We took our first short vacation without the puppy, and of course we missed her terribly. Dulcinea stayed at home, in the kind of fancy kennel that assigns glamorous names to all its suites. Meanwhile, we stayed in a casino, in the kind of generic hotel room that looks just like all the photos on the websites.

We had great fun in Vegas, but there weren’t actually many opportunities to take photographs.

Much more photogenic than anything on the Strip: the long drive through Utah and the Western Slope. Here’s Green River, haunting and desolate.

And here are the canyon lands.