Hot Time in Vegas

If you like it hot . . . there's no place like Las Vegas in the summer! The temperature was between 105-107 degrees . . . but it's a dry heat. It wasn't as bad as it sounds because there's AC and swimming pools everywhere. They make it pretty easy to cool off.

Vegas isn't my first choice of places to visit, but my husband was competing in National Billiards championship, so I tagged along. Most of his time was spent in a convention center, but we did manage to see the Cirque du Soleil "Love" show. We got caught in a freak flash flood on the way to the show, and had to take our socks and shoes off and wade through the streets in knee deep water. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it alive, but we did, and we enjoyed the show immensely.

Vegas never disappoints with the amount of entertaining sights available everywhere. Here are a few photos from my travels.

 Dale Chihuly has a beautiful glass sculpture in the Bellagio Hotel.

 I love his work and spent quite a bit of time there taking photos.

 He had an exhibit at the Santa Barbara Museum years ago, and it's still my favorite exhibit to date.

 The Cosmopolitan Hotel  had a lot of interesting and unexpected things going on. I'm not a girly girl, and would kill myself in heels, but this giant stiletto got my attention.

 I went to the Cosmopolitan to check out an artist in residence studio, but it was closed until 6:00 pm. What I found outside the studio was an Art-o-Mat machine. If you've never heard of it, they are cigarette machines that have been converted to dispense packages of art. I've never seen one in person and got pretty excited. I cracked up when I saw the no smoking sign above it, dug through my purse and found (2) $5.00 bills. I chose one artist I already knew of, Nikki Wheeler, and one random choice based on the material used (titanium).

Here are the boxes as they came out, and the contents. Nikki's box had an ATC, a nice note and card inside. The titanium pieces came with a note that said it was a work in progress. Hmmm . . . honestly, I wasn't impressed with their titanium scraps.

Here's the Vegas Strip from the roof of the Rio Hotel. The view from 52 floors up was stunning!