We flew into Las Vegas on Thursday to kick off my brother's 21st birthday trip. Four days of no work, lounging poolside, good food, enjoying some shows, and drinks, drinks, drinks.
But before we get into all the details, did you know they have gambling in the airport? Literally in the terminals.
We stayed at The Mirage, which is almost at the center of the strip next to Caesars Palace. It has a Polynesian theme and of course had the normal pool, casino, buffet, bars, restaurant, shops, and conventions center. The Mirage also is the home of 1OAK (which I learned stands for One Of A Kind) and the Cirque du Soleil Love show.
Because it was my brother's 21st birthday we decided to go big or go home and booked a penthouse suite. It had multiple rooms so we could hang out in the commons areas if we wen't sleeping or wandering the strip. Plus it had a great view at night of the lights of the strip!
The first night we just wandered the strip after eating some dinner.
Caesars Palace (and a few other casinos) had the coolest shops. Not because of the brands but because of the architecture. They were built to look like you were outside and the ceilings were even painted in a sky pattern. If you were drunk I'm pretty sure you would think you were actually outside. No wonder no one cares what time it is Vegas...it's always daytime if you want it!
We didn't do much shopping but I have never seen so many Tiffany & Co., Chanel, etc in my life. I wish I would have bought myself a keepsake!
The weather in Vegas was really comfortable, so much better than the humidity back east. The days were a dry heat and the nights were super comfortable. Plus there were numerous margarita bars along the strip to help. We stopped at Margarita Bar which provided oodles of choice. Seriously, there so many flavors:
We each got a few flavors and then continued along the strip. Yummy!
During the day we continued to explore the strip. It takes SO LONG to walk from one casino to another because they are so big and there is so much to do and look at while you're there. Here are a few daytime highlights:
The Paris hotel and casino had a 1/2 scale replica of the Eiffel Tower and Arc du Triomphe.
We also stopped by the Borgata for the fountains. The first performance we saw was set to Elvis Presley's Viva Las Vegas. So fitting!
We also spent the morning/afternoon lounging poolside. We spent most of the time at the pool at The Mirage but we also stopped briefly at Garden of the Gods Oasis at Caesars Palace.
I literally felt like Caesar.
We also saw a few shows while we were there. First we saw The Beatles Love which I highly recommend. Even if you aren't a Beatles fan (we all are fans) you will still enjoy the performance.
We also saw Penn & Teller at the Rio. We *almost* made it on stage to help them make an elephant* disappear. *the elephant was really a cow. Lol.
We also spent a LOT of time eating the delicious food all along the strip. We stopped at the Bacchanal Buffet and gorged ourselves on pretty much every kind of food imaginable, including sushi.
If you're looking for restaurant options on the strip we can recommend:
1. Bacchanal Buffet
2. Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill
3. Guy Fieri's Vegas Kitchen
There were options for every price point. There were delicious restaurants that ranged from cheap to super expensive. I wish we would have stopped at Nobu but it wasn't in the cards for this visit. Maybe next time.
On Saturday we rented a car and drove out to the Hoover Dam. Unfortunately their elevator was broken and they weren't giving tours but whatever we still could walk around the dam and see the sights.
You could drive over that bridge....scary! It spans the whole dam (obviously):
Luckily, the tour guides did give a little presentation with information about the dam so we still walked away with some good information.
And lastly, we stopped at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada. It was obligatory and they had a tiny parking lot so it was really easy to get to when we were returning from the Hoover Dam.
And here are two bonus photos:
We went to Hershey's Chocolate World and M&Ms World. At M&Ms World there was a mock Nascar M&M car. Car #18 is my favorite Nascar car so that was an added bonus.
And lastly, it wouldn't be Vegas without alcohol....so there is a photo of my now 21 year old brother enjoying our fishbowl drink at Guy Fieri's. So much alcohol.
