Bruce, max, and I climb six floors worth of stairs in the blistering las vegas heat that gives the air resistance like wading through deep water, quickly moving over the sun baked concrete stairs that sear the bottom of our bare feet. The top of the platform offers a great panorama of the Las Vegas valley, the mountains holding the city in a deep saucer. The Las Vegas skyline is visible in the distance, the entire city stretching out in front of the platform. Boulder strewn mountains lie directly behind us; mountains tilt to our left, the uplifted strata slanted to the sky. Towering cumulonimbus hang over distant mountains rising into the upper atmosphere flattened out on top as if pressed down by a giant hand.

Two diminutive little boys wait in front of me. The first sits on the slide launch, scoots forward a foot but doesn’t overcome friction, and then looses his nerve. The life guard grabs his hand and pulls him back to safety. His buddy fearlessly launches himself over the cliff,s edge and into the abyss.

Max launches on his back hands folded on chest and ankles crossed. Seconds later he slides to a halt parting the water to both sides like the wings of a large bird soaking Shannon in the process who waits at the bottom with our shoes. I grab the bar over the launch and swing out to give myself a little extra speed. I catch air free falling for a split second on my descent before regaining contact with water coated slide. The water sprays into my face so hard that I can neither see nor breathe during my five second descent and water braked stop. Bruce follows stopping in his own plume of water ending in a big grin. He immediately wants to know who went the farthest. I think he did but I don’t indulge his competitiveness with an answer. We put back on our shoes and move on to our next pleasure in the city dedicated to the same.