Rachel's Vegas Birthday Bash (Part Deux)

Last weekend myself and ten other girls met in Las Vegas to celebrate Rachel's 28th birthday. The weekend had been planned for six months so its arrival was anxiously awaited. Last year only five of us made the trip. We more than doubled our rowdy number this year.Friday night we checked into the Venetian and barely made our dinner reservations at San Marcos. Luckily, we arrived five minutes before the kitchen closed and were still able to order dinner.Then we spent the night dancing at Tao. We had to work our way through he jungle of people and up to the VIP area. Seth MacFarlane (super-cute creator of the Family Guy and American Dad) hosted the night at Tao and even came to dance with us- happy birthday to Rachel.
Saturday we made our way down to the Bellagio for a late late breakfast next to the garden. I love the Bellagio, it's beautiful and has the most delicious restaurants.
Saturday night we dined at the recently opened Lavo at the Venetian. I don't think any of us knew exactly what to expect. I would describe it as a sort of Mediterranean tapas. It was pretty dang good. While the restaurant was fantastic, the night club, not so much. The age group 28 to 35 seemed to have disappeared from Vegas last weekend. But there was no end to the AMEX black-card carrying college senior that claimed Vegas was "....just what we do...." when we asked if they were there for a special occasion. Typical. We moved on the JET fairly quickly after Lavo. Supposedly, Justin Timberlake was supposed to be appearing at JET, but we only saw some Privilege stars.We had a fabulous 36 hours in Las Vegas. Happy Birthday Rachel!

Limoges

In August 2006, I traveled to France with my mother, grandmother, great aunt, and second cousin. After we spent an amazing week in Paris, we traveled to Toulouse in Southern France. When planning our trip, we decided to drive the 586 kilometers (roughly 364 miles- the distance from Phoenix to Los Angeles) from Paris to Toulouse. This was a serious road trip. We took two days to travel the route because there were so many places to see along the way. This included more cathedrals than I can count. As day one of our road trip came to a close we decided to spend the evening in Limoges, France. We found a quirky boutique hotel that defined "shabby chic". Limoges is famous for one thing- French porcelain. So after our night's rest in the shabby chic hotel and breakfast next to an original RCA phonograph with the signature RCA dog listening (above), we headed to the porcelain factories. It was at the Royal Limoges factory that I fell in love with French porcelain. My Aunt Kathy and I outside the Royal Limoges factory.Here I am pointing to the plate pattern I like. I now know what a china shop looks like. This picture doesn't accurately portray the factory. It was huge and there were so many beautiful patters to choose from. Finally, I made a purchase, larger than I would have liked at the time, but not nearly enough since I returned home. I returned home with a rather expensive tea cup and saucer and a few other pieces. I fell in love with the Gilda pattern. I have since learned I cannot purchase this pattern in the United States. Sigh. And so, I have a hobby that I do not believe a single one of my friends know about. I collect French porcelain. Not all of my pieces match, but that doesn't matter to me. Someday I hope to visit Limoges again and purchase the remainder of the Gilda set. But for right now I am loving the vintage dishes from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I'm really having a great time browsing the antique shops for Limoges treasures. So, next time you see a vintage plate flip it over and admire where it came from.

Four Seasons- Not the Hotel

Sadly, I am not writing about a fabulous stay at the luxury resort. As the weather is changing all over the country from Summer to Fall, I got to thinking about the things I miss out on living in Arizona. Granted I get a sunny sixty degree day in January but there are definitely things I miss about living in Utah. Next to Winter, Fall is my most favorite season. The air changes, the temperature drops, and leaves change. Perhaps it's more the excitement that Winter is coming that I love it so much. I'm so ready for ski season that I check out the Alta website weekly. Here are a few of the most recent pictures of Little Cottonwood Canyon. This is why I miss Utah.
Yup, I took all the pictures from the Alta site for the last three weeks, but they are the prettiest! It's snowing in Utah, Colorado, and Montana within the next week! Needless to say I am very excited because those are all the places I am skiing this winter. Now, if it will only cool off in Phoenix!

