Not quite 72 hours in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (WSYX) — “I could never live there,” you’ll hear them say. “Three days is all I need.”

That’s a common Midwesterner’s take on Las Vegas, and I’ve done that three-or-four-day trip out there about six or seven times now, including just last week.

I’ve never been a big casino guy, and as I’ve gotten older, going out there to photograph the desert and enjoy a few restaurants has become one of my favorite things. I did more of the latter last week. Much more.

When I landed on Monday night, I picked up my rental car and drove straight to Cleaver, a sister restaurant of my favorite Vegas joint Herbs & Rye.

Even on a random Monday at 7 p.m., a nice restaurant is going to be full in Las Vegas. Luckily, I found a seat at the bar and ordered the flatiron steak with Brussels sprouts.

“Why didn’t you get a ribeye or a filet?”

I make plenty of ribeyes at home and they are 10/10 better than what you get at a steakhouse. That’s not a knock on the steakhouses; that’s me engaging in self-flattery about my abilities with cast iron.

But I think if you enjoy alternative cuts, which I’ve been experimenting with more in recent years, a good restaurant isn’t a bad place to try one. The flatiron was very good. Medium rare, of course.

At one point, the friendly bartender knocked over a drink he was mixing and it got all over my shirt. I cleaned it as I sat there, and they comped me my drink as well as a dessert, then told me to send them the dry-cleaning bill if I needed to. Such customer service was recognized the next day in an email I sent to the manager.

Tuesday morning brought an early wake-up call so I could go shoot sunrise at Red Rock Canyon just west of Las Vegas. It’s the third time I’ve gone out there and I still haven’t lucked out with the sky. An absence of clouds translates to a boring blue sky with no interesting colors. But I did stalk a couple of bicyclists for a few minutes.

What were colorful, however, were the made-in-house Pop-tarts at The Coffee Class that I had seen (and bookmarked) on Instagram a week or two earlier. It was on the route back from Red Rock to Las Vegas so I didn’t feel bad about it. The cherry Pop-tart was great and the churro Pop-tart was almost like baklava, also great.

A short nap awaited back at the hotel and then a brief visit to the hotel pool followed. After that, a trip to In-N-Out for a west-coast favorite got me ready to drive nearly an hour up to Valley of Fire for a sunset shoot.

As was the case in the morning, the sky was bland. Nothing colorful or overly interesting. Still, the rocks are so cool and I was a little more adventurous this time. On previous visits I’d go straight to Mouse’s Tank Road for that famous pic of it slicing between the jagged red rocks and not see much else.

But on Tuesday, I explored more of the park and got lost a couple times, which is always part of the fun as long as your GPS is working and you’ve got some gas in the car. No sightings of big horn sheep but I did meet a young man with a Porsche who drove back and forth several times along the oft-photographed stretch of road so his girlfriend could take some videos that surely ended up on Instagram.

I got back to Las Vegas in time for a lovely dinner at Esther’s Kitchen. I had been there once before a few years ago when it was in a much smaller space and (I think) was known mostly for its weekend brunch, which I loved in 2022. But now Esther’s is at the other end of the block in the Arts District, in a huge space and the dinner crowd was quite lively. I had the lasagna with a wild boar ragu and mushrooms. It was excellent.

I had debated driving more than two hours to Death Valley the next day to shoot Badwater Basin and the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. But by the time I got home from dinner, I was pretty wiped out so I slept in Wednesday and planned a less ambitious day.

It started with a lovely breakfast at Zeffer’s Cafe inside the Sahara. After that I went to Arte Museum’s Immersive Media Art exhibit, “where eternal nature comes to life through stunning digital art, evocative soundscapes, and custom-crafted scents,” according to the event website. It was a neat way to spend an hour and do something you don’t normally do in Las Vegas.

Right around the corner was another immersive experience, the Van Gogh show at the Lighthouse ArtSpace at The Shops at Crystals. That also was a fun way to spend an hour and learn about one of the best and most influential artists of all time.

After that I hustled back to the hotel pool and soaked up some sun and perhaps a margarita, as it was time to start planning my final evening of the trip.

I caught an early prime rib happy hour at Middle Child, another sister restaurant of the aforementioned Cleaver and Herbs & Rye. I don’t do prime rib often but it was very good, as were the decor, service and energy.

I didn’t short myself on the food out there, but next time I visit I think I’ll emphasize the photo ops a little more and probably follow through on Death Valley.