Philadelphia

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I found the above picture on my camera. I took it in the gift shop at the museum where I bought my lamp. The stars were very cool too - 5 pointed and 8 pointed.

We got a fairly early start to Philadelphia from Virginia Beach. Good thing because there were major delays in Delaware due to - I guess we're not sure what because the actual cause took place in a different direction from where we finally got to go. But it easily added an hour or more to our trip. We arrived in Philadelphia around 4:00, by the time we got to our room at the Marriott. And look! Triple towel origami!

We walked down to the Reading Terminal Market just to get the lay of the land, because it closed at 6:00. Very cool place - a big ol' hustly bustly farmers market. The majority of vendors were food vendors. Based on what I'd read about it, I was hoping for more craft type vendors but I still enjoyed it.

We then went to the Field House for a refreshing beverage. That would be cranberry juice for me and light beer for Steve. We're wild like that.

We intended to go back there for dinner but after vegetating in our room for a bit, decided to eat dinner downstairs in the hotel restaurant. We just wanted to be still and relax.

We each ordered the classic Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich. When in Philly, right? I even took a photo of mine with my camera phone but I'm such a doofus, I rarely use the thing, so I neglected to save it. Duh. So this one is courtesy Google Images. (Our sandwiches weren't as big as this one appears to be!) I also took a photo of the little tiny tray of little tiny hermetically sealed condiments. Two each: ketchup, mayo and Grey Poupon. Perhaps not the best idea, environmentally speaking (too much packaging), but really, cute as hell. (Again, didn't save the photo.)

Our room was fantastic in this grand old hotel. Mom asked me recently if I really liked staying in hotels. Absolutely! And I really like staying in nice hotels, historic if possible.

These photos were taken through our window so they are really quite crummy but maybe you can see some of the architecture of some of these buildings. Great stuff!

We woke up around 7:00, showered, got dressed and packed and hit the road. Our original intention was to go back to the Reading Terminal Market to spend more time there but it didn't open until 9:00. I decided that I'd seen enough yesterday to satisfy my curiosity. Besides the Pennsylvania Dutch wouldn't be there on Sunday and if anything, I wanted to buy some of their baked goods, for our breakfast maybe. We were both eager to get home to our furry friends so like I said, we hit the road. We arrived home today around 2:00.

If you can take your eyes off those glaringly white gams for a while (yes, I just spent a week at a beach, yay for sunscreen) - please note 2 cats and a dog, all sitting near me on the couch.
Yeah, they missed us.

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Friday

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I'm so happy! I bought a Tord Boontje lamp today!! For my new gallery. It's made of Tyvek - you know, that tear-resistant stuff envelopes are made of. I looked at one of these 8 years ago when I was putting together my original studio. That was when we first moved into the house and I didn't want to spend more money. I guess I didn't mind spending $65 today. I love it. (Ask me if I still love it after I've spent time shaping it just so. It comes in a flat box.)

Can you imagine anything more perfect in a gallery filled with paper art?? I'll need more lighting of course, this is mostly for ambiance. I love ambiance!

But I'm ahead of myself. Today promised to be a scorcher so we opted to skip the beach. Which reminds me of a conversation I meant to share with you. This is from the other day, as I looked around at all the sweet young things lying on their colorful beach towels, (begging to get skin cancer, but I digress).

"You know, Steve, there was a time when my breasts stayed put, on top of my body. I'm sorry you missed that. I think it was a Thursday."

Ba-rum-bump.

So today. We opted to gather our favorite fast food breakfast items and eat at a local park. (We ate in the car with the windows rolled down, it was already hot.) I'm happy to report a Virginia strawberry banana smoothie tastes just as good as a New York strawberry banana smoothie. My friend Lynn says "chains are stains" because she much prefers independent restaurants but I say there's a lot to be said for consistency and fulfilled expectations.

Then we went to the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia which is very near our hotel. Because we passed it so many times, I had looked it up online and it seemed like a place I'd like. It was free, which was good, because it's not very big. I believe the woman working there meant the exhibition hall is closed while they prepare for the next exhibit - but I got to see the Liz Miller installation, which was pretty cool. And there was a room filled with area teachers art which was so-so. And I bought my lamp in the gift shop.

So that's 2 art museums we've visited this vacation. But we evened things up in Steve's direction by then going to an ultra violent movie, Wanted. I don't even really know if "ultra" is correct but it was very violent. Full of cool special effects and some humor and I enjoy Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie. Steve enjoyed it quite a bit. I didn't hate it. (Which is probably what he would say about the 2 art museums.)

What we both agreed on is that this was the best movie theater we've ever been to. The seats were sooo darn comfortable, lots of leg room, lots of elevation. (And I love a bathroom that sports self-flushing toilets and motion sensitive faucets. Never have to touch a thing.)

We got back to the room around 3:00 and have been just hanging out since. A thunder and lightning storm kicked up but we noticed a little too late to enjoy the scurry of the lifeguards getting the people out of the ocean and off the beach. But we sat on the balcony and watched the cabana boys run around locking up the chairs & umbrellas, etc. Then it poured, for a very short while. We saw another very brief storm come in a few days ago - and got to watch the lifeguards in action, whistles blowing, arms flailing. Kinda fun. (Cause we were comfy and dry.) Otherwise, it's been nice and dry this week.

Sharon - I don't know if you saw the questions I asked you in yesterday's comments section but as my resident Virginia expert, I have a few questions:

1. What's the purpose of the red & white striped crossing gates on the entrance and exit ramps of the highways? My guess is they have something to do with hurricane evacuation routes.

