More Las Vegas, Palm Springs & Lake Arrowhead

The Bellagio ceiling as you enter the hotel.























The Conservatory at the Bellagio


















Katy's favorite piece of Dale Chihuly.

















Dad at dinner at Lavo.

















Mom at Lavo.

















Katy at Lavo.

















Me at Lavo.































































This was dessert at Lavo. In the background, I ordered fried oreos with a side of ice cream in the glass. It was delicious. However, I think the strawberry shortcake was better because it was alot lighter, just as fresh and tasty. I think it would have gone better with my Ahi Tuna that I split with Mom. I'll try and get a picture in once I load the pictures from my iPhone.

























On this particular afternoon we wandered through the new City Center, Aria and Crystals Shopping Center. This was in front of the Aria, a whole wall of waterfall with bird chairs.























It also had another Dale Chihuly gallery.
























Anyone like this outfit? I do.

















Mom and Dad before or after The Lion King at Mandalay Bay. Note Dad's new threads.




Palm Springs, California

















Grant and Chris' House in Cathedral City
















This is the view from the front of their house.
















This was in Palm Springs, more of their downtown area.


Lake Arrowhead, CA
















On the way up to Lake Arrowhead, CA

















On one of the turnouts almost to the turnoff for Lake Arrowhead.

















Tony's Mexican!

















In the village, on Lake Arrowhead.
































This is the village, over looks the lake.

















Anyone like this picture?

















Katy in front of the house, after our walk to the local beach.


















Just before we spent a couple hours at the Ontario Airport.



And finally a video on the way down the mountain from Lake Arrowhead.

Mike and Jori's Wedding

The whole point of the trip was to head to Mike and Jori's wedding on Saturday, July 9th. It was a short drive to Mount Charleston and as we drove out of the Las Vegas strip and downtown area you saw lots of sand, rocks and mountains. But as you kept driving you started to see small bushes, cacti and trees. It was a nice wedding in the mountains at 8,500 feet and I'm glad we were able to go.

Las Vegas

Another vacation out west took us to Las Vegas for a wedding and some time with parents again!

We were able to go to Mike and Jori's wedding outside of Las Vegas, in Mount Charleston, Nevada. We arrived early and stayed late in order to hang out on The Strip with Mom and Dad. It was quite the week of entertainment.

The trip was filled with great food, wandering, shopping, sun, the pool, a few rainstorms, The Lion King, Mike and Jori's wedding and more.













The view from the 20th floor out on the mountains.



















I had to travel in style. Em, you said you can't wait to see what I wore to the wedding; well what about this outfit?













This was on the top of Paris Paris, we went up after eating at Mon Amie Gabie where I ate delicious salmon and Katy had a steak with bleu cheese. We saw the Bellagio water show twice.













This is the Bellagio water show.













The Paris Paris view of The Strip.













Friday we went to the Hoover Dam and went on the full Dam tour. It isn't a long drive there but we got there in good time and early enough to not be overcrowded. That was great because the last time I was there it was packed; granted that was when they didn't have the new bridge built so all Nevada to Arizona traffic used one two lane road.


























Since we took the full Dam tour we got to see a ventilation spot that was about halfway down the dam wall. The next view is great!













This was from inside that air vent/shaft.













A modern marvel. Also, you're in Nevada and Arizona once you walk about half way across the dam.












































This was in Boulder City where we stopped for lunch.

Mom and Dad Visit

What an excellent few days with Mom and Dad!

We were able to get a few things done all while having fun and ducking the rain showers!

On Thursday night we went to Crave in Minneapolis and sat on the rooftop with all of the cool Minneapolites. I ate Glazed Grilled Salmon with lobster mashed potatoes, sweet chili buerre blanc, and sauteed spinach. Of course we also ordered the calamari for an appetizer and that was also great. Dessert was a s'mores brownie. Yum!

Friday we went to the Science Museum of Minnesota and took in the King Tut omnitheater and exhibit. It was the first time we were there in a long time and enjoyed another interesting film and exhibit.

After that we went to Izzy's for ice cream in St. Paul and then to the Mall of America. The highlight of the MOA was mom and dad both got some sweet shoes.

Saturday, Dad, Katy and I got together to attack the back yard. We took down the smallest of our bushes and a small tree in the back yard.




























Here's the video of the bush take down.





Sunday, Father's Day, we went to the Twins game! I didn't think we'd have too much trouble getting tickets but it ended up more of a challenge than I thought. We hit a couple scalpers which didn't turn out for us but we took standing room only tickets and watched in right center field. Though, that saved us a bit of money.

In the crowd we spied Nate and Amanda, Uncle Paul and Nate's dad. We also spied Lance in his season tickets. We exchanged texts before he came over to say hi and said "I have paparazzi" because I was taking pictures of him and waving.

After the game we went to DQ for some ice cream and then finished it out with Axel's Bonfire on Grand Avenue on a beautiful night.

Tuesday we finished up the trip with lunch downtown at Cosi with Katy.

Overall, it was great to have Mom and Dad. Another thing on our to do list is add a bed and furniture so they can stay with us and so can you!

TC 1 Mile

I ran the Twin Cities 1 Mile again on May 12th.

Making excuses or telling the truth I didn't run very much beforehand because of poor Minnesota spring weather due to chilly temperatures, clouds upon clouds and rain I just didn't get out very much to run. So, I ran my slowest mile in 3 years, 5:25. However, I was okay with that because I really didn't run very much.

I've always set "goals" to try and be in the top 20-30 in the general masses but I can't maintain running in the winter here. Can someone keep me accountable next winter to maintain fitness so I can run faster next year?














The TC 1 Mile also served as the USA Road Mile Championships too and attracted a good crowd of professional runners. Sara Hall, Ryan Hall, David Torrence, Tommy Schmitz, Gabriele Anderson, Heather Kampf and more.

Sara Hall ran under 4:32 and David Torrence won in under 4:00 winning $10,000 each for the time prize in addition to the $4,000 for winning the race.

Here is Sara Hall.

Boston Marathon Slow Mo Videos

I know the Boston Marathon was a few weeks ago but I found these videos and found them to be interesting because of the athletes in them, Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher as well as the running motion-the biomechanics behind running a marathon as fast as they do.




Credit goes to http://runnyknows.tumblr.com/

Ryan Hall






Kara Goucher