Vegas for Andrea and Chris's Anniversary!

Kristin's cousin Andrea married her wonderful husband Chris 3 years ago and they have been so happy every since.  In order to celebrate, they booked a trip to Vegas for the week of their anniversary!  Since Vegas is a whole lot closer than Atlanta, we decided to join them for a few days. This was a classic Vegas trip and we had a blast!

We saw 2 shows: KA and Peep Show - both fantastic, but KA was very impressive from an engineering point of view. 

After KA - great show!

We got to visit our absolute FAVORITE breakfast spot again - Hash House A Go Go for their amazing french toast while Chris enjoyed their famous rosemary chicken and waffles.

Hash House A Go Go!!!!!

 After a great breakfast, we headed to the arts district to visit the Neon Sign Museum.  This place is awesome!  It's run by a non-profit organization and currently their tours are by appt only.  It's only $15 and well worth it!  Soon they will have a full building and will be open more often.

This was used in the movie "Casino"

All handblown glass!

Ugly Duckling used car lot

That night we hit up Peep Show to see the famous Holly Madison.  It was exciting to see Holly (and our seats were so close we really did SEE her!) but she was not the biggest star of the show - there were some amazing dancers and singers! 

Cabo Wabo before Peep Show

Friday we visited the Carnegie Deli in the Mirage for some ENORMOUS sandwiches and then headed to downtown to explore Fremont Street.  We won a little money and lost a little money, but didn't pay for our trip this time.  

MGM Pool area - look how far it is from the actual hotel!  It was a long walk!

We headed home on Saturday after a Mexican breakfast in the Miracle Mile shopping mall.  Ed and I had a little time to kill before our flight so we hung out by the pool at the MGM grand...with about 1,000 other people.

Snow in May!

Well, after so much traveling and more to come, we decided to take the Mother's Day weekend off to clean house and for Kristin to get ready for a 4 day work trip to Denver.  We decided to go on a hike with friends and their dog on Sunday somewhere in the Cascades. We headed out to numerous trailheads and they were all snowed in!!!!  While Klamath Falls was a decent temperature, a little higher in the mountains it was snowing!  So we decided to scratch the hike and just let the pups play at a near by park - Daphne actually got Alee into the freezing cold water!!!  She didn't seem to thrilled about it, but still it was the first time we'd ever seen her jump into the water!


"oh - I see how this works - the humans throw the stick into the water and you go get it and bring it to me...perfect!"

 

"Thanks for getting the stick so we can play..."

"I think I'm goin in this time!!!!!"



Spring in the Bay Area!

After a hard, cold week at work and many headaches, we headed out this past weekend to visit Ashley and Matt for a green hiking weekend.  We were really excited to do some "short sleeves hiking" but we were even MORE excited when it snowed in Klamath Falls on Thursday and Friday!  It's definitely not spring yet here, so we headed south to see the blooming flowers and smell the fresh green grass.
We arrived Friday night and had a grill out with artichoke, Teriyaki shrimp and a rice pilaf - delicious!

Saturday we headed out to Sunol Regional Wilderness area for some fun hiking with Ashley, Matt, Alee and Ashley's friend Danny.  The hike was gorgeous, the weather was perfect and they allowed dogs to be off-leash!  It doesn't get better than that!

Alee with her new pack loaded with 2 Nalgene Bottles

Family photo/Rest break

Ed and Alee hiking...great shot of Alee

Kristin and Ashley

Alee climbing on some rocks near the non-existent falls

After the hike on Saturday, we headed out to another on Sunday!  Sunday's hike was at Mission Peak Regional Park.  Alee was still exhausted from the hike the day before, so we left the pack at home and headed for the very populated trail!

Hittin the trail!

Mid-hike photo!

Apparently the park land was also open-range

A rattlesnake on the trail...and NOT afraid of people!

Great view of the Bay Area

Ashley and Kristin

With us both exhausted and Alee just pooped, we headed home to get ready for our next adventure!

Reno to end the Season!

For our birthday weekend we decided to head to Reno to meet Ashley and Matt for one last weekend on the slopes!  We headed out Friday afternoon to head to Reno with our Alee girl in the car.  Kristin had to be in Sacramento for work that day, so it was a short 2.5 hour drive over the pass.  Before the trip (after cleaning the car seats NUMEROUS times for Alee's fur), Kristin decided to make a "car blanket" - basically a 2-layer fleece blanket with elastic straps to connect it to the headrests.  The goal: keep Alee's fur off the car seats and give her a more comfy ride.  Alee seemed to really enjoy it...

Alee's new car blanket

Once we got to Reno, we picked up a backpack for Alee (see the pack in action in the next post!) and looked for a pizza shop.  We drove by this place called Blind Onion which boasted being the best pizza in Reno...we figured it was worth a shot.  Turns out this place was AWESOME!!!  GREAT pizza, awesome beer, relaxed environment and games to play while you wait! 

Enjoying a beer while playing Connect 4 while waiting for our pizza

Afterwards, we met up with Ashley and Matt for a quick visit at Grand Sierra Resort (which thankfully accepts pets) and headed to bed to prepare for snowboarding. 

Saturday we got up bright and early to drop Alee off at Pet Play House for all-day fun.  This place is really great, offering kennel-free playing all day and night!  If you opt for a "suite" there - it's definitely NOT a kennel!!  Alee only played during the day, but we're bringing her here for 4 days while we're in Vegas in May!

One of the suites at Pet Play House

With Alee taken care of, we were off to the slopes with our new boards!  We decided to check out Homewood Mountain Resort - it's a smaller resort on the westside of Lake Tahoe.  We chose it because, frankly, they were just running a super cheap deal on Liftopia.  We were very thankful for the cheap tickets because this place was great!  There was hardly any one there, no lift lines and great conditions for April.  We had some really great runs, but by noon things started to melt and get pretty sticky.  Ed and Matt wanted to "tough it out" on some hard runs while Ashley and Kristin were content with a beer in the lodge.

Ed heading down a run

Kristin and Ashley in the Lodge

The weather was great for snowboarding, but not great for photo ops.  We still tried to grab one along the side of Lake Tahoe near the resort.

Lake Tahoe!

After a great day of boarding, we checked out the EXPANSIVE El Dorado Buffet and hit the tables to try our luck.  Ed came out a few bucks ahead but Ashley made it BIG by trippling her money!

Waiting in line at the El Dorado Buffet

Sunday we tried to go to the GREATEST BREAKFAST PLACE EVER (Hash House A Go Go) since they just opened up a new restaurant in the Hardrock Cafe Casino in Reno.  Unfortunately when we arrived there was a large sign saying "coming April 27th" - grr!!!  We were just a few days too early!  Oh well - we opted for the very wonderful Old Granite Street Eatery in downtown for their delicious dishes.  After a great weekend, we headed home to prepare to see Ashley and Matt again the next weekend in San Francisco.

Alee...always sad when we have to leave...