Overall, Vegas was tons of fun and I can't wait to go back. There was so much to do and we definitely didn't get to all of it.
Have you ever been to Las Vegas? What did you like most? Anything you would recommend?
Our last day there we toured the west coast just Andrew and I. We stopped at Bodega and saw the church where the Alfred Hitchcock classic, The Birds, was filmed on our way to Bodega Bay. This church would be a good choice for our wedding, right? Destination wedding anyone??
It was seriously the most beautiful day ever. The sky was clear and sunny but it wasn't too hot. I was in jeans and was super comfortable. Here are some coast photos we took during our excursion.
Northern California beaches are weird to me because they aren't typical beaches. As you can see, there are a ton of rocks! And you have to be really careful with rip currents/tides if you decide to go surfing or swimming in the water. We just stayed on the land and in the sand and let the surfers enjoy the ocean.
How pretty is this photo though? I kind of want to frame it for a hallway or something. I really love the rock formation in the background, the wispy hint of the cloud, and the cresting wave. It just looks really pretty! I could stand and listen to an ocean forever.
What's really nice is you can drive the coast and then get out at overlooks where you can have some amazing views.
Andrew took this photo. This is another one I'd be interested in framing and hanging up somewhere.
Lastly, just a few more photos of one of the vineyards we went to. These last two were taken a Chateau St. Jean. Is this not the proudest palm tree out there??
And the final photo of us in the garden at Chateau St. Jean.
Seriously, if you have never been to California I highly recommend going! We had a blast and are so grateful that my family let us crash with them.
We took a day trip to walk around some shopping places in cute little towns in Sonoma county. We also ended up going Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve in Guernesville to check out some super old (and super BIG) redwoods. To give you some perspective about the scale of these trees, here are a couple photos I took of Andrew. He looks like a tiny child next to the massive trees!
If you don't want to walk through the redwood grove you can drive up to the top of the hill and see some pretty cool views at the outlooks along the way. The road up the hill is a little terrifying since it's a one lane road with constant switchbacks but Andrew and I are pros at mountains since he lived in Colorado for six months.
Is this the first photo of me during this trip?! Andrew took it at the top of the hill and I actually really like the way it came out...
And here is some of the view we were looking at:
It sort of reminded me of our one Jamaica photo actually. Maybe we just like standing on top of mountains?? There are more mountain photos in my Colorado recap. Of course I don't think we saw a sign like this in Jamaica or Colorado...
Enough for one post I think. I haven't bored you too much have I??
A LONG time ago (lol, I know it's been a while already) Andrew and I visited my family in California. I already posted here on the blog about our wine tasting adventure but there are sooo many more photos and things to share about our visit. Hmm, where do we start? At the beginning I guess... Andrew was in Silicon Valley for work the week before Memorial Day weekend so I joined him on that Friday. The sweetheart drove to San Francisco from Silicon Valley just to pick me up from the airport and drive back up to the Sonoma county area. This is bloggable moment #1 -- our trip across the Golden Gate Bridge. Apparently it was the 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2012...at least that's what a sign we passed said.
The last time I was in San Francisco was years ago and the last time I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge I was about 10-12 years old. Unfortunately, I was a clumsy kid (apparently) and I knocked into a bicyclist. He didn't completely fall off his bike but thank goodness they have those fence-like barricades to keep him from becoming roadkill!
Also, fun fact for you if you ever drive over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco: Apparently, during rush hour (which is between 9 am and 11 am as we found out) the Golden Gate Bridge is a cashless toll. That means that although it usually does accept cash payment for the toll, you have to use a FastPass (or whatever it is called in California -- it's EZ Pass on the east coast) to pay during the rush hour. As non-west coasters, neither of us knew about the cashless toll until I noticed the lighted sign flashing on the road. A little late to find out! Thank goodness the rental car we had one of the cashless toll things! Sheesh, I'll have to keep that in mind when we plan to drive places we don't know.