2. Why do I smell smoke outside all the time? I tried to Google the answer to that one but didn't find any definitive answers. Haven't read a paper all week. Are there raging forest fires nearby that I don't know about?

We're trying to decide if we want to walk to the hotel next door's restaurant or maybe order in subs from Papa John's or something. Then we plan to get to bed early and wake up early to get an early start towards Philadelphia so we have most of the day to spend wandering around there. Then we want to get an early start home Sunday morning since we both have to work Monday. Usually we build in a buffer day but guess we decided not to this time.

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Virginia Beach Vacation

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Just a couple of days left in Virginia Beach. I put some (15) photos in a set on my Flickr account.

Yesterday we spent most of the day driving around looking at stuff. We had a fantastic breakfast at IHOP - I can't go there without getting that Stuffed French Toast.

We headed towards Williamsburg, about an hour away. There was a time in my life when I used to love that working historical village stuff, but not anymore. I know this is a super nice one, but it feels been there, done that, to me. And I know Steve would have been bored to tears. I wouldn't have minded going in some of the little shops, except I guess it didn't thrill me enough to actually do it. Just not a shopper, no matter what, I guess.

We thought about Busch Gardens, but only for the animal exhibits, not the amusement park stuff. Nah, we weren't feeling it.

I was feeling kinda guilty about wasting the gas and our time. But then what actually saved the day was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which Steve really wanted to see. It links Virginia Beach/Norfolk with Virginia's Eastern Shore. It's the largest bridge-tunnel complex in the world. It's 17.6 miles shore to shore - made up of 12 miles of trestled roadway, 2 mile-long tunnels, 2 bridges, 4 man made islands, 2 miles of causeway and 5-1/2 miles of approach roads. So actually, including all that, it's 23 miles. It cost $450 million to build and not a dime of local, state or federal tax money was used.

I'm afraid of water, but have conditioned myself over the years to be less so. Bridges like these don't bother me - I just don't let Bad Mind take over. Steve mentioned it would be cool if the tunnels were made of glass. There would not be enough money in the universe to get me into one of them if that were the case. (Besides, it would be dark, dingy water - not bright and fishy like he'd like.)

This kills me - this bridge-tunnel has a snack bar and gift shop in the middle.

So we (I) drove over that monster. Twice - had to get back. The only part that seriously freaked me out, like I-couldn't-look-at-it-freaked-out - was where the bridge part circled around to the right a little bit. You could see where the bridge stopped, nothing but water showing where the tunnel part is, then the bridge picked up again a mile later. So it looked like we were going to drive off the bridge into the water. Ewwww. Avert eyes! Avert eyes! I literally couldn't look at that part.

It doesn't bother me to drive in a tunnel under a mountain. So apparently the possibility of millions of tons of rock crushing me to death is a walk in the park, compared to water doing the same. (Yes, I go in the ocean, but just to cool off, not very far in. It's one of the universe's cruelest tricks, pairing me up with Steve, who loves the water. But he's patient with me, bless his heart.)

Back in the room, we chilled out, read, slept a wee bit - and then decided to order in pizza and wings for dinner. A bed picnic! The pizza came from Papa John's - delish. The wings were chipotle BBQ - good flavor but not crispy. I only ate one. Even on a good day, the caloric investment is too high in terms of flavorful reward, for me. Steve's a wing man, but he didn't care for these either.

We're staying in an Econolodge. It's about the only hotel on the beach that offers free wireless internet in the guest rooms, which is why it worked for us. Otherwise, the hotel is adequate, clean, just fine. But we are kind of spoiled because of the nicer places we stay - that have more seating, for one thing. I can't get comfortable sitting on the bed working on a laptop or even stitching. There's one comfy chair and one desk chair, so we make do. It's funny, I've read a lot of hotel reviews over the last few years - and for every single one you can find good and bad reviews for the exact same hotel around the same time. Depends on the person's expectations I guess. I mean, in this room, the furniture is dinged and the AC is louder than hell. But that doesn't bother me. Someone else could find that abhorrent, I suppose. (I see the loud AC as a good thing. We could be next to the Screamin' Baby Room for all I know. It's like white noise that makes me feel we have no neighbors.) :-)

That's it for now. The rest is on my Flickr page which is pretty much a blog entry in itself.

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Charm City Cakes

.Another good thing that Gretchen turned me on to is the Food Network's Ace of Cakes. I love this show, love the people. It's filmed at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore so I got it in my head that I wanted to do a drive-by of the bakery, just to see it. I didn't really expect to find their address on their website because I know they don't want to be found because tourists and fans would be a pain in their neck. It's a working bakery with people doing their jobs, in a clean environment, no less. The minimum price for their cakes is $500 (!) so if I'm paying that much for a cake, I want the employees paying attention to their work and don't want a bunch of goober tourists sneezing all over my cake. You're welcome for that visual.

A month or two ago I found what I thought was their address somewhere but neglected to write it down. By the time it was time to leave for our trip, I was hoping our new GPS could find it. (Also need to note here that the Hyatt does not offer free wireless anywhere in the hotel or I would have looked it up again while in Baltimore.)

We'd had a long day on Sunday and it was time to leave Baltimore to head to Virginia Beach. The only thing our GPS could find was Charm City Catering. I called Mom & Dad to look up the address of the bakery online for me. Bless their hearts, they looked high and low for the address.