Birthdays

I'm not a huge fan of birthdays. Well, actually, I'm just not a fan of celebrating my birthday. I don't mind helping others celebrate their own. But I do love birthday cake. Thanks to my family for supplying the dinner and cake!It wasn't called "Sara's Birthday Dinner" but that's probably because everyone knew I wouldn't show up! Sarah was in town so we made reservations for Asia de Cuba at the Mondrian. The decor was interesting, especially the giant rooster painted on the white walls. Everything was white, table, chairs, and all the sculptures. Congo music played loudly throughout the restaurant and bar. I expected Chiquita Banana to come out and dance for us. The food was not so amazing that it merited the large bill we received. It was decent but I don't think I will be going back.

Maroon 5/Counting Crows

Lindsey, Shannon, Amanda, and I hit the Counting Crows/Maroon 5 concert at the beginning of September. I love the Counting Crows and really enjoy their quirky lyrics. Sadly, their portion of the show was not nearly as entertaining as previous concerts I've seen. I was disappointed when it was all over. And amazingly Maroon 5 was good. They put on a good show. We also discovered sitting in family section of the lawn provided us really good seats without the rowdy crowd.

Monsoon Season

A severe monsoon storm rolled through downtown Phoenix last Thursday evening. The wind reached 110 miles per hour and we received almost 2 inches of rain. This was the craziest storm I have seen. The temperature dropped about twenty degrees and the sky lit up with strobe light-like lightening. My dog was definitely freaked out. The next day traffic was nightmare. My typical drive to work is only ten minutes. Friday, it took me about twenty-five minutes to go about a mile. I actually didn't even make it to the office. Our building has lost power, the glass was broken and all the trees were blown down. Central Phoenix looked like a disaster area. There were hundred year old trees uprooted. It was quite the scene. Here's a picture of a tree down in my neighborhood.

Florida- Family Vacation

It has probably been over ten years since my entire immediate family has been on vacation together. Sure, we see each other at Christmas and other holidays, but this was the first time we have really vacationed together in a very long time. A few months ago we decided to visit my grandparents in Ft. Myers, Florida. We had a great time....There are so many sea shells and sand dollars along Ft. Myers Beach. There were so many sand dollars in the water you could take a step without finding one. They turned our feet yellow, it was sort of weird.

Being from Arizona, it's always a special treat to go to the beach. We have been going to Ft. Myer's beach for nearly twenty years. It's so nice to walk outside of the condo and be on the beautiful white sand beaches. The water is warm and perfect for swimming. Needless to say, I spent time every day of my vacation on the beach. Check out Andrew's scar from his collar bone surgery in April. Hopefully, his next ski season won't end so early.
We rented scooters one afternoon and cruised around the island. I made Mathew share with me. Poor Mat. We watched the most beautiful sunsets every night from our condo. The sky was especially pretty when the Sun was setting after a storm. Below is a picture of the Sun setting over Sanibel Island. On our last night in town we decided to check out the nightlife on the beach. My grandmother and aunt talked up the Lani Kai a whole lot. We decided we had to see this place for ourselves. We hit a few places along the way....including karaoke. This was a good night. We had too much fun. Thanks guys.
DFW; I hate that airport. All of our travel problems arose because of DFW. If I never travel through it again, I will be happy. We all traveled as far as Dallas together. There Andrew got on a plane for Denver. I miss you Andrew. It was such a great trip. It was completely relaxing and so much fun. I loved spending time with my parents and my brothers like we did when we were kids. Only this time there were no fights! It was also great to see my grandparents. I know I haven't posted any photos of them but they were main reason for our trip. Hopefully, I will be able to go back again soon.

John Mayer

About four months ago Tiffany asked if I was interested in seeing John Mayer when his tour stopped in Phoenix. Of course sitting outside sounds nice in April. The day of the show it was probably 110 degrees outside and pretty humid too. We couldn't really figure out why any artist would want to play in Phoenix, outside, in the summer time. It was so hot we stuck to our plastic seats. However, the show turned out to be fabulous. I would actually put it in my top five. John Mayer is pretty amazing live.

4th of July Quiz

Rachelle sent me this 4th of July quiz. I hate to admit I have a degree in history and only got 22 out of 30 correct. Ouch. However, I did pass the MSNBC citizenship quiz with 100%. I didn't know this but the new naturalization/citizenship is not multiple choice. That's tough! Have a happy and safe 4th of July!