we didn’t leave las vegas until around noon on friday may 5th, so we had enough time for one more lovely sit by the lazy river.

here’s an arial view of the exact spot where we lounged the first two days – right there in the middle.

and here’s a shot of the Wet Republic, which i wrote about earlier – it’s a place for celebrities and wannabes to see and be seen.  luckily it was only open during the day, because we could clearly hear the music from the 26th floor.

we really could have walked to the hotel from the airport, because it was just right there.  i did see a young woman walking along the hot and dusty road into town, and it didn’t look appealing in any way.

we had a different spot on our last day, and it was fairly private and the best place of all.

but all good things come to an end…

i always sit on the aisle on a plane but for some reason i didn’t this time.  after a while i started to become fascinated with the landscape.

first, there were all these circles…

and then wow, over the mountains, it looks just like a topographical map, doesn’t it?  really cool, and it made me think about how vast our country is.

here’s a little road snaking through a valley.  remote.

i couldn’t figure out what the puffy things on the left might have been.  some kind of trees?

and then more of these circles…

and this one really is just like a topographical map.

right in the middle there is a house, a little white dot in the middle of nowhere.

this give you a better perspective of the nothingness of the landscape.  how far do they have to drive to get to a grocery store?

i never did figure out what the zig zagy lines were here.  it looks like snow, but it wasn’t snow.

here’s a closer look at the circles – when i got home i found out that it’s called center point irrigation, and it conserves water.

but i couldn’t find out why some of them are half circles or 3/4, or there’s that funny half smiley face, or something that looks like a pac man eating a circle.

and that one near the bottom that is a circle within a circle.

eventually the circles went away, and i thought this was also beautiful landscape.

soon, back to the midwest, regular old trees and fields…

but there had been massive amounts of rain, and the mississippi outside of st. louis was flooded.

there was so much water where there should have been fields.

and there’s a road, completely submerged.

and that’s it for las vegas, finally…i hope you’re enjoying your summer, even though kevin pointed out that it’s not officially summer yet but it is in the 90’s already.

ok then,

mrs. sunday afternoon hughes.