Finally Dad came up with something, which turned out to be a private residence. I think he just said any ol' thing to get me off the phone. :-) We decided to give Charm City Catering a try, then we were outta there. Nope, that wasn't it either.

My dream was shattered. But we did enjoy a lovely tour of some interesting neighborhoods in Baltimore. Stuff we would not have seen otherwise, for sure.

I know they don't really want to be found but doggone it, I thought I was special and deserved to see the place. I was just going to roll down my window and take a picture. I wasn't even planning on getting out of the car and have Steve take my picture in front of the building. Is that so wroooong??

I looked all over the site when I got online the next day and couldn't find the address either. Then I remembered I must have gone to whitepages.com and looked them up under business look-up. There it was. I think it was right because I also found this by Googling "Charm City Cakes address" - read some of the comments too. (Just before I uploaded this entry, it seems there's a problem with that page I just linked to but I'm going to leave it here, assuming they will get it fixed.)

At least I don't feel so alone in my quest to drive by a building I've seen on TV.

Oh well.
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Baltimore

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American Visionary Art Museum Entrance. That is all mosaic work made from glass and mirrors. It's stunning in person.

Steve and I left for our vacation at Virginia Beach Saturday morning, stopping to spend the night in Baltimore. We'll be stopping to spend the night in Philadelphia on our way home. Just 'cuz. We've never been to any of these places. We'd talked about visiting the Inner Harbor in Baltimore before but our vacation the last couple of years have occurred in April and it seemed to early weather-wise, for Baltimore.

I put all the photos (just 13) in my Flickr account, but I'll mention some highlights here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Gretchen for turning us onto the American Visionary Art Museum! I had looked at their website when you first mentioned it to me a few months ago but it really doesn't do the museum justice. So talking about it again the night before we left made me want to visit.

It's hard to describe but the museum has been called, "A treasure house full of the most outstanding creations born of intuition and self-styled imagination." It's offbeat. It's disturbing. I loved it.

One of my favorite exhibits is found here: PostSecret.com The artist requested people send him postcards sharing a secret - that was true and had never been shared with anyone else. These postcards are mounted behind a wave of Plexiglas that goes up the staircases of the museum. I didn't read them all but I read a lot. In researching this just now, I see there are books of the postcards available. I just read some more postcards on the website and some of the follow-up stories. As a lover of biographies and autobiographies, I'm 100% addicted to this project now.

There was one exhibit that brought me to tears, I have to say. When I told Steve that, he said it was his favorite piece too. (But that was before we saw the (10' long?) ship made entirely of toothpicks.) I don't know what it was made of or the story behind it because I could barely look at it. It was a life sized child on a bike, I don't know, burned, skeletal, but bright red. The child was holding a sign that said "Every soldier was once a child."

I just researched this piece some more and for some reason can't upload the photo to this blog, but you can see the piece I'm talking about here.

From there we spent the afternoon at the Aquarium. Unfortunately for us, it was a Sunday so there were many families with kids there. It was hard to see the exhibits because the displays were not very big and there were sooo many kids. That part was a little disappointing. We're sort of jaded, having seen a very cool shark exhibit in Las Vegas last year, right in our hotel. One walked through a glass tunnel so fish were swimming all around you. That would be the difference - in Las Vegas, money is no object. The Baltimore Aquarium is supported by memberships and donations.

But the dolphin show was a lot of fun. I'd never seen one and Steve said he last saw one 36 years ago. We also stayed for the 15 minute 4-D video which was very cool. I hope I don't spoil this for anyone who gets to experience it but the seats are rigged with special effects. Throughout the piece at appropriate places, you felt a blast of air on the back of your neck, water sprayed in your face, "snakes" tickling your legs and a sharp poke in the back. Oh, and the seat vibrated, like when the swarm of bees was on the screen. We all yelped EVERY single time, even when you could figure it was coming. I'm soooo glad we didn't know about it in advance because, while I generally don't like surprises and don't like being "scared" - this was totally fun. Sorry to have spoiled it for anyone heading there - but you'll still be surprised, guaranteed.

The thing is, in retrospect, we realized how they pull this off. The theater is a bit dark when we arrived and there was already a related video playing so we were totally distracted and didn't notice the box on the back of the seat in front of us. It was all very well done. It had been a long day so we considered skipping this but I'm so glad we didn't.

This entry is long enough - more to come later.

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Kathy Griffin

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Finally! I can upload pictures again. Don't know what that was about.

Steve and I went to see comedian Kathy Griffin at Turning Stone Resort & Casino Friday night. I love her show on Bravo, My Life on the D-List and her stand-up shows too. Seeing her live did not disappoint one iota! She was fantastic!

It surpassed my expectations actually. I probably had a little Dennis Miller residue in my mind. To refresh your memory, we saw him in Las Vegas last spring, and although we were disappointed by the length of his performance (1 hour) we enjoyed it. Until - we got home and saw the (almost) verbatim performance on HBO. I know that shouldn't have mattered because we enjoyed him when we saw him. But like I said, I think I was afraid Kathy would do too much material I'd already seen, especially because I think I've seen her a lot.

She did not. She did a couple of classics but she was as topical and current as I'd hoped she'd be. She talked about winning an Emmy recently. Of course she talked about OJ. Steve and I are still "doing lines".

