(Literally translated: Skies of May)

It was the weekend of Cinco De Mayo, the Mexican 4th of July. It was also the weekend of one of the biggest boxing matches in recent memory.

But I wasn't there for any of that.

It was the weekend of our annual Mother's Day Vegas excursion. I know it wasn't Mother's Day this past weekend, but we always go the first weekend in May to beat the crowds. Of course, De La Hoya vs. Merriweather made sure that the crowds we beat weren't as big as the ones we didn't. But, since we were staying in old downtown rather than on the strip, we didn't really get much of the fight crowd, or the Cinco De Mayo partiers. We did, however, get the "Race for a Cure" event. This meant that we had a loud rock band playing outside our hotel window starting at 7am Saturday morning. I didn't really mind, since we'd crashed out pretty early Friday night.

Vegas with my mother consists of this; follow her around to various slot machines, occasionally playing one myself, then eating. Then retiring to the room when I've gambled my daily budget and read. Vegas is good for eating, I'll give it that.

Fortunately, my brother and sister-in-law were there as well, so I was able to hang out with them. They, like me, weren't interested in 72 straight hours of slot play, so we found other things to do. On Saturday, we went to tour Ethel's Chocolate factory in Vegas, which was tasty. And we also visited their cactus garden. Why does this chocolate factory have a cactus garden? Well, they've perfected a water purifying plant using natural plants and algaes to absorb toxins from the water. The purified water is then used to irrigate their extensive cactus garden, which was very impressive. It was a valuable lesson in green waste processing that more businesses could follow as an example. I got lotsa neat pictures from the cactus garden and I'll post some examples below.

There was also one very good omen upon my arrival to Vegas. It had been raining and was still cloudy and misty. As I pulled off the freeway, This was my first view of the hotel:

Talk about "Skies of May". Now, I was staying at Fitzgerald's, who's theme is the whole "luck of the Irish" thing with four leaf clovers and Pot's of Gold at the end of Rainbows. Unfortunately, I didn't find a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. However, at about the time this photo was being taken, a woman did win $221,000 on a slot machine in this casino. So maybe those leprechauns know what they're talking about...