas are not dinosaurs, but they might be diner-saurs, the jury's out

Feel free to make reflecting pool jokes, we did

We're on a mission for Gahd

This was in the women's bathroom. I...?

I mean, the diner-saur park looks sketchy, as did the surrounding terrain (there was a military base right across the road), but the food was actually really good, the atmosphere was fun, and we could hear ourselves think, so overall an improvement. 

From there to LA! We were staying at a lovely little B&B near the ocean, and I have so many good things to say about that...next post!