We didn't do much that first day in California only because my flight got in the the afternoon and we didn't get up to Sonoma until early evening. We got settled into my cousin's room (pay back for when my sister would be booted when they came to visit us I guess, just kidding!) and then we all went to dinner.
The next day we stopped for some snacks at Whole Foods (did I mention my California family is SUPER healthy) and then went to watch my cousin play baseball. He's on some serious little league team and he's really good! It was one of the games leading up to playoffs and I'm happy to report that his team is going to the playoffs now. I'm sure he enjoyed having some extra people in his cheering section and we enjoyed being able to munch on snacks while watching other people be active. I snapped this photo of him while he was at bat. He hit a double!
The next day, Andrew went with my Uncle to a car show nearby the house. It was really cool because my Uncle owns a really amazing classic/antique/old/vintage/awesome car. It's one of the ones below but I'm not telling you which!! Lol. I hung out at the house with my cousins (watching the Kids Baking Championship on Food Network). Obviously we all share the love of Food Network in my family. Remember this post where I talk about Food Network??
Then Andrew came back and we hung out and learned more about our cousins' hobbies. One of their favorite activities was playing with a contraption called a "Diablo", a plastic thing that you spin and do tricks with. We tried to learn (as evidenced by the photo below) but let's just say we'll keep our day jobs and leave the Diablos to them!
I think I'll cut it off there for now. I'll pick up with our trip to the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve.
It's been a while since we had a 101 in 1001 post here on the blog and potentially that's because I haven't been doing anything am an awful blogger. Finally though, I get to check something off my list: Wine Tasting. And better yet, it was in Sonoma County aka California Wine Country. Andrew and I are...interesting...when it comes to wine: #1 He prefers beer. #2 I only drink reeeeeally sweet dessert-type wine. So, clearly we should go wine tasting in an area that is responsible for some of the most amazing wines ever, right? We went to Chateau St. Jean Winery and Ledson Winery and Vineyard. Ledson seriously looked like a castle!
My favorite wine is definitely a moscato or riesling (I know, some people don't even think that's real wine). What's your favorite wine? Have you ever been wine tasting?
Happy June everyone! I can't believe it's June already, can you? What's 2016's rush??
This past weekend, Andrew and I were in California. In truth, Andrew had been in California since May 22nd because he had a really fun vendor work thing that made me super jelly work in Silicon Valley and I joined him on Friday for the long holiday weekend. I have family in California wine country so it was perfect--we got to stay with them, celebrate our engagement, and catch up with what's going on with them in their world. The last time I went out there was 2006 so it had been a while! I flew early Friday morning (apologies to my May billable hours!!) and Andrew picked me up from the airport. Then we were off to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins in our rental car until the following Tuesday.
Can I just say, I really enjoy traveling with Andrew. He's a really good travel buddy! You know how everyone has their own particular vacation-style and I"m glad to say ours is both "go where the wind takes you" instead of "every minute and activity must be planned!" We like to just see where the day takes us and go from there. More on the trip later but here's a quick overview of our vacation:
Friday: Travel day and meeting up with family. Everyone loves the airport, right? The baggage drop, the long security lines, watching the planes take off and land, guarding your personal belongings, what isn't fun about that?! Honestly, I really do enjoy going to the airport--that's why I get there so early! I love finding a spot in my terminal and then just people-watching until it's boarding time. Does anyone else do this??
Saturday: Andrew and my uncle went to a car show. show off m uncle's sweet car (he has a classic Ferrari!). We also went to Whole Foods to pick up some snacks and then went to watch my cousin's baseball game. He's SO talented -- he's in the minor leagues and everything!
Sunday: Spent the day walking around a couple of the cutest towns in Sonoma county. Andrew and I also went wine tasting! Can't wait to blog about this!