Turning Stone is on an Oneida Indian reservation about 2 hours from here - built in 1993. I bought the Kathy Griffin tickets at the beginning of the summer and tried to book a room at the resort. They have 4 hotels and every one was sold out for Friday night. We figured there must be some big event but only recently learned the PGA was holding a tournament there. I went online earlier in the week to see if there were any rooms available and there were some, but they looked to be $295. Um, no thanks.

So I had booked us a room at a Super 8 down the road. Even the Super 8 was $95. Anyway. I worked until noon on Friday and then we left shortly thereafter. I got to stitch while Steve drove and that actually worked out pretty well. The Super 8 was stinky and I mean that literally. We had a non-smoking room but it had clearly been a smoking room at some point. The hallway reeked of smoke but I had hoped our room would be our little oasis. Nope. I would have asked for another room but I figured that would be true of any other room, that they probably didn't have any rooms that had always been 100% smoke-free. We joked that the Non-Smoking signs on the doors were magnetic and they slapped them on whatever rooms they needed to. We were only there to sleep but I couldn't even bring myself to take a shower there the next morning. I filled out one of their comment cards explaining about the stench and checked the box saying I'd never return. I sure hope they don't send me a gift certificate for a free night! P-U!

We had stopped at a McDonald's on the way there for lunch (that chicken wrap is pretty tasty by the way). We weren't hungry for dinner so we ate after the show. There are tons of restaurants at the casino and we ended up at one that we knew was expensive, but it ended up being the most expensive meal we've ever eaten. Yikes. The service and the food was exquisite but c'mon, it's just food. It's one of the places that I actually have trouble finding something to order - it's lots of seafood, balsamic dressings, prime rib, veal, ostrich. Only 1 chicken dish was offered and not a pasta dish in sight. We both ordered strip steak. I practically never order beef and this was outstanding. Still, if I had to do it over again, I'd go somewhere else.

I sound pretty negative for someone who had such a good time, don't I?

But the show! Let me tell you about the show. We had arrived a couple of hours early so we could get the lay of the land. We walked around the casino for a while, checked out the restaurants. The show started at 8:00 so we wandered back to the Showroom around 7:00 to see what time the doors opened. They were already open so we went in - we were about the first ones there I think. An usher led us past a line of about 30 uniformed ushers, all poised for duty, to our seats. That itself was kind of interesting/odd.

I knew it was table seating but hadn't looked at a map of the venue or if I did, I didn't understand how close we'd be so I was kind of shocked when the usher kept walking and walking. We sat the front of those red tables, slightly left of center. We were about 20' from Kathy. When we sat down, Steve looked at me, "Did you know these seats were this close?" He looked kind of worried so I said, "Relax, this isn't Gallagher. There will be no smashing of melons and she doesn't pick on people in the audience." (I didn't exactly know if that last part was true but I was pretty sure.)

Steve has seen Kathy on TV but not to the extent that I have. So on the drive to the casino I told him, "You know, she loves her gays and her gays love her." He said he knew. He's not homophobic but I tease him that he is. Sometimes, when gay stuff comes on TV, I'll catch him looking away. Not in a horrified way, just in an uncomfortable way.

Because we were seated an hour early, we got to watch lots of people come in - and I noticed they were all heterosexual couples. I found that kind of disappointing - where are her gays?? Turns out they like to make a late arrival because they started coming in droves. Each of the rectangular tables around us seated 6-8 people. None of the straight couples at our table were really talking to each other - but I swear, any table with gays, it was party-time. I whispered to Steve, "Damn it, I want some gays at our table." I had already turned my chair to face the stage when I sensed someone filling up the last two seats at our table. I turned around hopefully. Nope. Just more damn heteros.

Kathy delivered a line early on that I've heard her say before - she'll ask where her gays are? women? men whose wives dragged them to the show? A quick elbow to Steve's ribs prevented him from whooping it up at that line. Even though it was true.

Being so close was cool. You know, she's had a bunch of plastic surgery, talks about it all the time, but she looked less "plastic" in person, than I thought she would. I was so enjoying myself, I found myself thinking at one point (conscious of the Dennis Miller 1 hour show) that if she stopped right now, I'd still feel satisfied. I had no idea what time that was but she continued on for a while after that. Turns out she did 1 hour and 15 minutes. But it really felt like 2 hours. I told Steve it's because she talks so much that she uses sooooo many words, it feels like you get your money's worth.

We're hoping to find another show to go to there sometime so we can stay onsite. The cheapest room seems to be $155 for a weeknight and about $200 for a Friday night, so we'll see. We drove home in 90 minutes so even if we drove home afterwards, depending on what time the show ends, it's not a bad drive home even. But we love staying in hotels. Don't know why, just do. (Non-smoky hotels, that is.)

Here's something interesting I learned, Turning Stone has been "dry" since they opened due to disputes with the state. There was a note on their website recently (wasn't there when I bought the tickets in July) that they are currently working with the state regarding the serving of alcohol. They ask that people not bring in their own alcohol. There were signs to this effect at all the entrances but they looked like temporary signs, so I thought they must have lost their liquor license until I researched it just now. By the way, the trash bin outside the entrance we used in the parking garage was overflowing, lots of beer cans were visible. I couldn't find anything per se in my quick search, but I think maybe at one time, patrons were allowed to bring alcohol into the resort, I'm not sure.

The drinks at the show were priced normally, which surprised me too. I had a bottle of water and a glass of pineapple juice while Steve had a soda, I think. It was "just" $7-something.

Lots of fun, for sure.

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Las Vegas - Days Four & Five

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Remember my talk yesterday about my fear of water? Today I (kinda) saved two kids from drowning. Okay, that's way overly dramatic but check this out.

