I’ve had this post written, but not edited till recently.  Sorry for the delay?

This year we went to Vegas for New Years 2009, I might sound like we go somewhere every year for New Years, but that’s not the case….anymore. We might start a tradition to go some place every New Years.

New Years Eve in Vegas was not what we expected and hoped.  Staying at Planet Hollywood(PH) formerly the Aladdin the road between PH and Paris was being setup for Robbie Maddison’s Jump on to and off the Arc de Triumph.  We never actually saw this happen, but instead went to a nice dinner at Bally’s (2 hotels down) at around 8pm.  Walking to Bally’s was difficult because the jump was set to go off at 9pm, but of course didn’t go off till just after 10:30pm.  The streets were pretty crowded at this point and walking to Bally’s was a bitch!  You can see the jump below.

After dinner  around 11:30pm we went back towards our hotel.  The crowd was even more insane and getting through it got pretty dangerous with my 70+ year old parents.  I was pretty concerned but remained calm and assertive.   We were all locked holding hands and my poor 5′ 2″ mother holding Mandy’s hand through the crowd was pretty nerve wrecking.  Once we got to a ’safe’ less crowded area we waited for midnight to hit, to watch all the amazing fireworks from the strip.  Little did we know that the fireworks were not shot off the roofs of hotels because of fire hazards and now shot off parking garages, and because of Vegas’ beautiful tall building we didn’t see shit for fireworks!  We were all extremely disappointed and should have done better research or gone to the Palms and paid a lot of money to watch the fireworks from one of their clubs at the top of the hotel.  We decided after our disappointment to go back to our hotel room and drink it off.  That was a much better idea and much more fun.  Walking back to our room got even more dangerous because people were ready to leave the crowd and go wherever.  People started pushing and I never expected to get squished like I did to some stranger.  It was absolutely insane how nasty people got.  Maybe since I’m older I expected more respect, but people’s drunkenness made for some dangerous situations.  I remember going to Mardi Gras and we did the hold everyone’s hand and don’t let go, and I know why we did that here.  I also remember Critchet going to NYC for New Year’s Eve and telling me the same thing.  Going to one of those big cities for New Years Eve can get dangerous fast.  Especially with alcohol involved.    It was a night to remember and never forget.  Next year we’re gonna be on some private beach where no one’s around, obnoxiously drunk (except us) and being disrespectful.  I should have expected this, but we definitely had a different mind set.

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From New York

Mandy and I lived in my cousin’s apartment right in the middle of one of the greatest cities!  We were there 4 days, and had more than our handful of walking a dog, walking around, and shopping.  It was quite an adventure being in a small apartment with over sized furniture and a 6 month old puppy.  It was fun, but definitely a lot of hard work and walking. We had a great time and I really appreciate my cousin letting us stay at his place. It’s an awesome place and he’s got a great dog. It was super fun to be able to walk everywhere and have some really good local food…and pizza! We really had a good time and didn’t do too much site seeing other than go to the famous Apple store and I bought Mandy a Tiffany’s Dragon Fly Pendant.  Also Critchet and his fabulous girlfriend Gina drove up from the D.C. area to hang out and visit with us!  We had one hell of night on the town Thursday Night.

What an incredible show!  I couldn’t have asked for a more fun show!  Finally not only did I see some ‘Some Devil’ songs, but I saw 2 cover songs that were incredible to watch, aside from All Along the Watch Tower.    Mandy couldn’t have asked for a more fun show, she finally got to see Satelite, great cover songs, and Julia Roberts introduce the band,  which was another one of my highlights too.  I didn’t know Julia was going to introduce the band, but it was truly special because I know she’s already close friends to the band and a huge fan.  She was so sweet with some incredibly touching words and it really pumped us all up for an amazing show!  The energy at this place was off the charts!  I really love seeing the band in NY, this is definitely one of my top shows at close tie with Central Park.  Enjoy the videos, thanks YouTube!  I just finished downloading the show and add a link to download it later.

Julia Roberts Intro

Burnin Down the House!

Sledgehammer!

So Damn Lucky!

  When traveling everyone has their little souvenir tradition.  I’d like to share mine and hear some other people’s.

The first and most common thing is buying a magnet.  This is easy and they are very common.  I usually try to find unique magnets, for example ones where you can put a picture of yourself from that same trip. When I buy a magnet my requirement is it must be a very memorable place, so I don’t go magnet crazy.

The next thing I like to do is buy a shirt from a restaurant I really enjoyed.  This is pretty easy, but my requirement here is the food and service must be good, and the shirt needs to be really unique.

Buying a Calendar for the next year, this has been a recent addition to my souvenirs tradition.  This requirement is the pictures from the calendar are of beautiful scenery that I have seen or want to go back and visit.

