Catching up

Okay, look. I am way behind. I just wrote two posts and I'm still behind a day. I'm going to combine yesterday (Wednesday) and today. Mostly because the most exciting thing I did yesterday was unpack and eat dinner.

I also went to the grocery store.

Bill and I took a walk.

Today, I caught up on emails (for not having a "real" job, I had 150+ emails, yikes!), went to the pet store, bought toilet paper, and ran.

I'm also looking through my scrapbook stuff and trying to get ready to work on them tomorrow.

Because I've been posting so many pictures, I thought I'd show a few more.

 I don't remember if I posted these on Sunday, but here's Bill and me on Easter (also Bill's birthday).

 Can you tell that it was sunny? And windy?

 This was Sunday afternoon on our golf cart tour. No golf carts were harmed in the taking of this photo. Do you see the golf cart at the bottom of the twisting path? We went down and came back up!

Fun sculpture in a desert yard.

I am thankful to be back home.

Tuesday, the long trip home

We flew back on Tuesday. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:55am so we did not have to wake up ridiculously early. Heather and I managed to take a walk and I showed her a garlic plant that I saw on my walk the night before.

We made it through security without any problems. We breezed right through unlike two people behind us who managed to lose their id's in Vegas. Oops! They got the full pat-down/scan.

On our way to the gate, we passed a man who was having a difficult time walking in a straight line. In fact, he was stumbling around quite a bit. Once at the gate, we spotted him at the counter to our gate. The next time we saw him, he was being wheeled away in a wheelchair. It didn't look like he was going to make his flight. We surmised how much one has to drink to be that drunk, what happened to him in Vegas to be that drunk, and did he get drunk after security because if he came through security like that, wow.

We then noticed that the flight was delayed. If you remember Tuesday, it was really windy. At least where we were flying from and flying to. We ended up only being a half hour late. Jenny picked us up from the airport. We stayed the night at her house. We got to play with this cutie,

meet Stella. Jenny and John's puppy. 

She's only 5 1/2 pounds. We met her before we left, but I didn't take a picture until we got back. She slept in my lap that night as we sat around talking, laughing and sharing stories.

I'm thankful for good friends, cute puppies and vacations.

Monday, the last full day of vacation

On Monday, Bill, Heather, Judy and I went up to Mt. Charleston. Here are a few pictures.

 There was a fire right after we were there two years ago.

On our way up the mountain we saw the fire damage.

 The view from the scenic overlook.

 That's the tippy-top of Mt. Charleston. I don't know if you can get there via skis or rock climbing, but we didn't make it to the top.

 We made it to this point, the ski area. Which is closed for construction. 

And because there's not enough snow.

That night Bill, Heather, and I went to the Neon Museum. It's located on the far north end of downtown Las Vegas. They are restoring these signs, one at a time, and currently six of them are on the scenic by-way. Driving that route after 10pm is not recommended. We will have to try viewing those signs at another time, perhaps earlier in the evening. 

Here are my pictures from the Neon tour.

 The museum sign pays homage to notable Vegas signs. 

Trivia time: can you name the four signs that the four letters represent?

 The museum/gift shop is the lobby from the Hotel La Concha. The architect, Paul Williams, was the first prominent African American architect.

He also designed the cathedral in Las Vegas. We attended mass there a few years ago.

 It costs a lot of money to restore these signs. Any sign on the strip is grandfathered in (like there are any original ones left…) so they don't have to be updated to modern standards. If a sign is taken down, it must then be updated to modern electrical standards. Which means all the signs here have to be modernized (the wiring, not necessarily the lighted part) before they can be lit. 

There is also a lot of broken glass and signs that are heavily damaged. I just wanted to explain why many of the signs are being lit with uplighting instead of lighting up themselves (I'm sorry for that confusing sentence about lighting). 

 Did you know that all neon light is still hand-blown? I did not. Which means the yucca neon light in this picture was all hand-blown. I'm sorry I didn't get a close-up of all the curves. 

 Here's the bottom of the yucca neon sign.

 G.R. stands for Grand Rapids

 The lamp was part of Aladdin's and to the right is part of the Stardust sign. That sign was so huge, I could not get a good photo of the entire word, "Stardust". 

Here's the LaConcha sign which cost around $50,000 to restore. Hence the reason that not all the signs are restored. This also required a load of concrete underneath the sign to hold it up.

I'm thankful for historians for their dedication to saving things. These signs are amazing and I hope we can go back in the daytime to see the artwork. But the night tour was equally cool.

Answers to the trivia question about the museum sign: N = Golden Nugget, E = Caesars Palace, O = Binion's Horseshoe, and the E = Desert Inn.

Easter Sunday and Bill's birthday

8:15am church service, Sunday brunch up at the "center", golf cart driving (aka terrorizing senior citizens on the golf course, we may have been going the wrong way, that is still tbd), cribbage, euchre, pasta salad, hot wing chicken dip, and "the" birthday cake. 

