Despite all the fake construction, most of the foliage in the hotels is real.

Most.

We ate at the Bellagio buffet and it was by far the best buffet I’ve eaten.  A bonus was that after standing in line for a few minutes a guy came up to us and handed off a front-of-the-line ticket.  We walked right in!  We were leaving as the people that had been in front of us were just coming in.  Afterwards, we walked outside just in time to see the fountain show.  Oceans 11 moment.

Here’s how to really do chocolate fondue.

Here’s how to have fun in FAO Schwartz.  Marshall’s a silly boy.

We saw the lions at the MGM Grand.

I saved the best for last.  Animatronics.  It doesn’t get better than this.  If you’re ever in Vegas, this is a must-must-see.  Caesar’s Palace.  Write it down.

Thanks to M&M for making our vacation totally rad.  For taking us places they’ve been to multiple times before.  Good times, noodle salad!

See all the photos here.

They have real sharks there.

Marshall was eaten by a shark.

These are the two scariest sharks I have ever seen.

After being scared out of our mind by M&M sharks, we cruised out by Lake Mead to hike up into a slot canyon, which I think is called Lovell Wash.  Despite the 110 degree heat, it was sweet.  Kind of surreal.  Just don’t be caught in one during a flood.

The dawrgs were panting machines.  M&M said they usually run way ahead but they must have been extra dehydrated because they stayed pretty close.  It’s hard to pass up hand-fed water.

It was fun to be in the mountains outside of Vegas.  Cuz mountains are cool.  And it’s not the norm for visiting Vegas.  And these ones have stria.

All Vegas photos here.

Actually, it was really cool to see what Marshall has been up to in Vegas for the last few years (work-wise).  The construction is quite amazing.  Everything is so huge.  I have literally zero experience in construction but I would think creating these monstrosities has to be intimidating for an architect and the all the builders that have a hand in it.

In our tour, we of course passed lots of inviting fashion stores.  The prices are high but they definitely throw-down in style.

We each played the slots with $20 – Lacey won $5!  I lost it all.. but I did have this “almost” moment.

We went to a Cirque du Soleil show that night.  Beatles Love.  These shows are always incredible.  At one point they covered almost the entire audience with a gigantic white sheet – it was like the parachute bubble in elementary school – and then the whole sheet was sucked into the stage floor.  If you’ve never been to a show, the theaters are circular with the stage in the middle.  The most intense part was an acrobat floating around on a large swing like forty feet in the air.  I was just waiting for him to slip and eat it.  Ack!  Well you can’t take photos during the show but here’s the entrance, which is fantastic in itself.

All the Vegas photos here.

Now for our action-packed adventures.

We went to Fremont Street our first night.  I’ve been to Vegas a few times (Lacey never had) but never walked around Fremont.  I didn’t know that there is a giant massive overhead screen that spans multiple blocks and shows video montages with famous songs.  Awesome!

There are these amazing artists on the street that create beautiful paintings, using only spray paint.  Straight up Krylon.  They reproduce the same selection of paintings over and over, which is why they are so good, but it’s still an incredible feat.  And since I have negative artistry skills, I totally exalt skilled artists.

Here we are!

Apparently, Fremont Street rocks different themes and the current one was Summer of ‘69.  Despite the liberal fascist tendencies of that era, the music rocked.  And the bands downtown Vegas on Fremont rocked the songs of Jimi Hendrix and others incredibly well.  Honestly, I was surprised at the obvious quality of the musicians playing – I don’t normally expect much from random cover bands.  But these cats were great!  There were even some flying ring girls.

Thus concludes our first day.  For all the photos go here.

Next up, marriage.

Hehe, just kidding. Here are the rest of the photos from our trip to Texas.

It’s pretty obvious this town is architected to look European.  Apparently, in the 1960’s the town was about to vanish so the townsfolk came together while listening to The Beatles* and recreated it as a Bavarian tourist town.  They succeeded and they continue to keep it real, holding big festivals every year like Oktoberfest and Christmas Lighting Ceremonies.  History 101 right here.

* History does not say they were listening to The Beatles.  But they totally were.

