Arlington?? and a confession

I have arrived in DC and have already been reminded of why I love the east coast. (I like to think it's in my blood since I was born in Connecticut) It's a great time of year here, the weather is mild and there isn't much humidity, the leaves are starting to change and most of what you would need is within walking distance. I truely enjoy walking to get groceries or to pick up starbucks and really wish I lived somewhere that made that possible. I have been fortunate enough to live in several areas of this wonderful country and each had it's unique quirks, but I haven't yet lived in a walking city. I'm not sure Dominic would be up for a move back to the east coast (he was in NY for college) and certainly both sets of parents would have my hide for asking him...but I still want to :) I bet he would tell me to visit in the winter and then reconsider.

Now, on to the real reason for the post....on my walk today I stumbled upon a cemetary. Ok it's not really Arlington it's actually Holy Rood Cemetary and I have a confession to make...I really like old cemetaries. For some reason they draw me in. I like to read the tombstones and often find several interesting things
1. spouses who significantly outlived each other or their children.
2. wives who are significanly younger than their husbands.
3. children who passed very young.

Now number 2 is still pretty common today, but 1 and 3...not so much. Sometimes I'll even see many family members with the same date of passing or dates within a month or so of each other and wonder just what happened. I know many of you might be thinking this is morbid but it's actually quite the opposite for me. It really lets me appreciate what we all have today as it's unusual for children to pass and infection deaths are just as rare....some pictures to illustrate my findings....


You might notice in the one above he passed in 1906, she was 1914, and their daughter was 1902 (before them). Please also note that he is 16yrs older than his wife and she was 15 when she had their daughter!!!!!!Notice that Catharine and Blanche (the bottom 2) died within a day of each other 11/29 and 11/30

Oh and this cemetary is OLD (I used to love the ones in TN because of all the civil war connections) and seems to be a little unkept. It's not neglected by the caretaker, but instead it seems the relatives stopped coming, probably as generations forgot about the past. Do you see all the knocked over headstones and huge bushes...well those bushes are covering up the headstoneThere is actually a headstone right on the front of this mass of bushes...not that tall one sticking up that one's far away. Someone obviously planted a nice tree or small bush and eventually the family just stopped coming and the plant overtook the plot.
It seems that some just uncovered these two headstones on the ground as the dirt was fresh there...wonder who and why?

On a final note, I saw this today at Whole Foods (which CA is known for but Modesto DOES NOT HAVE) and I thought of my hubby...he loves all things olive/pickled...I miss you babe

BOTB

For those of you who have no clue what that means...and I assume that's most of you, it's Babies on the Brain. While at my conference I've been perusing my google reader and catching up on many fun blogs that range from design to savings to babies. Many even manage to combine all 3. I ran across these pictures from The Selby taken of Christina and Swain Hutson and their daughter Lowe.

How absolutely cute is that pup sitting on the piano. I could see Eclair doing this, only she would be laying. Our puppy thinks she owns the whole house and I don't see that changing once a little one comes along. Now for that second shot. I am a very organized person and having a room close to this would keep me up at night....EVERY night. But i secretly LOVE the tutus hanging from the ceiling. What little girl wouldn't want a rainbow selection of tutus?? Maybe I should get one for Hay for Christmas?? Cindy, what do you think?

Back to the topic...Babies...Why are baby things so fun? I want baby things but I'm not so sure I'm willing to give up my independence...but I don't want to be an older parent either...why can't I have it all?????AHHHHHHH

LV part duex

After our nap we got ready and headed to MESA (in Caeser's Palace)...it so did not disappoint. This place had some delish food, I would go there again in a heartbeat.Our reservations were for 1015 but we showed up a bit early and got some drinks and appetizers at the bar. The margarita was probably the best I've ever had...not to sweet, just the right amount of alcohol..mom you have to try this. (it's the cactus pear) Plus it's PINK

I never did get a pic of the quesidilla's we had at the bar and the next one was half devoured before I snapped it, guess I didn't get off to a good start.

UMMM tasty

Now came the tough choice...dinner. I was going back and forth between pork and the mahi mahi....

How pretty is that presentation

Hubby went big...

He was unable to finish this steak, well actually I'm sure he could have finished it but I begged him not to hurt himself just to eat it all. The server actually asked if we were interested in dessert...he replied ma'am if I'm leaving any of this steak on the plate there is no way there is any room left for dessert

The next morning we headed down to the pool to lounge a bit before starting our day.

TI is pretty far up on the strip meaning we weren't that far from the first hotel Dominic ever stayed at in LV...we knew it had been demolished...but why is the sign still there?? Anyone???

Touring a few other hotels...this is the Wynn. We got some yummy ice cream here.

This is defintely the Venetian. That ceiling is in their entry hall...just spectacular.

We were completely ready for some lunch at this point and remembered a little outdoor place we saw the day before at Caesar's, La Salsa...it's a chain but I'm a sucker for a good people watching location

Right next to the fountains!

Tonight we had tickets to "O" at the Bellagio. On the walk there I finally convinced Dominic to put his head in the lions mouth...ouchy

Rose, my aunt, helped us get some unbelievable seats....Here's looking toward the stage

Someone looks happy with our seats

And for some perspective...this is looking back at the rest of the theater

I have a few videos of the opening but the upload speed here is frustratingly slow so I'll add them once I get back home.

