Las Vegas - April 2006

This weekend went to Las Vegas to see Sting perform in concert.

I found the concert on Ticketmaster, which was actually a benefit for TigerJam IX. It was held at Mandalay Bay casino, one of the nicer on The Strip.

Rather than staying in one of the smoke & gambling filled casino hotels, we opted for the Fairfield Inn Las Vegas Airport (3850 South Paradise Road), using Marriott Rewards points.

Getting to Vegas is a pretty easy drive:

• 101 South
• 134 East
• 210 East
• 15 North

I checked the traffic on Yahoo Maps Beta, which was very useful. We could have flown, but taking turns driving the 288.5 miles while listening to podcasts on our iPod went by quick. The only downside was the huge traffic jam on the way back since route 15 is fewer lanes coming out of Vegas. Once we got closer to Los Angeles, traffic opened up with more lanes.


There was some construction going on, but Vegas is still Vegas. Big hotels with kitchy themes, great food and entertainment and LOTS of people. People come from all around the world- I just hope this isn't their only impression of the US. In a funny but cute moment, an older British coupled stopped us to ask "Do you know where The Strip is?" "You're on it!" we replied happily.

Here's a self portrait we took in front of New York, New York casino.

Anna Nalick opened for Sting, and was really excited to be there. Then Samuel L. Jackson came out and introduced Tiger Woods who introduced Sting. He did alot of his older songs- not just solo stuff like Fields of Gold, but classics from The Police, like Synchronicity II, Walking on the Moon, King of Pain (mixed with a little Soul Cages).

The one song I thought he wouldn't play, he actually opened with- Message in a Bottle. After taking a break before the encore, he did Desert Rose and one of our favorites, Fragile.

He may be in his 50's, but he still sounded like he did years ago. And each song was done a little different that usual, either by combining with another in the opening, or by changing the counter melody slightly. We both really enjoyed it.

The day after the concert we walked all over town, visiting our favorite casinos. We don't gamble, so we're mostly interested in scenery and people watching. We like the interiors of The Venetian, New York New York (with a 9/11 tribute out front), Aladdin and especially Bellagio.

We also took a look inside the new Wynn casino, which has several screens running Scala's software. Casino Royale also has Scala but is not quite as ritzy. :)

One of our favorites is the buffet brunch at the Sahara. Sahara is at the far end of the strip and is definitely showing its age. But we just love the food at the buffet.

At Bellagio, we posed in the arboretum next to this snail that Fran thought was sooo cute. :)

Yosemite National Park - April 2006

This year, we decided to leave the LA freeways to visit Yosemite National Park.

We had been here before in a summer a few years ago. It was very dry, no water in the waterfalls. The sky was clear and we made it to the top of Half Dome. One of our best hikes ever.

This time we visited in the Spring so we can see what the waterfalls really look like. Yosemite is best known for its waterfalls- Upper & Lower Yosemite, Bridal Veil, Vernal & Nevada.


The most striking visuals are the tall granite rocks that surround the valley- from El Capitan to Half Dome. It looks almost pre-historic.

This time there was lots of water. The waterfalls were bursting. In fact it was practically "raining" when you walked up near them.


But along with the waterfalls came fog and some rain. Luckily we chose to stay in a cabin. It's rustic accomodations kept us warm at night. Tents would have been really cold to stay in. We had checked the park's current conditions ahead of time, so we dressed warm.

We hiked the Mist Trail to top of Vernal Falls. This is the first leg to Half Dome, which we didn't plan on visiting (probably couldn't yet- it's still covered in snow). In fact we only saw HD once when the clouds broke for a moment.

The Mist Trail is known for its many steps, and, of course, the mist from the waterfalls.

Here's a self portrait from the trail, just below Vernal Falls.

The closer we got to the falls, the more wet we got. But once above the water, we took a moment to dry off and enjoy the view before heading back down.

We also walked around Mirror Lake, which felt really secluded from the rest of the world. Huge granite walls surround it, making things very quiet and serene.


We took a drive around the valley and saw a deer on the side of the road. We carefully pulled over to take a few pictures, then noticed another, and another, eventually there were 5 deer. We watched them cross the road and climb down a hill.

A great set of waterfalls that are a must-see are Upper & Lower Yosemite Falls. You can take an easy trail right up to the base. The trail to the top is quite strenuous though.


Here's the same waterfall the last time we went, during the summer.


April is kinda early in the season, and there's still lots of snow at higher altitudes. The road to glacier point was closed (unless you have snow shoes), as was the route to tolumne meadows.


This is El Capitan, a 3000 foot tall chunk of granite. In the summer you can see the whole thing, and spot rock climbers on their way to the summit. The trip usually lasts a couple days, so they sleep in hammocks they nail into the rock.

We had pizza at Curry Village (the main camping area). This may not seem like a big deal, but it was the best pizza we ever had after coming back from climbing Half Dome on our last trip to Yosemite.

We also had a dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel, a very swanky place. It's really cool to have such luxury in an outdoorsy place like Yosemite.

One day we're wearing hiking gear, the next formal wear.

The nearby Mariposa Grove was closed, so we'll have to come back again some time to see the giant sequoia trees. As if we need an excuse to come back!

If you can't make it there yourself, you can check out the live web cams.