Our trip home.....

This has been weird for me. Because I have put all of my pictures on facebook. My friends and I talked and said we would put our pictures on facebook so we could share them. So somehow I feel like I have done all of this before!

Mike saw my pictures from the day before and decided he wanted a frozen hot chocolate too.
So off we went to Caesars Palace. We ordered our drinks and watched the people around us. They serve a huge hot dog at least 18 inches. They serve them on a very long skinny dish. But you have to cut it in half and share it with a friend. We were sitting there, each with our own frozen hot chocolate. Mike looked over at another very small Asian couple behind us then said, "that's why we are big." I looked back at them and they were sharing one drink. Oops, I didn't think of that:-) I suppose he had a point!

This was Mike waiting at the valet station at Caesars. You cans see Serendipity 3 in the back ground.

While we were waiting there was this strange old man by me. He would smoke just a little bit of a cigarette then stomp it out. He smoked 2 in the 6 minutes I sat by him. Maybe he thinks he won't get cancer if he only smokes the ends off.

Then we hit Trader Joe's on the way out of town. I love trader joe's and am so so so sad there isn't one in Utah.

They have all kinds of great products, here are jams and spreads. I got more pumpkin butter.

I was so excited to see it. I thought it would be seasonal.

I love their grain and rice mixes. I load up on those. Plus the peppermint soap. They have some great frozen vegetables put I don't get those.

Mike holding their pretty "green" shopping bag. We are happy because it is a full bag:-)

We left with 4 bags full. I even took an order from Texas!

We had a great drive home. We talked and enjoyed each others company for 6 hours. It is good to get out as a couple and be alone. We did stop at In-N-Out and grab a burger. YUM!

So my third day in Vegas was the last day of NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) NAB takes up the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, Two million plus square feet of convention. They have everything there from News helicopters and vans to little special effects programs. Mikes company sells broadcast cameras, hardware, and software. They are a big company and had a humongous booth. They stayed super busy with ton's of customers the entire show until Thursday the last day. Thursday was a lighter day. I went over there and said hi to everybody and got some shots. Everybody was happy because the show had gone so well.

The NAB people had told everybody that attendance was going to be down with this year. But like I said Mikes booth was packed for most of the show.

This is Mike and his boss Sam.

Mike walked me out, I ran up and said good bye to the Son-in-law. Their booth did really well also. Every time I went there, I would see people standing staring at Jon's wall just mesmerized.

I almost forgot. Mike gets a lot of excited people come to meet him. He has a training DVD out and had somebody bring it up to him to get it autographed. Then he had some guy from Russia come up and see him, the guy got so excited and ask Mike to take a picture with him. He often has people who are excited to meet him and talk to him, but I think that was his first autograph request.

So then came the part where I had to be a big girl. My two companions were packing up to leave. They had been there since the week before. Janie noticed this place and we wondered if it was the same one that is in New York. Serendipity it has been in a few movies, and I have seen it on TV, and talk shows. They have a frozen hot chocolate and I have wondered what it was like for years! Janie is going on a super fun birthday trip to New York this December. She didn't want to go to this one. She wanted to wait and go with her best friends in New York. But as far as I know I am not going to New York anytime soon. Then Robin went with her husband to see Donny & Marie the night before, it is just across the street so she went with her husband. I had to go alone. (Oh, we figured out by the frozen hot chocolate statue thing out front it was the same place:-) I went in and was able to sit at the bar, so I could chat with the bar tenders and not be lonely.

This was my frozen hot chocolate. They served up about 10 or more while I sat at the bar drinking mine.

They made lot's of fun looking drinks while I sat there. I ask them if I could take a picture of this one. It was a Cotton Candy Apple Martini. When you pour the martini part in of course the cotton candy disappears. You can't really tell but the cotton candy is a pale green color, they had a pink cotton candy drink also.

So this is it. It is really yummy. It it is like cold hot chocolate with tiny ice chips like snow cone size. So if you try to drink a lot to make room to stir the cream in, you end up with a lot of ice in your mouth. But once you get to the creamier part it is yummy.

While I was walking back to get my car I took a few Vegas shot's. It's always fun to see the Paris Casino.

And the shops in the Bellagio wit pretty displays.

Then that night NAB was over and we had a dinner. Or should I say Mike had a dinner. He is really good about including me in his stuff. People just understand that if he is coming, he is bringing me. We went to this restaurant. It has been there for YEARS.... they had autographed pictures of all of these old stars from the 60's and 70's. There was a little, OLD man about 4'8", that walked around with an accordion. He ask you where you are from and he plays a song about it.

These were most of the guys at the dinner, one guy showed up late and didn't get in the picture. These are all guys Mike works with in his department. The U.S. people take everybody out to a thank you dinner when they come to the show. But when Mike has gone to IBC (International Broadcast Community) in Amsterdam they do not take the people out to a thank you dinner.

And they say Americans are rude!:-)

Mikes program was developed in Japan. So he works with guys from Japan. That is Mike's friend Pat sitting in the middle. He's a really sweet guy.I am so bummed that I didn't take a picture of the appetizer platter. It was huge! It was piled with calamari, fried zucchini, fried mozzarella, fried raviolis, and meat balls. They don't do drinks there. Every table gets a carafe of red and white wine and a pitcher of water. Then you get a soup or salad, your entree, you finish off with a cup of hot cocoa. It was a lot of fun.

