Helen FieldsScience Writer

Whew. After 2.5 months in Berlin, I came home for a week, then went to Arizona and Nevada for a week to see U2 twice and do some sightseeing. Fellow science writer Kate flew in from Oregon, we rented a car, and we had the best vacation ever. Oh, I’m sure you think you’ve had some good vacations in your time, but sorry – this was the best one ever.

It’s a little embarrassing to be a big U2 fan. They’re so mainstream. And yes, I know it’s ridiculous to fly most of the way across the country to see a band. But they know how to put on a darn good show. And due to a complete failure on their part to check with me before scheduling this tour, they played D.C. in September (while I was in Berlin) and played Berlin in July (while I was in D.C.)

If I may be allowed to brag (gush?) for a moment, this is how close I was in Phoenix last Tuesday:

(That’s Bono. Hi Bono!) The crazy huge set is like a donut with a round central stage (at right in this picture), an “inner circle” where a couple thousand fans can stand, and an outer catwalk thing. We were in the front row, leaning on the railing, right outside the catwalk. For this we got to the stadium at 7:30 a.m., prepared for a really awful, hot day – but the genius Phoenix stadium staff had put the general admission line on the north side, out of the sun. I wore a sweater most of the day. I got a lot of knitting done in the 9.5 hours we were in line.

For the show in Las Vegas on Friday, we were coming in from the Grand Canyon, which meant we would’ve had to get up at, like, 2 in the morning to line up that early. We’re fans, but we’re not crazy. Instead we strolled up at five and stood in the inner circle. Where we were also ridiculously close:

AND we got the full band-immersion experience, because we had stage on both sides of us, plus the inner stage and outer walk are connected by these moving bridges that swung over our heads:

(That’s the Edge. Hi Edge!) It was so! cool! I’m already plotting how I can see them on the next leg of their tour – they’re swinging through the East Coast again, so this time I won’t need to travel quite as far. (Sorry for the cruddy photos. I didn’t want to carry a purse, so I only had the camera on my phone.)