Free and Easy (Art) in Las Vegas

By Wednesday it was clear this would not be the trip we envisioned when we left the dark, damp Pacific Northwest last weekend.  The same clouds we thought we’d left behind were covering this sun-seeker paradise, rain was  falling, and that, coupled with wind blew any plans for poolside basking  out the window. 
So what to do?

Here’s our Strip Tip for rainy day entertainment:  A Do It Yourself Art Tour that costs nothing (unless of course you can’t resist buying a piece to take home).
 
First stop:  Bellagio Resort Casino lobby where internationally-known-glass-artist-Pacific-Northwest-son Dale Chihuly’s flower sculpture , a 2,100 square foot chandelier fills the hotel lobby ceiling. There are 1,600 individual hand blown glass pieces (each weighing about 50 pounds.) that make up the piece inspired by Italy’s Lake Como and created at the Venini Factory in Venice.

Walk through the lobby to get to the the seasonal garden displays at the  Bellagio’s Conservatory. Designers have again created a seasonal whimsical setting that shouldn’t be missed.  This fall’s display includes a pumpkin made of 2,000 fresh carnation blooms and red apples made of red rose buds. And a framed art piece (pictured) made of flowers and greens.

Walk through the Bellagio casino to the Cirque du Soleil “O” Theatre Lobby and  gallery that showcases the figurative sculptures of Richard Macdonald. His passion for dance is captured in the dancers, mimes and performers highlighted in his pieces.   Watch a video of dancers and the artist capturing their moves as a piece is created.  No admission cost, art is for sale.

Macdonald is currently working on a massive piece – a tribute to the founder of The Royal Ballet that will be installed next year in London’s Hyde Park.

It will cost to tour  Bellagio’s Gallery of Fine Art (admission $15/adult) but in the current display (through January 2012) you’ll see pieces from Monet to Hockney that compare and contrast expressionism in landscape art.



A new Bellagio gallery that opened within the last year– Jeff Mitchum Galleries –is next door to the Fine Art Gallery in a space once occupied by the fine art gallery shop. Walls are filled with Mitchum’s stunning light and landscape photography. Open daily at 10 a.m. Free admission, art is for sale.
Staff in each gallery were eager to talk about their artist and his work. At the Mitchum gallery art consultant, Jerry Olivarez, who was staffing  the gallery desk, was a great source of information about  the Las Vegas visual arts community.

One of our ‘fun finds’ this trip was on the second floor of City Center’s Cosmopolitan Hotel, just south of Bellagio.  As its name, Art-o-mat, implies  it is a vending machine for art. It is one of six they have in this property – reportedly the only place in Nevada you will currently find them. They are old cigarette vending machines that have been recycled into hip, retro style art vendors.  Insert $5, choose an artist and out comes a piece of art boxed and wrapped inside cellophane.

TP Thursday: Sea Foam Saturday

To our way of thinking, there is nothing better than a walk on a beach – preferably, a warm sandy one.  We took many such walks in January while on the island of O’ahu, Hawaii.  But it was one particular beach, just beyond Ko Olina on the northwestern shore, that gave us a Sea Foam Saturday to remember.

Each wave glazed the sand with  sea foam, sweeping over our feet before being drawn back to the sea.

It is a month now since Travelnwrite became a part of Travel Photo Thursday – a weekly travel photo show that spans the globe.  Check out the photos submitted by others at Budget Travelers Sandbox.

Vegas: Gambling, Glitz and . . .Groceries

We’re ‘at home’ just a half block off the Las Vegas Strip, that  sexy sounding multi-lane asphalt path that visitors follow from one glitzy, glamorous casino to another. 

The Villas at Polo Towers is where we’ve been ‘playing house’ in a timeshare unit that feels much like a regular condo. Our views out over the mountain ranges to the south, gives no indication that we are anywhere near the Strip’s  glitz and glamour.

However our location puts us an easy walk from many casino – the  MGM Grand to the left, City Center to the front and Planet Hollywood, Bellagio and Paris to the right.
And heading south on The Strip - just a short ride on the public transit – there’s . . .the grocery store.

