Trip to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe

I did a lot of travelling this past week, and surely had a lot of fun.
From Tuesday to Thursday I was in the sin city: Las Vegas. I flied there to meet my good friend Victor, who was driving across the country back to Bay Area. We kept a big dog and a cat in the hotel room and walked the dog several times a day. It was hot out there, and the air felt like in a sauna room. Actually, the ground was heated up so badly that the dog almost burned its feet while walking down the street in the afternoon.
Of course, what else you can do in Las Vegas? Gambling. Both of us were smart, or so we think, because we tried to remember the basic strategies for blackjack and video. We succeeded in remembering them, but not so much in beating the house's advantage. I lost about 35 dollars, and victor lost about 5 dollars. Nonetheless, we had a good time.
We also drove to Hoover Dam. The name seems to indicate a huge dam, an impression that has also been delivered by documentaries on public TV. But it is actually very small, and it almost looked no longer functioning. Maybe nothing is impressive any more after you've grown up. The same is for water dance in front of Bollagio (you probably saw it in the last scene of "Ocean's Eleven"). It is such a fake scene, almost like a big capitalist scam. I was not impressed, and I hope nobody will be impressed by it. But the society always creates stupid things for status representation. If you see Bollagio, you have high status, and more so if you can talk smart things about what you see. I hope I can escape this stupidity.
It took us 11 hours to be back. There was a big traffic jam on the way out of Las Vegas. We were stuck there for 2 hours, moving with a speed of walking the dog. For a moment we even worried about our car would be overheated by standing still under the sun for so long. The way across the desert was not that bad, actuakly. Partly it was because we went into a stupid debate on what was best social policy. Victor was not convinced by my criticism of his "best" social policy, but we shared a bunch of good laugh, which was the whole point of the debate.
Victor is my best white friend, for sure. I cannot imagine what my American experience will be like without him. It surelly would be interesting and adventuous, but definitely less relaxing or feeling like home. He grew up in social welfare, but he kept an upbeat life style while not losing his root from a poor family. He actually made me feel the imperfection of America. Ironically, he was also the new hope of America, and probably would make it a better place. No doubt, he has made America a better place for me.
I've wrote too much for Las Vegas. I will post my photos and my trip to Tahoe in my next posts.