AMD: Vacations, travel, fun, gambling, and entertainment

I have been back for over a week after a long trip out of home; I got to visit a lot of interesting places this time around and had a lot of fun. Here’s a quick log of our recent trip to Vegas, Grand Canyon, and California Bay Area. This was a family outing – Divya, me, and Aanya – along with some friends for part of the vacationing. I will start posting photographs on Flickr as soon as I have time to start going through them.

The number one place we visited was Las Vegas. It is a great place, it really is. We loved the city, the hotels that we stayed in, the casinos, the shows, the restaurants, the decor, the people, and all the glitz. We stayed at Planet Hollywood towers, and the rooms there were very nice, the staff awesome, and the food delicious. They have a huge amount of shopping right outside the hotel which we made good use of.

The Casino? Well, I ended up spending a lot of money there for a lot of gambling fun – the variety of slot machines, roulette, black jack – and poker. It was a lot of fun, and while I would have loved to win the jackpot, the only thing I won was a lot of entertainment. Um, did I mention the poker games – let’s just say that those were the most expensive.

Well, the other thing that is worth pointing out is the show that we saw by the Blue Man Group. THE BEST AUDIO VISUAL treat EVER (while others may disagree). Here’s a video:

Well, from there it was a drive out to the Grand Canyon. A BEAUTIFUL drive, and the Grand Canyon leaves you breathless with its grandeur. And makes you think. That’s all I can say. It snowed while we were leaving.

On the way back from the Grand Canyon, we stopped over at the Hoover Dam. Which was a nice spot too. But once again, the drive between Las Vegas and Grand Canyon is beautiful to the max.

In California, it was the Napa valley (a must visit, if wines (or vines) is your thing). The vineyards are beautiful in their own respect, and the wine great if you decide to taste any. We brought back a lot of food items from the Garlic capital Gilroy – suffice it to say that vampires are not visiting our home in the near future. The 17 mile drive (which is really not 17 mile long) is a beauty and we went there twice. Big Sur was as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon, and we couldn’t get enough of it. But the hidden gem was Monterey Bay. We fell in love with the old Fisherman’s wharf, and the aquarium there is one of the best that I’ve ever seen.

That is about as short a review as I can give without making these posts into pages long descriptions of the visit.