Monday – pre-tripWashed the trailer front – all rugs, floor, bathroom, etc. Loaded the street bikes.
Tony hooked up the backup camera to the back of the trailer – not the truck, the trailer. It comes on automatically when the truck is put in reverse. Isn’t he clever?
Tuesday
This morning we are all up and packed and ready to go but the sky is falling out. We don’t want to try to hitch up in this downpour – or even drag our luggage through it. Plus if we started down the road in this, our progress would be markedly slow. So we’re waiting it out for a bit. I won’t say patiently, because Tony is hopping from foot to foot.
Stopped at Steak-and-Shake at the Ft. Pierce offramp (where you change from turnpike to I-95) for lunch. Arrived at the Stagecoach RV Campground about 4:30 – plenty of daylight to get settled in. We went out for sushi (Rhiannon’s request) and then we caught an 8p ghost walk and a midnight ghost train tour. On the midnight tour they give you each a disposable camera so we snapped away – will develop to see if we got any ghosts! Big fun, both tours. Late night, though.
Wednesday
Drove Rhiannon up to Jacksonville, dropping her there at about 10:30a. I showed Tony around campus – he had not come with us to Jacksonville before. Then we drove over to UNF where Mikal is considering attending. They are repaving the whole perimeter road and it was a nightmare. But the campus is large and shiny and new. Then Tony and I drove back from Jacksonville to St. Augustine via A1A, just to see the sights. Stopped for a quick lunch (at Sonny’s BBQ), then changed into motorcycling clothes and took the bikes back over to the historic district. Cruised it for awhile, then over to “Anastasia Island” where the lighthouse is. We went in – up the lighthouse and into the museum. Stayed until dinner time and then found this place on the island called the Conch House with wooden decking out over the ocean, sailboats all around, reggae music but not too loud. Very pleasant – fantastic food. Relaxed there for a long time, then rode the bikes back to the campground.
We had one text message from Rhiannon – she says she’s having fun.
Thursday
Packed a lunch and took the truck back over to the historic district, bought tickets for the hop-on/hop-off tour tram.
Went to the Fountain of Youth – that was a much more interesting exhibit than I expected – particular highlights were the Planetarium where they use this ancient machine (sadly they are replacing it with a computerized one, soon – but this one runs with a singer sewing machine engine and lots of (Rube Goldberg) levers and dials!) to show the night sky as it was when Ponce de Leon arrived and how sailors used to navigate. They also give you a Dixie cup of the water – so, of course I am much younger now. We got back off the tram at our truck and ate our picnic lunch, then walked over to the Fort and walked all through it – it has old guns and exhibits and a film. After that we took the truck and drove a few blocks out of the historic section to tour a winery. It was fun – not great wine, but not expensive either, so we bought a few bottles. Muscadine grapes grown in Clermont – all very sweet wines. But it’s more interesting than having stuff on the rack that you bought at Publix, even if it’s nothing fancy! The port was good and I didn’t have a port on-hand, so now I do.
Left about 4p, to head up to Jacksonville to get Ree. We explored downtown Jacksonville and the “River Walk”. Found a nice enough restaurant but we were generally disappointed with the River Walk and the restaurant. Jacksonville is a pretty city though. We took a water taxi one way and then walked over the bridge the other way and that was nice.
Friday
Took the truck again – it turns out we need to solve the problem of where to keep Tony’s boots. He tried riding without them and doesn’t like it. He can’t do much walking while wearing them. So we didn’t take the bikes any more. I think I’m going to buy larger, locking saddle bags for my bike and that will solve that and other storage/security problems. Anyway, back to town, bought a tram ticket for Rhiannon (ours were still good) and then walked over to the oldest streets - lots of shopping and exploring to do. We wanted to do that first while it was a little cooler. At lunchtime we walked back to our truck, ate our picnic lunch and then grabbed the tram and rode it to a stop where we had pre-planned to get off and tour two or three (air conditioned) museums. By the time we finished two of them we were too (mentally and physically) exhausted to tour the third, so we’ll save it for next time! So what we saw was the Villa Zorayda museum – once a private home modeled after the Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada Spain. A private collection of incredible middle-eastern art and furniture. Then we visited the Lightner museum – once the Hotel Alcazar. Fantastic collection of “collections”. The coolest thing is that we happened to walk in the door right when they were starting their 2p daily demonstration of the musical instruments like the orchestrion (look it up!) So many amazing things to look at in that museum. No real theme – just room after room of “cool stuff”. Then we hopped back on the tram and just sat it through the whole rest of the tour. Took almost two hours to make the whole circuit. We watched for where we wanted to have dinner and eventually got off the tram and took the truck back to the restaurant we had decided upon. It was a great choice! “A1A Ale Works”. Wonderful seafood and microbrews. We selected it partly because of its proximity to the marina where we walked after dinner to take our night-time pirate/ghost ride on the Schooner Freedom. That was fun – but if we had it to do over we would take the “sunset” tour on that same schooner which is two hours and goes out past the drawbridge to the Atlantic. This one stayed in the bay and while the pirate/story teller was fantastic, we were disappointed at how abbreviated the actual sailing was.
SaturdayUp and hustle to pack everything up. Hitched and out by about 9:30a. Lunch at a Perkins in Melbourne. Yawn. Home. Unload the bikes, take the trailer back down to Markham, dash over to Vincie’s to check on her and give her meds then home.
