Vegas, baby!

Well, after Southern California, we headed to... VEGAS!

At first, we thought that we'd never go out of our way to go to Vegas, so we decided to make a stop and call it a once in a life time gig. Well... we actually enjoyed ourselves. Yes, Vegas is over the top and cheesy, but we had fun staying in a really nice hotel for cheap, going to the casinos, and seeing a really great show that won two Grammys.

Santa Clarita, home of the Big W, for all you "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" fans.
(MMMMW Subculture followers: The W is not there anymore... It was in someones back yard and one of the palm trees got blown over in a storm. Sad.)
(For those of you normal people who don't know what we're talking about, the Big W was a W made from palm trees. Click here to see what we're talking about.)

Arizona in late evening



One night, we decided to do the casino buffet. We chose the one at the Bellagio, thinking because of how nice the hotel is, we couldn't go wrong. And we didn't. It was incredible and we ate it well, strategically eating our way through the night, taking breaks and avoiding cheap foods. Seriously. Note, above and below pictures are courses number 1 and 2 of 5.
The fountain at the Bellagio. You've seen this on movies a lot (ie, the end of Oceans 11), but it's the real deal. This was one of the most impressive things we saw in Vegas.



The Bellagio's fountain and Paris Hotel and Casino


New York New York Hotel and Casino


At the MGM Hotel and Casino, they have a lion exhibit. The lioness (above) and lion (below) were a big hit there.. though we found it pretty sad that they were confined to the indoors in a small space with tons of people (like us) flashing their cameras into their cage... but it was still pretty neat.

Paris Hotel and Casino at night time.


The Bellagio, again, at night time






Our favorite part of Vegas. The show. We saw 'Love' by Cirque Du Soleil, all to The Beatles music. The show won two Grammys and we were blown away by our first Vegas show experience.



On our way to pick up the tickets


This is when we were picking up the tickets... the entrance to the show.



We even got all dressed up for it which was really fun. Nell was BEAUTIFUL.




Pre-show


The finale



After the show, with a good view of the strip.


The strip.

Well, we had fun. I think that it exceeded our expectations of Vegas. The show helped and I think if there was ever a good show back in Vegas, and the hotels were cheap, we'd go back.

Thanks for keeping up with us. We're in Scottsdale right now, visiting the Clarks - having a GREAT time, and will head to Oklahoma City on Tuesday, thus the end of the trip. We'll have our Arizona blog up soon.

We are very sad that the trip is ending, but life must go on, and we're really anxious to see what the Lord has for us in the future. Thanks for following us. Don't forget to check in on our Arizona experience. You're a good one for following us.

HWY 1 & SoCal

Hey everyone. We're trying to check up on our blogs (if you're still keeping up with us). The Internet access has been few and far between... but we're doing pretty good with what we got. After the Monterey Peninsula, we drove down the famous Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) to Southern California...




..I know, we've seen a lot. And I know I'm an extremist, but the fact that my wife isn't and said that it's some of the most beautiful things she's ever seen says a lot about this part of the world. I hope we captured it just a little bit...

We thought Big Sur was a town... which it kind of is, but mostly, it's a conglomeration of state parks, about 40 to 50 miles long, but if you do it right - about 8 hours


The day started of a bit cloudy, but it cleared up later on


This is one of the creeks that ran through one of the state parks



This is Pfeiffer Beach State Park. We stopped to get in some beach time.


While there, we found this little fella... a harbor seal just beaching it up for the day



We tried to pose for some pictures and we got this one... Nell's hair getting blown by the wind = a handlebar mustache for me.


My beauty.

I feel like I should preface the next few pictures. They were taken at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, specifically at McWay Cove. This is one of the most beautiful setups either one of us has seen. A cove, a waterfall, caribbean-blue water... just incredible.



We stared at it for a while, then finally decided we have to move on...

I'm not sure what we expected the PCH to be, but... it exceeded all expectations.




Beautiful woman


What's that squirrel looking at?

At the end of the state parks was a beach front with Elephant Seals. Neither one of us knew they even existed... but check out their noses...


Crazy, eh?


A pair trying to intimidate one another


Hearst Castel. We didn't get a chance to go in because it was so late, but we saw pictures of it... and it's pretty fascinating. Maybe next time.


Toward then end of our PCH drive, we finished it off watching the sunset over the ocean.

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After Highway 1, we then headed down to Santa Barbara for a few days where we shopped and rode around the beach front on our bikes.

They call this Arlington West. There are 3,000 crosses here that pay tribute to all of the soldiers who've lost their lives in Iraq. It was pretty surreal.

We watched some sail boats for a while. I watched them with envy, hoping one day I might be able to do something like that. It's pretty fun to watch.




This guy was just hanging around Stearns Wharf there in Santa Barbara


We also saw a skate boarding park where we watched them in action for a while.

There were about 4 beach side weddings going on Sunday afternoon as we took a ride on our bikes.





We also went to UC-Santa Barbara. They have a pretty cool setup right there on the ocean.


Here's Nellie standing in for Laurel as an honorary alumni of UCSB. This was her first choice of school until she found out how much it costs. UCA will have to do...go bears.

After Santa Barbara, we headed to Ojai, CA in honor of Dennis Collins who grew up here.


It was a great little town with orange and avocado groves as far as the eye could see.
(This is at Friends Ranch, but we didn't get any of their world famous freshly squeezed orange juice because they were closed that day.)


A HUGE eucalyptus tree.


This is downtown Ojai at a park where we walked around for a while

We went for a drive up Gridley Road where the Collins fam used to live. This was the view from the top of the hill. Beautiful.


And Nell doing a little orange picking...


Here is the road that Dennis grew up on. We didn't know what house it was, so we took a picture or this one just in case it was it :)


For dinner, we went and checked out Boccali's, a local Italian restaurant that Dennis suggested. It was SO good. They grow their own vegetables and use that in the dishes that they prepare. And talk about amazing strawberry shortcake...they've got it there!

We absolutely loved Ojai. It was a beautiful, quaint town with such friendly people. All of the locals we talked to were very welcoming. Thanks, Dennis and Linda, for being our tour guide in Ojai! We enjoyed it!

After that... we headed to Ventura County.. just north of LA, where we stayed with Rex and Sherry Holt and got in some great beach time.

Sherry gave a pretty cool stop on our way to their house from Ojai. Grant Park is a huge hill located right off the highway and close to the beach so you can see forever (See above). Apparently, back in 1782, a Catholic priest who had started a lot of the missions there in Southern California planted a cross on the top of the hill (see below). They replaced the cross in 1912, but it's still pretty cool that it over looks the city and how beautiful the view is.

Also atop Grant Park.


We also spent a couple of days at the beach where we got good sun and I played in the water.


Rex took us to Skidrow where he works there with the poor. We went with him and another Baptist pastor to spent the evening

It was a pretty nice facility

The men before their service started (which they have different services for men and women).

Rex kicking off the service

This is Rev. Sherwood Haisty, a local southern baptist pastor from Filmore who preached that night.

This is Tracy, a tenant of the mission. He requested to sing a song that he and his brother in law wrote called "Jesus is Awesome." Let's just say... it was awesome.


This is the women's side. We met some very resilent women and also heard some very hard stories. We were really glad we got just a great experience while in LA.

The LA skyline from the mission. We loved the California sunsets.