Random picture post (Las Vegas pictures too)

Here are some pictures from the past few months. Only captions (some are long) and not a lot of background.

Carmella rock climbing in Squamish, at a spot called Burgers and Fries.  (Climbers name spots like skiers and bikers name trails.  There are climbing trail maps of the area too.)  Squamish is very famous for its rock climbing.  I just watched and took this picture.  Carmella is the climber.

Carmella is barely in this picture, but that's OK.  This is a beach fire on Wes' birthday.  You're not really allowed to do this, but everyone does anyway.  It was a great night.  I'm not in the picture, but Tina and Wes are.

Carmella planned and threw a murder mystery party, so everyone is dressed up to participate.  Everyone has scripts to read, and clues are presented on the tape player.  Carmella found this game at the thrift store for a great price.  The hardest part was rounding up a working tape player.  We got one from the landlords upstairs.

We went to Las Vegas a few months ago.  It was a good price, and we were tired of the constant rainy weather in Vancouver.  Notice they don't have grass, just dirt and crushed pebbles.

Across from our hotel was one called New York, New York.  Our hotel played abrasively loud music all the time, so we went across the street to NYNY when we could, where it was calmer.

This is a famous sign for the hotel called Circus Circus.  We got 2 for 1 dinner coupons and drink coupons, and it was affordable to begin with.  At our hotel, the recommended we not make the journey because we'd have to go through a sketchy part of town.  It was not that at all.  I think they wanted to keep us in the area so we'd spend money at their chains of hotels.

The restaurant was called Rock and Rita's, and we weren't sure if it was made with a trailer park theme on purpose, or if they just thought it was nice.  We're still not sure.

Here's a pic of the drink menu, (you can buy a drink that is shaped with a toilet and comes with chopped up hot dogs floating around), some coupons, our cutlery in a Mason jar, and our wine in plastic tumblers.  While not the classiest place, it was a good meal, and very affordable!  

Circus Circus is popular with families because they have (in addition to the casino downstairs) a whole slew of carnival games.  I won a round of Camel Chase.

Carmella won this little rhino in the fishing game.  I hurried her to catch the red puck, and she got a yellow one instead.  But, you're a winner every time!

We found Las Vegas to be very loud and very jarring.  In the Bellagio hotel, we found a Dutch themed garden!  It has real tulips that smelled wonderfully, and soothing music. 

Here, a little sign talks about Dutch shoes, explaining they're called "klompen".  They look like the pair Carol had when we were little! 

They have slot machines in the airport too, right outside the gate.  The security lady in the background got upset with Carmella here, because she thought she was sitting down for a few rounds of slots just as our flight was boarding.  I guess people do that and miss their flights, so this woman gets passionate!

Another interesting thing is that the Las Vegas airport thinks it's 1987.

We went to a wedding

Hi Everyone,

It's two months since I've posted, and a lot has happened since then.  Instead of trying to write about two months of events, I'll just start from yesterday, and maybe post some random pictures down the road.

Yesterday Carmella and I went to our friends' Tony and Mary's wedding.  It was really nice and a great time.  After our own wedding, it's a treat to attend a wedding where you only have to begin preparations an hour before!

Tony and Mary got married at the UBC Boathouse, which is a rowing dock and also an acclaimed wedding venue.  It's not near UBC at all though, it's just where the team trains I guess.  It's in Richmond (the airport is also in Richmond) on the mighty Fraser river.  I've heard rumours of sturgeon in the river, but didn't see any.

Here are some pictures!

Weddings are always a good time for pictures!  No claw really, I've extended the fingers instead.

The Groomsmen and pastor.  The Fraser river is in the background.

The presentation of Tony and Mary Kwong.  I apologize for the head, but this is the best one I had.

While the family had pictures, we enjoyed the venue.  I liked the balloons.  They were quite large.  We were told we couldn't release them, because we were in the airport's airspace, I supposed because a crashing plane would obliterate the venue and cancel the rest of the wedding.

It was a fun wedding.  We left at about 1am, and there were still quite a few people there.  It's nice that Tony and Mary stayed at the party, because I find that once the main attraction leaves, the rest of the revelers start trickling out and the party dies.

A very nice wedding, and a great way to spend a Saturday.  Tony and Mary's wedding weekend was much like ours, almost a year ago.  Dark, cloudy weather for the whole preceding week, sun for the wedding day, and more clouds the day after.

Congratulations Tony and Mary!