Thrill Seekers

The Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas
As we passed it Robert said,
"I really want to bungee off of there!"

After our eight hour drive to Las Vegas we started to pass the various hotels on our way to ours in the late afternoon. We started out quite early in the morning picking the kids up at Robert's parents' home. We visited with Janet and loaded them up into the car. We then headed over to Robert's Dad's office so he could say good-bye to his Dad for a few years. It was not the first two year good-bye for them as Robert served a mission for our church in Japan for two years when he was 19. However, that long a separation is never easy. We took some pictures of them together in the courtyard of his lovely office complex.

Bryant, with Robert, Laura, Spencer and Ross

Doesn't Robert look like is Dad?

After we left there we traveled down to Cove Fort to pay a little visit to this church history site. We had a nice time and saw some wonderful exhibits of what life was like way out there in the desert a hundred and fifty plus years ago.

Entrance to the Fort

It is meticulously kept and maintained by missionaries, as are all our church history sites. The miracle of irrigation and TLC has produced a beautiful oasis in these parts. It was a beautiful day. The fort site was selected by Brigham Young and founded and settled by Ira Hinckley in 1867. He is one of Robert, Ross and Spencer's ancestors which made this visit all the more interesting for us.

This tree is so lush and pretty. It is 150
years old and supported by cables.

All of us in front of one of the original
little log cabins at the fort.

After we arrived in Las Vegas and got settled we had dinner and the evening was just free for relaxing or going out walking on the strip. The next day was our play day in L.V. The guys basically spent the entire day at Circus Circus with the boys in the roller coaster place. They had a ball, all four of them. They got home after we did that night.


They were far too busy going on roller coasters to take any photos so these are from the hotel website. I cannot imagine staying in there for all those hours but they did. Viva la difference!
Jim said it was a combination boardwalk and county fair under a big dome to regulate the temperature.

After this great fun they did mysteriously
find their way to the Stratosphere Hotel!

So apparently Robert wasn't kidding about jumping off the Stratosphere much to our surprise. :-0 This has to be the first time I have ever seen Robert doing something like this. I told him he blew his cover of being totally sensible at all times! I am glad to know he is not 100'% perfect in every possible thing! He is not allowed to scare his second mom like this, even after the fact! Thank heavens, Laura and I were at the show seeing Celine! Here is Bungee Boy getting into the astronaut outfit! He does shine in a uniform though, doesn't he? That is beside the point though! Just kidding! I am just so glad he was safe! Easy to say, after the fact, right?

All straps checked 4 times to assure
they would not malfunction.

Hugging his boys before the 1,149 foot plunge!

He survived and loved it but they all
look relieved, don't you think?

Why Grampa did not do this too is beyond me, it is so like his adventuresome nature to want to do it. But for whatever reason, he didn't. {{ Thanks Babe!}} Maybe he felt like he had already spent his mad money on Celine! Perhaps he stayed down to take care of the boys! Oh I know, maybe it is that you value life and limb more in your sixty-somethings. Whatever the reason, I am so glad.

I think the plan was to keep a low profile about this particular activity where Mom and Gramma were concerned, and the fact that they took three taxi rides back and forth between the hotels during the day. But the boys just couldn't keep it back. The first words out of their mouths were, "Guess what Dad did?" "Guess what we did!" Boys will be boys, always and forever! More power to 'em and us for that matter!

Celine!

Celine Dion

You may remember when I wrote that post about not wanting to go to see Celine because of the price. Well, that didn't mean that I didn't really want to see her show and that did made me a little sad. Well, my sweetheart gave me a ticket for my birthday! And he did not go with me so that made it 50% off, right? The even better part was Laura went with me when we were in Las Vegas!

We just had one full day in Las Vegas which was more than enough for most of us. Having lived there for three years in the early 70s I can tell you it is definitely not my cup of tea. Too many people, too much noise, too many weirdos. It is dirty, hot and unsavory for the most part.

But if you know where to go it is not so bad. We parked at the Flamingo Hotel where we stayed right across the street from Caesar's Palace and Laura and I just stayed in that area so it was much better. We went to the Bellagio to see the Venetian Glass ceiling which I love and got a gelato after the show and watched the dancing waters.

The Ceiling
if you have never seen the gorgeous
large flowers made of blown glass.
flickr

Gelato, not really gelato...ice cream.
They just make it look like Gelato.
You are not surprised are you?
Not much is what it seems here!

This water show is pretty spectacular.

We spent the rest of the time in Caesar's Palace and the mall and the Colosseum for the show. We enjoyed the day shopping like only she and I can do. We are always reaching for the same things and it is not uncommon for us to buy the same bracelet or ring since we live on opposite coasts...who cares? Truth is we did it when she lived on the west coast too. I always think of her and our fun escapades when I wear our twin new bangles.

Neither one of us are favoring the photos here

of us but it was all we had sooo.... here they are.
Here is Auntie Lou Lou wearing the ring
Julia gave me!
She wanted to make sure it
made it to the fancy concert!

This is a simulated outdoor cafe
in the mall at Caesar's Palace.

It is quite fun and does seem like you are outside in a place with reasonable weather. This restaurant prepares Celine's dinner every night before the show. We ate dinner here and ate in a different cafe for lunch. We were getting pretty excited about the show at this point. It was the first concert I had been to since 2004. That one was Michael Ball (be still my beating heart) in Salt Lake City. You can read about him at the bottom of the page if you are so inclined.

Caesar's at 10:30 pm 99 degrees!

We could not believe how hot it felt when we walked outside after the show. It brought back a lot of memories from our time living here. Give me CA any day! I do not like to fry eggs on the sidewalk at midnight and you actually can do that in LV on these hot summer nights.

The Flamingo where we stayed for two nights.

Our room had floor to ceiling windows
for the whole outside wall.
This was the view from our bed.

This is Las Vegas in a nutshell.

This is supposed to be representative of Trevi Fountain in Rome. The funny part is it is just crammed with statues that are not even in the Fountain in Rome. It is so over done, so Las Vegas.

Laura and I sat on a bench in front of this and just looked around as we waited for the shops to open in the morning. We really cracked up when we saw the replica of the roof of the Vatican where they have these huge statues of various popes in Vatican City. But the one in Las Vegas had them separated by naked men. Your eye scans the roof and sees a couple of popes and then a naked man, a couple more popes, another naked man. We had a great laugh over that one.

You have to dream up ways to amuse yourself when you do not drink or gamble and you are in LV. We never have a problem with doing that!


For as tacky and goofy as LV can be, the show was nothing but classy from beginning to end. People were dressed nicely and it was a great audience. By dressed nicely I mean they were not half-naked which cannot be said for outside that show room. Celine is the quintessential entertainer. She was everything and more than I thought she would be. The new show showcases her beautiful voice and her incredible range of musical taste and ability. There is no dancing in her show, she was just very demure and elegant; a real lady. She is clearly so talented and a nice person. She is that kind of nice that cannot be faked. The show has some amazing visuals and it is very good. It comes highly recommended by Laura and by me. Especially if someone special gives it to you as a gift!

All in all, we had a great time. The picture of Celine at the top was sent to me with a video recording of her thanking Laura and me personally for attending the show. The photos were included as a gift. Seriously, is that not great marketing, especially since the ones in her shop are mega expensive and we didn't get any? It was an event not soon to be forgotten!