My last but favorite travel tradition is buying a small picture of some beautiful scenery or something famous. For example I bought a small 6″ X 8″ picture of Hanauma Bay in Hawaii when I went last year.  This year I bought a fantastic picture of the Sydney Opera House lit up.  I’ll frame these and start a mural of these beautiful places.  I did not find something comparable from my Germany trip or from being in Perth.  This requirement is, it must be a place I have visited and really enjoyed.

I’d love to hear some other souvenir travel traditions you may have!

The Greatest Show in Australia….ok…almost….not really.  I got back from the Silvers Circus this afternoon, and as somewhat entertaining as it was, I really had something completely different in mind.  After walking into the big top tent which is more like a small top tent, I realized it wasn’t going to have cats jumping through fire hoops, or any other animals for that matter.  The show started with the ring master saying the same thing “Ladies and gentlemen, kids of all ages..yadda yadda yadda.”  I was open minded because going to the circus was on my new year’s resolution list, and my imagination runs away in my head to things of grandeur.

For example, one of the acts was this Hispanic man doing the bouncing juggling balls, started with 3 and ended with a total 6.  In between adding a new ball he would yell something, and it sounded like “CUBA!” come to think of it I’m gonna pretend he yelled Cuba, just for the hell of it.

Also one act had this girl that was caught by these caveman type people and then some fake dinosaur came and saved her.  The story was she raised this dinosaur from a baby and now it saved her for her to be a princess.  Then she started swinging on these red curtains, the story really didn’t make sense.

There was a magic act in between each act, and of course I’d try to figure out how he was doing it.  One of the acts I figured out;  He basically did the cut a person in half and I figured the person hid to one side, she came out ok, then another person came out (and I then said, oh she was on the other side of the box), THEN another person came out and I was like aight now I want to know how he did it!  Also each time the magician would cover something I would say to myself a big cat is gonna come out, with no such luck.

The last act was hulla-hoop Eva Longoria, or at least that’s what she looked like from a far.  The end of her set had 2 people throwing hoops over her, as she added over 50 hulla-hoops as she was hooping.  It was pretty impressive, but in all the show was mediocre.  I think the show would have been better if I could have made fun of it with some friends, so if you do decide to go to the circus get drunk before hand.

One last thing about the show was all the ladies were wearing thong like bottoms.  I didn’t understand it since the show is a majority of kids!  I’ve realized that Australia doesn’t censor much like in Europe, even in public.

The circus also made me realize once we’re a parent, the shows you go to for your kids!  I remember when my parents took me to the zoo, there were all these animals and it seemed like a huge production!  This was like a cheap Cirque Du Soleil Show.  It at least killed my Saturday afternoon, and one of my new year’s resolutions.

Margaret River

Note: Pictures were taken with an iPhone.

As I head to Margaret River on my 3 1/2 hour voyage, the beautiful country side was like any other with the exception of the Harvey District, known as ‘The Heart of Diary Country’, which I would only assume also it’s steak.  The number of cattle around was incredible, and it wasn’t the plain black and brown cows, it was the black and white spotty ones.  About mid way on my trip is where I stopped at Harvey Moo Shoppe / Visitor Centre, built in the 1800’s.  A quaint little store with a stable for a restroom in the back, and Stirling’s Restaurant Cottaqge situated on the picturesque banks of the Harvey River.  After my rest stop, I continued to my first destination in Margaret River, Cape Lavender for Breakfast.

First, let me describe the Margaret River area.  It has 2 major roads that run north to south on either side of the city.  Each road is surrounded with farm land for cattle, sheep, or grapes.  There are hundreds of wineries around.  It’s like you’re in the middle of no where but in reality you’re in very populated farm country.  The wineries, lodging, and restaurants are anywhere between 7-30 minutes apart.  The roads at night are dark and desolate, you might see a car every 15 minutes, (everyone drives around with their brights on).  There is only one area that’s heavily populated with stores and that’s the shopping centre.  The rest is mildly lit signs on the side of the road for lodging, wineries, and restaurants.

I wanted to arrive for breakfast at Cape Lavender, which is known for making consumables (soap, shampoo, fudge, wine, etc) out of Lavender trees and their breakfast. I had Green Eggs and Bacon with home made Vienna on top of Basil, which was absolutely delicious.  The 17 dollar meal was worth every penny and the lake side view was very peaceful.  After breakfast I went to their gift shoppe where they make EVERYTHING out of Lavender.  While shopping I found out they have 3 Labradors, 2 yellow and 1 chocolate lab and even make their own lavender dog shampoo and well of course…I can’t wait to use it on Hannah and Marle (Big Girl and Bubba)!
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