All in all it was a good day. Happy Birthday to my best friend!

Saturday

I'm on vacation. If it weren't for these posts, I wouldn't even know what day it is.

It was a busy Saturday is what it was.

First, I made the homemade cinnamon rolls.

It's a good thing I cut the recipe in half, because it still made six pans full of cinnamon rolls. That's okay, they are delicious. The house smelled of cinnamon.

Until I put the pork in the oven. 

Since it had to bake for six hours Bill, Heather, and I went to Hoover Dam.

This is where I wish I had blogged earlier, but I don't even know if blogs existed when we were here in 2001.

That is so long ago. Anyway, we were here in 2001. We took the dam tour with Don and Judy.

We did not take the tour today. We just walked across the dam into Arizona. And we took pictures from the dam.

The last time we were here, this bridge did not exist. It was pre 9/11 by just a few weeks. We were visiting Vegas for our one year anniversary. Which is in August. Which meant it was hot. Ridiculous hot. I don't know if I've blogged this before, but "they" say it's a dry heat. Whatever. 110 degrees is still hot. I passed out on that trip because of heat exhaustion. Drink a lot of water if you ever visit the desert.

When we left the dam, we stopped at the scenic Lake Mead overlook. It was very pretty. Then we drove over to Hemenway Park in Boulder City and saw the Big Horn Sheep.

They decided to be camera shy and run away from us. But I caught a couple of them in digital form.

This is at Hemenway Park for a sunrise service tomorrow. Lake Mead is behind it. How beautiful of a setting is that?

When we got back to the house we ate the spicy pulled pork sandwiches. They were spicy and amazing.

Then I baked Bill's birthday cake, the peanut butter sheet cake with chocolate frosting. Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

I'm sitting outside, writing this at 8pm. It is still 80 degrees. It looks like it's going to be a clear night.

I'm not writing that to brag, I'm writing it as a statement of record for future reference. Heather is into genealogy and she tells me over and over that writing as much detail as possible is important to future generations. 

Anyway, I'm thankful for the the amazing construction of the dam. It is truly remarkable. 

Friday

We went to the conservatory at the Bellagio this morning. Then we drove over to Ethel M's for free chocolate and a walk around their botanical garden. Here are a few pictures from the Bellagio.

 I think they had every spring bulb nature has to offer on display.

 Tulips and daisies and lots of color.

 Even the Lady Bugs were made out of flowers (chrysanthemums). 

 It's not a painting, it's a work of art made out of foliage. It was amazing! 

(The woman was refreshing the plants.)

Emily, Judy, and Heather outside the Bellagio with Paris in the background. Bonjour!

I'm off to make homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast tomorrow. Later tonight, we'll be going back out to Fremont Street. We're going to celebrate Bill's birthday a few days early since Easter happens to be the same day. It's going to be crowded for sure. I doubt I'll take my camera because of how crowded it will be.

I'm thankful for creative gardens.

dry heat or humid

Bill and I differ on our choice of ideal temperate location.

He loves the desert. He loves visiting his parents in Henderson, Nevada. It's dry. It's usually hot. His sinuses are clearer, his skin is healthier, and his asthma doesn't bother him.

I prefer humidity. My sinuses are clearer, my skin is healthier and I can make my hair pretty wavy. I don't mind the sweat and dripping that comes with it (when it's summer).

When we've gone to visit his parents, my skin dries out, my sinuses dry out, my hair goes limp.

Bill has more allergies here. He doesn't have to worry about his hair, but his skin varies with the seasons.

All this is leading up to our trip for his birthday. I am amused by how different we are when it comes to ideal locations based on weather.

I can't wait to take pictures (yes, I'll post them). We're going to a buffet, we'll do some hiking, and we're hoping to check out the Bellagio. I'm also hoping to go to this museum. I'm going to make this cake for his birthday.

In the meantime, it's supposed to snow an inch here today/tonight.

I'm ready for 80 degrees and sunshine.

compare and contrast

Remember yesterday? I went outside and took pictures of what it looked like in Henderson, Nevada. Pretty, right? Sunny, blue skies, dry, sandy, warm (you can't see it, but I was outside in just a long-sleeved shirt, so you can just trust me on that one).And then we came home. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to be home. But this is the compare/contrast part of the post.

We were up at 3:30am (PST), so we're trying to make it to 9pm. It's just not that easy. After only five hours of sleep, I hope I finally sleep through the night tonight (I don't think a night went by last week that I didn't wake up at midnight or 3a and/or 6a).

You can compare/contrast sleeping if you want.

All I know is it's the end of vacation.

Saturday post

I keep thinking it's Sunday. But it's not because we fly out early Sunday morning. And I'm typing this from Don and Judy's computer, so that must mean I'm still here.

But when you've been on vacation for a week, you start to lose track of time.

Vacations are nice.