Some of you might balk at the thought of grocery shopping and cooking on vacation, but when that is the only household duty  required, it really does take on the feel of an adventure – not a chore.

And grocery stores always provide a ‘local’ flavor, like the honey we purchased: Local Desert Honey, a produce of Mojave Desert plants. 

The maid arrives each afternoon to change towels and remove the garbage and does a thorough cleaning mid-week, giving us plenty of pool or reading time.

Four years ago we entered the timeshare world and have found we like the ‘home away from home’ comforts of these temporary digs.  One of the nicest parts of our timeshare lifestyle allows the flexibility to trade our time and place for others around the world.  We can also take advantage of owner getaways and perks. . .like this one. 

Did I tell you this week’s stay is free as part of a promotion through the timeshare exchange  company, Interval International?  Because we booked that week back in February at The Jockey Club here in Vegas, we earned a free week’s stay to use at any number of places. We chose to return to Vegas – the only thing we paid was a  $139 booking fee.

Note:  These units can be rented through sites such as Expedia, or Diamond Resorts - you don’t need to own a timeshare to stay here..

Vegas: A Desert Storm

The High Plains Drifters are settling into their home away from home only footsteps off The Strip in Las Vegas. We came seeking sun and warmth. We got the warmth - today's predicted high temperature is 90.
As for the sun. . .that seems to be a continuing quest.

The Strip is known for its late night bright lights and thunderous music. This afternoon The Strip was lit with bright light when lightening filled the skies, and thunder rattled the windows and then. . .no joke, the rain came pouring down in Seattle-like buckets.  Weather forecasters said Sunday it would be the first winter storm of the season. Sigh.

Our one-bedroom, one-bath condo at The Villas at Polo Towers, that I wrote about last week exceeded our expectations with one exception, the internet connection -- they say it is there, my computer says it isn't.  So this post is being written on one of those communal computers in the lobby where fellow guests wait a impatiently for their turn at emails and Facebook. 

I have tales and photos and some Strip Tips to share but it's going to be a few days before those are posted. Now, I am heading upstairs to dig out those Seattle umbrellas that I never travel without.

TP Thursday: That moment in Crete

That moment.

We all have them in our travels; that one particular moment -- the scene -- that comes instantly to mind when you think of a particular place you’ve visited. I captured that moment on Crete during our trip there last year.

It was afternoon in Loutro, a small village on Crete’s southern shore. We’d taken a walk on the town’s main ‘thoroughfare’ – a sidewalk that looped from the ferry dock bisecting the dining decks of handful of restaurants, and display areas of stores that ring the crescent shaped shore on which it is located.
 Loutro, can only be reached on foot or by boat. This boat was one of three or four in the harbor that afternoon. The ferry had departed, the day's hustle and bustle had ended. The sunlight cutting through the crystal clear water as it lapped against the shore turning rocks below into mosaics was mesmerizing.

Notes: Click to enlarge the photo.
If you want more about our Loutro visits, follow this link:
Loutro
The link above the photo takes you to the official Loutro site, where accommodations for 2012 are advertised as starting from 12E a person, per night!

To see the other photos in this week's  Travel Photo Thursday, visit Budget Travelers Sandbox.

High Plains Drifters Kick Off ‘Sun-Seeking Season’

The High Plains Drifters (that’s us) will soon be celebrating ‘Sun Seeking Season'. That’s the time of year when our Pacific Northwest days begin and end with the same gray, dreary weather. . . and we start seeking sunny destinations.

We kick off this year’s Sun Seeking Season in Las Vegas at The Villas at Polo Towers on The Strip (3745 Las Vegas Blvd. S.). 

Polo Towers, just a block or so from the better-known Paris Resort (photo above), will be our base for a week. Our one-bedroom, one-bath condo -- with full kitchen, living and dining areas -- will be one of our sun-seeker  ‘homes’.  We plan to bask in the sun at poolside, read some books, do some cooking ‘at home’ and, of course, explore all that we can.

Then we’ll aim our rental car south, so that we can spend a few days in Scottsdale, watching those magnificent sunrises at the same place we stayed last spring, The Scottsdale Links Resort (16858 N. Perimeter Drive).

