YOU'LL FIND THE BRIGHT PLACES...

..."Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing.
With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!"

We meandered back through Flagstaff way, missing any signs of the major fire that had started that morning, and headed towards NV.  A quick stop to make sure construction on the new bridge at Hoover Dam was on schedule, and a trek through an antique store in Boulder City, before heading down the hill (though I am told it is actually UPHILL - don't ask - I could argue that point all day) to Henderson, and my waiting family.

Dinner that evening was one last Mexican food restaurant - Chapalas - which has a pole out front that proved too tempting, after margaritas, for grandfather and granddaughter.

After a night of rest, we spent the next week doing tourist things, including a trip to the Silver and Gold Pawn Shop (or Gold and Silver - who knows), of TV fame...just to see what was up, and if it was really what it looked like on TV...we were a little disappointed, but we can say "we did it".  Three nights netted four shows for my folks, and a chance to get out and walk The Strip, for me and Jaci...something we very rarely get to do.  The first night was impressionist Frank Caliendo, at the Monte Carlo - a marvelous time was had by all...including the voices in his head!  Jaci instructed my parents (as we were standing out front of the hotel, waiting for seating to start) that it was important to try and not look like tourists when doing "touristy" things, like posing in front of the fountain.

All that well-heeded advice flew right out the window when Dad discovered a stack of the "slap cards" that are handed out on the sidewalks on The Strip (if you have to ask, you don't need to know...one of the "seedier" souvenirs you can pick up...let's just say he was taking them home and gonna' sell them to my nephews for a quarter apiece).  We got him a stack about an inch and a half thick that night, during our walking expedition - made for inspirational reading material over coffee and sweet rolls the next morning.

                

More photos of Jaci being "non-touristy" - the last being with a photo for a candy shop on The Strip, with her idol, Vanilla Ice.

The following night was spent with Cher (if only) at Caesars Palace - Happy Father's Day, Dad, and Happy Birthday, Mom!  Jaci and I spent more time walking on The Strip, doing "tourist" things (yeah, she may say they were not, but they were).  Ninety-nine cent margaritas (quite a few) and 101 degree heat, while dodging hundreds of people on a sidewalk, make for a knockout evening (Jaci taking one for the team from Joe Lewis, outside of my Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace).

I drug them over to The MGM afterwards, to look up my son, Louie, who was working that evening, just for a photo op.  Damn near killed both of them, with the walking, but look at the nice shot we got!

Requisite tourist shots of two beautiful Strip sights - The 1/3rd scale Eiffel Tower in front of The Paris Hotel (the real one must be enormous), and the dazzling water show in front of The Bellagio, that night, set to the music of Frank Sinatra.  The following evening they went to see one of the Rat Pack Shows at the downtown Sahara Hotel...Frank, Dean, Sammy and Joey.  Jackie "D" and Charlie met me there for drinks, and to catch up on gossip.  Back to Chapalas for dinner with Louie (OK, I lied...THIS was the last night of Mexican food and margaritas).  While there, I got a call from a friend that had tickets for the four of us to go see "O", at the Bellagio.  Never one to turn down a last minute proposition like that, we headed back to The Strip for a MARVELOUS 10:00 show - yes, we are O-fficially night owls!  "O" is one of seven Cirque du Soleil performances at various hotel locations here...this one, done in, over, and under water - STUNNING!

On the fourth day, Louie shaved his head, and we rested...to say I had a marvelous time on this vacation is an understatement, for sure!  One more post of pictures to go...thanks for sticking it all out with me!

AND THANK YOU TO ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN SERVING IN OUR ARMED FORCES, AND THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE THEM, FOR KEEPING OUR HOMELAND SAFE - IT IS BECAUSE OF YOU WE CAN LIVE AND TRAVEL FREELY THROUGH THIS GREAT COUNTRY OF OURS...HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, AMERICA!