A quick trip home

Logan, Dan and I just returned from Regina. Logan and Dan (Lindsay's husband) went on a boys camping trip with Lorne, a boys trip.

I joined them for the ride, leaving them at Chaplan where Lorne drove them to Diefenbaker.

I continued on to Regina and had a quick visit with a number of different people! Usually when I head home we have limited time and spend one day with my family, one day with Logan`s family and then we drive home. This time I had the opportunity to visit with friends (as both sets of parents had visited us in Calgary recently).

Mom and Dad hosted dinner for Grandma, Grandpa, Janet and I. It was wonderfully delicious.
I also had lunch with Kendra, dinner with Lisa, lunch with Janet and drinks with the ole Do It With Class gang. I had a great couple of days. They always go by to fast.

Palm Desert

April 2nd
We had a very bumpy ride into Palm Desert's open air airport.
Logan and I couldn't help but just have a drink and sit on the patio. Beautiful sun and hot weather (between 80F and 88F)

With the fresh citrus growing on the trees just outside the door it influenced my drink choice. The grapefruit tree across the street poured a number of sea breezes.

April 3rd
This was our shopping day. We drove to the city of Cabazon. What you may not know about Palm Springs is that it is right next to a huge natural wind tunnel. There are tons of windmills to create power for LA in this area. On top of this wind tunnel , which I assume is always windy, the Desert cities were experiencing wind warnings. It was very hot in Palm Desert that day, so much so that I changed my outfit twice to find lighter clothes. When we got to Cabazon it was cold, overcast and extremely windy. We spent the first hour of our shopping trip going from store to store looking for a jacket or sweater.

Once we got that sorted, you can see that we didn't have a problem finding anything else.

From Top left to bottom right: Banana Republic short sleeve button up (Logan), IZOD bunny hug (Stacey), Banana Republic bunny hug (Logan), Nike Runners & Sandals (Logan), Sketchers (Stacey), Teal Banana Republic tank (Stacey), Brown Banana Republic tank (Stacey), Quicksilver Golf Shirt (Logan), Lucky Brand Jeans (Stacey), 3 Roxy T-shirts (Stacey), Fossil Sunglasses (both of us), Rozy purse with pink and orange, Rozy purse with brown and teal, 2 Quicksilver T-shirts (Logan), Billabong Blue shorts (Logan), Quicksilver shorts (Logan)

That pretty well took all day. We returned to the condo (where it was still very hot) and then went out to dinner at a very fun Mexican restaurant. The portions were ridiculous. Logan and I shared a platter for two that easily could have fed four.

April 4th
This day was also a bit about shopping. We went to the Palm Desert Street Fair. The huge parking lots of the College of the Desert were filled with tents of stuff.

Here we are having a hot dog lunch.

After the Street Fair we hit up a few department type stores in the search for new dishes. We tried JCPenny, Macy's, K Mart and Gottschalks. Macy's had some nice stuff but a scary sales lady. No success.

So we headed back to the condo to relax.

This is a view from the patio. The condo is right on the 7th green of the golf course.

Their condo is the second one in from the corner.

April 5th

We started the day by going to the club house for breakfast. It was delicious. This is us in front of the club house. Another beautiful day.

It was an odd thing to see snow at the top of the mountains when it was so warm outside.

This was the day that I was most excited about. Our wine tour. It was a fair drive to get to Temecula, the city in the valley that all of the wineries were close to.

The first winery was Wilson Creek. We tried 5 wines each there. We tried their Almond Champagne, which was very good. Logan had their creamy sherry which was surprisingly smooth and Janet and I tried the chocolate port. All very nice.

It is still very early in the growing season. We did see some plants that had leaves, these just had little buds.

The second place was Callaway Winery. We had the tour of this place before the wine.

We got to try six wines at this place...and it is starting to show.

At both places we got to keep our souvenir wine glass.

The view surrounding this places was beautiful. They were on a bit of a crest and we could see the surrounding beauty.

On the ride home from the wineries the GPS took us a totally different route. It was a very exciting route. Both directions we had to drive up and over the mountains to the valley on the other side. On the way there we saw surprising farm land that was very similar to the landscape we see around here. On the way back there were many photo opportunities. This one Logan came to a quick stop to grab this view looking back at the valley that we had just come from.

Notice the lake on the right side.

When we hit the very top edge of the mountain range we stopped at the turn out to get a good look.

From here you could see the Desert cities below.

We drove down the mountain on a very quick switchback road. All of a sudden we hit the bottom and a sign that said Palm Desert City Limits. It was quite surprising how close the mountains are.

