Nate and I just got back from a trip to the Din of Iniquity. Ok, so I just had to look that up. I wasn't sure I was saying it correctly. Is it "din" or "den." You know how you say things because you always have and then one day you realize that you're not even sure what it is that you are saying. This was one of those moments. In case you are wondering too....din- a loud, continuous noise; confused uproar. Yep, I really did mean to say "din." It really is "sin city" for a reason. The last time we went, I swore off going again. Unless you are into gambling, spending obscene amounts of money on shopping or shows, or partying like an idiot.....there ain't much else. The problem is that there was a conference there for my husbands profession and he wanted me to keep him company, so away we flew.
The first thing we did when we got settled was to leave the strip and find some good mexican food. We did and they had an awesome mariachi band playing that was super fun. When we were leaving I had one of those -your brain can't process what the eyes are seeing moments. There was a knot in the big wooden entrance door that had water pouring in. When I looked down I saw towels everywhere and water pouring in under the door. I really couldn't figure out what I was looking at. It seems silly now and I obviously wouldn't make the awesome detective that I think I would! I opened the door to leave and was immediately pelted by massive amounts of rain. We decided to make a run for it and about drown on the way to the car and about got struck by lightning. It was crazy! The streets were completely flooded and I thought, well this is it, this city is getting washed off the map. I thought surely I missed the memo from Noah telling me it was time to get on the ark. The picture of the motel 6 was just funny because some of the lights were burnt out....so, I guess they aren't really going to "keep the lights on" for us. har har
The hotel that the conference was at was super nice. I had to take pictures because the first thing I said to Nate when I saw the room was "how much did you pay for this?" My hubby is cheap. I really couldn't believe he had sprung for such extravagance.....apparently all the rooms in the hotel are this nice, but I'm going to take the "I'm an 8 cow wife" angle instead. ;) What was cracking me up is that this 1 room had 3 tv's in it. The other crack up was that there was literally a mirror on every single wall. It was impossible to be in the bathroom and not have to stare at yourself in 360. Gross, just gross! You also know you are somewhere fancy smancy if there is a telephone in the water closet (toilet). Again- ew! But I spent a lot of quality time reading in there while Nate was at meetings....the room not the toilet! When I got bored in one spot, I just moved to another- while checking myself out in the mirror- of course!
We got super lucky on timing. The temple was getting ready to close for 2 weeks after Saturday. It was really busy and super packed and I'm so glad we got up early and made it over there. Moroni is so disgusted by the strip that he has his back turned toward it. (He actually all most always faces east) It was a nice contrast to spending our week in babylon.
Israel, Israel, God is calling,
Calling thee from lands of woe.
Babylon the great is falling;
God shall all her tow’rs o’erthrow. …
Come to Zion, come to Zion,
And within her walls rejoice. …
Come to Zion, come to Zion!
Zion’s walls shall ring with praise. 2
Jeffery R Holland gave an excellent devotional called "Israel, Israel, God is Calling and he talks about how we can each be babylon anytime we check our religion at the door. We did our best to make "Zion"choices while we were spending time in Babylon (which we all live in, in some degree or another, everyday of our lives)
Now, am I a super righteous person living Zion everyday? Hahaha, No. The natural man is an enemy to God. For all the progressing and evolving that certain groups like to believe the human is capable of, we are the same creatures we were since Cain and Able. Exactly the same, except we have some pretty cool technology now. Left to our own devices we choose to live like animals... as evidence by the vast number of people we saw devoid of self control. What do I do? Make easy jokes about taking dam pictures. So, above are some dam pictures. :) The big tour was closed because of sequestration (don't even get me started on that) so I couldn't have my Sparky moment of sneaking off and opening the door out onto the dam, finding a leak and trying to plug it with my gum. I had some gum in my mouth ready to save the day if need be, sadly it wasn't needed. I was also hoping for a sighting of superman, but sadly enough, he didn't make an appearance. :( However, the landscape is breathtaking!
One of the coolest things we did was to go inside a rare books, store. We could hardly tear ourselves away from the place. There were so many cool documents and first editions of famous books. The coolest find of the night was a rare 2nd edition of the Book of Mormon. I was dying that I was that close to it and couldn't touch it. To be able to touch history would have been amazing. I don't know if I would have trusted myself not to damage it in some way though because it was valued at 60,000. Wow! There was also a 1582 1st edition of the Roman Catholic New Testament (it's value was 24,000). 1582! Amazing!
We did do a couple of touristy things like the Eiffel tower - which made me think of Nickie and Terry in an affair to remember.....I know it was the empire state building, but same diff. The Titanic exhibit was really fascinating and I enjoyed it a whole lot better than looking at real dead bodies. The only thing I could think about was that I hope that person was loved or that hand got to hold another's, basically sappy sad stuff. Also looking at how intricate and amazing the human body is, how anyone can think that kind of complexity came from a big bang in space or evolution is just beyond me. What struck me at the titanic exhibit is the amount of people whose fate lead them to that vessel because of the coal strike, so they couldn't sail on the ship they were originally ticketed on. Again, would have loved to touch the artifacts. It also made me wonder if I would have been willing to get on a boat without my husband.
We also saw a lot of things that I can never unsee again while walking the strip. Lot of highly inappropriate phrases on clothing, among other things. I seriously need some bleach for my eyes and my brain! What was really funny is the big huge golden cow with full facial hair out front of a building. Well, I guess there is no denial about where you are and what you're doing. Another thing that made us say, wha???? Was this family with "So and so family reunion" shirts on. Yeah, because when I think of bonding and celebrating family, the first thing I think is, let's go to Vegas and walk the strip! Oi Vey! It is not a place I will ever take my kids.
We had excellent weather while we were there. I was expecting to get off the plane and spend the week with the sun beating down on us with temps in the 110's. It was overcast the entire time we were there and rained everyday and the temp was pretty steady at around 90. It made reading poolside divine and walking around outside doable. I don't know how we got so lucky....I guess it is the city for luck. haha Really, though, perfect weather. I even got to go into one of my favorite stores that is on every corner in Hawaii, the ABC store. Ahhh, it made me nostalgic and wish I were in Hawaii, especially because I bought my very favorite brand of dried mangos that can only be purchased in that store (which my bag is empty now and I'm feeling a little blue about).
It's good to be back home with my kiddos, I missed them terribly.
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