We were in our now usual spots in our chairs by the Lazy River and a mom with two little kids settled into the chairs next to us, also in front of the stairs into the water. The little girl looked to be about 5 and the little boy about 3, I'm guessing. The mom told them to wait for her on the stairs while she got something.

The little boy got a little too close to the current and went under. I'm ashamed to say I waited a beat because I was afraid I was over-reacting because of how I am but he bobbed under again and the current was starting to carry him away from the stairs area. I jumped out of my chair, heading for the stairs, calling, "Steve, get that little boy! Get that little boy!" Steve was deep in his book, no glasses and obviously disoriented to what I was saying. By then the little boy managed to grab hold to the side and his mom pulled him out. I know I would have gone in and gotten him but I also somehow don't trust myself, which is why I called to Steve for support. I'm not sure if the mom reacted on her own or because she heard me.

(Yes, there's a lifeguard stand a few feet from where we were. With no lifeguard at that time. They seemed to disappear for periods of time. At first I thought it was because they rotate stations fairly frequently but there were plenty of times there was no lifeguard for up to 20 minutes at a time, I'd guess, but I never checked my watch. I don't understand that at all. The water is only 3-1/2 feet deep but I'm sure a constant lifeguard presence is required by the law or the hotel's insurance company or something.)

The fact that this family was Asian is probably why I hadn't been able to take my eyes off that little boy. I just hope I don't translate him into Simon and have nightmares. I'm happy to report the family played in the water later and the boy seemed unafraid and perfectly happy.

Later that morning, Steve and I were floating around the river when a little girl in a tube got stuck under the waterfall and I pulled her out. There are two fairly powerful waterfalls pouring into the river from overhead in succession. But there is plenty of room on each side so one can avoid it if one wants to. The little girl in the tube seemed to be in such a spot under the waterfall that the water was not propelling her forward and she was clearly scared and sputtering. As I told Steve, even if she wasn't really "stuck", she felt like she was and was scared. Her dad was just a step ahead of her but I happened to be in the right place and the right time.

It's weird these two instances happened in the same morning. I felt for the parents who literally just turned their back for a second, but that's all it takes. I know I'm a Nervous Nellie around water so I always think I'm over protective. Better that than not.

Not as heroic as I tried to make it sound but still, I was glad to be able to help.

We had ice cream sundaes for lunch and hung out in the room for a few hours. Steve gambled for about an hour, moving from video poker to video blackjack. With the really low stakes machines, that man can make $20 last forever! I stitched and watched Law & Order. It was heaven. (Except the Law & Order part, which I can take or leave.) Nice & relaxing though.

Around 5:00 we headed downstairs to catch a cab to The Orleans, where Dennis Miller was playing. We ate our traditional vacation dinner at TGI Fridays, also celebrating completing 7 years of living together. Yay us.

Dennis Miller. I think he's hilarious and it's always fun to laugh out loud at comedians live, when you're with other laughing people. But it was a tad disappointing for me because he only played 1 hour, which could be standard for all I know. It was a nice, old, smallish theater and I very much enjoyed myself. He did a few classic bits and lots of current stuff. We've been quoting him to each other ever since. I just wish he'd played longer - I was expecting 90 minutes I guess.

We took a cab back to our hotel and watched Numbers, while I stitched some more.

Saturday, we got up around 6:00 AM in time to shower, finish packing and get a cab to the airport. Our plane left at 9:50 which we decided is early enough for leaving vacation. Heading out to vacation is quite a different story - our plane left Rochester at 6:15 AM, but we didn't mind getting a ridiculously early start. I got up at 2:45 that morning! But with the 3 hour time change we arrived in Las Vegas at 10:30 AM so we still had most of the day, which was cool.

We flew into Cleveland to change planes. We left there about 1 hour later than scheduled, waiting for a substitute pilot to arrive from a Miami flight. I told Steve I wouldn't mind waiting longer if the pilot wanted to take a 30 minute power nap. I hoped he wouldn't be cranky but he was. Can't say I blame him, flying from sunny Miami to snow covered Cleveland and immediately turn around to fly into Rochester. But his mumbly first announcement was, "They volunteered me for this." Nice.

I got to experience my first plane de-icing - kinda cool. Otherwise the flight was uneventful and Simon picked us up, only having to wait a short while. He'd been checking the website for flight information. And he brought Reggi! I didn't ask him to and never thought he'd think of it on his own. She whined and cried when she saw us and spent equal time popping back and forth between me and Steve.

The thing is, I immediately felt a lump on her neck that has me worried out of my mind. I'll call the vet first thing in the morning. It's the size of a marble but it wasn't there before. Believe me, we pet this dog a lot - we would have noticed. I thought it was matted hair at first but it's not. It doesn't seem to hurt her. Please keep good thoughts for my girl.

Steve and I are both very glad we came back on Saturday, leaving Sunday as a Re-entry to Reality day. And of course there's paperwork and laundry to catch up on. Simon leaves for Myrtle Beach tonight so he's excited about that, needless to say. As am I. ;-)

Good thing I really like my life - because Vacation 2007 is over.
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Las Vegas - Day Three

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Our evil plan worked - today we got much better seats by the pool. By the Lazy River specifically. The pool area opens at 9:00 so we went down at 8:30 and joined the already long line.