This is Steve and Alex. Mike talks to them all the time. Steve lives in Ireland and thinks Mike is so odd because he needs to sleep with a fan, for the noise. He used to live in Japan and Mike went out to do some work and needed a fan. Mike went again the next year and of course needed the fan again. Steve's wife had saved the fan for Mike. Then they sent him home with a beautiful Japanese fan. To them is was a funny joke because Mike can't sleep without a "fan." To us it was cool to get an authentic Japanese fan:-) Alex is a very nice guy he still lives in Japan. He was with Mike when Mike went to Oprah's studio a year or two ago.

So we had a great time. But the best part for me was when we got there. The five guys in the picture with Mike all wanted a hug from me. They had all been there for a weak to 10 days. Away from their families and just working nonstop craziness. Pat came up and hugged me and told me I was so huggable. I held out my hand to shake hands with the others, but long story short they all wanted to hug me. After the way I have been feeling these last few months, that made me feel really good. Who said hugs don't make you feel better! OK so in this picture One guy is missing from the other picture above. He was not there when we got there, so I didn't hug him. But I stood by him and started smelling fish. I looked around to see if they had brought fish through the waiting area and realized that it was that other guy. Maybe that was his cologne. or maybe that's his favorite food. they say if you eat a lot of garlic that it will come out of your skin. I personally love garlic, so if anybody smelled like garlic I would want to be by them.

I'm ranting again. So I'm out of here:-)

Our Tea....

I had only been to one other Tea, and that was last September in Amsterdam. So this was exciting. We dress all frilly, and had our little tea purses to match our outfits and drove to the Four Seasons.


When we went in to be seated they hostess switched mine and Jamie's napkins from white to black. I wondered why, and Janie said it was the mark of a very good restaurant. We were both wearing black so they gave us a black napkin so we didn't get white lint on our clothes from the white napkin.

I did take a picture of it but when we sat down they gave us a menu. It listed about 10 different kinds of tea we could choose from. It was purely a tea menu. Robin was there to keep me square on "Mormon Kosher" herbal tea.

I got some berry tea usually served to kids. It was very good, I just can't remember the name of it.

The sugar "lumps" where interesting to me, because I just assumed they would be cubes.Then my sugar lump was so pretty dissolving in my tea that Robin took a picture of it with her super cool camera.

Here we are after we have received our tea spread.

Here is the main guy who took care of us. We had a few, they were all so nice.

A close up of our food. On face book I put up single pictures of the food. You started at the top with the scones, then went to the sandwich layer, and then to the dessert layer.

Robin looked very feminine and ready for spring in her raspberry pink top. Alright I wanted to say Robin looks all girlie, but some how when you are in Vegas, girlie takes on a whole other meaning!

Janie looks so elegant and charming, she is a true southern bell.

After out tea we headed over to the Bellagio to check out their spring garden. It was very pretty.


Miss Janie poising sweetly in front of the poppies.

Robin also posed very daintily in front of the poppies.


A very pretty poppy.

They had a butterfly house in the garden it had huge moths and butterflies.


Me in front of the tulips.

That night Mike and I went out with Jon. It's nice to have a little family connection to somebody out here.

They are being very manly while they wait.

Jon enjoying being done after a nine hour day. They didn't even have chairs in there booth. So he was on his feet all day.

Mike is a huge Parrot Head so we always have to go to Margaritaville when we are in Vegas.

Here he is with his virgin pina'colada.

One thing you can say about Jimmy Buffet is he knows how to put on a good show. Once and hour this girl breaks out into to dance around the restaurant and ends up falling into a volcano popping out in a bikini and sliding down the mountain into a huge pitcher of margaritas. There is singing and clapping and dancing, it is fun.

Of course, Mike always get his "cheeseburger in paradise."

I got the volcano of nachos. We enjoyed Jon's company and then called it a night!

My trip to Vegas.....

The guys got up and drove me to the airport. We witnessed a wreck caused by 2 ducks walking across the rather large street. A guy slowed down, then came to a very slow stop and the 2 cars behind him smashed into to him. so 3 cars were wrecked for 2 ducks. Back to my trip. I made it here with no problem. the taxi line was longer than I had ever been in here, there were at least 300 people in line. I saw two 2 women cab drives. I had never seen a woman cab driver before. I got a very sweet old man that gave me amazing service. He took my bags into the hotel right up to the desk. It is pretty hot here, I have lost all of the Arizona heat tolerance and I was wimping out!


I hadn't seen Mike in a week so I went to the convention center and this is his company's booth it is ginormous! They were saying with the economy this year not expect much, because attendance is down. But there booth was packed!
Then up above Mike is another convention floor. This is a quick shot while I was heading up the escalator.

This is the Son-in-laws booth. He has been working very hard on the display wall. I had a hard time getting a clear shot of the video wall because people kept standing in front of it because it looked awesome.

Then I caught Jon busy at work. He was talking to people. It seemed their booth was doing well itself. Not quite as big as Mike company. But busy is busy!

I got to go out with the girls for the evening. We went to Caezars Palace and ate at the Cheesecake Factory.

This is Janie, she is from Dallas. She is Mike's bosses wife. She makes me miss Texas. She has that very sweet southern hospitality. She is getting Robin and I, to go to a tea at the Four Seasons today. I'm getting excited.

There are to many stores to shop at around here. I was schooled in all kinds of purses and bags. They took me to jewelry stores and we looked at all of the gorgeous jewelry.

These were just some crazy looking pigs. I'd like to see somebody try to fly home with one of those!:-)

My camera didn't catch this chandelier very well it was so pretty, and shiny I had to try! I had a full busy day, but really enjoyed myself.