What Happens in Vegas …

4th of July Weekend 1983

It was a long, 900-mile (1,440 km) roundtrip drive to Las Vegas, Nevada for just a weekend, but what can you do when you don’t have any accumulated vacation days at work.  At least it was a straight shot down I-15 and a reasonably easy drive to boot.

We left Kaysville mid-afternoon on Friday and reached Vegas shortly before midnight.  On the silver lining side, arriving in the “City of Lights” at that late hour, we were greeted by the full impact of the neon-glitz of the city.  The Strip was aglow with blinking lights in every imaginable color and it was packed with people.  To these first timers, it was a memorable glimpse of “Sin City.”  Dead-tired after our eight-hour drive, we went directly to our hotel — the MGM Grand.

Vegas is filled with spectacularly showy hotels.
But in the day, the MGM was the Grand Dame of the Strip.
[scanned from brochure]

When one hears the words Las Vegas — which means The Meadows in Spanish — one thinks of two things: gambling and entertainment.  Legalized gambling didn’t happen until 1931, however, and the city wasn’t considered a resort/entertainment destination until after WWII.  The first settlement in Vegas was recorded back in the early 1850s when the Mormon Church sent a mission of 30 men to construct a fort and teach agriculture to the natives in the area.  The city itself was founded in 1905 after the railroad designated Las Vegas as a major division point.  The rest is history.

We spent our first day in Vegas at Old Nevada, a thematic reproduction of a boomtown with recreated buildings, dining facilities, melodrama, gunfights, and hangings.  It was an “Old West” kind of day on the grounds of Bonnie Springs Ranch, which was built in 1843 to serve as a stopping point for wagon trains making their way down the Old Spanish Trail to California.

Yes, our day was very touristy; and yes, we had a ball.

A miniature train runs from the parking lot to the ranch.

No Old West town would be complete without a saloon.

No worries; there are modern facilities too.

Visiting some of the colorful citizens of Old Nevada.
(Red Garter Sue “her position ain’t changed” and
Ben Murphy “town drunk and nobody’s friend.”)

Golden Queen Mine — notify next of kin before entering.

A cool treat on a hot day leads to …

… a weight check on the feed scale.

The main reason for our trip was to see a show or two.  Unfortunately, there were no reasonably-priced revue tickets available for Saturday night.  Instead, we went to a concert — Kenny Rogers Under the Stars at Caesar’s Palace.  Our $12.50 tickets were in the bleachers.  The performance was good, but those uncomfortable seats left an impression we could have done without.

I don’t recollect what we did on our second day in Vegas; there are no photos to help me remember.  After a late night out, we probably took it easy.  Maybe went for a drive; maybe just walked The Strip, which I remember thinking was not nearly as impressive during the day as it was at night.

The Strip at night is very colorful.

But that night we did manage to get tickets to Jubilee — an “adult” show in the Ziegfeld Showroom at the MGM Grand.  I think the show was so rated because there were topless showgirls in the line-up.  Otherwise, I didn’t see anything that was adult-oriented about the show.

Showgirls are synonymous with Las Vegas.
[scanned from brochure pictures]

The Maitre d’ gave us a nice booth for the show.
(the “posed” photo was included in the ticket price.)

OK, I see you’re wanting to know if we gambled at all while we were in Vegas.  We didn’t have any money to throw away, so the short answer is that we stayed away from the tables.  But we did make a miniscule deposit into a “one-armed bandit.”

The coin is made of metal, copper clad, and is a
detailed 2-sided replica of an actual Lincoln penny,
except that it is only 5/16 inches (9 mm) in diameter.

I imagine Vegas put on quite a show for America’s Independence Day, but we didn’t stay to see it.  We had a long drive back home and work the next day.

By the way … did you catch the hot pink clutch bag in the photos.  That’s the one I went to buy before the trip and came back with a brand new car to boot.

Went Shopping for a Handbag; Came Home With …

25 June 1983

We were planning to head to Las Vegas for the 4th of July weekend.  Clothes were laid out in the guest bedroom and ready to go in the suitcase.  I needed just one more thing, a hot pink handbag to match my shoes.  (Yeah, I know — what was I thinking!)

Anyway, we decided to go to the mall in Ogden to see what I could find.  Along the way we made a detour and came home with … a brand new car — an ‘83 Plymouth Reliant.

To answer the question that I know is on everyone’s mind — why the spur of the moment decision to buy a car?  Well, just days before the A/C in Mui’s ‘78 Mercury Zephyr had kicked the bucket.  We just couldn’t see ourselves driving around southern Utah and Nevada without some cool air to keep the hot temperatures at bay.

My Reliant shares the driveway with Mui’s Zephyr.

We eventually did get the A/C fixed on the Zephyr and it continued to provide years of transportation.  As did the Reliant, which transported us eight years later across the country to begin the next chapter of our life in the US.  But that’s for later.

Oh, and yeah, I did find the clutch handbag that was the reason for the shopping trip to begin with.

Day-O: An Evening with Harry Belafonte Jr.

17 June 1983

We’ve always enjoyed the rhythmic sounds of Belafonte’s music.  So, when we read in the newspaper that he’d be performing at the Special Events Center in Salt Lake City, we just had to go.