You have to understand something about me. I'm afraid of deep water. Steve loves the water. Vacation isn't vacation unless we're near the water, for him. When we used to visit his aunt and uncle in the Adirondacks, I would bob around the shallow water on a noodle and he'd go do whatever, like swim across the lake and back, go waterskiing, tubing. Simon loves to go tubing but I could barely watch him, seriously. If I was in the boat, I couldn't take my eyes off of him and fought back tears the whole time. So mostly I didn't go, trusting Steve's family to take care of him. I could tear up now, writing about it.

Anyway, stuff like the Lazy River and the Wave Pool are our current compromise. It's actually fun because it's shallow and I feel safe. If Steve's vision weren't so crappy, I'm sure he'd be off in other pools doing deep end stuff. But he's okay with this - he's just relieved I'll do anything in the water, I think.

So there it is. Now you know something about me that I used to be very ashamed of and now I'm just embarrassed about. I don't know why I'm like this. I have plenty of good traits and skills. Deep water ain't one of them. I am what I am.

Another view from our chairs. We stayed about 4 hours I think. I wore sunscreen and don't look like I got any sun. I am vain enough to not want to go home from a Las Vegas vacation without at least some color! But I made that mistake in Tampa last year and just 30 unprotected minutes in the sun turned my legs into a painful mess.

The people watching was much better at this location than yesterday. I have to tell you about these cabanas. I swear I read that they rent for $250/day but I can't confirm that anywhere now. They include state of the art music system with CD player and MP3 player port, 32" LCD TV with cable of course. They include an amenity center with bar, refrigerator and personal safe, ceiling fan, telephone and contemporary decor with sofa, table , chairs and chaise lounges. The bungalows are the same except the TV is 40" and they have a private changing area. Special staff waits on those people.

It seems really extravagant but Steve and I decided if two families shared one for the day, the cost per hour wouldn't really be all that much, for a place to get out of the sun. Not that these people would, but they could sneak in their own food. The TV kills me though. I made up all kinds of back stories about who these people are. We saw one family check in and as soon as the hotel dude left, the dad picked up the remote for the TV. It was hilarious.

That's all the pictures I took for the day. We left our room around 3:00 to head down the strip to The Mirage. We took the tram, then the monorail but it was still a lot of walking. Yesterday I decided I have a full blown case of plantar fasciitis. It's been brewing for a couple of months but I attributed it to other things. Now my right foot is a textbook case. Bummer.

So we went to The Mirage to see Cirque du Soleil's Love, the Beatles tribute. I've never seen one of their shows before but enough bits and pieces to have high expectations. It was fantastic! It was so amazing, so much to it, I can't even review it for you except to say it was outstanding. I'd like to see it about 20 more times in hopes of catching every little thing. At the end I felt kind of sad, thinking about John and George being dead.

I read on the website about the premiere and that Paul and Ringo and all the Beatles' families attended, even Cynthia Lennon. I wondered how the performers felt, doing it in front of the Beatles - and how the families felt, watching this interpretation of the music. I'm going to comb over the website again - there's lots of behind the scenes stuff.

We finally had dessert at The Chocolate Swan that I mentioned the other day. That mousse looking stuff was really homemade custard. It was good - but it actually looked better than it tasted. I'm not complaining but next time we'll opt for Ben & Jerry's or something.

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Las Vegas - Day Two

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We started the morning with breakfast at House of Blues because with yesterday's lunch receipt, we buy one breakfast, get one half price. I didn't take my camera because I didn't think there would be anything photo-worthy. But there was! I took a picture with my phone but it's not there now so I guess I only thought I did. I had corn banana fritters that were delicious! I'd never seen them before so I thought it was a good opportunity for a food photo. Oh well. Just imagine little balls of corn meal & bananas, fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar, drizzled with syrup. I told Steve my fruit & vegetable consumption was offset by the fried factor. Good stuff though.

From there we went the pool area. This hotel has 6 pools or something, but some are still under renovation. There's a wave pool, a lazy river, a few regular pools and a "European Style" pool, aka "adult pool" - but that one is still under construction. The pools didn't open until 9:00 but we were kinda hoping lots of people would be hungover and sleeping in. No such luck. We finally found chairs - don't you like our view? We read for a while then went in the wave pool, which wasn't too bad actually. It's a kinder, gentler wave pool than at Roseland, my only other experience. (And I hang pretty far back. Not a water lover, like Steve. Opposite do attract!)

We're going to go at 8:30 tomorrow and see if we can get a couple of chairs in the quieter section by the lazy river part. Yes, I'm wearing sunscreen, thank you.

Steve is not a gambler by nature but he really wanted to try some different games while we're here. I have zero interest. Less than zero even. He finally ventured into video poker, dragging me with him. I was so bored so I walked around trying to find a slot machine I could endure. They have a million different themes, something for everyone - goofy & silly to "serious" slots. Nada. Just can't do it. I took a bunch of photographs.

Mom, I took this one for you and Steve supplied the dialogue,"I worry about all these machines. Who is going to play them all??"

I was concerned that it would be really smoky in the casinos but my friend Pam, who visited here last year, described it as you know people have been smoking but it's not overwhelmingly smoky. She's right. I thought the casino would be enveloped in a gray cloud of smoke and I'd want to shower and change my clothes after walking through. They must do a great job with the air circulation because it's quite tolerable. And I say that as a person who is pretty intolerant of smoking.