SundayFetch the trailer from Markham, bring it home for clean-up and to reload the quad and the bbq grill for its transport up to the farm. Dash over to Vincie’s, give her meds and take her out to Sunday lunch, then home to fetch the trailer, drive it to Clewiston and drop it off, unloading the bbq grill into the container. Quick visit with Dad and home just before dark. Whew!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Las Vegas and New Mexico - Susan and Tony - October 2008
Daily diary of our trip to Las Vegas for fun and the Perspectives conference, then out to New Mexico to visit family and stay in Susan's "Little House"
Day 1 – Saturday, Oct 18, 2008 [Arriving in Vegas and the drive out Route 66]
After an early flight we arrived in Las Vegas, rented our car, went to our favorite buffet at the Planet Hollywood Casino. On the way out Tony dropped $1 in a slot machine, won $20 on the first pull, cashed it and we left.
Next we took our rented vehicle out across Hoover Dam and then 60 miles on ”Historic Route 66” to the Hualapai Reservation. We stopped at one very 50's looking place and bought a t-shirt and took many pictures. We patted a lazy dog and Tony got his picture taken with a couple of OTHER jackasses. The three of them brayed together inharmoniously. We have many pictures of this place (see the first few photos).
Day 2 - Sunday, Oct 19 [Whitewater rafting, helicopter ride & SkyBridge - Hualapai Reservation]Awoke early and had a chorizo-burrito-breakfast at the Hualapai Lodge. Packed and loaded the car, checked out then met our van for the rafting trip. The drive down to the river was almost an hour down an incredibly steep, rough (teeth jarring!) road. It is the only drive-up access to the Colorado River in the whole canyon. We suited up (life jackets, but no helmets) and climbed aboard the motorized pontoon with our guide, a junior guide he was training and a couple from Wisconsin. This was the first time I’ve ever white-water-rafted without paddling. The Colorado river uses a 1-10 rating system for the rapids (every other river in the world uses a 1-5 and I’m not sure WHY the Colorado river is different). We hit about ten rapids, several were ‘3’s and I guess four of them were ‘7+’. Because we were motorized we could ram through them harder – making them more exciting – but also our skilled guide could motor out of them so we never felt like we might tip over. We got plenty splashed though, even in the ‘3’s. The water was icy – 40F. But the day grew quite warm so it was pleasant. We learned right away that on approach to a rapid, pull the hood of our rain-jackets up and tie them tight. It's not nearly as bad when the cold water doesn’t rush down the back of your neck! Beautiful clear-blue sky, hardly a cloud (in fact the few scattered clouds we saw that day were the only ones we saw all week). We stopped several times – once to hike up to a water fall (tricky with rope pulls pre-installed, but still tricky), another time to eat our sandwiches that they brought for us, and another time to walk along a wash for awhile. Very interesting and different from anywhere we’d been before. Huge boulders that were actually just made of clay and if you stepped on them or threw water on them they simply disintegrated. Our guide was actually ½ Navajo and ½ Hopi, but he knew some of the Hualapai culture and legends so he told us creation stories from all three cultures and was knowledgeable about the history of certain areas and bat caves along the canyon.
When we arrived at the bottom of our river trip, just before Lake Mead, we disembarked and clambered up some wooden steps to the ‘helicopter dock’. Our helicopter ride was short – just up and out of the canyon and a few short miles to the airport – but very exciting for me. As we came up over the lip of the canyon there was a wind draft that tossed us around a bit. They picked me for the front seat – (a weight thing they tell me) – which made it a bit more exciting. I was a little “alert” but not really scared.
Our van-lady was there to greet us as we disembarked the helicopter and drove the four of us (still with the couple from Wisconsin) over to the Sky Bridge. It’s a horse-shoe shaped deck out over the canyon with a glass bottom. I really, really, REALLY hated it. I made it around but slowly and reluctantly. Tony wasn’t bothered, popped all around goofing off. I have to say in my defense, I can walk right to the edge of the canyon and peer over and it doesn’t bother me – and that bothered Tony. Weird. But anyway, I wouldn’t do the sky bridge thing again on a bet. So we were pretty quick getting through it but I bribed Tony with the promise of Indian Fry Bread, which he had never had. So we moseyed over to the concession and had that with desert honey, then we noodled around the place – they have a concert hall type outdoor venue, some exhibits of traditional teepees and stuff to look at.
Met back up at the van for the drive back to the Hualapai Lodge. The drive back took two hours and it was very rough terrain again. Lots of traffic in both directions, so it looks like the Hualapai made a good investment, but they REALLY need to pave the road! Washboard and rough and pebbly so slippery. A tedious and noisy two hour drive back to the lodge.
Once we got back to the lodge we changed clothes and jumped in the car immediately as we wanted to make the three hour drive back to Las Vegas in as much daylight as possible. We enjoyed Route 66 again, stopped in Kingman – billed as the “heart of Route 66” – and ate at a very funny turquoise and pink / Marilyn and Elvis decorated diner. Had great hamburgers. They make their own root beer there and we fully intended to have a root beer float but the hamburgers were so huge and yummy that we were too full – so that’s on our “come back and try it” list!
After dinner it was the boring part of the drive back – and dark to boot. We got back to our hotel – the Sahara - by about 10:30p, got checked in and fell exhausted into bed.
