Oooph
So, it's been a busy couple weeks!
A little over a week ago, we went to Las Vegas for a few days. See, Mark finished up the course work for his Associate's Degree on the 24th of September, so we thought it might be nice to celebrate. Seeing as I have a number of free flights due to flying so much for work, we decided to take advantage of that for a trip a bit further afield than we might normally do. Plus, my folks are still in RI, so Cotton got to stay with them. As she gets older, I get more nervous about leaving her for extended periods of time. Anyhow, we took off for Las Vegas (yay direct flights!) and spent two night in the Venetian and two nights in MGM Signature. I loved staying at the Venetian. Our room had this little sunken living room which was pretty neat. Due to our morning inclinations, we tended to get up around 5 to 6am most mornings and were able to watch the sun rise over the mountains. It was lovely. And then we'd do a ton of walking along the strip before the sun started the temperatures rising towards 105F. Certainly once the day was in full blast, I had no desire to be anywhere outside. We saw Cirque du Soleil's O at Bellgio the second night we were there and it was everything and more than I had remembered. They had even added some Maori fire twirlers. Gosh, that brought me back to my time in New Zealand where it seems everyone and their brother spins or twirls fire. I saw a short piece on the show which shows the scuba diving handlers of the performers for that show and the amazing underwater sound system. Hey! I could totally be a participant in Cirque! I have the skills! :-) I also love how the body type is so different from all other Cirque shows. That's right, folks, swimmers have curves! Bosoms, even! In the middle of the trip, the day we were switching hotels, we took a trip into the desert to visit the Valley of Fire. It's always so amazing how within 20 minutes of starting your drive, you are suddenly in empty desert with straight roads and impossible speed limits. We had a nice time getting out of the bustle of the city, but the 105 degree weather almost destroyed us. We took one 1/2 mile hike and that was our limit for the day. Luckily, most stuff could be seen from the car. We also saw Cirque du Soleil's Ka which was visually amazing. I loved the fact that even the ticket takers were dressed in a steam punk sort of manner with interesting makeup accents. That being said. I do not consider this to be a true Cirque show. It was an excellent theatrical performance with amazing special effects and an even more amazing stage and great seats that had speakers built into the headrest. However, most things were done with wire work rather than acrobatic skill. One of the few actual "acts", the guy obviously messed up and almost fell a few times. This is not the show to see if you have a fear of heights. Seriously. I think my heart almost stopped multiple times. Of course, I'm the person who hates playing video games with cliffs because I get the visceral feeling of falling when I miss the jump. Oy. We had some expensive, sub-par meals, but we also had some excellent ones which were even more expensive. We had an amazing breakfast at Bouchon in the Venetian which included fresh orange juice, chocolate croissants, and lots of other tasty breads. We had a chef's tasting menu at Nobu in the Hard Rock Hotel which blew my socks off. I'm glad we went with the tasting menu since the sushi was average, but the rest of everything was amazing. And we had an out of this world meal at Tom Coliccio's CraftSteak at MGM. I don't think I've ever had steak that was cooked so perfectly. We got the wagyu beef which was excellent, but I'm not sure my palette can really tell the difference. I'd have to do a side by side comparison. ;-) Once again, we decided to do the chef's three course menu and my goodness. If you're going there, it's the best deal ever. We got four starters to share, two different beef main courses, three different sides, and four desserts. This is between the two of us. And yes, it was waaay too much food. Happily, we were able to take the left overs with us and had the best breakfast EVER. The thing is, going this way cost very little more than just getting a main meat course with no sides and just provided us with endless food. I would recommend CraftSteak to anyone. It's definitely not just hype. We had a great time in Vegas, but we were definitely ready to come home at the end.
Sadly, I had to go to Philly for work the morning after we got back and due to the remnants of TS Nicole and the Philadelphia airport, I was delayed three hours on my flight home which meant I finally got home at midnight. After getting home at 11pm the night before... Yeah, pretty crazy and not something I'd recommend. Then, it was suddenly Friday night and we went out to the Save The Bay 40th Anniversary Gala. It was fantastic to meet up with my old co-workers and just be able to chat. I also hung out with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law which was really nice. I swear, my sister knew everyone there who wasn't from Save The Bay! The mayor of Providence was there as well as Lincoln Chaffee who I was too shy to meet. But I really just wanted to go and shake his hand and say how very excited I was that he was running for Governor. I know, I know, he's a politician, it's his job to shake people's hands, but as I said, too shy. There was a very funny, enjoyable live auction (I didn't bid for anything) and also lots of tasty food. Sadly, the weather was pretty poor for a party next to the Bay, but we still had a great time.
Saturday morning, I met up with bitsyboo and marcus_sez_vote to accompany them on the great wedding venue hunt. I had a lot of fun tromping along behind them and reliving memories of my own hunt and how it certainly differed from theirs. Although, I do think the presence of my father was the big difference as he was prone to say, this is fine! Let's put down a deposit! Now! We did make some excellent progress on that front and then I had the majority of the bridesmaids over to hang out, talk about weddings, larping, and the world in general. It was excellent, but exhausting! On Sunday, it was once more into the wedding fray! bitsyboo and I headed down to Middletown for a most excellent tasting. Everything was fantastic and we were stuffed silly as we headed back to Providence to meet up with marcus_sez_vote on his way back from Endgame and another meal at Gourmet House. That's right! Gourmet House is BACK! And it's better than ever with new decor, a new owner, quality ingredients, and cheap food! I must say, though, after everything, I was happy to go home and make an early night of it. In fact, I might still be exhausted! Give me another weekend and vacation, stat! Sadly, it is not to be, but it'll be nice to get back on a regular schedule even if Madrigal is just around the corner. Aiee!
