A few promised happy snaps from the Las Vegas trip

I'm overdue on these, but I just got around to downloading them. Most are from the Grand Canyon trip, and I already posted one of those, so I won't put up many.

As always, click on any image to see a larger version of it.

Our helicopter, on which you can read the name of our trip company. No, it was not the one that suffered a crash last week.


Lake Mead from the air was magnificent and almost jarring, the only blue against the unrelenting shades of sand and brown that constituted most of the desert landscape.


The Colorado river wandering through the desert, another life-affirming bit of blue, though one that from a distance looks rather fragile.


On the ground, on the Native American side of the Canyon (with their permission, of course), you can see both the many geological strata and also the shades of green in the vegetation that manages to live there.


We had to stop to refuel on the top of a plateau. There we saw what was for me the first snow of the season.


For the surprisingly (to me) many who have written and asked, yes, there was shoe shopping.


And, yes, Jennie went home with another pair of Louboutins, this one insanely sparkly and color-shifting. Jain called them "all lizardy and shit," an apt description.


Lest you think I've forgotten that it was near Christmas, here's an example of Christmas subtlety, Vegas-style.


Even Cthulu had a Christmas exhibit.


Where else but Vegas?