Day 3 - Monday, Oct 20 [Conference, lunch at the Venetian, Secret Garden at the Mirage]Tony got to sleep in, I got up early, dressed for business and took the new monorail down to Caesar’s Palace. Unfortunately the monorail only runs on one side of the strip, so the stop is “The Flamingo/Caesar’s Palace” … which meant that I had to claw my way through the Flamingo to get to my conference. That took about 25 minutes! But I have to say the Flamingo is amazingly re-vamped! It was kind of fun to see it, but I hadn’t expected to spend that much time just trying to escape it. I got to the Epicor conference and slid into the back of the big opening keynote address. The CEO retired to the board and the new CEO took over the presentation.
I got through the big fanfare part of the meeting, went to a product-futures meeting then met Tony and we went over the Venetian because it has a really pretty mall with the canal through it – you can pay $65 and take a gondola ride and the gondolier will sing classical Italian Opera. We got lucky as we were just a bit early for lunch and found a Mexican restaurant with a table right at the edge of the canal. Because I was “winding down” we had some aged tequila (who knew?) and pineapple/vanilla margaritas (me) and some Mexican beer (Tony). We had some incredible guacamole, a taco sampler and corn-crème-Brule. Tastes better than it sounds. Our waiter was helpful and we stayed a long time. We got to hear dozens of gondolier’s songs without paying the $65! Bonus: Tony knew most of the songs.
We wandered through the mall at the Venetian for a bit. Entertaining. Didn’t buy anything. Then we moseyed across the street to the Mirage and into Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden. We became interested in it mainly from watching that cartoon show "Father of the Pride". They have five new six-month-old tigers and a six-week-old baby dolphin and knowledgeable staff to hang around and answer your questions. Then there’s an underwater aquarium too. We just spent the whole afternoon relaxing there.
We were still tired from the long day before, the dry heat wears me down, we drank and ate heavily at lunch, plus Tony was coming down with a cold by then – so we just called it a night early and watched our episodes of Torcwhood. We thought we might walk across the street from our hotel to the Stratosphere and eat at the restaurant at the top, but we really weren’t hungry and we were tired, so – an early night.
Day 4 – Tuesday, Oct 21 [Hoover Dam Tour, Conference]I had planned to spend a bit of time at the conference, but we blew it off. We got up early and headed out to Hoover dam. We signed up for the extended tour, donned our bright yellow cheap-plastic construction helmets and spent all morning in the bowels of the dam. It was a good tour – lots of jokes about “take all the dam pictures you want” and stuff. Very interesting facts and history – long cement tunnels and metal ladders. On a down note, there had been a suicide that morning. The guide told us that they get a couple a year. What a way to go. But there was no evidence of it by the time we got there…
Back to the hotel, grab a sandwich and show up for our massage – that’s a tradition for me in Las Vegas. It was Tony’s first professional massage. He went for a deep tissue – which he says he enjoyed. I just got a “regular” massage – no bruising. That was very relaxing and wonderful. Then we got all dressed up for the formal banquet night at the conference. We picked a table at random and had good company in a couple from Colorado. Not one of my customers … whew! The food was excellent – filet mignon, etc. Beer and wine… then entertainment by Frank Caliendo. He’s a big name comic and mimic that often plays on Jay Leno etc. He was very funny and did amazing impersonations of W., Bill Clinton and some sportscasters that I didn’t know anything about. Still very entertaining.
After the dinner and entertainment I met up with most of my “usual crowd” and we hung out for awhile at the “shadow bar”. That’s where naked women are dancing behind a screen so you can only see their shadows. Every 15 minutes or so they change girls. Tony was really succumbing to his cold by then, so he had a great excuse to sit quietly and stare at the dancers while I caught up with my work friends. We called it a night fairly early – certainly by Las Vegas standards – because Tony was getting sicker and sicker.
Day 5 – Wednesday, Oct 22 [Conference, recuperation & flight to El Paso]The best part about having a hotel that’s $29/nite is that it was an easy decision to call down and book another night – even though we didn’t stay that night, this allowed Tony to just stay in the room and nurse his cold all day while I worked. We went to the breakfast buffet at our hotel and then I took off for the conference and Tony went back to bed. I gave my talk on IT Security in the afternoon and it went well. Then I drove back to the Sahara and picked up Tony and our bags. We stopped at Treasure Island and ate dinner at a Vietnamese place there – loved the soup. Seemed like a good thing because Tony was sick – it’s the Jewish part of me that knows you eat soup – chicken soup – when you are sick. This was the most interesting soup I’d ever had, too. A whole plate full of bizarre greenery to add to it and many sauces that we didn’t have time to try. Then off to the airport to catch our flight to El Paso. It was a long trip with delays and a stopover in Phoenix. We landed, got our crappy rental car (never hated a car more – the Suzuki Forenza), stopped at 7-11 for cold medicine and cream for my coffee and arrived at Gramma’s Little House at about midnight. The house is GREAT now, all fixed up. It has more interior walls than it did when Gramma was there – and the new carpet and paint make it very fresh. Emme and Luther have furnished and decorated it and it is amazingly comfortable. Still tiny, of course, to live in all the time, but better than a hotel room!