When we arrived the night before around 9:30pm, we ended up feeling pretty lucky because the hotel we stayed at, the HoJo, has a peculiar policy of closing down for the night at 10!  As in, if you arrive after 10pm, you are greeted with a friendly sign that says the hotel next door has nice rooms.  Ha.

We started our adventure with a healthy Bavarian breakfast.

If you’re in Leavenworth, you have to play the miniature golf course that sits right next to downtown, complete with mountain goats!

And with mountains.

And with intense competition.

There are tons of fun little shops in Leavenworth to wander and peruse through.  In one section this guy who was making peanut brittle called out to us to come over and try some.  We obliged of course and had some of the best brittle I’ve had.  He makes everything low fat and low sugar and all natural (something like that) and it’s great!  He said he’s really a builder around that area and making brittle and chocolate and other fun sweeties is his hobby.  Fun!  Pip-pip cheerio.

As well as brittle and chocolate, we stumbled into a shop with a large wall of salt water taffy…  ahhhh yeah.

For supper, we found an underground restaurant called Andreas Keller to stuff our stomachs full of amazing Bavarian food.  Bratwurst, sausage, sauerkraut, red cabbage, oh my!  I can’t wait to go back to Leavenworth for the sole purpose of eating this food again.  Of course, it still doesn’t come close to the fantastic food Lacey churns out daily

Mmm.

On our way out of town we stopped in the drizzling rain because I had to be in a picture with this knight.  When Lacey looked at this knight she cried, “My leige!  Thou art tall in stature!”  And then she looked at me and exclaimed, “My leige!  Thou art tall in chivalry!”

No, really, she did.  She totally talks like that all the time.

All the pics here.

And then she went and made it beautiful!

(And then we went to the Palm Court Grill for Valentine’s Day).  (Woo)!

As of 2009, Phi-phi Islands are under investigation after two tourists, one American girl, Jill St. Onge and one Norwegian Tourist, Julie Michelle Berghiem mysteriously died while staying at the Laleena Guesthouse. Their cause of death is unknown, however alcohol, drugs, and food poisoning have been all ruled out of the case. Tourists are strongly urged against traveling to Phi-phi Islands without knowledge of the potential dangers.

Whoa, what?  Apparently, they developed a cough, along with their roommates (Jill’s roommate being her fiance, Ryan Kells) and were dead within 12 hours.  This site is tracking progress, or lack or progress, on the investigation.  If you want to experience something haunting, read her last blog and the comments following it.

When I was there, I was taught how to scuba dive from an instructor named Cole Mansfield of Barakuda Dive Center.  (There’s some pictures of Barakuda along with the owner soon after the tsunami about 2/3 of the way down the page here; I was told he’s the most amazing diver cuz he’s like a seal.. ha).  I found another haunting link, which looks like a list of survivors that was posted right after the tsunami.  Notice Cole is listed.

Strange and tragic.

I guess the only picture I have of Cole is his bare back.

The owner of Barakuda (”the seal”) taking a nap.

The water level reached in this cafe.

The strip that was devastated.

I was in the middle of reading about request scope in Dependecy Injection, a software developer nerdbook, when this flashback entered my brain and now I’ve spent most of my morning reading and thinking about these Ko Phi Phi tragedies.  It’s hard to go back and concentrate on work after bumping the emotion button.

We shoveled snow.

We wrote in the snow.

We shoveled snow.

And we shoveled snow!

We had a pretty big snow year in 2007/2008 so I kept telling Lacey last year that there was no way we would have another big snowfall.  I was wrong – we had way more!  So there’s no way we will have another big snowfall this year.. Right?

For all the winter photos, go here.

The big Ford from Washington became our primary, I mean only, mode of transportation.  Fun!

The lil’ Ford from Texas became our primary snow depth gauge. Useful!

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go skiing because I was on-call for work that week but we did go climbing.  Substitute!

And we went ice skating in 2-degree weather.  Cold!

And of course, built snowmen.  Ok, tried building snowmen in very dry pow-pow.  Longhorns muffler!

Of course I have to end with a picture of my beautiful wife  Ta-Da!

For all the winter photos, go here.