The Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Boulevard South, (800) 627-6667, fax (702) 791-7414, www.themirage.com, which more than a decade ago set off the current wave of fantasy architecture with its artificial fiery volcano, remains a pleasant quasi-tropical retreat, with a glass-domed atrium full of palms and orchids, and 3,054 comfortable rooms decorated in a loose South Seas style.
All that borrowing lends "The Salton Sea" style to burn but little personality of its own.
It's pretty by day/sexy and luxe by night--and art, fashion and self-expression are the ultimate intention to enjoying the beach life in its Beverly Hills meets Las Vegas by the sea style.
A system of pumps and plexiglass dividers along a small stream allows the waters to part, Red Sea-style.
Now it was Day 14, and Rod Cavalieri, the outage manager, was watching a diver, dressed in deep-sea-style diving suit and covered in radiation monitors, work 23 feet under radioactive water to re-attach the cable.
Not only that, the real solutions to current problems – more housebuilding, greater regulation of the private rental market, the prevention of South Sea-style property bubbles, and above all, better-paid and more secure work for everyone – can be buried for another day under the emancipatory rhetoric of helping individuals and their families to "live the dream".
Another summer, he made a South Seas-style lantern with bamboo, twine and kraft paper; the whole thing surrounds a hideous 70's light fixture.
The final outpost of Zihuatanejo is the Las Gatas Beach Club, where the owner, Owen Lee -- once a scuba diver on Jacques Cousteau's Calypso -- presides over a South Seas-style compound of thatched bungalows on Las Gatas's pristine westernmost peninsula.
After docking, round out the day with Disney's Spirit of Aloha Show featuring a South Seas-style dinner and entertainment inspired by traditions of New Zealand, Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga and Tahiti.
I race into the sea, Baywatch style, bits flapping.
Her husband, she explained, was a salesman for a ship chandler and had to entertain his customers in a sea-going style.