Both of these  ‘homes-away-from-home’ are ‘time share’ resorts. We don’t own at either place, but our timeshare ownership at other properties allows us to participate in the exchange management company, Interval International’s  ‘Getaways’ program that offer accommodations at greatly reduced rates, literally, at a fraction on of a cost of a hotel stay.

Although we were reluctant to enter the timeshare world a few years ago, now that we’ve taken the plunge, we are sold on the concept.  It is much like having a second-home, but without the responsibilities of full ownership. The other nice thing is that our ‘home’ can be anywhere in the world . . .where the sun is shining!

Washington D.C. ~ Monumental ‘Wanders’

A week ago today I was flying to Washington D.C. for one of those whirlwind trips that conference attendance often generates. The kind that allows only a few hours on either side of the event to get out and explore the area.

To those of us living on the West Coast, Washington D.C., on the opposite side of the country, is the ‘other Washington’– the one that requires an almost six hour flight to reach from ‘our Washington.’

That ‘other Washington’, is our nation’s political engine. That fact alone is a turn-off to many would-be tourists, who see it as a haven of politicians; a grandstand for their rhetoric and bickering. Others, like me, also see it as a treasure chest of wonders; museums, monuments and memorials showcasing so much culture and history that it would take weeks to visit them all.

So where to wander in a matter of  hours?

Three of us West Coast Washingtonians caught METRO and for $2.45 each way, whizzed  from Arlington, Virginia (where the conference was held)  to the National Mall’s  underground Smithsonian Station, from where we emerged to the sight of the Washington Memorial (pictured) to our left and the U.S. Capitol Building to the right.

From there we set out to pursue our own itineraries:

I headed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (14th Street and Independence, 202-448-0400).  It was my third visit – and I could still return ten times over, each time learning/seeing  something I’d missed on a previous trip. You don’t tour this four-story archive of 1930’s – 40’s European history, you experience it. I used most of that afternoon’s free time pondering and shuddering at the story told through its 900 artifacts and 70 video monitors about  Hitler’s rise to power and the devastation that followed.

One of the displays  tells of the Hitler-ordered book burnings across Germany in the Spring of 1933.  Books authored by Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis,. . .Helen Keller, among them.

It wasn’t until this visit that I noted on the display window, a chilling quote written decades in advance of Hitler’s reign:

“Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned.”

Heinrich Heine, 1797 –1856, German Jewish Poet.

Admission is free.  What you experience here, stays with you for a long time. Photos inside the Museum are not allowed. I took the photo to the right as I walked to the Museum Café  housed in the building on the left; the Washington Monument in the distance.  The sculpture is titled, Loss and Regeneration.

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We managed another monumental ‘wander’ during the three hours after the conference’s end and our flight home. We again hopped Metro and for $2.20 each, emerged from the underground station at Arlington National Cemetery.

We opted – because of the short amount of time we had – to take the narrated, 45-minute shuttle tour ($8.50 per person) with the idea we’d see the whole place and if time allowed go back to those particular places we wanted to see a bit more in-depth.

We scrapped that plan when we arrived at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier within minutes of  the Changing of the Guard – an event that I now know shouldn’t be missed. 

We were walking toward the Tomb when in the distance we heard the echo of a 21-gun salute. . .we were told that some 25 military burials take place each day. . .

As we waited for the human guards to change, we watched a Bald Eagle, our national bird and our country’s symbol, soaring  overhead, as if the ultimate guard of the more than 320,000 servicemen and women buried within Arlington’s 624 acres.

And then the Changing of the Guard:

Travel Photo Thursday: New Angle on ‘Paris’

Travel Photo Thursday made me think about how we all can influence a photo by the angle we use to cut out people, signs, graffiti, garbage cans that might otherwise distract from the scene. Sometimes a snippet of the full scene is all it takes to bring back good memories.

Joel and I were celebrating my summer birthday, sitting on the patio at a Parisian café when I looked up and decided this photo would capture that moment:



I should add, we were dining at  Restaurant Mon Ami Gaby ~ right in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip, but you wouldn’t know it from the photo, would you?

Travel Photo Thursday was started by Budget Travelers Sandbox, so just click this link to see photos from other travel blogs.  Click the photo above to enlarge it.