Day 6 – Thursday, Oct 23 [The Little House, Carlsbad Caverns, Emme, Luther and the No Whiner Diner]We slept in until 8:00a – which is 10:00a Florida time, but I think we had adjusted to the timezone by then. We dropped in on Linda for a few minutes, said hello to all the dogs. Then we jumped in our crappy rental car and drove 3 hours over to Carlsbad. That’s a boring drive with nothing but Cactus for Company. I will be much more sympathetic of all that driving back and forth that (Aunt) Emme and Luther do! We stopped at Carlsbad Caverns, bought our ticket for the extended walk-in tour and then ate at the concession. It wasn’t too bad as that sort of concession food goes. We headed down the trail to the cavern at about 1:30p and took the elevator up as they were closing, around 5p. It was an amazing time spent underground – and yes, we have many photographs. I bought a Nevada Barr book in the gift shop - mainly because it was set in the Caverns. Tony and I both became hooked and have now read her whole Anna Pigeon series.
It was a relatively short drive to Emme and Luther’s place from the Caverns. We had absolutely NO mobile phone service, so that made it awkward, but we just showed up. We visited for a bit, terrorized Skeeter – always an important part of my visits to Emme. Pita was looking adorable with her newly super-glued (!) pink bow in her hair.
We trundled off to the “No Whiner Diner”, Emme and Luther's favorite restaurant and had a great dinner. The Tortilla Soup was great (and yes, I was still playing Jewish Mother with poor, sick Tony). We had stopped at a Walmart for more drugs and Germx to try and keep the Typhoid-Tony factor to a minimum, so we were worse than Monk, wiping down everything he touched. Called it an early night after visiting for a bit longer at Emme and Luther’s. We slept in their “office” on the guest futon and we were quite comfortable.
Day 7 – Friday, Oct 24 [Carlsbad, Artesia, REAL Mexican food and a surprising steakhouse]
Took the grand tour of Carlsbad with Emme and Luther. We saw the town, the river, then a short drive out to Artesia for a Mexican buffet (yum!) and to see some interesting statues in that small oil-town. Tony got to try Sopapillas for the first time. Can you imagine? A very pleasant day of touring around – Luther drove so we could just relax and sight-see. We got back to Emme and Luther’s and just hung around for a while, kind of dreading the deserted-desert ride back to Chaparral.
Eventually we headed out – once we got to the border of Texas and NM, near Chaparral, we stopped at the Edge of Texas steakhouse. It was VERY good, we were impressed. It’s like the only restaurant for miles and miles and miles – and yet, there it is, a fancy up-scale steak house. It’s on the Bowen ranch, so the Bowens have access to excellent steak…Tony had the largest slab of prime rib that either of us had ever seen (spent time quoting “The Great Outdoors” with John Candy – do you remember the “96-er”?). For desert we had Mrs. Bowen’s own Coca-cola brownie served with ice-cream and a german-chocoloate (coconut and fudge) sauce. Yummmmmm. Then from there a short trip to the Little House and crash into bed, Tony still not feeling very well, but feeling very well fed.
Day 8 – Saturday, Oct 25 [Visit with relatives both living and dead, bbq at Chuck's]
Went over to Chuck and Linda’s first thing – well, we thought it was first thing. To them it was mid-day, but they start the day at a ridiculous o-dark-thirty hour! We went and visited all of the gravesites for a quick hello, then we went over to Aunt Redgie’s and visited with her for about an hour. We didn’t even let Tony in the door – the last thing she needs is a cold when she’s contending with chemo-therapy! So Chuck kindly volunteered to hang outside with Tony. They talked about “guy stuff” out on the front porch and Linda, Redgie and I talked about the economy and grandchildren and whatever else seemed important, in the living room.
After leaving Redgie’s we went out to lunch at a ‘biker bar’ that is a favorite of Luther’s we’re told. They had great guacamole and I had tacos (again!). Tony was feeling a bit better and managed a couple of beers. I had a couple of beers too, to celebrate that Tony was feeling better. Linda and Chuck both had their “usual favorites”… a hamburger for Chuck and a Reuben for Linda. For me, we were in Texas and I was having tacos at every opportunity!
On the way back to Chuck and Linda’s we stopped at the grocery store and picked up steaks and potatoes and salad fixings … then sat around outside in the PERFECT weather. We let the dogs romp around and just had a nice visit. Then Chuck grilled the steaks to perfection, Linda prepared the salad and potatoes … Susan and Tony were decorations. We had a fantastic meal together, relaxed for a bit longer then called it an early night. Well, early night for us – probably felt like midnight to Chuck, who keeps odd hours for his job!
Day 9 – Sunday, Oct 26 [The trip home]
Up relatively early and tidy up the house and get packed up. Chuck and Linda came over to help us figure out how to bring the chiles home. We ended up packing them in a Styrofoam cooler with a frozen 7-up bottle of water and one of those cooler-bags as extra insulation. They made it just fine and are safely in my freezer now. And there might even be some left for YOU, Pam, since my kitchen will be torn apart so I can’t fix things with them! (I am going to take a stab at rellenos today, though.)
Off to the airport – everything on time, on schedule, uneventful. We ate lunch at a sports bar in the Houston airport, then the flight from Houston to FLL was exactly long enough to watch the movie we had brought – “Gotcha”.
Arriving home we dropped in at Andrea’s to pick Maxim up and we gave a bewildered Andrea a zip-lock bag of the green chiles. Then home and some time cleaning up, unpacking and catching up with Rhiannon. And then back to the daily grind.
