My dad used to come to Vegas every year for the porn convention. He stopped coming the year I moved here. My mom had never been out of the Southeast. Last week, though, they finally decided to come visit (the first of my family to visit me since I moved here August of 2000). It was the first flight for both. Their flights went smoothly-- though my Mom says it kind of makes her motion sick-- and they arrived twenty minutes early to McCarran.

I picked them up and drove them to their hotel, the 4 Queens on Fremont Street. Their room was clean and larger than I expected, and even missing that stale old hotel odor. The view from the room wasn't the greatest, though. Just the Golden Nugget and road construction along Casino Center Blvd.

After a whole day of flying in from the East, I figured my mom and brother would just wanna rest and eat dinner. Unfortunately, we had to go back to the airport after realizing we had somebody else's luggage. My brother managed to mistake if for my mom's as it spun around the baggage claim conveyor. We didn't pick up on the fact until my mom's luggage key failed to open this lock.

The next day, we headed down to Ethel M chocolate factory to watch the sweet treats being manufactured. But for some reason, on this Friday morning, the machines were still and the workers absent. We still got our free truffle, though. We also got to enjoy the cactus garden on the factory grounds. My mom loves Saguaro.

After admiring the cacti, we traveled further down the road to Boulder City and Hoover Dam. We paid the extra money to take the guided tour, taking an elevator down to a series of tunnels in the canyon walls around the dam, to the generator room. The room is huge, about the lenght of three football fields. Just the tip of the generators is above floor level. The whole generator is actually about 300 feet tall. Everything is massive.

Just in case you consider doing something stupid, like getting drunk and running around on the dam, there is this warning:

The dam blocks the Colorado River between the walls of Black Canyon and bridges Arizona with Nevada. Highway 93, in the form of one very slow lane each way, crosses the top of the dam.

Looking down, way down, you see the Colorado River flowing away from the dam, and the two generator rooms. The generators on the left are in Arizona, the ones on the right in Nevada.

At the gift shop, Mom and I pause for a quick photo.

Mom and my youngest brother don kooky shades.

The next day, I had planned for horse riding at Bonnie Springs, adjacent to Red Rock Canyon. The horse riding didn't pan out, so we took a tour of Old Nevada-- the crappy tourist trap I regret spending my $20 to enter. Avoid it. AVOID IT. So it wouldn't be a complete waste, I did snap a few fun photos.

Here, Rei looks a bit high. He's not.

The 'petting zoo' at Bonnie Springs contains a lot of animals in cages, most of which you can't pet. I think the only animals you could actually pet were a miniature pony, which would nip at your hands if you tried touching it, and a couple of deer which were dirty and smelly. Other animals included a lynx, many rabbits, chickens, goats, etc. There were some peafowl and chickens running loose. Some of the chickens, those fancy kind with feathered heads, were in cages. Here's Rei snapping a pic of them.

Here's a close-up of one of those fancy headed hens. I bet they taste good.

My brother poses at this carnival style shooting gallery, where apparently camera flashes screw up the light sensor targets. The funny thing, there were tons of signs, all over the place, saying not to take photos. Not to touch stuff. Not to sit on stuff. Not to play with stuff. In one of the crap-selling gift stores, there was a whole wall of toy guns for sale with a sign that said, "DO NOT PLAY WITH GUNS." Irony?

Sexy Rei, with awe-inspiring colorful sandstone mountains in the background.

Mom and Brian pose at Old Nevada, Bonnie Springs.

We finally got out of Bonnie Springs and went next door to the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area. It was cloudy and cool out, so we did a few quick photos at one of the Calico Hills overlooks along the scenic routes.

First, Mom and me.

Next, Rei and me.

We drove a little bit further to the Sandstone Quarry parking lot so we could climb around on the Calico Hills. Rei leads us around to them.

My mom and brother on Calico Hills.

Reimon on the hills.

Brian and Rei start climbing further up.

Mom decided not to risk the steeper climb, but took a photo of the distant mountains while resting on the sandstone outcroppings along the edge of Calico Hills.

The three of us boys, Rei, Karsten (me) and Brian (my brother), made our way about halfway up the steep weather worn face of Calico before pausing for a photo.

Mom posing for her fashion shot at Red Rock.

Turtlehead Peak dominates the northern view from Calico Hills.

After leaving Red Rock, we went over to Blondie's, in Desert Passage at Aladdin/Planet Hollywood Hotel, for some grub. Passing by the Victoria's Secret shop along the way, Mom decided to be SEXY.

After Alladin, we walked down The Strip to Bellagio, where we came upon this shiny mirrored steed.

The Conservatory at Bellagio was decked out to celebrate Chinese New Year, with a giant pig and pointy-roofed temple, as well as these Chinese kids in dance poses. The costumes on the statues are made out of live cut flowers! Amazing.

One of the things my mom wanted to see was the NYNY Hotel, so here she is with Vegas' own Statue of Liberty-- which I believe is about 1/3 the size of the real thing.

Everybody loves M&Ms! Can you believe the multilevel M&M store here on The Strip sells the tasty chocolate morsels for $9 a pound!?! If I were chocolate, I'd cost $1,143. I'm cheap.

On their last full day in Vegas, I took the family up to the observation deck of Stratosphere. I wanted my brother and I to ride the Big Shot, which is on a metal tower that rises from the top of the already high Stratosphere tower, about 1000 feet above the valley floor. The ride consist of 16 seats, four on each side, facing outward. You are told to remove everything from your pockets and are then buckled in. In an instant, you are faced with 4 Gs as you are shot up about ten stories, and then 0 Gs as you free fall back down. It is very easy to forget their is anything at all holding you, as your entire view is of the valley. My brother kept his eyes closed for most of the ride, and kept swearing he was gonna kill me. It was pretty funny. In the photo below, my brother is on the far right and I am to his left.

The Strip from the Stratosphere observation deck.

Brian poses with an actual car driven by Dale Earnhardt in some NASCAR race before he died. My brother is a fan of racing. I think it's pretty lame.

Mom with Elvis themed slot machine at Sahara Hotel.

The night before they travelled back home, Mom, Brian, Rei and I saw Trent Carlini perform as Elvis, The Dream King, at the Sahara Hotel. The show was pretty good. A bit brief, maybe, but we had fantastic seats near the stage. Taking photos in this setting is always difficult, and most of mine were pretty blurry. This one isn't sharp, but you can make everything out. This was near the end of the show, when Trent had changed into his Vegas-style jumpsuit.