Las Vegas

My relaxing place...

Last weekend, I went to Vegas for a 3-day 2-night getaway. And it was the best Vegas experience ever. We were lucky as we had no traffic going there and coming back. Non-stop cruising both ways. Each way's drive time was about 3 hours 30 minutes. Very fast. I had a whole lot of fun up in Vegas, going to places I had never been to before. We stayed at the Tahiti Village Resort, which was very nice. Our room was very clean and we stayed in Tower 5, the newest tower built there. In the resort, I chilled one morning poolside, reading "The Scarlet Letter." It was cold but relaxing. In the Resort, they had a fitness center and an activities center. I was happy since I didn't have to walk through the casinos to get to my hotel room. What a relief.

Red Rock Canyon

Once we got there, went shopping at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets. I didn't buy anything but ran into Eric Prana and his family. Pretty cool unplanned meeting between our families. On the night of the 23rd, we feasted at the Feast Buffet at the Red Rock Casino and Resort. There were a lot of different varieties of food, from American to International, Asian to Italian, Mexican to Sushi, etc. I ate a lot of different styles of food. Very good tasting delicious food. On Christmas Eve, we went to Red Rock Canyon. Google Maps led us to this ghost town in the middle of nowhere, but we found our way into the park. It had been closed all week due to flooding from the record rain. Red Rock Canyon was absolutely gorgeous. Went on the scenic drive through the conservation area. Basically, only this one portion or rocks is red. Walked down the rocks and took lots of pictures. 

The V show

On the night of Christmas Eve, we watched the "Ultimate Variety Show" at Planet Hollywood. We somehow got discounted tickets and it was a very exciting and funny show. Wally Eastwood was the host and he is one hell of a great juggler. Eastwood demonstrated to us his juggling skills, using different objects. He was very lively and funny. I loved his demonstration with juggling the balls and playing different piano tunes. There were also acrobats who were crazy flexible and strong, gymnasts who danced like an Olympian, a magician who played many tricks with this one bird, and other acts. What a great show to watch. The "V" show. Then, we walked around that area of the Strip. Went to see the new hotels that just opened recently, such as the Aria hotel, Cosmopolitan, and vDara. Those hotels are nice. They have shops that are for the rich. Everything is so expensive in those shops. Saw the Bellagio water show, which was to Christmas-theme music. It was super short and disappointing.

Overall, I had a extremely great time at Vegas. Before, Vegas had seemed boring as we didn't go to places suitable for us. But now, I want to go back to Las Vegas more often, like during 3-day weekends. Besides, Las Vegas is only a 4-hour drive away.

Interesting store name in Vegas...

Rain is finally over

After seven days of non-stop, hard rain, it's finally over. The rainstorms have come and gone and left a trail of damage, which include debris everywhere, flooding, and just a mess outside. My Christmas decorations outside the house was knocked over. And when I went outside to do anything, I got wet, no matter if I used an umbrella or not. It was miserable with the rain. This "storm" is probably our equivalent to hurricanes in the southeast, snowstorm in the midwest, etc. SoCal weather is so weird. We experienced something like this in January, when there was 5 straight days of rain. It caused flooding as my street was flooded. That was the worse I have seen with rain and SoCal. We experienced a cooler than usual summer, a 113 degree record setting heat in September and now in December, this record setting rainstorm. Weather is so weird here.

This rainstorm came at a bad time: during Winter Break. If it had rained during school days, I would be perfectly fine with it. But I couldn't do anything outside because of rain. I had wanted to go out to play basketball with friends but those hopes were dashed because of the rain. I wanted to practice on the driving range, but those hopes were dashed because of the rain. I was so bored on Monday as I literally did nothing. I stayed in the house the whole day and did not step foot outside the house. But on the bright side, I made a lot of progress on my winter break assignments. I'm almost done with the Calc BC Clue Project. Just have about 6 more sets to complete. I really need those 150 extra points. Those will really boost my grade a lot. But I'm glad the rain is over. I can finally go outside and do what I want to do.

Tis the season to be jolly

Today was the last day of school for the year 2010. And it was a weird day. I had three chill periods (movies and parties) and three periods in which I had either a quiz or test. So I was stuck between enjoying the fun and the food and the important things that affect my grade. I didn't really care that much about the tests and just took a relatively carefree approach. It may come back to haunt me.

The parties in journalism and English were all nice. Holiday Olympics was a pretty cool event created by Mr. Stevens. Food wise, there were many delicious items such as Olive Garden's pasta and bread sticks, Church's chicken, cake, noodles, cookies, and all the party foods. Then in the evening, I went to yet another Christmas party, for my sister's girl scout troop. There, I again ate a lot of food as there were noodles and all kinds of sweets and deserts. So a whole day's worth of food today. The Christmas celebration is just getting started as I have a few more parties coming up in this next week. Oh I really love the holiday season. It brings so much joy and so much food.