Day 1 – Saturday, Oct 18, 2008 [Arriving in Vegas and the drive out Route 66]
After an early flight we arrived in Las Vegas, rented our car, went to our favorite buffet at the Planet Hollywood Casino. On the way out Tony dropped $1 in a slot machine, won $20 on the first pull, cashed it and we left.
Next we took our rented vehicle out across Hoover Dam and then 60 miles on ”Historic Route 66” to the Hualapai Reservation. We stopped at one very 50's looking place and bought a t-shirt and took many pictures. We patted a lazy dog and Tony got his picture taken with a couple of OTHER jackasses. The three of them brayed together inharmoniously. We have many pictures of this place (see the first few photos).
Day 2 - Sunday, Oct 19 [Whitewater rafting, helicopter ride & SkyBridge - Hualapai Reservation]Awoke early and had a chorizo-burrito-breakfast at the Hualapai Lodge. Packed and loaded the car, checked out then met our van for the rafting trip. The drive down to the river was almost an hour down an incredibly steep, rough (teeth jarring!) road. It is the only drive-up access to the Colorado River in the whole canyon. We suited up (life jackets, but no helmets) and climbed aboard the motorized pontoon with our guide, a junior guide he was training and a couple from Wisconsin. This was the first time I’ve ever white-water-rafted without paddling. The Colorado river uses a 1-10 rating system for the rapids (every other river in the world uses a 1-5 and I’m not sure WHY the Colorado river is different). We hit about ten rapids, several were ‘3’s and I guess four of them were ‘7+’. Because we were motorized we could ram through them harder – making them more exciting – but also our skilled guide could motor out of them so we never felt like we might tip over
When we arrived at the bottom of our river trip, just before Lake Mead, we disembarked and clambered up some wooden steps to the ‘helicopter dock’. Our helicopter ride was short – just up and out of the canyon and a few short miles to the airport – but very exciting for me. As we came up over the lip of the canyon there was a wind draft that tossed us around a bit. They picked me for the front seat – (a weight thing they tell me) – which made it a bit more exciting. I was a little “alert” but not really scared.
Our van-lady was there to greet us as we disembarked the helicopter and drove the four of us (still with the couple from Wisconsin) over to the Sky Bridge. It’s a horse-shoe shaped deck out over the canyon with a glass bottom. I really, really, REALLY hated it. I made it around but slowly and reluctantly. Tony wasn’t bothered, popped all around goofing off. I have to say in my defense, I can walk right to the edge of the canyon and peer over and it doesn’t bother me – and that bothered Tony. Weird. But anyway, I wouldn’t do the sky bridge thing again on a bet. So we were pretty quick getting through it but I bribed Tony with the promise of Indian Fry Bread, which he had never had. So we moseyed over to the concession and had that with desert honey, then we noodled around the place – they have a concert hall type outdoor venue, some exhibits of traditional teepees and stuff to look at.
Met back up at the van for the drive back to the Hualapai Lodge. The drive back took two hours and it was very rough terrain again. Lots of traffic in both directions, so it looks like the Hualapai made a good investment, but they REALLY need to pave the road! Washboard and rough and pebbly so slippery. A tedious and noisy two hour drive back to the lodge.
Once we got back to the lodge we changed clothes and jumped in the car immediately as we wanted to make the three hour drive back to Las Vegas in as much daylight as possible. We enjoyed Route 66 again, stopped in Kingman – billed as the “heart of Route 66” – and ate at a very funny turquoise and pink / Marilyn and Elvis decorated diner. Had great hamburgers. They make their own root beer there and we fully intended to have a root beer float but the hamburgers were so huge and yummy that we were too full – so that’s on our “come back and try it” list!
After dinner it was the boring part of the drive back – and dark to boot. We got back to our hotel – the Sahara - by about 10:30p, got checked in and fell exhausted into bed.
Day 3 - Monday, Oct 20 [Conference, lunch at the Venetian, Secret Garden at the Mirage]Tony got to sleep in, I got up early, dressed for business and took the new monorail down to Caesar’s Palace. Unfortunately the monorail only runs on one side of the strip, so the stop is “The Flamingo/Caesar’s Palace” … which meant that I had to claw my way through the Flamingo to get to my conference. That took about 25 minutes! But I have to say the Flamingo is amazingly re-vamped! It was kind of fun to see it, but I hadn’t expected to spend that much time just trying to escape it. I got to the Epicor conference and slid into the back of the big opening keynote address. The CEO retired to the board and the new CEO took over the presentation.
I got through the big fanfare part of the meeting, went to a product-futures meeting then met Tony and we went over the Venetian because it has a really pretty mall with the canal through it – you can pay $65 and take a gondola ride and the gondolier will sing classical Italian Opera. We got lucky as we were just a bit early for lunch and found a Mexican restaurant with a table right at the edge of the canal. Because I was “winding down” we had some aged tequila (who knew?) and pineapple/vanilla margaritas (me) and some Mexican beer (Tony). We had some incredible guacamole, a taco sampler and corn-crème-Brule. Tastes better than it sounds. Our waiter was helpful and we stayed a long time. We got to hear dozens of gondolier’s songs without paying the $65! Bonus: Tony knew most of the songs.