Finally Steve cut me loose while he played a while longer. I went up to our room to post yesterday's entry. Much more fun! He started with $10 and cashed out with $65. Excuse me, he didn't exactly cash out - he still has the ticket/voucher for $65 so he'll go again. Please, please, don't make me go. (Steve and Simon have both given me a lot of shit about going to Vegas and not gambling. Little do they know it strengthens my resolve not to gamble!)

We ate lunch at ESPN Zone in the New York, New York hotel. I satisfied another craving I've had recently, for nachos. They were very good - not a gigantic pile of chips like some places serve. The place was a little sensory overload for me - too much noise and too damn many TVs but Steve was in hog heaven. We were trying to decide if a restaurant like this, but geared towards crafters would have a different effect on me. I'm sure it would - it would be heaven! We'd have pottery on one channel, quilting on another, on and on. The play by play would fascinating!

We walked around New York, New York for a bit. All the stores inside look just like the streets of NY. The casino has trees throughout that make it look like Central Park. That's a stream in the above picture. Besides the stuff you saw in yesterday's photo, the outside also has shops which you get to by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. This is the kind of stuff I wanted to see - the attention to detail, all in the land of excess where money is no object.

Another thing - every employee we've encountered has been exceedingly friendly. I know they are in the hospitality industry but I figured they would be so burned out by the zillions of tourists they encounter that they'd all be burned out by now. Customer service rules!

Speaking of shops, there are a bunch in every hotel but we haven't gone into many. Every time I see a designer store I want to take a picture of it for Simon. That apple definitely fell far from this tree. That boy knows his stuff. I forbid him from telling me how much he paid for his Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses. He talks about wanting a Gucci wallet and I keep my bills in my purse in a snack size Ziploc bag. No, really, I do. I carry a very small handmade (not by me) purse and can't find a suitable wallet. The Ziploc works perfectly! Wouldn't Simon be mortified?? Mwahahaha!

We did go in one shop though because I told Steve I had to go into a store that I'd read about that used the words pet and couture in the same sentence. It was Lush Puppy, full of fluffy beds, blingy collars, doggie clothing. I didn't even look at prices but I did see one collar I liked, turquoise leather with silver medallions, all southwest looking. I think Reggi would look fetching in that. (Fetching, get it??) Then there was the doggy outfit that said, "I'm not fat, I'm fluffy," but they didn't appear to have one in Reggi's size. Or my size for that matter. And they were way too frou-frou for our precious pumpkin.

We also went into The Chocolate Swan and I bought us two squares of dark chocolate. We don't usually eat dessert so this was the perfect bit of sweetness after our late lunch on Tuesday. Then as we left, another thing caught my eye. They offer dark chocolate coated (inside) cones and the choice of fillings all appear to be different types of chocolate mousse - strawberry, cherry, cheesecake, almond, like that. I must get one before we leave. Looked delish.

Then we went into the MGM Grand because they have a lion exhibit. I'd read it was six lions in a natural habitat display. I had pretty low expectations but boy, did we get lucky. There were two lion handlers inside the habitat - see above. This guy was playing ball with the lion and the other guy was the spotter I guess. Always good to use the buddy system! We stood and watched for a while - it was pretty much what you see above. The lion brought the ball to the guy, who didn't really try to take it away from him but kinda acted like he was going to. I guess it would really be no contest, would it? The lion would occasionally put his paw on the guys arm - just like Verona does to me when she's telling me it's bedtime. Every once in a while the lion would turn away so the guy would tease and poke the lion a little bit to get his/her attention. It was in a funny harmless way, not a scary way.

The cool thing was that the floor to this exhibit was all glass so you could walk under the above scenario. That area was filled with people taking pictures. I told Steve, with all the cameras pointed in the direction of the lion and this guy, it looked like the paparazzi & Paris Hilton or something. The whole thing was a nice unexpected surprise.

Afterwards, we hung out in the room for a while. We watched The Pursuit of Happyness. I'm so glad I didn't watch it on the plane - definitely shed a tear or two. That Jaden Smith is adorable. I'd read a bunch about the movie and seen the real dad and his son on Oprah so I knew it had a happy ending, but damn it could have been a depressing movie. If that movie doesn't encourage you to keep doing your very best in the face of all odds, I don't know what will.

I ended the day with a phone call to Gretchen. Simon was working late and hadn't let Reggi out in a while so I asked Gretchen to buzz over and do the honors. She called me from my house to tell me Reggi refused to go out! Even when Gretchen went out with her, she refused to leave Gretchen's side. I suggested Gretchen put Reggi on her leash and walk her around the yard. Reggi loves going for walks. I guess that worked because the next report I got was that apparently Reggi realized this was probably her last chance to go outside for hours so, and I quote, "She peed like Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own". Apparently that's a good thing.
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Las Vegas - Day One

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We're here! In sunny Las Vegas!

Good ol' Simon even got up at the "ass-crack of dawn" (4:00 am) to drive us to the airport. To my surprise, Steve didn't want to leave a car at the airport. Simon's Spyder is on the road, but he's having some work done on it so it was the perfect week for him to have access to another vehicle. For some reason he'd rather drive Steve's 2003 Explorer than my 1995 Saturn. So that was part of the deal, drive us to and pick us up from the airport. I'll probably have to remind him 6 times not to forget us Saturday.

