LKL's Blog » USA

Vote for US President

lklawless — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:48:01 +0000

No matter where you are in the world, you can vote for the next American president, thanks to The Economist’s very cool Global Electoral College. One candidate seems to have a very sizeable lead, so check it out and add your vote!

El Paso, Juárez, Carslbad Caverns (days 12-14)

lklawless — Sun, 13 May 2007 12:00:29 +0000

We spent our last three days in El Paso, visiting different friends. With one of them, we drove just south of the border into Juárez, Mexico, where we saw a fantastic dinner show at Viva Mexico.*

There was dancing, there was singing, there was amazing trick roping, and there was some very funny audience participation. We had a blast – it was definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip.

We also drove back into New Mexico to visit Carlsbad Caverns, which was astonishing. Most of our pictures didn’t come out, and the ones that did don’t begin to do it justice – you really have to see it for yourself.

*Restaurant Cantina Viva Mexico
Pueblito Mexicano, avenida

Lincoln y Zempoala
Auza María Elena E.
C.P. 32310, Ciudad

Juárez
Chihuahua, Mexico
Tel: (656) 629-0156

Santa Fe (day 11)

lklawless — Sat, 12 May 2007 11:00:52 +0000

Our next stop was Santa Fe, but first we drove through the tiny artists colony of Madrid, which one of my subscribers had kindly told me about. In Santa Fe, we stayed at the wonderful Inn of the Turquoise Bear. We had a nice lunch at Whole Body Cafe, went to Museum Hill to visit the Museum of International Folk Art and Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, saw the “miraculous staircase” at the Loretto Chapel, and had a phenomenal dinner at Il Piatto. If you like Italian, this is the place in Santa Fe.

Taos Pueblo and Peacock (days 9 and 10)

lklawless — Fri, 11 May 2007 12:00:43 +0000

Taos was a very long drive, made longer by the snowy mountains we drove through, but the sky was clear and sunny (albeit cold) the next day. We stayed at American Artists Gallery House for two nights, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Our room was charming, breakfast was delicious, and the resident peacock flirted with us throughout our game of Scrabble on the patio.

We walked around the plaza, discovered a great little gallery/bookstore/cafe called Sustaining Cultures, and visited Taos Pueblo, despite the rather hefty entrance fee (including a surcharge for our camera).

Arches National Park, Four Corners, Mesa Verde (days 7 and 8)

lklawless — Thu, 10 May 2007 12:42:02 +0000

The next morning, it took us a long time to drive up to Arches National Park, due to sleet and road construction, but then it cleared up for a couple of hours. We hiked to one arch, but on our way to another, it started raining and got very cold, so we headed back.

Our next stop was Kelly Place, a bed + breakfast and retreat center near Cortez, Colorado, where we enjoyed chatting with a hiking club from California. The next morning the weather wasn’t very nice, so we drove many miles out of our way to Four Corners to experience being in four different states at once, then drove back to Mesa Verde and got a great look at Cliff Palace.

Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly (day 6)

lklawless — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:19:37 +0000

In looking over our itinerary, we realized that we had just enough unallocated time to zip over to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon before heading east, so that’s what we did. We didn’t have time to hike down into it, but we did stop at several viewpoints, including a lookout tower. Then we drove through the Hopi Indian reservation, which was one of the things I had really wanted to see. I read part of The Book of the Hopi in college, and so when I realized during the planning stages that we’d be in that area, I insisted that we drive through it.

At Canyon de Chelly, we drove along the South Rim and hiked down to the White House Ruin, where we chatted with several Indians selling jewelry (and bought a necklace). That night we stayed at the only lodging within the monument, Thunderbird Lodge.

Leaving Las Vegas, Zion, Lake Powell (days 4 and 5)

lklawless — Sat, 05 May 2007 14:32:35 +0000

During our three days in Vegas, we didn’t do any gambling – other than, apparently, with our lives each time we left our car in a parking garage. According to the B+B owner, there have been some robberies and you should *never* park in a garage. We found them well-lit and full of people, so we “risked” it anyway.

Our next stop was Zion National Park where it was, unfortunately, cold and drizzly. We took the scenic bus and watched the movie at one of the stops, but we weren’t able to take any pictures or walk around at all. Then we drove to Page, AZ, where, the next day, we took the Rainbow Bridge Cruise on Lake Powell. It’s a scenic 7-hour trip, but I still think it was too expensive (well over $100 each).

Las Vegas, Red Rock Canyon, Lance Burton (day 3)

lklawless — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:35:55 +0000

With another picnic lunch in hand, we set off to Red Rock Canyon, located a mere 17 miles west of Las Vegas. We hiked about 2 miles, had a picnic, and played Scrabble.

The B+B owner had told us about a really cool bar in Henderson, so we went over there for a drink. It seems that people either love or hate the Catalan architect Antoní Gaudí. I love him, so it was a real treat to have a drink at the colorful Gaudí Bar.

After that we saw Lance Burton‘s magic show, which was a fun mix of magic, dance, and cheesy acting, and then had dinner with some friends. Stephanie and her husband Keith are dancers whom we met through my French site. Stephanie is a long-time subscriber and, to thank me, about six months ago she gave us tickets to see her perform in Stomp in New York. We met her afterwards for a drink. A few weeks later, she moved to Las Vegas to participate in the new show Stomp Out Loud, so when we decided to take this trip, I called her and we all got together for dinner.

Las Vegas, Valley of Fire, O (day 2)

lklawless — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:28:20 +0000

Around 9am, we packed a picnic lunch and headed out to Valley of Fire, which is less than an hour’s drive from Vegas. Just before entrance to the park, we came upon a car parked haphazardly in the middle of the road. I admit that for a second I thought it might be some sort of a scam, but in fact the couple had spotted several bighorn sheep. We watched these rare creatures for a while before continuing into the park.

I was amazed at how diverse the rock formations were. I kept thinking that at some point it would be tedious driving mile after mile through rocks, but in fact they were always different – strange shapes, shifting colors… it was fascinating.

And the petroglyphs are just so weird and cute and interesting. It was a bit cold that day, so we only went for a few short hikes (Petroglyph Canyon / Mouse’s Tank Trail and Atlatl Rock) – the rest of our time was in the car.

That night we saw O, Cirque du Soleil’s water performance. I had thought the tank would be on the stage, that the audience would be below sea level, so to speak, but in fact the pool was below stage. This was our third Cirque du Soleil performance, and as always it was very expensive, but well worth it.

Las Vegas (day 1)

lklawless — Tue, 01 May 2007 14:44:25 +0000

Our trip to the southwest started with a major hiccup: our flight was cancelled (see Adventures in air travel). So instead of flying to Phoenix on Monday, we flew directly to Las Vegas on Tuesday, which meant missing out on the Grand Canyon, but avoiding several hours driving. We got into Vegas around 2pm, picked up the car, and went straight to the bed and breakfast. Then we went down to the Strip to walk around a bit, have dinner, and see V: The Ultimate Variety Show. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but it was really fun – a bit of dancing, a hint of magic, amazing feats of strength and balancing, some neat juggling, and a lot of humor. I definitely recommend it.