Logan and I took out the golf cart to explore the gated community.

We took the fruit picker with us and began our harvest. This is the best lemon tree in the place.

Our bounty. 3 Lemons, 2 Oranges and 1 HUGE grapefruit.

April 6th

We started the day with another breakfast at the Country Club.

Logan and Lorne went out for their second round of golf, on another beautiful day.

While the men were golfing Janet and I headed out on one last effort to find dishes. We went to Kohl's, TJMax, Marshall's, Target, SteinMart and Bed, Bath and Beyond. We had great success at Target. There were a couple sets of dishes that I really liked there. They are square, chocolate brown dinner and salad plates with thick, different sized stripes of a glaze. I also bought cream place mats, blue napkins and striped blue/green/brown/white hand towels from Steinmart.

After shopping and golfing there was more sitting and relaxing in the sun with cocktails.

After we lazed about we got ourselves ready for dinner. We went out to P.F.Chang's. A very upscale chinese restaurant. It was delicious, and again, way to much.

April 7th
Our last day in Palm Desert. On the way out of the complex we stopped for a photo.

We drove Lorne and Janet to the airport with the rental car and then continued on to Vegas. We drove up and over the mountains. This is not a great photo through the back window but a great view.

A Joshua Tree. There were plenty on the side of the road as we drove through the Mojave Desert.

At one point we rose to over 5000 ft altitude. This is us on our desent back down the mountains and into Vegas.

We arrived in Vegas at shortly after 4 o'clock after our four hour drive. And Logan will tell you that it was not an easy drive. Two lanes divided highway the whole way. But the semi trucks have to stay in the right lane and have a lower speed limit than the rest of the traffic. It cause the traffic to constantly be changing lanes, no one settled in with their cruise control. I think he was glad to arrive.

Las Vegas

April 7th
We arrive in Vegas with our rental car and checked into our hotel at the Monte Carlo.

Our room was on the 28th floor. We had requested non-smoking and one King sized bed (opposed to two Queens). In order to meet our request they put us in the handicap room. The room had the biggest bathroom, but of wasted/wide open space. The room window faced into the construction site of the new City Center complex. (The two slanted building with yellow are residential buildings - who wants to live on the strip? The building in the center of the photo is a hotel that is smoke free, all suite and casino free. To the left of that is Aria, the usual hotel resort casino place. And the building on the very left is the executive hotel.
Through the buildings you could see the strip to the north, the Flamingo, Venetian, Treasure Island etc.
We had our first dinner at the Buffet in our hotel (with a two for one coupon that we got room rate). Then out on the strip.

The first stop (and the casino next door) was the Fountains of the Bellagio.

Inside the Bellagio we found a Spring Tulip Display. It was pretty cool, and very spring inspiring. This is a snail with a shell made of roses.

We ended our evening fairly early with drinks at Brand the steakhouse and lounge in our hotel. Our second coupon with the room, 50% off cocktails (if only I had remembered to use it).

April 8th
We headed out to Tix4Tonight to find half price tickets. Our hope was to get tickets to Cirque's Ka or Mystere. Neither were available (because the rest of the Cirque shows were dark this week). We also wanted half price to Bodies (the science exhibit) and The Price is Right. The only one that was available was The Price is Right. The guy wanted to help us find something to do, so he encouraged us to purchase a 50% off reservation to a restaurant - we agreed and he chose one for us.

I really wanted to see and wanted Logan to see a Cirque show so we walked over to MGM to the Ka box office to see if we would purchase tickets for the next night. They had 8 pairs of tickets left for their two shows, the rest were singles. I felt that even thought they were expensive at full price I figured that we wouldn't regret it - more on that later.

Then back on the strip for some lunch. We stopped at the little street cafe type thing between MGM and Planet Hollywood.

Then to Bally's for The Price is Right Live Show. We had a great time. Kendra and Aaron had gone while on their trip and recommended it. Especially because Kendra was called and won! Maybe because Kendra won, maybe because we were practicing Price is Right on our Wii, and maybe because I had no hope for the slots - but I thought we were going to win! We did not get called, but had a great time anyway. My favorite moments were during both the Hole In One game and Plinko. Both times the audience was quiet as we watched that putt or that last plinko chip, and they got it - and the whole audience erupted! It was a great time!
After the game we headed further down the strip (past all those weird, kinda skeezy casinos: Casino Royale, O'Shea's etc). The Venetian is so beautiful. Me with the Rialto Bridge behind me.

The inside of the Venetian is also very beautiful. Trompe loi painting is very cool.

