Monday, March 16, 2009

I'm Baaaaack!!

Some of you might have thought I dropped off the face of the planet. Nope, not yet anyway. Life has been busy, as usual. So now it's time to catch up. This might take a few posts :-) Adam recently went out to Las Vegas on business and I got to go with him for a couple of days. It was WONDERFUL! I really didn't think it was going to happen until the very last minute. But, everything fell into place! YEAH!!

We got to do quite a bit of sight seeing on the strip, went to see Cirque du Soleil, and had a few meals with my Mom and Tony. It was very enjoyable. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Of course these are only 10 of the hundreds I took :-) To see the rest go to my SmugMug account.
We went to see Cirque du Soleil's "Ka." It was EXTRAORDINARY!! The performers were exceptional and defied gravity (my hands were literally sweating through more than half of the show). Even more so, the set . . . . OMG I don't even know how to begin to describe it. After all it was just a stage floor and some props. Oh, but did I mention that the stage floor not only lay flat, but also rotated from 0 to 90 degrees. All while performers were ON it!! And then there were the performers who didn't even use the stage, because they were above us, beside us, crawling on the theatre seats. AMAZING!! I would go again tomorrow to the same exact show. Problem is there are 3 other ones playing in Vegas on any given day that I would love to see as well.
The lobby of the MGM Grand Hotel. The "Ka" theatre is at the MGM Grand.

After the show we went to "The Paris" hotel. I wanted to go up in the Eiffel Tower and see the city. The Paris has a half size replica of the actual Eiffel Tower. Hello, did I not remember the hand sweating from the show we just saw?? I'm afraid of heights!! Fortunately,
I didn't remember that until the elvator doors were closed and we were on our way up. That's when the hand sweating started up again. I'm glad we went though! And I'm glad Adam was able to get these beautiful pictures as I stayed a few steps back :-)



The Bellagio's water show was exquisite from this vantage point. We could hear the accompanying music (All That Jazz) as clearly as if we had been on the ground.


Inside "The Venetian" hotel. You can actually take a gondola ride through the hotel. They even sing for you :-)


Each hour The Venetian has a Living Garden show. It is quite entertaining. These "statues" are REAL people. They pose in the fountain you see in the background and perform a very graceful series of poses as music plays in the background. They even have water that sprays out of their fingertips. It is really something to see. Afterwards they come out (where you see them now) and people can have their pictures taken with them. These girls were amazing and in character the entire time!

We stopped for a drink at "Dirty Dick's." A joint famous for having attitude and hurling insults at their guests. Half of the patrons were wearing hats with various declarations on them. This is the one the bartender made for Adam. Trust me, he got off easy. Some of the hats were quite a bit more "descriptive."

Me and Sponge Bob!! Turns out Sponge Bob wasn't the only celebrity I would run into. I sat next to Evander Holyfield at the airport while waiting to catch the red eye out of Vegas. Of course, dumb me didn't even realize it was him until 5 minutes before I had to board. When I sat down, I thought he looked familiar. But, it was midnight, I was tired, didn't think twice about it. Then about a half an hour later I overheard a conversation and put two and two together. I guess he's into NASCAR now and that's why he was out there.


Adam and I at the beautiful Bellagio Conservatory. This was the last day for the "Chinese New Year" theme. I'm glad we got to see it! I'm sure by now Tony and his crew have completely recreated the space into something equally extraordinary!!


The view from the outside of "The Paris." Yeah, this view doesn't make me nervous :-)
More posts soon!!

Solo and Ensemble

Recently Hayden got to participate in "Solo and Ensemble" evaluations. He has been working on two pieces and got the opportunity to play them in front of his first real judge. He did very well and received a "Superior" rating!!
Waiting and warming up in the cafeteria

Hayden's time to shine!!