What happens in Vegas goes on the blog!

Ok, not ALL of it will go on here...but I just wanted to show you all the fun things we did. Why are we in Vegas you may ask? We're coming up on our 1yr anniversary and I needed to do a conference to keep up my competency and we were able to combine the two in Vegas. We headed over on Friday morning and spent the weekend together, then Dominic headed home and I'm staying until Wednesday for the conference. We hopped our flight from Stockton so we didn't have to spend so much time traveling (more on that later) and picked up our rental for free, thanks Hertz! It was a short trip up the strip to Treasure Island where we stayed for the weekend. The room below is our room and it was great. The bathroom was big and everything was very luxurious. The pool was nice with quick service but not so big that it was impossible to get a lounge chair after 9am.

After we got settled we headed down to Paris for lunch. On the flight we'd read about the lovely outdoor cafe and couldn't wait to try it out. Now, in Vegas many people make the mistake of thinking that they can see the hotel so it can't be far away. We KNOW that is completely wrong and were well aware that we would be walking nearly a mile for lunch

Ah, Paris! I wish this was the real thing as I've been dying to get to Europe for 10yrs but no such luck. Mon Ami GABI was fantastic. The weather on the other hand was HOT. I was insistant about sitting outside and later regretted that as the sweat was dripping down my leg. Another perk of being outside...the Bellagio Fountains. We had a perfect view from out table.
Of course, we were so close to the Bellagio we couldn't help but go in. I just loved this glass art on the ceiling at the entry...the colors were gorgeous and they just looked like they were floating. We finished day one off after a nap with dinner at MESA grill, that's Bobby Flay's restaurant...pictures to follow shortly.

Cindy's Trip Finale

To conclude their trip we all went out to dinner at a new restaurant in town. BJ's is a chain but we found it tasty and reasonably priced...I'm sure we'll be back! They're also a brewery so you could do a tasting of a flight of beers. I'm not too much of a beer fan but I always like to do a tasting, usually Dominic and I just share. These were some BIG glasses for tasting. You could vary easily have shared between three people even.

Of course I love to get shots of dinner...this was Dominic's chicken club

And here's my BBQ chicken pizza. Everyone at the table was eyeing this when it arrived. They also have a 2 slice option which I think I'll opt for next time as I was only able to eat about 1 piece of this after all the appetizers that we had. Cindy and John were able to have the rest for lunch the next day.

I couldn't resist posting a few nice shots of everyone

Just before we left I finished Hailee's T-quouise scarf. She specifically requested this and I added the beautiful purple ends as a way to glitter it up. There is some great metallic interweaved in there.
Now that the weather is getting cooler (ok, 70's aren't exactly cool but it's certainly better than 90's) I think I need to get back on the knitting bandwagon.

More Spelunking

After Hailee headed to her dad's place we were able to do a few more adult things, like going to the caverns! If you remember Dominic and I have been to several caverns here in the Central valley and had a great time. Poor Dominic had to go to work and wasn't able to tag along, but Cindy, John and I had a great time and actually did TWO caverns in one day. This is definitely the way to go since they are a fair drive from Modesto but there are 3 caverns within a 30min drive of each other. You are able to get big bang for your travel buck/time because each cave is so different.

First, we went to Moaning Cavern, so named for the moaning sound that errupts from the cave enterance during the rainy season. This sound happens when the rain hits the hollow formations at the bottom of the cave.

Cindy and John are flanking the visual of the cave, which goes VERY deep (something over 300ft down)

To get into this cave you have to walk down a very narrow bunch of stairs with a very short ceiling height...Doesn't Cin seem to be enjoying herself?If you thought that was tough, you now have to tackle the spiral staircase. John didn't really enjoy this part too much and I must say there is a trigger that goes off in your body telling you DON'T GO! Eventually he made it and ended up in the enormous cavern. believe it or not you can fit the statue of libery in here.Here is one of the large formations in that space. There isn't much to this cavern once you get in there unless you take the adventure tour which I would love to do sometime...maybe when dad comes down next??

I don't have any after shots of us but let me tell you we were exhausted. At least one of us thought we were dying and we all needed water. After grabbing some lunch we arrived at California Caverns. This cavern is more horizontal rather than vertical so it involved few stairs and much more walking. Here's the map of this cavern:This is one old caveHere's a closer look at all the rooms we traveled through (follow the red line) DANGER! you must wear hard hats to protect your noggin here!

We're all suited up and ready for some air conditioning! It's naturally 59 degrees in here year round. The gold rush settlers actually held town meetings, parties, weddings and just about everything else here...check out that old school tag! (1861 is the year under the name)
Enjoying that AC

Here are some stalagmites

This set is from inside the Jungle room which wasn't found until the 60's. The explorer actually had to climb through a 9 inch fracture in the rock to get into the room. It was in pristine condition and to protect the formations from the soot, ash, and body oil that the rest of the formations endured he sealed the opening back up and it wasn't rediscovered until the 80's! The formations are SO MUCH MORE white in this room and the straws (that's the long formations from the ceiling) are untouched and amazing. You can see many everyday items in the formations...check some out below.
Do you see the seahorse?This is an upside down picture of the ceiling...doesn't it look like a town?
I would highly recommend getting to at least one of these 2 caves...California certainly has more to see with less physical effort! Stay tooned for the rest of our time with Cindy and John!