Las Vegas has to be one of my favorite cities in the world. I have had the privilege of travelling all over the world and while I love the food in Paris, the beer in Germany, and the tequila in Mexico there is an energy in Vegas that is felt nowhere else in the world. 
One of the things I don’t like about living in Colorado is that nothing is close by. Sure we have the mountains but even they get old after awhile, especially if you are not big into skiing. Now take a place like New York or Boston, you can drive 2 hours in any direction and be somewhere else. 2 hours in any direction from Denver and you are either still in Colorado or you’re in Kansas surrounded by nothing.
Las Vegas though is relatively close and accessible. It is a 1 ½ commercial flight and tickets can regularly be had for less than $150 round trip. I can fly myself in a small plane in just under 6 hours. Lastly, if you are really desperate you can drive it in about 11 hours although with the price of gas it really makes no sense to drive.
We went commercial airline this time around and it was miserable as usual. Because we flew Delta we had to go through Salt Lake which is really not on the way to Vegas from Denver. In addition for us to get the cheap fare that we did we had to leave Denver at 6am. Needless to say the getting there was the worst part. However, with the sun coming up as we approached Salt Lake City I was able to snap some dramatic pictures.
2007 saw me go to Vegas 4 times, easily a record for me. My most recent trip was over Veterans Day weekend and the trip was a combined birthday present for my wife and a celebration of our 4th wedding anniversary.
With it being my wife’s birthday I told her the trip would be about her and what she wanted to do. All I asked was to squeeze in a poker game here and there. Of course after committing the trip to her I found out that we would be there during the Aviation Nation airshow at Nellis AFB. This annual show features the final show of the season for the USAF Thunderbirds along with many other performances and static displays. Luckily she was intrigued by the airshow and since she had never seen the Thunderbirds she was all for spending our first day out at the base.
We packed quite a bit into this trip and each of got to do what we wanted. We both enjoy going to the various shows in Vegas and this time around we finally saw Mama Mia at Mandalay Bay. Las Vegas is home to some fantastic restaurants and for my wife’s birthday dinner we had steak at the Palm restaurant in Caesars Palace. We also made sure to have our requisite cheeseburger at In and Out which is a chain that does not exist in Colorado. Lastly, my wife got her shopping fix in at the Fashion Show mall while I spent some quality time photographing airliners at McCarran airport.
The airport in Las Vegas is one of the best I have seen at for spotting airplanes. The airport authorities embrace aviation and encourage people to spend some time viewing and enjoying the airplanes landing and taking off. Other airports please take notice of this. They have an area right off of Sunset Ave that you can park at and you have a fantastic view of runways 07/25, which are the most active runways at the airport. They even have a sign telling you what radio station you can tune to in order to listen to the tower. This reminds me of the old airport in Denver that had similar spots around the perimeter where you could watch planes. Nowadays airports spend huge amounts of money and time chasing away people and blocking off any views of the airplanes. Part of me understands their thinking but too often we use security as an excuse to just close off everything to people. When we do that in my opinion we have let the terrorists win. To me aviation enthusiast and spotters are an untapped and free resource to aid security. Local spotters are going to be the first to recognize anyone out of place or doing something suspicious. Instead of us having to sneak around, build dedicated viewing areas and let us police ourselves and report anything out of the ordinary. This would free up the security patrols from chasing off innocent photographers and allow them to focus on the real threats.
Since we had a rental car we took an afternoon trip out to the Hoover Dam. My wife had never been there so it was nice to be able to take her out there. I looked like a pro, easily getting us out there without so much as a map or any directions. Truth is I drove out there my last time so the route was fresh in my mind. In fact I think my wife is a bit troubled by how well I know my way around Las Vegas but that is the kind of knowledge you get with 4 trips in one year. The Dam was packed as usual but we found a place to park and got to walk across the Dam. We didn't do the tour but we snapped a few pictures and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
Lastly I did get my poker fix in. The last night I was there I played for 9 1.2 hours straight without a break. My skills had improved dramatically since I got fleeced at Caesars last time out. This time I was the threat at the table and I earned some respect from the other players at the table. I had my first big payday when I won over $500 with my straight flush.
As always I had an awesome time that was over far too soon. Luckily my wife has a conference scheduled in Las Vegas in January 2008 so I will be back very soon.