As the article below states:

And so the man who once was barred from entering the front door of a Utah hotel has returned and found waiting for him the openness that Salt Lake City can possess.

[scanned from the Salt Lake Tribune]

It was a great concert, filled with the joy of music rather than screaming fans that so often mar the experience by overpowering the performance.

Snowbird: Playing in the Snow in June

12 June 1983

Utah does not lack for ski resorts.  In fact, in the immediate Salt Lake City/Park City area there are eight of them.  There are four more in the northern part of the state, and two in southern Utah.  Some say that the powder on the ski slopes of Utah is even better than Colorado.  I’ll have to take their word for it — despite learning how to ski while living in Utah, I never became an aficionado of the sport.

Snowbird, located about 40 miles (64 km] from Kaysville, was the first ski resort we went to after moving to Utah.  We visited on a warm summer day and found plenty of snow in which to play.

[scanned from a magazine article; click for a legible version]

Located in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Snowbird offers spectacular vistas.  As the article above says:

It starts with things which only God can do—the snow, the terrain, the temperature, the scenic beauty—and here in Little Cottonwood Canyon each is present in such an ideal way that it seems a prescription for the ultimate in skiing is being uniquely filled.

Salt Lake Valley from Hidden Peak

It was a fun day … and one that we repeated on later occasions … be it spring, summer, fall, or winter.

Memorial Weekend: Camping at Bear Lake

27-30 May 1983

As the weekend that traditionally signals the beginning of summer approached, the wide open expanses of the state begged to be explored.  We decided to try our hand at camping, but we didn’t want to rough it in a tent.  So, we rented a trailer from the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) facility on base and headed to Bear Lake.

Driving through Logan Canyon, we made just a few stops, one of which was at Ricks Spring, a popular wayside where early travelers filled their jugs with the cold spring water that gushes forth from the rock — not recommended in this day of Giardia, a microorganism that causes severe intestinal problems.

From the nearby signage:

This spring was first discovered by Colonel Thomas E. Ricks in 1865 while he was searching for a route from Cache Valley to Bear Lake Valley.

The maximum spring flow is 32,000 gallons [121,600 liters] per minute.  The source of the water is the melting snow from the high mountain watersheds surrounding this area.  The water flows underground along the Ordovician strata of rock, then bubbles forth at this spot.  Because the source of water is melting snow, the spring is completely dry during the winter months.

Believe me when I say that “Bare” would have been a more appropriate name for the lake than “Bear” turned out to be.  I couldn’t tell you which of the campgrounds we ended up at (it was way too long ago), but there was absolutely nothing there.  And I mean nothing; not even a tree to provide shade.

Oh well … we enjoyed our first RV travel experience nonetheless …

… and the canoeing was lots of fun — especially since Mui did all the paddling!

Perhaps we’ll give Bear Lake another camping chance when we eventually find our way to Utah in our “condo on wheels.”

The Capitol of the Beehive State

21 May 1983

As noted in a previous post, Utah was founded in 1847 by a company of Mormons who were forced to leave their homes in Illinois due to religious persecution.  When they arrived in the region, they named it Deseret, meaning honeybee in the Book of Mormon, and standing for industry and hard work.  Hence the nickname of the state.

And on that note … welcome to the Utah State Capitol.  The building was designed by Utah architect Richard K.A. Kletting in 1912 and completed in 1916.  Rather than write extensively about the building, I’ll refer you to this site for more information.

The neoclassical dome is an element of architecture
that has become a common symbol of democracy in America.

Left: Statue of Massassoit, the Great Indian Chief of
the Massachusetts, friend of the pilgrim fathers.
Right: The beehive is the symbol of industry and the motto
of the citizens of Utah.  It was presented to the
state by the Kennecott Copper Corporation.

The mural in the west atrium vault is named
“The Passing of the Wagons.”

Though frequently referred to as the
“Madonna of the Covered Wagon,” this mural’s
official name is “The Arrival of the Pioneers in the
Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847.”

This replica of the Liberty Bell is one of 55 cast in France;
one was presented to each state and territory.

Exploring SLC

May 1983

The month found as taking trips into Salt Lake City on weekends to explore some of what the city had to offer.  The warm spring days were perfect for sightseeing.

On one occasion, we went to the Pioneer Trail State Park (now the This is the Place Heritage Park).  At the time, there wasn’t much at the park — or maybe that was just our impression because most of the buildings were locked and we didn’t have an opportunity to go inside them.

This is the Place Monument
It marks the spot from which Brigham Young and the company
of pioneers first saw the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.
[scanned from postcard]

Old Deseret — a restored pioneer village.

Another day found us visiting Hogle Zoo …

The African Elephant, more so than its Asian cousin,
is one of my favorites.

On yet another day, we mixed urban sightseeing with a trip into City Creek Canyon.

The Old City Hall (now Council Hall) was built in 1864-65;
it served as the seat of government for 29 years.
It was reassembled at its present location in 1963.

Memory Grove, at the mouth of City Creek Canyon,
is a living memorial dedicated to Utah’s war dead.