Scarey Ride in the Wind

Sunday p.m.


Had a little sprinkling last night, just enough to make a mess of the windshields. And again the wind is BLOWING – steady at over 20 with higher gusts.
Went out to late breakfast and decided to take a drive up the mountains to Red Rock Canyon. Beautiful clear day for a ride up there.
Drove down part of The Strip again – Just thought this was a pretty picture of the Wynn and Encore – and notice the blue building in the background.

The big blue building – it is the unfinished Fountainbleu – construction halted a while back for lack of money.

Unfinished Hotel

This would have been the entrance.

What a shame. And this is just one of the many unfinished projects around town.
This is the Stratosphere – it is appx. 1150 feet high.

As we were driving towards it I saw a couple of things moving down the outside of the building. IT IS A RIDE!

Doesn't this look safe.

855 feet up

 Some how people are attached to something at the top of the building –see arrow- and dropped down the side – see arrow.

In this wind! Are they crazy or what. It is called SkyJump. Check it out http://skyjumplasvegas.com/Skyjump Also check out the Frequently asked questions. Especially the one “Is it scarey?”

Stroll through new City Center Las Vegas

Sunday a.m.


Back to yesterday. Always enjoy our time walking around the Bellagio – it is still the most impressive of the hotels on The Strip. The glass flower ceiling over the lobby, the gorgeous mosaic floors and of course the Conservatory. Yesterdays pictures were mostly of the Conservatory all decked out for Thanksgiving. Sorry about the video clip being sideways – I’ve got to remember not to hold the camera sideways while taking movies – I have not been able to find a way to rotate them to the right way. Somehow there has got to be a way. 
Clicking on the pics will make them larger and the videos take a little time to load - be patient.
From the Bellagio we took the tram to the new City Center section.

From Tram Window

 Got off at Crystals/Aria (? The names of Hotels? Stores? Shopping? All of the above?) Some pretty hanging decorations.

Decorations in Crystals

Close Up - See colors in silver ones

Lots of restaurants and stores. And more people than I thought would be there – though this is a holiday weekend. Walked through to an exit door and got a look at some of the other buildings. Nice view.

Through another door into another shopping section – this one decorated a little different.

Out another door into a parking/valet area. This area has a huge long wall of water falling that changed volume. Very pretty.

Water Fall around Valet area

Hope this works - short video of the falling water  near the end you can see the volume increase.
Another view of some of the buildings. The color in the middle of the bottom of the picture is a fountain.

Another picture of it. Very pretty to watch – does all kinds of wiggles.

Just another sculpture in another building.

There were three of these in different sizes

The Driver taking pictures of some tourists.

I love these buildings – yes they look like they are tilting.

Tilting Buildings

Another shot of the buildings. Remember this was all built in less than three years!

Loved this sculpture – it is of an old fashioned pink round wheel shaped eraser. They used to erase more paper than ink/pencil.

should get the job done

Reflections in window of Chihuly Exhibit.

Chilhuly piece – Yellow Iciciles

About 10 feet tall

Back into another building where we saw these pretty trees with the moving lights.

Picked up the car and back out onto Las Vegas Blvd. My favorite the M & M Experience

The CocaCola bottle

And this is something I’ve never seen in Vegas before – just got a couple of pictures.

Puppets?

Kind of like being on Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood, CA
Today the wind has really picked up again - will keep the wind chill up....still warmer in Indiana than here. The Driver is getting more and more impatient to get on the beach in Mexico.
Just noticed in the little magazine the RV park gives us that there is a maid service for RVs - BRING THEM ON. Wonder if they do much business.

Walking around the Bellagio

You have to turn your head sideways to watch this video of the water show at the Bellagio Saturday p.m.

First I want to include a picture from Thanksgiving of part of the family. I debated including the picture but both boys have face book pages with their pictures on them soooooo..
Today we spent some time on The Strip. We parked at the Bellagio walked around in there a little then took the tram to the new City Center and walked around there.
Here are some pictures from the Bellagio. The hanging leaves are made of glass

Arches of Water



• Santa is made of chocolate



Fountain of Chocolate

Beautiful Mosaic Floor in Lobby

Arches of water

The water keeps moving

The Conservatory decorated for Autumn - Every year it is different 

Visiting Relatives and Friends

Wednesday p.m.


Satellite guy came back. Installed new router, a Cisco brand?, and password, talked to tech service at MotoSat in Utah – Oops – they were supposed to send a new teeny tiny antenna along with the new GPS board – they didn’t. It will go in the mail today and be here in Vegas - Friday? Monday? Sometime? If the new antenna doesn’t fix the problem guess I’ll still have to put the coordinates in by hand. For the price of the damn thing they should send an engineer with it to keep it running right.
There is a “cold, dry weather system” moving through here and the freeze warnings will be around till Saturday. Lovely.

Check out wind in trees

Saturday a.m.

Still unusually cold here in the desert. I forgot to take the cell phone out of my purse the other night and it got so cold it completely discharged and refused to charge or come on until it warmed up. Poor thing. At least the wind has stopped blowing. Thought it was going to tip us over one day.
Guess part for satellite didn’t come in yesterday as we didn’t hear from the satellite guy. Right now it is working fine so I’d best not complain too loud. Even managed to upload a photo album and page for last year’s trip to Mexico with no problems this morning. Have discovered it works really well real early in the morning or late at night. Guess there are fewer people using Hughes Net then.

We had a really good Thanksgiving dinner at youngest sons home. His wife is a delightful person and an excellent cook. Turkey, ham, stuffing, carrots, appetizers, deserts and good wine just to mention a few things. Second youngest son was also there with his girl friend. First time we’ve met her. She is a sign language interpreter . Very smart, pretty and nice. All in all a very enjoyable time. Wish we could do it more often.

Tried out the new cooker for an omelet yesterday turned out pretty darn good. Nifty little machine and real easy to clean.



The Cooker -As Seen on TV



The omelet

Went to visit some friends here yesterday. They own the only stained glass supplier, left open in town and their business is really down. Check them out at http://www.glassartinc.com/ They told us about a grocery store they go to called King Ranch. It is a big Mexican market. So we went – so glad. Found the pastries I love and can only find in Mexico. Bought a bag full. Bill also found his favorite candy. A very nice market – got some tortillas, shredded cheese and guacamole so we can try making quesadillas in the new cooker. Yum.

Went to WalMart yesterday afternoon to pick up a couple of things and it wasn’t busy at all. Sure hope they had a bunch of “early” shoppers. There even wasn’t much traffic on the roads. Again hope everyone was out early.