Room with a View

Can you guess where we are? Yep. We are in Las Vegas. Greg has a tax conference that started yesterday and goes through tomorrow morning. I tagged along. Here's just about everything I've seen. :-)

Our room is on the 35 floor. The elevator moves so fast, I feel the need for a safety harness - you know like "Tower of Terror"! It kind of makes me dizzy. (the elevator ride not the view)

This is a sculpture made from canoes and row boats - by Nancy Rubins.

Dizzyingly tall buildings.

This is an all chocolate display. The dragon stands as tall as me.

There is a tram there to the middle right. The tram is free and goes between The Monte Carlo, Aria, and Bellagio hotels.

I rode back and forth and spent some time at the Bellagio. It's a hoppin' place - lots of people, crowded even. But fun things to see including this chocolate fountain. The Largest Chocolate Fountain in the world!

Bellagio has a Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Right now they are celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Pretty mosaic floors.

Good Fortune.

This money tree seems appropriate for Las Vegas but read the sign - not sure it really jives with the Las Vegas vibe.

This ceiling is covered in Chihuly glass work.

Fountains of Bellagio - cue "The Star-Spangled Banner"

People coming and going - it was like a very well orchestrated traffic jam - cars arriving on the right, cars leaving on the left. I've never seen so many taxis and limos in one place.

Some of the limos have artists' names for vanity plates.

The window in our room is dirty but looking at that window washer up there I'm thinking it is OK.

That chair is the shape of a bird - not a great shot but I did sit there for awhile and just watch cars and people pass. The water feature behind is very wide and the water changes flow and runs over a textured surface - the sound reminded me of the tide.

One of Greg's co-workers, Matt, is at the conference as well.

Dinner was at Tetsu teppan grill - dinner was prepared in front of us.

The chef squirted down these lines of some sort of batter (looked like pancake batter to us) to keep the various oils from mixing. When he finished different dishes he'd scrape off the batter.

Thyme and garlic for my rib eye, Garlic and rosemary for Greg's lobster, Matt's baby back ribs.

Kale on the lobster.

The lobster and the ribs were steamed under their own lids.

The finished products were all so beautiful - I don't understand why I didn't pause to take pictures. I guess I was too interested in eating. Almost all gone, I did snap a shot of this purple rice though. Black and white rice soak together in preparation, the dark color turns the white rice purple. It was so delicious!

Fun to have the room with this view.

Fishing anyone?

Eric and Evan went ice fishing on Utah Lake yesterday. I've yet to hear details but I do know they didn't catch any fish.

Happy Evan. A life long dream fulfilled.

A birthday guest

Callie made an appearance last night for the slicing of Greg's Birthday Crisp*.

She contributed a lot of energy to the gathering.

She did calm down but her appearance was short lived because I said she had to go back out.  Ryan petitioned his father saying, "It's your birthday..." but Greg said, "Respect your mother's request."   Ryan took her out and when he came back in said, "Callie is offended and just for that she says she's leaving."   which she is - and so is Ryan - both headed back to Provo today :-(  Eric left yesterday :-( Evan and Claire fly back tomorrow :-(   *Just in case anyone was wondering about Greg's no dessert rule - Crisp is not strictly a dessert - it can be considered breakfast food because it is really just upside down oatmeal.  

Someone had a birthday

Can you tell whose birthday it is today?

(coolest candles ever by the way - they are called Prism candles, Claire brought them home from school - so cool in the dark and the flame changes colors)

It's Greg's birthday! And don't count the candles, they're not indicative of what birthday it is. :-) Yay Greg! Happy Birthday!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium on New Year's day. We did something we usually don't do - watched a presentation in the auditorium. Can you guess what it was about?

Captivated (sleepy really is the word) audience.

There is a newish exhibit on Jellies. It's groovy! Take a look here.

After our visit to the aquarium we had dinner at the Fish Hopper. Even though is was a very chilly day and cold evening, Monterey was beautiful with clear skies.

Happy New Year!