We changed planes at Dulles. Steve loves to fly so we always give him the window seat, leaving me with the horrid middle seat. Guilt finally ate at him enough that I got the window seat for the 5 hours to Las Vegas. I stitched and listened to my crafty podcasts on my iPod, just as planned. Window seats are way better. I was so intent on stitching and iPodding, that I skipped the two movies, both of which I wanted to see. One was The Pursuit of Happyness, but that's in our Netflix queue and I want to see that in the comfort of my own home, in case I cry. The other one was Freedom Writers, which I've added to our Netflix queue - I forgot I wanted to see that.

For two weeks I've been obsessing over not forgetting two things: my stitching and my laptop. Clothes? Uh, yeah, whatever.

And I'm so excited about this: I bought a new suitcase a month or two ago - it's worked perfectly. I've been using a backpack since 1978. Seriously! It's a big backpack but it has no wheels so it's fine for car trips but not so good for hauling around airports. So I decided at age 51, I was entitled to an honest to goodness adult, wheeled suitcase. I'm still finding compartments and pockets in this thing. I had room to spare even - and it's lighter than my carry on bag (because of my laptop). I love it. I'm so grown up.

We're staying at Mandalay Bay.

I also bought a new camera a few weeks ago. I have been struggling with taking good pictures of my products, the stuff I can't scan. I chalked it up to user incompetence but finally decided I could probably take better pictures with a better camera. I felt I'd gotten my money's worth out of my old camera, which I'll give to Simon. This new camera rocks.

The view from our room. That pyramid next to us is The Luxor.

This sign is outside our window too. It looks big here but it looks really big when you are on the ground looking up at it.

We had a late lunch at The House of Blues - we'd been craving a good burger & fries. I napped a bit & Steve read, then we walked around the grounds to see the pool areas. More about that tomorrow.

We went through the Shark Reef aquarium exhibit at the hotel, which besides being unbearably humid, was very neat. It's a self-guided tour. Each person is given a cell phone looking wand and you punch in the number of each exhibit. It was all done really well, not cheesy at all. Part of it was like you're standing in a sunken ship looking out at the fish. This photo shows the glass tunnel you walk through with the fish swimming over and under you. I turned off the flash to get a better picture and lightened this one with photo editing but it still doesn't do it justice. I thought it would be cool from what I'd seen online, but it was even better - really felt like you were under water.

There was a wide, low, open tank where visitors are encouraged to touch the fish. This was the big guy but there were other, smaller, more colorful fish. But you could only touch them with 1 finger and not near their eyes or mouths. No shit, Sherlock. I passed.

I fixed this photo up as best I could, just to give you an idea. This was a tall, cylindrical tank, full of nothing but jellyfish! This was actually my favorite part, I think. They were amazing! All sizes and shapes, gracefully floating around.

Then we started our Giant Walk of Pain. I'd been warned to wear comfortable shoes, it's easy to do a lot of walking in Las Vegas. So I was prepared in my fairly new walking New Balance sneakers. But all that walking on cement coupled with being dehydrated from the plane ride and all the walking we did in the dry desert air - well, let's just say I was maybe a tad cranky by the end. Or so I've been told. I tried to drink plenty of water but not so much on the plane because I didn't want to have to get up and go to the bathroom.

The above is The Luxor, the next hotel down from ours. That tram in the center of the pictures connects 3 hotels so we took that on our way back to save ourselves a few steps. Saves about a mile of walking I heard someone say.

This is the sign in front of The Luxor. This is me thinking, "I wonder if it would look arty if I took the shot like this?" (I swear that's what I thought. I just now noticed the genitalia. Oops. Sorry!)

The Excalibur. The theme doesn't thrill me.

New York, New York, complete with roller coaster. And people were riding it, the wackos. We walked around inside this hotel more the next day - I'll share those pictures later. We have decided we made the best choice for us, hotel-wise, but if I had to pick a 2nd choice, I think it would be this. It's full of New York City details - I think they got it just right.

Paris. We just saw it from across the street, never went in.

The MGM Grand. We can see this from our hotel too. We went inside on Day 2 - will share those pictures with you tomorrow.

Finally, our destination. The stinkin' Bellagio. We were both tired and thirsty but wanted to see these stupid fountains. What? Me? Attitude? Don't get me started on these people.

First we walked all over the hotel looking for a simple bottle of water - is that asking too much?? I know it's a casino and they want to sell booze, but there are plenty of families there. (Pam, I saw the gorgeous blown glass ceiling but my feet hurt and I was so thirsty, I couldn't stop to look or appreciate it. We'll probably go back.) We ended up finding drinks at the Tropicana, I think it was, across the street. As we crossed the bridge back over to The Bellagio, the fountains were just ending their little dance.

We settled in street level, waiting for the next show, which according to their website, starts every 15 minutes after 8:00 pm. We heard an announcement that Steve thought said the next show starts at the top of the hour, but I was sure he heard wrong. Turns out he heard correctly. We stood there, on our achy-breaky feet for 51 minutes, I tell you! Yep, shows were starting at the top of the hour - and of course it only lasts 5 minutes or something. It's cool but for the mood I was in at that point, those fountains would have had to been squirting dark chocolate down my throat to win any props from me. Bastards! I even checked the website the next day - yep, every 15 minutes, it says. By the time we realized it really was going to start at the top of the hour, we'd waited so long we weren't going to leave. Said Steve. I was starting to think they lost their opportunity to entertain me. I wanted to show them!

We were so tired, we never ate dinner. I crashed into bed the second we got back to the room. We have a big fluffy king-sized bed and man, oh man, did I sleep good. It probably had nothing to do with the fact that I didn't have a beagle crowding my legs or a black cat sleeping by my head.

More fun tomorrow.
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