We wandered through the mall at the Venetian for a bit. Entertaining. Didn’t buy anything. Then we moseyed across the street to the Mirage and into Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden. We became interested in it mainly from watching that cartoon show "Father of the Pride". They have five new six-month-old tigers and a six-week-old baby dolphin and knowledgeable staff to hang around and answer your questions. Then there’s an underwater aquarium too. We just spent the whole afternoon relaxing there.
We were still tired from the long day before, the dry heat wears me down, we drank and ate heavily at lunch, plus Tony was coming down with a cold by then – so we just called it a night early and watched our episodes of Torcwhood. We thought we might walk across the street from our hotel to the Stratosphere and eat at the restaurant at the top, but we really weren’t hungry and we were tired, so – an early night.
Day 4 – Tuesday, Oct 21 [Hoover Dam Tour, Conference]I had planned to spend a bit of time at the conference, but we blew it off. We got up early and headed out to Hoover dam. We signed up for the extended tour, donned our bright yellow cheap-plastic construction helmets and spent all morning in the bowels of the dam. It was a good tour – lots of jokes about “take all the dam pictures you want” and stuff. Very interesting facts and history – long cement tunnels and metal ladders. On a down note, there had been a suicide that morning. The guide told us that they get a couple a year. What a way to go. But there was no evidence of it by the time we got there…
Back to the hotel, grab a sandwich and show up for our massage – that’s a tradition for me in Las Vegas. It was Tony’s first professional massage. He went for a deep tissue – which he says he enjoyed. I just got a “regular” massage – no bruising. That was very relaxing and wonderful. Then we got all dressed up for the formal banquet night at the conference. We picked a table at random and had good company in a couple from Colorado. Not one of my customers … whew! The food was excellent – filet mignon, etc. Beer and wine… then entertainment by Frank Caliendo. He’s a big name comic and mimic that often plays on Jay Leno etc. He was very funny and did amazing impersonations of W., Bill Clinton and some sportscasters that I didn’t know anything about. Still very entertaining.
After the dinner and entertainment I met up with most of my “usual crowd” and we hung out for awhile at the “shadow bar”. That’s where naked women are dancing behind a screen so you can only see their shadows. Every 15 minutes or so they change girls. Tony was really succumbing to his cold by then, so he had a great excuse to sit quietly and stare at the dancers while I caught up with my work friends. We called it a night fairly early – certainly by Las Vegas standards – because Tony was getting sicker and sicker.
Day 5 – Wednesday, Oct 22 [Conference, recuperation & flight to El Paso]The best part about having a hotel that’s $29/nite is that it was an easy decision to call down and book another night – even though we didn’t stay that night, this allowed Tony to just stay in the room and nurse his cold all day while I worked. We went to the breakfast buffet at our hotel and then I took off for the conference and Tony went back to bed. I gave my talk on IT Security in the afternoon and it went well. Then I drove back to the Sahara and picked up Tony and our bags. We stopped at Treasure Island and ate dinner at a Vietnamese place there – loved the soup. Seemed like a good thing because Tony was sick – it’s the Jewish part of me that knows you eat soup – chicken soup – when you are sick. This was the most interesting soup I’d ever had, too. A whole plate full of bizarre greenery to add to it and many sauces that we didn’t have time to try. Then off to the airport to catch our flight to El Paso. It was a long trip with delays and a stopover in Phoenix. We landed, got our crappy rental car (never hated a car more – the Suzuki Forenza), stopped at 7-11 for cold medicine and cream for my coffee and arrived at Gramma’s Little House at about midnight. The house is GREAT now, all fixed up. It has more interior walls than it did when Gramma was there – and the new carpet and paint make it very fresh. Emme and Luther have furnished and decorated it and it is amazingly comfortable. Still tiny, of course, to live in all the time, but better than a hotel room!
Day 6 – Thursday, Oct 23 [The Little House, Carlsbad Caverns, Emme, Luther and the No Whiner Diner]We slept in until 8:00a – which is 10:00a Florida time, but I think we had adjusted to the timezone by then. We dropped in on Linda for a few minutes, said hello to all the dogs. Then we jumped in our crappy rental car and drove 3 hours over to Carlsbad. That’s a boring drive with nothing but Cactus for Company. I will be much more sympathetic of all that driving back and forth that (Aunt) Emme and Luther do! We stopped at Carlsbad Caverns, bought our ticket for the extended walk-in tour and then ate at the concession. It wasn’t too bad as that sort of concession food goes. We headed down the trail to the cavern at about 1:30p and took the elevator up as they were closing, around 5p. It was an amazing time spent underground – and yes, we have many photographs
It was a relatively short drive to Emme and Luther’s place from the Caverns. We had absolutely NO mobile phone service, so that made it awkward, but we just showed up. We visited for a bit, terrorized Skeeter – always an important part of my visits to Emme. Pita was looking adorable with her newly super-glued (!) pink bow in her hair.
We trundled off to the “No Whiner Diner”, Emme and Luther's favorite restaurant and had a great dinner. The Tortilla Soup was great (and yes, I was still playing Jewish Mother with poor, sick Tony). We had stopped at a Walmart for more drugs and Germx to try and keep the Typhoid-Tony factor to a minimum, so we were worse than Monk, wiping down everything he touched. Called it an early night after visiting for a bit longer at Emme and Luther’s. We slept in their “office” on the guest futon and we were quite comfortable.