We didn't see the Blue Man Group, but their billboard was everywhere. This is Logan's impression.
The Venetian seems to just turn into The Palazzo. It has a very similar feel. This is Logan in front of a the huge water fall. He is making a wish on a penny.
Outside The Palazzo.

Back inside the Palazzo Casino we found an Original Star Trek penny slot machine. Logan put $3.15 in and we walked away with $26.35. It was a great machine with many bonuses - shooting things with phasers and such.
We left that slot machine (and our great cocktail waitress that was very attentive and brought us two drinks in the short time we sat there) because we had reservations for Mario Batali's restaurant Enoteca San Marco in the Piazza San Marco of the Venetian. It was a great meal. The ambiance was beautiful, as though we were on a patio at sunset. The food was great, Logan had veal meatballs and I had an eggplant, tomato, ricotta cheese pasta. Delicious. And great wine!
After dinner we crossed the street to Treasure Island.
We got our first really big drink - margaritas in our new friend "skully".

Back down the street toward home, with a quick stop to watch the Volcano of The Mirage.

Then into Ceasar's through the Forum shoppes. I stopped at the Victoria Secret with the promotion card the received from the store in Palm Desert. I won a gift certificate of $10
and had a great, kinda drunk, time with the sales lady.
April 9th
We started the day with a trip down to the pool. In this photo you see the Lazy River. It is not so lazy, the current whips you around. Behind that is the wave pool. Not pictured is another pool and a hot tub. The Lazy River was heated, the other pools were not. It was sunny and warm, but not hot enough to be in that cold pool.

We weren't there very long because there were so many kids! To many kids! It was wild to hear over the loud speaker the play by play of a beer chugging contest while the kids swim around.

We headed the other way down the strip to New York New York for lunch. Another coupon, two free drinks from Nine Fine Irishman with our lunch. Logan had the largest corned beef sandwich I have ever seen and I had a turkey panini with cranberry chutney and spinach. Very nice.

Logan was feeling a little under the weather but we pushed on. We checked out New York New York, got a really big drink from Coyote Ugly - they called it "the ugly stick". It was a great afternoon. Logan felt a little ill so we headed back to the hotel to sit for a bit. We had to be well for our big night. (We also cheaped out with Subway in our room for supper, gotta save a buck somewhere.)

We went to Ka. We were not impressed. Don't get me wrong, the technical aspects of the show were very cool. The huge rectangle that turned in every direction, that they did everything on. It was very cool. But nothing happened for a whole hour. There was so much story they were trying to tell without words that I was bored. There was a demonstration of martial arts, and then another, a baton solo and shadow puppets. Don't get me wrong, I twirled baton for years, I know that what she was doing was difficult, but... come on. At the hour mark we saw a trapeze act where they have the "ribbon" that two people hang onto. And then the men that run in the circles on either end of the spinning arm. Yes, they were more of what I had expected and wanted - but having seen "O" live and "Corteo" and "Dralion" on DVD I have a certain expectation for these acts. I am not saying that it is easy, but I would rate their level of difficulty at a three. On the way out of the theatre I heard a number of people comparing it to other Cirque shows and feeling the same way I did.

After the show we met up with Kenn at the lion habitat of the MGM. We grabbed our second big drink of the day from Fat Tuesday as well as a Jello shot. We then hopped into the car Kenn had borrowed from a friend and went to Freemont Street.

Here is Logan with his big drink with Kenn.

We were there quiet late at night so we had missed all of the light shows in the sky.

April 10th

By day ten we were tired. It has been a fantastic holiday but we had done a ton. So we decided to take it easy. We walked through Excalibor into the Luxor to go to the Bodies Exhibit. This is the exhibit where they have real bodies on display to teach you about the body. It was fasinating! Especially the fetus section. To see the development of a baby, and how much they grow and change in a week of development. I learned a lot.

After sitting in the Luxor to relax, seeing the exhibit and sitting some more we headed back to New York New York to people watch.

After sitting, and playing a bit, we walked over to Planet Hollywood. It was the one casino that was new and I wanted to see. We spent most of our time in the Miracle Mile shops. On my last trip with mom and Stef we walked through the Desert Passage shops while it was the Aladdin many times - it was our gateway from our hotel to the strip. The picture shows how they aren't finished their renovations from Aladdin to Planet Hollywood. One one side of the arch it was shiny black tile floors, white tiled walls with red accents. On the other side it was still arabian nights.

We took in two of their free "shows": the indoor rain storm, which we watched from our table at lunch; and the laser show. Which was pretty lame.

Then we headed back to the Monte Carlo and sat around a bit waiting for our shuttle to the airport. And home we went.

We had a great time! But were happy to be home!