Sunday: Visited my aunt's shop and then also my uncle's jewelry store. My aunt's shop is brand new so I had never been physically there before and it was adorable! It's a "modern craft shop" store selling yarn, projects, craft supplies, and teaching classes I couldn't resist picking something up for my mom! (Of course then I forgot it in California!) We also explored the Armstrong State National Reserve (a state park in Guerneville) to see the super tall redwoods. I went there with my family about 15 years ago but Andrew had never been.
Monday: Explored the West Coast....literally. We took a drive along the coast but stopped at a couple places, beaches, and overlooks along the way, And since it was Memorial Day the family did a barbecue for dinner!
Tuesday: Travel day. Coming home always is such a relief because, no lie, I miss my bed!
As I mentioned in my last post, it's been quite busy over here. I visited my boyfriend in Colorado (remember from this post he moved there for 6 months for work) and we had such a great time! We crammed so much into my 7 days there and I am so pleased with all the memories we were able to create from our adventures. I wanted to share a couple of them here on The Files so grab some popcorn and have a seat...this post will take a while!
First, I am one of those airplane passengers who ADORES cloud photography. I take a photo of the clouds in almost every daylight flight I take. I saw the beautiful pinks in the sky and the formation of the clouds and knew I wanted to take a photo.
The flight out wasn't so bad -- there were no turbulence or scary oxygen mask dropping -- but I was unlucky enough to have a rather large man sit in the middle between me and the other man in our row. I'm not joking when I say his elbows were basically touching my ribcage the whole time. Good thing I was able to scooch over toward the window to give him some more room.
Anyway, the flight was about 4 hours and I spent it watching movies and shows I had loaded on my tablet (remember my Nexus 10 tablet nails). I also brought my cross stitch stocking to work on. You are allowed to bring sewing needles on a plane, who knew??
Once I arrived, Andrew started to show me around for the first couple of days. This was his view from his office:
Not a bad view am I right? I could get used to that!
We hiked through the Rocky Mountain National Park, which was neat because it was during its 100th Anniversary. The views were fantastic. I have never been up on a mountain side with such an incredible view. It was truly breathtaking and sharing it with Andrew made it doubly special.
We even saw an elk! He was just chillin and was unimpressed by all of us gawking at it. He eventually got up and walked away, but not before I could snap a few photos!
I apologize for the poor quality photo -- I had to zoom in a lot and it was on my camera phone! Funny story, while we were in the park I managed to crack the screen on my phone. Okay, not so funny. Then as we were leaving the park we saw even more elk! A whole group of them!
We also spent some time touring the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. You know from my Olympic nails (2012 and 2014) that I am obsessed with the Olympic Games so I was almost literally jumping up and down when we were able to fit this in. It was only $5 for the tour and they give you swag when you leave. Our group was given super cute Olympic scarves and beanies. They have the Olympic rings on them and everything so I definitely will be wearing them ASAP and pretending I went to the Olympics. Sorry not sorry. It was really spectacular to see where many of the olympians train. Andrew also bought me a Team USA water bottle that I will be using when I watch the Olympic. EVERY.single.time.
Next, we walked around the Denver Botanical Gardens and the Denver Zoo. Unfortunately, I do not have any pics of the Denver Zoo which is disappointing because it was Lights at the Zoo... all decorated for Christmas! Anyway, back to the Denver Botanical Gardens. The exhibit featured while we were there was glass work by artist Dale Chihuly. So on top of the gardens being beautiful in general, they were even more beautiful because they had all these stunning and vibrant glass designs placed throughout. How amazing are these photos? They are all colored and handmade glass:
Fun trivia fact: The last picture reminded me that I have seen work by Dale Chihuly before. He has a couple pieces at the Borgata in Atlantic City, which Andrew took me to for the weekend to celebrate my 21st birthday.
We also spent some time in downtown Denver walking around the Denver Art Museum. Although the DAM had 7 floors of mindblowing art, artifacts, and pottery from all different places (Asia, Middle East, Americas, etc), I was most blown away by the Cartier exhibit! It was called Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century and it was STUNNING. There were original pieces from Maharajahs, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, and Maria Felix.
