Westward HO 2017!!!: August 2017

Thursday, August 24, 2017

OOOOOO Las Vegas!

August 22-24, 2017

OK, Just so we are clear, I may have overlapping dates since numbers aren't my strong suit.

We headed to Las Vegas for my birthday presents. ...Two Cirque du Soleil shows, "Zumanity" at New York, New York and "O" at Bellagio.
There are so many choice of restaurants that I didn't wanted to be overwhelmed by them, so I even made our restaurant reservations ahead of time on Open Table.

Coming out of the mountains, it was pretty flat in between the mountain ranges

Our car reflected on the side of a tanker

We weren't sure what this was? Other than solar farms, we didn't see much farming or any industry.

We watched our outside temperature climb to this...

What the F??? Tim Allen would be so proud?!

Another viewpoint, none of this looked stable...YIKES!

If you look carefully at this Space Needle, there are rides up there...Really???

Have no idea what the copper pink building is?
Just loved it's reflections on it's surroundings...

As Mike said, "If tourists only come here, what must they think of the USA afterwards???"

The Strip

Every time I see Excalibar, I think of Disney's, "It's a Small World"

Seeing it during the day is nothing like it looks at night

The Statue of Liberty replica is in front of New York, New York

After coming out of the desert, the palms are disconcerting

We had a cooling beverage after our drive

The first night I chose Tom Urban at New York New York. It turned out to be a really great deal with Happy Hour pricing, wonderful drinks and food. I had some type of delicious lemonade, ginger chicken pot stickers for an appetizer, along with crispy, spicy chicken tenders on top of cornbread pancakes while Mike had lobster and shrimp mac and cheese with some kind of yummy salad. YUM!

"Zumanity" was an adult sexy show with something for everyone...you had your lesbian, gay innuendos, mixed with a transgender, comedic, sexy hostess and a talented, strong, cute dwarf. There were a wide mix of talented, but sexually charged acts. Very entertaining! If you tend to be private about sexuality, don't go! https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/zumanity

He/she was a HOOT, as was her sidekick dwarf

The Zumanity finale when we were allowed to take photos

Our second day we had more time, so we got up late and headed to the pool. When the sun came out strong and the shade left we were about to head inside when it clouded up. Since it had cooled down, we stayed for awhile longer, but as the sky darken we decided to go inside for a nap before "O." We had no sooner laid down then we heard the rain come pouring down.

Beautiful, large pool deck

Mike's eyeballs were being overworked

We saw her and her friend later that night...WOW!

When we got outside later, the rain had really cooled things off, making our walk to the Bellagio much more enjoyable.

Everything in Vegas is an elaborate stage set, and no more so than the Bellagio!

When you walk into the main entrance, you are met by a massive Chihuly glass ceiling, but even before that is other known sculptures and paintings. It's really over the top! Which is the only way I can describe "O"! It is such an incredible, magical performance from start to finish! Mike and I both agreed, we would love to see it again because we felt we missed so much...

https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/o

The Chihuly ceiling in the entrance

A Nicholas Cage, Soundscape 2013

Todd English's Olive

Our second night we had a more expensive, but incredibly delicious meal of fancy pasta, salad and bread at Todd English's "Olive." Beyond incredible!!!

One of the monumental sculptures out in the Park

One of the many artworks all over Vegas, some are more kitsch than others...

The views out of our windows

This rollercoaster even came inside New York New York

Not too bad a view except the rollercoaster was a bit noisy when it ran

The Mojave Desert and surrounding mountains

Pretty arid and hot!!!

In the middle of no where...my big fat Greek Wedding!

Pretty desolate

These places looked abandoned but not sure?

As we got closer to San Diego

To Be or Not to Be, That is the Question?

August 21-23, 2017

Since we didn't have far to go today, we left Jack and Tara around 9 AM.

Still traveling through the Wasatch Mountain Range

As we were driving, we decided to check out Provo, UT since we were going right by the town. Provo is home to Brigham Young University. It didn't disappoint!

The Visitor's Center

Heading into the Visitor's Center

Visitor's Center

You can really see the Wasatch Mountains behind the tower

We had heard the football stadium is large and it is!

The baseball stadium across the street wasn't too shabby either!

Even the historic downtown had wide streets

As we drove through this clean, spacious historic town, we passed a gorgeous Victorian courthouse and the LDS Temple here.

The Later Day Saints Temple

As we were filling up our gas tank, we realized the eclipse should be starting here. We pulled across the street into a McDonald's parking lot, and proceeded to enjoy the show.

Here's the real thing

It became a lot of fun as Mike and I shared our eclipse glasses with numerous McD employees and customers that didn't have them.

Many of them were Hispanics, so we had a bit of trouble communicating, but some of them came back to see the changes...It was definitely a sight enjoyed by all of us! In between, we texted with family and friends about our experiences. In Bek's case, she was trying to video a film out of doors for her hospital and the eclipse was messing up the lighting. Oh Well! They were still enjoying it.

The Geek Factor is large...LOL!

Texting with our Idaho friends, Susan and Denny, they saw the total eclipse in Boise. She said the temperature really dropped and it definitely got darker with shadows lengthening. In our case, the shadows lengthened, but it was more of a hazy look with our 92 per cent eclipse.

When it finished we continued on to Cedar City, UT, City of Festivals.

Looking up one of their historic streets

I would highly recommend a stay in Cedar Falls, UT if you want to see Bryce Canyon and Zion. It isn't that far away and there are far more choices of places to stay, eat and do than Moab...

A cute bed and breakfast near the theatre

For a change we got into our motel early afternoon, in time for a delightful nap prior to heading out for dinner and our "As You Like It " play at Southern Utah's University's Shakespeare Festival. It's one of our favorite of his plays.

The sky isn't looking like this is going to be a good night for an outdoor performance

Sadly, the inside theater couldn't handle this performance

We pressed on...Hoping it would blow over

Prior to the actual play, they do a Green show on the lawn

Here they are behind the stage getting ready

The audience was hopeful that the Green show would go on...

The umbrellas and raincoats appeared

They got a couple song and dance numbers in before the show was called for lightning

It was a shame the show was cut short because they were really good!

Here I am waiting to go into "As You Like It"

When they let us in, the stage was covered like a baseball field

Like a baseball game, the play was called for a rain delay...Finally, resuming with all of us including the actors a bit wetter by far.

They did a wonderful job with this play; despite the crappy weather, we enjoyed it very much! It meant we were up very late, so we took our time in the morning. We didn't have a far drive to Las Vegas, so we headed to Cedar Breaks National Monument https://www.nps.gov/cebr/index.htm through the Dixie National Forest. As we had read they were both similar to Bryce Canyon and Zion, but without all the tourists.

Thanks to the rain lately, there are lots of wildflowers blooming.