Utah to Nevada

The drive from Richfield, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada. Winter to spring in 4 hours.

Lithus rabbit-ears the state of Arizona

Cedar City

Whenever we go to a new place, there is a sense of anticipation. Nevermind that the new place is, technically, just another small town. There's still that sense of adventure, of discovery, of wonderment. And so it was with Cedar City, Utah.

Which is the home of the University of Utah's Shakespeare festival. The restaurant at the hotel where we were staying took full advantage of that.

Or something like full advantage...

While town itself was quite interesting and cute, the view from the hotel was...stark:

But Lithus looked good doing what he does (as always)

And when it came time to head back to Richfield, the view was beautiful.

Hi from 11,000 feet.

What Happens In Vegas...

...isn't worth blogging about.

Lithus' project has moved, so instead of flying into Salt Lake, we're in and out of Vegas this time. He went to work first; I stayed home to visit with Starbuck. And then I flew into Vegas to meet him. Two weeks since we'd seen each other. In Vegas. Rowr...

Or not so much.

I've written before about how neither of us are big gamblers, big drinkers, or big show-goers. Plus, we now live in NOLA, so The Destination isn't a big deal.

So, after working in the morning and driving in the afternoon (Lithus), after being up at 4:00 am Vegas time and traveling more than 12 hours (me), after not sleeping well for two weeks because our beds were too big (both of us), what we really wanted to do was have dinner and hang out in the room.

The hotel didn't honor our king-sized bed reservation, so we ended up with two doubles. Nope, not even queens. Doubles. You know what? After the initial WTF reaction, it stopped mattering. There was a buffet. There was a television. There was a heating unit that worked. But mostly, there were us, together. He was asleep by 8:13. I followed by 9:30. We slept, we got up, we had breakfast, and headed out to Cedar City.

Yeah...Vegas is totally wasted on us.

Mr. Bingle!

...or Celebration in the Oaks

I've wanted to go to Celebration in the Oaks since our first Christmas in NOLA. Last night, we got there.

Meeting you at the entrance

Santa Gator. Need a size check? That's him below, too...

Lithus digging through Santa's bag

Christmas...penguins, perhaps.

It's not clear, but that light is a frosty beer mug. Yep, NOLA, where even the holiday lights include booze!

Propped on the tree limb

An intelligent tree

And finally, drumroll, please! It's Mr. Bingle! I love Mr. Bingle...

Don't fool yourself, though. Mr Bingle is freaking HUGE: