leaving for new zealand

well, today's the day that we leave for new zealand. this has been a long long never-ending week of planning, making reservations, packing, and teaching. our flight to san francisco leaves at 3:30pm, and the one to auckland leaves at 9pm. we arrive at 6:30am on the 16th (i hope we'll be awake enough to navigate driving on the left side of the road), yet the flight is only 13 hours. our oct 15th is going to be SUPER short! i suppose flying there will be closer to flying from the east cost to the west coast, even though they're a day ahead. that means adjusting to time zones on the way back will be worse, which bites, because i have to teach the next day. and our return layover is going to be around 7 hours. oh well. i feel very very lucky to get to go on this trip. jet lag is a tiny price to pay!
i'm still don't feel like i'm on vacation. i think it will hit me once i land in auckland. i tend to be a nervous flyer. definitely nervous about being on a plane for so long. i hope my "personal entertainment center" works. well, heck, i hope we arrive safely. traveling is all about low expectations... if you have low expectations, you'll be happy. if you expect a lot, you have a much higher chance of not having a good time. and life is too short to not enjoy it!

pre trip...

after our dinner at rock creek, we had ANOTHER dinner to go to. our friend c was making batches of his special wings. one set was really spicy, and one was teriyaki. both were great, but we couldn't really eat much after the first dinner. anyway, they all shared pictures of the recent trips to tahoe & yosemite. and c discovered that he can display pictures on his huge flat screen tv using his playstation. he was really happy about that! unfortunately, it didn't feel like reading pictures from the thumb drives that night...

pre trip...

after teaching a bit yesterday, we met friends j & c, plus little l, for dinner at the rock creek tavern. by the end of our early dinner, l was getting really tired. here's a great picture of her cute face crumpling...
she's getting bigger & bigger! i was holding her for just five or so minutes, and my arms were killing me!

le happy

last weekend, on staturday, after j arrived home from his climbing trip, we went out for dinner with our friend v to le happy, a creperie. the crepes were soooo good! i had a ham, egg, & cheese one. we split a bananas foster crepe, pictured below, set on fire in all its glory. good times!

las vegas

the final vegas picture. j & i were tired, so we left the youngsters soon after this. i'm not sure how long they stayed out, but last we saw, they were watching games of craps. i wonder if they made huge fortunes that evening! my flight was fairly early the next day at 11, and j had a day of laundry to do before picking up his final climbing partner back at the airport in the evening. so we got a good night's sleep, & said goodbye for another week the next morning. j arrived home a lot earlier than i expected, yesterday afternoon. it's great to have him home finally!

las vegas

after dinner, we opted to get dessert elsewhere. a brief walk took us past this large chocolate fountain and accompanying dessert place.

las vegas

this is a picture of j's lamb. his plate had foam, too, and he could never figure out what the green pasty stuff surrounding the meat was. i guess my stomach was still a little questionable because i couldn't bring myself to taste his food to find out. normally, i consider myself a bit of a foodie & enjoy experiences like this, but i just was not into it this evening, and i don't know if it was just me, or the restaurant.

las vegas

here's a picture of my main course - scallops with zucchini buttons & other crap. this restaurant made good food, but it was a little too foofy for me. can anybody explain the trend of adding flavored foam to plates these days? i find it unappealing and unappetizing. gross.

las vegas

the second evening, we all headed over to the bellagio for dinner. here's a picture of c, m, & their beautiful seafood appetizer.

las vegas

while i'm at it, here are a couple more pictures of the night view from our balcony...

las vegas

saturday was spent going our own directions. we slept in, got up & walked around the casino a bit, and went back to the room to sleep longer. for some reason, my stomach wasn't very happy, despite not having drunk all that much the day before (and drinking plenty of water). eventually we got up & went down to the pool for the afternoon. here's a pretty night view of it from our balcony.

las vegas

here's a picture of our 'smores dessert- it was fantastic. gelato, chocolate, marshmallowy goodness. heaven, although the chocolate kept me up that night.

las vegas

our friends c & m arrived that evening at 7, so we met up to have a late dinner that evening. we settled on some italian place in the main mgm grand casino. it was great food. never got a picture of the main course, though. too tired.

las vegas

and of course we had to get a a hat. a recently proposed to n- they're getting married!!! congratulations, kids!

las vegas

i just had to have one of those hats! luckily those men from phoenix just happened to be selling them. :)

las vegas

ziggy zaggy ziggy zaggy hoi hoi hoi...

(is that what they say??? i'm famous for mangling lyrics to songs, so i'd be the last to know...)

las vegas

sitting right behind us was a group of firemen from phoenix, all wearing those little green oktoberfest hats. evidently they come to vegas every single year on this weekend to this beer hall.

las vegas

of course, a hofbrau haus visit would not be complete without the requisite german band. this beer band, according to our waiter, was imported directly from germany. gen-yoo-eine musicalists, i tell you!

peace.

martha,
we love you, and we will never forget you.

las vegas

a picture of the massively overpriced apple strudel from the hofbrau haus. it was good, but really small for the price.

las vegas

here's a picture of us and our waiter. we were seated, at this point, in the "garden" area of the beer hall. the garden area was indoors, but on the ceiling was painted a sky. it was totally just like being outside. inside.

las vegas

a ordered this large plate of some kind of spaetzle - basically germany's version of macaroni & cheese.

las vegas

after j got cleaned up, we met up with our friends a & n, & walked down to a bavarian beer hall - hafbrau haus. j's beer is a whole liter. i'm sportin' the half liter.

las vegas

this past weekend, i met up with the husband in las vegas. it was the first time i had ever seen him with two weeks' growth of facial hair, after seven years of knowing him. i wasn't sure if the hotel would let him in! he really needed a shower...