For a short clip about the exhibit check out this CBS Sunday Morning clip (once you get past the engagement part it is really fascinating):
We also spent some time walking around downtown Denver because there was an open air market/festival going on. We walked our way to the Colorado State Capitol building with the gold dome and decided to self-guide a little tour of the building. Luckily, it is open to the public! The building was so ornate both inside and out and we overheard an interesting story about some of the building material used in the Capitol. The Capitol includes an extremely rare material, Colorado Rose Onyx (Beulah Red Marble). Story went that the builders used all the known marble in the building and therefore it cannot ever be replaced. The Capitol building took six years to install and polish the marble. It was completed in the year 1900. So there you go, a little bit of history!
While walking through downtown we came upon these lovely little gigantic cows. It had rained recently so the grass was too muddy for me to walk on -- otherwise the photo would have had me climbing on them!
We also ate at the Buckhorn Exchange....which doesn't sound overly interesting. However, what if I told you that the inside of the place looked like this:
Yep, the walls were COVERED in taxidermy animals. I ordered the buffalo Prime Rib and Andre I think got the Elk or Bison rib eye. Both were so delicious but I couldn't get over all the animals watching us eat. Talk about feeling guilty for eating meet!!
Okay, back to Rocky Mountain National Park for a sec! If you've been there you know that you will likely pass the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, on your way to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Does that hotel ring a bell for you by any chance? Does this photo remind you of something?
Yes, that is the hotel that inspired Stephen King's The Shining and the movie starring Jack Nicholson. You know, "HEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY" and all that creepy *isht. The hotel is for guests only (or so they want you to believe) but we went in anyway to investigate the place. Downstairs they had a bunch of photos and items from the movie, including this:
The plaque on the post to the right of the dollhouse states, "This Doll House was featured in Stephen King'sThe Shining -- an ABC miniseries that aired in 1997. This was filmed on location at the Stanley Hotel. It was located in the front of the Overlook Hotel and was part of the playground that was surrounded by the hedge bushes that come to life.
We also stopped by Room 217, the room that Stephen King stayed in when he was inspired to write The Shining. The hotel televisions have The Shining playing nonstop on one channel. Creepy.
Enough of that. Our last adventure was to Pike's Peak, one of the 14,000 foot elevation mountains in Colorado. No I wasn't out there schlepping myself and Andrew up the side of a mountain. Pike's Peak uses a Cog train to ascend and descend the mountain. You can drive if you want but that road looked like DEATH so I'm glad we chose the train option. Plus, how cute are these little train cars?
The train is the highest train in the United States and climbs an impressive 14,115 feet in about an hour or so. On the way there you are told all kinds of neat facts. For example, the panoramic view from Pike's Peak inspired the song America the Beautiful. The views at the summit were breathtaking but so were the various views you get while you're on the Cog. They keep you posted on your elevation with signs like this:
Once you get to the summit they have a restaurant and gift shop...where they made doughnuts! Yes, I've eaten doughnuts at 14,115 feet elevation and they were pretty damn tasty. We took a quick shot at the summit:
And then took in the incredible views.
You only get to stay up there for about 30-45 minutes since the temperature drops so much. We were bundled up because we knew that was going to happen but some people didn't and they were freezing by the time we boarded the train. Two neat things happened while we were up there: (1) we watched a couple get engaged and (2) it started hailing! We stopped in the store for a bit and I saw this hilarious bumper sticker:
No, I didn't get it but it's worth a laugh or two!
I think that sums up the trip! I'm impressed if you read this whole thing! If you did, you earned a cookie!
We also spent a LOT of time eating the delicious food all along the strip. We stopped at the Bacchanal Buffet and gorged ourselves on pretty much every kind of food imaginable, including sushi.