A little over a week ago, we went to Las Vegas for a few days. See, Mark finished up the course work for his Associate's Degree on the 24th of September, so we thought it might be nice to celebrate. Seeing as I have a number of free flights due to flying so much for work, we decided to take advantage of that for a trip a bit further afield than we might normally do. Plus, my folks are still in RI, so Cotton got to stay with them. As she gets older, I get more nervous about leaving her for extended periods of time. Anyhow, we took off for Las Vegas (yay direct flights!) and spent two night in the Venetian and two nights in MGM Signature. I loved staying at the Venetian. Our room had this little sunken living room which was pretty neat. Due to our morning inclinations, we tended to get up around 5 to 6am most mornings and were able to watch the sun rise over the mountains. It was lovely. And then we'd do a ton of walking along the strip before the sun started the temperatures rising towards 105F. Certainly once the day was in full blast, I had no desire to be anywhere outside. We saw Cirque du Soleil's O at Bellgio the second night we were there and it was everything and more than I had remembered. They had even added some Maori fire twirlers. Gosh, that brought me back to my time in New Zealand where it seems everyone and their brother spins or twirls fire. I saw a short piece on the show which shows the scuba diving handlers of the performers for that show and the amazing underwater sound system. Hey! I could totally be a participant in Cirque! I have the skills! :-) I also love how the body type is so different from all other Cirque shows. That's right, folks, swimmers have curves! Bosoms, even! In the middle of the trip, the day we were switching hotels, we took a trip into the desert to visit the Valley of Fire. It's always so amazing how within 20 minutes of starting your drive, you are suddenly in empty desert with straight roads and impossible speed limits. We had a nice time getting out of the bustle of the city, but the 105 degree weather almost destroyed us. We took one 1/2 mile hike and that was our limit for the day. Luckily, most stuff could be seen from the car. We also saw Cirque du Soleil's Ka which was visually amazing. I loved the fact that even the ticket takers were dressed in a steam punk sort of manner with interesting makeup accents. That being said. I do not consider this to be a true Cirque show. It was an excellent theatrical performance with amazing special effects and an even more amazing stage and great seats that had speakers built into the headrest. However, most things were done with wire work rather than acrobatic skill. One of the few actual "acts", the guy obviously messed up and almost fell a few times. This is not the show to see if you have a fear of heights. Seriously. I think my heart almost stopped multiple times. Of course, I'm the person who hates playing video games with cliffs because I get the visceral feeling of falling when I miss the jump. Oy. We had some expensive, sub-par meals, but we also had some excellent ones which were even more expensive. We had an amazing breakfast at Bouchon in the Venetian which included fresh orange juice, chocolate croissants, and lots of other tasty breads. We had a chef's tasting menu at Nobu in the Hard Rock Hotel which blew my socks off. I'm glad we went with the tasting menu since the sushi was average, but the rest of everything was amazing. And we had an out of this world meal at Tom Coliccio's CraftSteak at MGM. I don't think I've ever had steak that was cooked so perfectly. We got the wagyu beef which was excellent, but I'm not sure my palette can really tell the difference. I'd have to do a side by side comparison. ;-) Once again, we decided to do the chef's three course menu and my goodness. If you're going there, it's the best deal ever. We got four starters to share, two different beef main courses, three different sides, and four desserts. This is between the two of us. And yes, it was waaay too much food. Happily, we were able to take the left overs with us and had the best breakfast EVER. The thing is, going this way cost very little more than just getting a main meat course with no sides and just provided us with endless food. I would recommend CraftSteak to anyone. It's definitely not just hype. We had a great time in Vegas, but we were definitely ready to come home at the end.
Sadly, I had to go to Philly for work the morning after we got back and due to the remnants of TS Nicole and the Philadelphia airport, I was delayed three hours on my flight home which meant I finally got home at midnight. After getting home at 11pm the night before... Yeah, pretty crazy and not something I'd recommend. Then, it was suddenly Friday night and we went out to the Save The Bay 40th Anniversary Gala. It was fantastic to meet up with my old co-workers and just be able to chat. I also hung out with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law which was really nice. I swear, my sister knew everyone there who wasn't from Save The Bay! The mayor of Providence was there as well as Lincoln Chaffee who I was too shy to meet. But I really just wanted to go and shake his hand and say how very excited I was that he was running for Governor. I know, I know, he's a politician, it's his job to shake people's hands, but as I said, too shy. There was a very funny, enjoyable live auction (I didn't bid for anything) and also lots of tasty food. Sadly, the weather was pretty poor for a party next to the Bay, but we still had a great time.
Saturday morning, I met up with bitsyboo and marcus_sez_vote to accompany them on the great wedding venue hunt. I had a lot of fun tromping along behind them and reliving memories of my own hunt and how it certainly differed from theirs. Although, I do think the presence of my father was the big difference as he was prone to say, this is fine! Let's put down a deposit! Now! We did make some excellent progress on that front and then I had the majority of the bridesmaids over to hang out, talk about weddings, larping, and the world in general. It was excellent, but exhausting! On Sunday, it was once more into the wedding fray! bitsyboo and I headed down to Middletown for a most excellent tasting. Everything was fantastic and we were stuffed silly as we headed back to Providence to meet up with marcus_sez_vote on his way back from Endgame and another meal at Gourmet House. That's right! Gourmet House is BACK! And it's better than ever with new decor, a new owner, quality ingredients, and cheap food! I must say, though, after everything, I was happy to go home and make an early night of it. In fact, I might still be exhausted! Give me another weekend and vacation, stat! Sadly, it is not to be, but it'll be nice to get back on a regular schedule even if Madrigal is just around the corner. Aiee!