Day 7 – Friday, Oct 24 [Carlsbad, Artesia, REAL Mexican food and a surprising steakhouse]
Took the grand tour of Carlsbad with Emme and Luther. We saw the town, the river, then a short drive out to Artesia for a Mexican buffet (yum!) and to see some interesting statues in that small oil-town. Tony got to try Sopapillas for the first time. Can you imagine? A very pleasant day of touring around – Luther drove so we could just relax and sight-see. We got back to Emme and Luther’s and just hung around for a while, kind of dreading the deserted-desert ride back to Chaparral.
Eventually we headed out – once we got to the border of Texas and NM, near Chaparral, we stopped at the Edge of Texas steakhouse. It was VERY good, we were impressed. It’s like the only restaurant for miles and miles and miles – and yet, there it is, a fancy up-scale steak house. It’s on the Bowen ranch, so the Bowens have access to excellent steak…Tony had the largest slab of prime rib that either of us had ever seen (spent time quoting “The Great Outdoors” with John Candy – do you remember the “96-er”?). For desert we had Mrs. Bowen’s own Coca-cola brownie served with ice-cream and a german-chocoloate (coconut and fudge) sauce. Yummmmmm. Then from there a short trip to the Little House and crash into bed, Tony still not feeling very well, but feeling very well fed.
Day 8 – Saturday, Oct 25 [Visit with relatives both living and dead, bbq at Chuck's]
Went over to Chuck and Linda’s first thing – well, we thought it was first thing. To them it was mid-day, but they start the day at a ridiculous o-dark-thirty hour! We went and visited all of the gravesites for a quick hello, then we went over to Aunt Redgie’s and visited with her for about an hour. We didn’t even let Tony in the door – the last thing she needs is a cold when she’s contending with chemo-therapy! So Chuck kindly volunteered to hang outside with Tony. They talked about “guy stuff” out on the front porch and Linda, Redgie and I talked about the economy and grandchildren and whatever else seemed important, in the living room.
After leaving Redgie’s we went out to lunch at a ‘biker bar’ that is a favorite of Luther’s we’re told. They had great guacamole and I had tacos (again!). Tony was feeling a bit better and managed a couple of beers. I had a couple of beers too, to celebrate that Tony was feeling better. Linda and Chuck both had their “usual favorites”… a hamburger for Chuck and a Reuben for Linda. For me, we were in Texas and I was having tacos at every opportunity!
On the way back to Chuck and Linda’s we stopped at the grocery store and picked up steaks and potatoes and salad fixings … then sat around outside in the PERFECT weather. We let the dogs romp around and just had a nice visit. Then Chuck grilled the steaks to perfection, Linda prepared the salad and potatoes … Susan and Tony were decorations. We had a fantastic meal together, relaxed for a bit longer then called it an early night. Well, early night for us – probably felt like midnight to Chuck, who keeps odd hours for his job!
Day 9 – Sunday, Oct 26 [The trip home]
Up relatively early and tidy up the house and get packed up. Chuck and Linda came over to help us figure out how to bring the chiles home. We ended up packing them in a Styrofoam cooler with a frozen 7-up bottle of water and one of those cooler-bags as extra insulation. They made it just fine and are safely in my freezer now. And there might even be some left for YOU, Pam, since my kitchen will be torn apart so I can’t fix things with them! (I am going to take a stab at rellenos today, though.)
Off to the airport – everything on time, on schedule, uneventful. We ate lunch at a sports bar in the Houston airport, then the flight from Houston to FLL was exactly long enough to watch the movie we had brought – “Gotcha”.
Arriving home we dropped in at Andrea’s to pick Maxim up and we gave a bewildered Andrea a zip-lock bag of the green chiles. Then home and some time cleaning up, unpacking and catching up with Rhiannon. And then back to the daily grind.
Monday, July 13, 2009
"Girls' Theatre Weekend"/Susan & Jan/NYC/July 10-12
Background: Jan and I met on a flight in England some years ago - she drifts by once a year and stays with us and we meet up various places all over the world when we can. We planned this quick 3-day weekend in NYC around Angela Lansbury's limited engagement in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" at the Shubert.
Friday - my flight was delayed by two hours but Jan found me at the JetBlue terminal at JFK. We grabbed a cab to Hotel Chelsea (W. 23rd, between 7th and 8th Ave) and got settled in to that lovely little hotel with a torrid past. We walked a couple of doors down to a very nice restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. Lovely vegetarian entres and appetizers, but I can't remember the name of it! Our theatre tickets were for 10:30p so we simply started walking up town, popping in and out of places, stopping to read menus. Just a leisurely stroll up to 50th. Popped in for Thai appetizers near the theatre at 9:30p and then in to New Stage for "Naked Boys Singing". And they were. And they did! What a hoot! (If you take a moment to follow that link, just be advised that the modesty of the pictures on the web site is NOT carried through the performance. Those boys pranced around stark naked with no fruitbowls blocking the view! Sometimes (usually) private parts of their anatomy were used quite creatively as props or ... garnish!)
After this we meandered over to Broadway and found a nice club. A couple of glasses of port and a quick taxi to the Hotel Chelsea. Almost 2a before my eyes closed.
Saturday morning I woke up early so I took a walk all around Chelsea, picked up a Starbucks, then took my computer down to the lobby for awhile.
