Las Vegas - here I come!
Well, 6:55 am came around and I was NOT ready to get up and at ‘em. So I reset the alarm for 8:30 and got some more rest. The morning session was ophthalmology - while, admittedly, that’s one of my worst subjects, it was just not appealing enough to drag me out of bed!
So I got ready, got all packed up, left the hotel, got breakfast at McDonald’s and headed to the convention center to catch whatever was left of the morning session. I got there and decided not to sit in and went to the little shops in the hotel. Of course, I stopped at the Disney store (and was about to give them a piece of my mind about the first night’s debacle - but since I have so little mind left, I decided to hang onto it). I got two pins that are really cool - they really have a nice selection and a lot of them are moving too. I really wanted to get a pin that had something about the party but it was a little crazy in the shops at Disney so I didn’t get a chance to get a good look at them. Will have to check online. I really want a patch to go on my backpack!
Once I did that, I saw information about this “Roaming Gnome” contest where you have to find 10 of them hidden. I thought they were hidden in this “ICE” show they had going on at the hotel. The “ICE” show, I later found out, was a magnificent collection of ice sculptures!! They also had an outdoor ice skating rink (in FLORIDA!) and people were skating around on it. So, I headed to the ice sculpture exhibit and figured the 20.00 probably was worth it. Well, we get HALF off being part of the convention. ROCK ON! So I went in and holy wow - it was amazing! They imported 30 artisans from Harbin, China to sculpt these works of art. There’s pics in the video! There was even a few slides that you could go down and, again, little old people taking advantage! It was NINE degrees in there! Fortunately, they give you parkas to wear but I still froze my butt off!
They have two kinds of ice - white ice and clear ice. The white ice is frozen quickly - they say that the water molecules don’t have time to line up correctly during that short period. Then the clear ice is frozen much more slowly - it takes 3 days to freeze 1 block of ice. The whole thing took 3 months for all the blocks to be frozen!!! I can’t remember how long it took them to actually carve each thing out. They also add food coloring to the ice to make it colored! So everything you see in the video is ICE - seriously!
I met up with Liz Klebe and then she was having lunch with Dr Stanton and Heather - so we ate at a seafood restaurant that had great conch fritters and a great chicken sandwich. Could have eaten on a boat in the lagoon - but I guess that required reservations! LOL!
Then headed to the medicine lectures in the afternoon - most were ok but the “How to Airlift a Horse” gave me goosebumps. How awesome is that - airlifting a horse? Amazing.
It was off to the airport after that - it was only about 15-20 min away, so I got parked in the long-term parking and headed to the terminal. I was planning on only bringing a suitcase, my purse, and my computer bag, but Ailee’s gift wouldn’t fit in the suitcase so I ended up bringing another bag, making it a little difficult to maneuver - but the trip home shouldn’t be as bad! Flight wasn’t bad - light turbulence for about 2 hours at the end and they kept descending to get out of it - resulting in 2 hours of ear popping - but oh well. Wasn’t full, so I got an exit row with no one next to me! Got the video done with 2 minutes left of battery life and then listened to the Zune the rest of the time. Now I’m at Trish’s beautiful house and preparing for the onslaught of children, t-ball, karate, parties, surprises, and fun!!! I opened my suitcase and found Conner’s gift completely unwrapped - but they neatly folded the wrapping paper and placed it in the suitcase, so I will have to re-do that later! It’s a punching bag with sand on the bottom of it, so I’m sure they thought it was suspicious in it’s Spiderman wrapping paper =P
So I got ready, got all packed up, left the hotel, got breakfast at McDonald’s and headed to the convention center to catch whatever was left of the morning session. I got there and decided not to sit in and went to the little shops in the hotel. Of course, I stopped at the Disney store (and was about to give them a piece of my mind about the first night’s debacle - but since I have so little mind left, I decided to hang onto it). I got two pins that are really cool - they really have a nice selection and a lot of them are moving too. I really wanted to get a pin that had something about the party but it was a little crazy in the shops at Disney so I didn’t get a chance to get a good look at them. Will have to check online. I really want a patch to go on my backpack!
Once I did that, I saw information about this “Roaming Gnome” contest where you have to find 10 of them hidden. I thought they were hidden in this “ICE” show they had going on at the hotel. The “ICE” show, I later found out, was a magnificent collection of ice sculptures!! They also had an outdoor ice skating rink (in FLORIDA!) and people were skating around on it. So, I headed to the ice sculpture exhibit and figured the 20.00 probably was worth it. Well, we get HALF off being part of the convention. ROCK ON! So I went in and holy wow - it was amazing! They imported 30 artisans from Harbin, China to sculpt these works of art. There’s pics in the video! There was even a few slides that you could go down and, again, little old people taking advantage! It was NINE degrees in there! Fortunately, they give you parkas to wear but I still froze my butt off!
They have two kinds of ice - white ice and clear ice. The white ice is frozen quickly - they say that the water molecules don’t have time to line up correctly during that short period. Then the clear ice is frozen much more slowly - it takes 3 days to freeze 1 block of ice. The whole thing took 3 months for all the blocks to be frozen!!! I can’t remember how long it took them to actually carve each thing out. They also add food coloring to the ice to make it colored! So everything you see in the video is ICE - seriously!
I met up with Liz Klebe and then she was having lunch with Dr Stanton and Heather - so we ate at a seafood restaurant that had great conch fritters and a great chicken sandwich. Could have eaten on a boat in the lagoon - but I guess that required reservations! LOL!
Then headed to the medicine lectures in the afternoon - most were ok but the “How to Airlift a Horse” gave me goosebumps. How awesome is that - airlifting a horse? Amazing.
It was off to the airport after that - it was only about 15-20 min away, so I got parked in the long-term parking and headed to the terminal. I was planning on only bringing a suitcase, my purse, and my computer bag, but Ailee’s gift wouldn’t fit in the suitcase so I ended up bringing another bag, making it a little difficult to maneuver - but the trip home shouldn’t be as bad! Flight wasn’t bad - light turbulence for about 2 hours at the end and they kept descending to get out of it - resulting in 2 hours of ear popping - but oh well. Wasn’t full, so I got an exit row with no one next to me! Got the video done with 2 minutes left of battery life and then listened to the Zune the rest of the time. Now I’m at Trish’s beautiful house and preparing for the onslaught of children, t-ball, karate, parties, surprises, and fun!!! I opened my suitcase and found Conner’s gift completely unwrapped - but they neatly folded the wrapping paper and placed it in the suitcase, so I will have to re-do that later! It’s a punching bag with sand on the bottom of it, so I’m sure they thought it was suspicious in it’s Spiderman wrapping paper =P