Road Trip

Normally, whenever I take a road trip I keep a journal where I sketch things of interest, writing about things I see or do and include ticket stubs, postcards, maps, and so on. My last road trip was to Las Vegas. I could fill my entire journal just on the architectural details such as bathroom tiles, lamps and door knobs.

Yes. Door knobs. I loved the entrances to the Excalibur. The door handles looked like swords. Just grab the hilt and open the door. I could almost picture myself pulling the sword out of the stone as I entered and stepping into a magical world of knights and fair maidens. The Rio has tropical birds. There is something about grabbing the head of a bird to open a door that is vaguely unsettling. Then again, we went there to see Penn & Teller. That show was amazing, thought provoking and vaguely unsettling. I love a show that makes you question what you think you know.

The lamps were amazing. From the hemispherical lamp over the registration desk in Caesar’s Palace that was inset with beautiful scenes in glass to the tail lights that lit the Harley Davidson Café, the utilitarian objects had been made into magnificent pieces of art. And for Sin City, most were vaguely, or overtly sensual. Don’t believe me? Check out the lamps in the Ben and Jerry’s in Treasure Island. They looked like something Madonna wore in her lingerie phase.
　

And then there were the bathrooms. Again, something utilitarian became a work of art. The themes of the hotels carried over into the bathrooms. The floor in the Excalibur bathroom looked like slate slabs with a trim of broken pieces of slate around the edges. Even the tiles around the mirror in some little shop I ducked into on Fremont street were beautiful.

Then there were the skylights. In Excalibur, there are stained glass looking skylights that would have looked at home in a medieval cathedral. The Mandalay Bay has a glass dome that had a view of the tower with the name ‘Mandalay Bay’ in huge letters. In case you forgot where you were, I guess?

And then there were the carpets… WOW! I'll save the carpets for next time.