When Jan was up we started our meander downtown instead of uptown. Wandered all over the Village (Bleecker St, Washington Park, a street fair on MacDougal). Here's Jan in front of the famous Cafe Wha.
Our Russian guide, Ivan, pointed out a number of celebrities homes (yawn) and spewed a few facts, both true and false. I have never taken one of those bicycle rickshaws ever, so I was quite thrilled to do so. He also took us by Bethesda Fountain, the John Lennon memorial.
Friday - my flight was delayed by two hours but Jan found me at the JetBlue terminal at JFK. We grabbed a cab to Hotel Chelsea (W. 23rd, between 7th and 8th Ave) and got settled in to that lovely little hotel with a torrid past. We walked a couple of doors down to a very nice restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. Lovely vegetarian entres and appetizers, but I can't remember the name of it! Our theatre tickets were for 10:30p so we simply started walking up town, popping in and out of places, stopping to read menus. Just a leisurely stroll up to 50th. Popped in for Thai appetizers near the theatre at 9:30p and then in to New Stage for "Naked Boys Singing". And they were. And they did! What a hoot! (If you take a moment to follow that link, just be advised that the modesty of the pictures on the web site is NOT carried through the performance. Those boys pranced around stark naked with no fruitbowls blocking the view! Sometimes (usually) private parts of their anatomy were used quite creatively as props or ... garnish!)
After this we meandered over to Broadway and found a nice club. A couple of glasses of port and a quick taxi to the Hotel Chelsea. Almost 2a before my eyes closed.
Saturday morning I woke up early so I took a walk all around Chelsea, picked up a Starbucks, then took my computer down to the lobby for awhile.
When Jan was up we started our meander downtown instead of uptown. Wandered all over the Village (Bleecker St, Washington Park, a street fair on MacDougal). Here's Jan in front of the famous Cafe Wha.When we were tired of walking we snagged a cab for Battery Park. We bought tickets for a 50 minute harbor tour (Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, around to the Brooklyn Bridge) and then wandered around the exhibits, street vendors and street performers until time for the cruise. Afterward we grabbed a cab for 6th street / "Indian row". Unfortunately a number of those little restaurants are closed or have re-opened as other ethnic foods. Sad. I should have read this first. We picked a bad one unfortunately, but I was still glad to have been on that street in the Village! So many fond memories and great meals.
Then it was back to the hotel to change for the theatre and off to see "Blithe Spirit". The show was fabulous. Coward humor true to period and style performed by performers to whom it came naturally: Ruper Everett, Christine Ebersole and, of course, Angela Lansbury. It was kind of cool to see Hugh Jackman come in and sit down a few seats away with his wife. They disappeared immediately after the standing ovation and I imagine they nipped backstage to congratulate the stars. It was raining when we exited the theatre so not wanting to spend alot of time outside in the rain we went to the same restaurant as the night before and had a late snack (Jan) and another glass of port (Susan). Then a taxi through the wet city back to Chelsea.
Sunday morning we got an earlier start, took the subway uptown and meandered into Central Park. Resting at a park bench contemplating which direction to head into the park we succumbed to the seduction of one of those bicycle ricksaws and took an hour ride through the park.
Then it was back to the hotel to change for the theatre and off to see "Blithe Spirit". The show was fabulous. Coward humor true to period and style performed by performers to whom it came naturally: Ruper Everett, Christine Ebersole and, of course, Angela Lansbury. It was kind of cool to see Hugh Jackman come in and sit down a few seats away with his wife. They disappeared immediately after the standing ovation and I imagine they nipped backstage to congratulate the stars. It was raining when we exited the theatre so not wanting to spend alot of time outside in the rain we went to the same restaurant as the night before and had a late snack (Jan) and another glass of port (Susan). Then a taxi through the wet city back to Chelsea.
Sunday morning we got an earlier start, took the subway uptown and meandered into Central Park. Resting at a park bench contemplating which direction to head into the park we succumbed to the seduction of one of those bicycle ricksaws and took an hour ride through the park.
Our Russian guide, Ivan, pointed out a number of celebrities homes (yawn) and spewed a few facts, both true and false. I have never taken one of those bicycle rickshaws ever, so I was quite thrilled to do so. He also took us by Bethesda Fountain, the John Lennon memorial. Our show on Sunday was a matinee at 3:00 of The Fantasticks. I haven't seen or heard of it in 35 years but was surprised and a little dismayed to realize that I remembered every lyric of every song. That's what happens when you've attended enough rehearsals of a show, no matter how long ago! After the show we bolted down to the Richard Rodgers and Jan bought a ticket for the 7p "In the Heights". I've seen it and I had a flight to catch. We took the subway back to the hotel and I grabbed my suitcase while Jan changed for the theatre yet again. Parting ways I head out to run the gauntlet of the now feasable subway to JFK. It was tempting because I already had an unlimited day pass - so it was free instead of a $50 cab fare. Unfortunately it was one of my bigger mistakes and I barely made my flight. I did make it though and tumbled into my own shower and bed in the wee hours. Jan and I are already plotting our next trip to NY.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
"The Pilot"
Just getting started. The idea is for me to preserve these small adventures so that I can refer to them in my senile future (you know, next Thursday). I will probably dig through some past adventures documented to family in email. One day I'll use this blog to write my best-selling memoir. ;)
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