We (as Americans) should take them more often.

It's been so nice.

Relaxing.

Fun.

Full of laughter.

Oh, and don't forget the sunshine. There's lots of sun here. It's going to be a whole lot different when we go home.

I'm going to go take a picture right now of what it looks like here. And then I'll take a picture when we get home tomorrow. I'll post them for your enjoyment. And for contrast. I'm sure there's going to be some contrast...

But for now, it's time to finish relaxing and enjoy Bill's family and the sunshine.

Picture Post

We went to Mount Charleston today. We can see it from Don and Judy's backyard, but have never driven up to it.

Here are a few pictures (we took 79 photos, so literally this is just a few, you're welcome).We pulled over at the Desert View Overlook in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. It was quite a view.

Same place just lower down; there was a wall along the path that I sat down on while Bill had climbed up the rocky "hill", seen behind me, for his photo.

This is the entrance to the Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort. So we didn't make it to the very top of Mount Charleston but I think this was close enough. We came all the way to Nevada to see snow in January!

The last elevation sign we saw was for 8,000 feet. According to the map, the mountain goes as high as 11,000 feet!

Here's one picturesque view as we drove through the park.

It was 48 degrees at our highest point (the Ski Resort). Bill said he didn't need his jacket. It was beautiful. It wasn't too chilly. Although, as we were up at the resort, I heard a man say that once the sun went behind the mountain the temperature would drop. The temperature down on the Strip was a balmy 63 degrees.

This is in the pool area at the Tropicana.

Vacation!! the last day

Here we are, finally. The last day of our vacation photos. We checked out of the hotel and waited for the bellman, then the elevator, and then the car. It took an hour to actually get out. I felt like we were in Hotel California. But we made it. We headed to Yolk, a breakfast place that I heard about, but cannot remember where. There was a wait, but it was worth it. Bill had the steak and eggs, I had the crepe platter. Wow, the crepes were so delicious. They didn't need butter or syrup, in fact when I added the syrup just to try it, that ruined them! We didn't need to eat again until later on our way home. I don't even think we were really that hungry, we just ate because we figured we should.

I digress. Before we left Chicago, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. We parked in the parking garage, so I didn't get any pictures from the outside of the building. But we took a couple of pictures inside. Here's what we saw:

The 727, and the other airplanes hanging around

a couple of clowns

the U-505, which we toured. This was my favorite exhibit. I think Bill was torn between the planes and this.

the main gallery.

That was it. That was our 10th Anniversary extraordinaire vacation. I hope you enjoyed the photos. And that it was just as boring as a slide show in our home (although we would have made popcorn for you).

Vacation! part five

This is day two in Chicago. Bill and I decided not to go to the museum of Science and Industry on Friday and we would go on Sunday on our way out of town, instead. I think it was a wise decision since the weather was beautiful. We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for our morning caffeine and took a nice walk. We walked to the bridge on Michigan and were about to cross it when I looked down. Not smart for someone who has height problems. Instead of crossing the bridge we took some pictures and walked back to shop at Crate and Barrel.

It was a nice quiet morning. We went back to the hotel and did what most people who have been married for ten years do, and ignored each other while sitting on our laptops. We decided to make a lunch (we brought a cooler full of supplies) and then walked up to Lincoln Park Zoo. Yes, it was about two miles away, but who wants to drive less than two miles? The walk wasn't going to kill us, so we set off. We walked along the lake, until we had to cross over to get to the park.

The zoo is on the north side of the park and it's free! What you can't see in this picture are the dragonflies. They show up in this photo as black spots. If you click on it to enlarge the photo, you'll see them.

We saw all kinds of animals and we took lots of photos. I think my favorite were the lions. She was out sunning herself up on the rock so everyone could see. If you look close you can see her mate...

He's not easy to spot in the shadows, so I walked around and took his photo from the other side, can you find him?

This sign made us laugh. Really?

I'm also fond of giraffes, so here is one, the other put his head down and is just behind the rocks.

We decided we were hungry enough to stop and eat on the way back. After we looked up restaurants on the gps, then looked at reviews on the blackberry we picked one and headed toward Wells Street. We discovered that we're old and we eat too early because the restaurant we had chosen wasn't open until 6pm. We kept walking, and figured since we were in "Old Town" we would find something. Almost across the street we found this.

Topo Gilgio. Italian sounded good, so we stopped here. We got an anti-pasta plate that was bigger than our table. It had salami, olives, artichoke, some kind of quiche, cheese, red peppers, mushrooms... I'm sure there was more, but I can't remember. Bill ordered the special; black linguine in a cream sauce with shrimp, scallops and salmon. I had rigatoni with pancetta in a red sauce. Both were delicious!! We had to walk back very slowly because we were stuffed and we were bringing home leftovers! We drank our last bottle of Stringio (from the winery we went to in Tuscany) and had a relaxing evening, resting with our feet propped up.