Fremont East District

I was just up in Vegas for a conference and one of the nights I was there I strolled to the other end of Fremont Street. Usually I just stay under the lighted canopy but I wanted pictures of the cool neon signs. This is the entrance to the district:

Entrance to the Fremont East District

Caballero from the 1956 Hacienda Hotel

Not sure where the martini glass is from

Sparkly shoe from Silver Slipper Hotel

Buxom Bikini Girl

Don't Tell Mama is a piano bar (bet you couldn't have guessed from the sign!)

The Green Griffin

The Desert Bar

A friend told me about a place just outside of Parker, AZ - a bar out in the middle of nowhere. It sounded like such a Burning Man kind of thing that I had to check it out.

Go through Parker on Hwy 95 and you'll come to a turn off for Cienega Springs Rd. Take that and drive until you reach the end. It'll be about 5 miles of rough riding. There are signs posted stating that the road is primitive. I drove it in my Hyundai Sonata with no problems but you have to go SLOW. You'll wonder where in the heck this road is leading and if you'll ever get to the end. Then suddenly you'll see what looks to be a church steeple in the distance. You have reached The Desert Bar.

 Once you park, you can get up close to the "church." It's not an actual building but more of a facade.

 Floor inside the church:

You have to walk across the covered bridge to get to the bar proper. The bridge crosses over a lower area where there is seating, a stage and also where you order food. I've heard the tri tip is excellent but it was sold out by the time I got there. I opted for a pastrami on rye and it was delicious.

Furniture and landscape ornaments made with horseshoes

Seating area on the main level. You can order some basic grilled items here (hot dogs, burgers) but if you want cheese on anything you have to order from the downstairs grill instead. To the left is a bar where you can buy canned beer. The Bud Light seemed to be a popular choice among patrons when I was there. To the right is a stage where they have a band playing. The day I was there it was the Second Hand Killers, a bluesy rock band. They were very entertaining! 

Some views from the upper level of the bar area

There is a variety of old vehicles on the property

View from the ladies room

The original Desert Bar

Old equipment is scattered all around the property

 Check out their website - there's a lot of information on the creation of the Desert Bar. If you're planning on visiting, be aware that the Bar has very limited hours. It is open Saturday and Sunday only from noon to 6 pm from October to April.

Lunar Eclipse

I have a Canon PowerShot SX170 IS. I don't know much about the finer points of photography - shutter speeds, ISO, F stops - it's all a mystery to me. I'm much more of a point and shoot picture taker. But I did figure out that I can take a halfway decent picture of the moon with my little camera (and with the help of a tripod). I took this one by manually setting it to 1/125, f/5.6, ISO 400 and 16X zoom.

Trying to get shots of the actual eclipse proved to be trickier and I ended up using the low light setting. Here's a shot of the moon, Spica, and Mars off  to the side.

And here's a tighter shot of just the moon and Spica.

The eclipse shots are noisy - I bet the images could stand some cleaning up with Photoshop. But all in all, I am pretty impressed and it makes me wonder what I can do with this camera if I actually knew what I was doing!

Chihuly in the Garden ... at night!

I've lived in Arizona over 30 years and I have never been to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. I went last night to view the Chihuly glass exhibit at night and it was awesome!

This picture came out a little bit noisy

But here are some closeups that look much better

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of this but it was tucked back behind cactus and other plants. Some lady suggested I just climb into the area past all the obstructions but knowing my luck there were probably botanical garden police waiting for me to make a false move.

These are up on a hill and are visible from the road outside the botanical garden.