Munich, Germany

 

I was only in Turkey for a few days before we went on a little vacation.  Hubby took a week off of work and we went to Germany.  I had no idea how close Austria, Italy and Switzerland were to Germany.  I believe I was gazing out the window during high school Geography!  I really need to study a map!

 

Anyway, hubby picked this fabulous hotel in Munich.  The people who own it are very nice.  The staff was all fluent in English which made asking "tourist" questions a lot easier.  We stayed here for two days.

 

 

We arrived at the hotel at about 5:30, or maybe later.  It's all a blur.  lol  The staff told us we were about 3 or 4 blocks away from this palace.  The grounds/garden was open but the palace was closed.  He let me use this book so I could read about it.  I'm glad we were so close to it because it was worth the walk!

 

The first thing we came to was an opening and we could see this beautiful garden.  We walked in and strolled at first and then picked up our pace as the sun was going down and we wanted to see as much as we could.

 

There were several buildings on the property which in the book said were "guest" cottages.  (Bigger than my house times 3!)  Then we came to an opening and saw the palace.  Oh my.  To think this is a working palace.  So beautiful.

 

I'm having a heck of a time loading pictures with this weak Internet in Turkey. I hope to share a few more pics soon...if it doesn't cause my blood pressure to rise too much.  :) 



Where have I been and what have I been doing?

I am finally back to check-in and load some pictures. (I've had some complaints about how long I've been gone. Can you believe it? Somebody actually reads this thing!!!) lol
I hope you had a nice Labor Day weekend. We had a trip planned so I just did laundry and packing and spent some time sorting out junk in our storage shed. The girls have been on a yard sale kick lately so we thought it was time to get some stuff sorted out. Boy, that seems so long ago. Where does the time go anyway? And the trip...this is what my wallet looks like...

HA HA....can you guess where we went?
My husband's birthday is September 9th. And this man.....he loves to gamble. He has been planning his birthday trip to Las Vegas since last year!! He can't help it. It's in his blood. His mama and daddy were gamblers. His sister loves to play too so when we go to a casino together, they sit at the blackjack table together. Me? I want something for my money so when he sits to play, I find something else to do. A casino gift shop excites me more than playing slots or 21. Or a lobby or bathroom as you will see if you read farther on. :o)

So starting his LAST birthday, all I have been hearing is "My next birthday is 09-09-09 so we're going to Las Vegas." He even made the reservation, which is pretty big. He usually gives those tasks to me.

But it was actually a really nice trip. He knows how I feel about Vegas so he made it a nice little vacation for both of us. (He's kind of like that, that hubby of mine.) We left Tuesday morning for our four hour drive and stopped at the Nevada state line to stretch our legs. I shopped at the Williams Sonoma outlet while he "played". I got some really cute glasses that I don't have a picture of (yet) and a red bowl/pitcher for mixing up small batches of pancakes or cookie dough. I'll try and post pics later. From there, we headed to the Marriot Grand Chateau to check in. It was a pretty nice place but it is a time share so there is no casino there. Nice for me, not so nice for hubby. We were right on the strip though so it was easy to get around.

Here is the birthday boy on one of our adventures after getting to Vegas. Silverton Hotel has a HUGE fishtank at the entry to the big Bass store that is there. On the weekends they have mermaids swimming around but the only thing we saw were lots of fishies. :o)

We went to the Bellagio Hotel while we were out walking around. Hubby "played" while I went to the botanical garden. If you'd like to see more pictures of that, you can go to my webshots album.

Here's a teaser shot to show you how pretty it was. They have themes for different seasons. They have a little video peek at the Bellagio website here. Click on the lower right corner that says "video tour".

We went to see a show at the Wynn and while there, we walked around to see the ins and outs of the casino. This place is so pretty. Very hoity-toity. I doubt I could ever afford to stay there. This....THIS is the entrance to the bathroom!!! lol

We saw the show, La Réve. Kind of a Cirque du Soleil show but not an official MGM show. You couldn't take pictures during the performance so this is a shot of after it was over. The center is the stage and the entire show is either on the water, in the water or on a platform that pops up. It was expensive (to me) but so worth it. We would spend the money to see it again.

We visited a quilt shop called Quiltique. They are in the BH&G Quilt Sampler magazine that's for sale right now. It's a nice size shop with a nice variety of fabrics and lots of samples all over. And cute little nooks like this one!

After checking out of the hotel on Friday, we went to the Hoover Dam. We had done the tour several years ago so this time we just went to see it on our way home. It's a wonderful thing to see if you are in the area. It's not that far from Las Vegas. Maybe a twenty minute drive.

This is a bridge that is the process of being built. It's going to be amazing when it's done. Heck, it's amazing now!
Now I have some housework and laundry to do.....then to some good sewing! Hope you have been busy playing with your fabric.

Awesome Spa Resort

I have been missing for good reason. My boss took me and my co-worker Becca to a retreat weekend in Carlsbad, CA to a resort called La Costa Resort & Spa. If you have been lucky enough to go, I don't have to tell you how fabulous this place is.

I will only post a few pictures here. I didn't take tons but there are a few more on my webshots page here. I didn't really notice but since I've been blogging, I hardly put any pictures on webshots anymore. Man, what a slacker!!

This picture is my room that I had all to myself. And out that little french door was the sweetest little patio. So very private and serene.

This is my boss Donna (on the left) and Becca on the right. We are all on our way to the spa for our massages. Are you drooling at the thought? We did too. :o)

And this is the spa facility. It was amazing. Just top notch all the way around. Full spa, private ladies area, showers with shavers, shaving cream, blow dryers, hair products. Anything you would need for before and after your treatment.

I had the avocado cylantro exfoliating massage, followed by a body mask, scalp massage and full body relaxation massage. Makes me all tingly just thinking about it again! Ahhhhh

Saturday night, we left the resort to have dinner at the beach. On the way there, we saw all of these hot air balloons floating in the sky. It's common in that area to see them but since we don't live there, we were captivated by how beautiful they looked floating in the sky.

I'm sorry the picture was blurry but my boss was driving and I took the picture while we were driving down the freeway.

We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant in Encinitas right on the beach called, what else, The Beach House. This was our view from the restaurant.....

And this was the view of our desserts!!!!!!!!!!

Carrot cake on caramel sauce with raspberries, moulton flourless chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream and strawberry shortcake. Look at this dessert! It was amazing. The outside was a thin layer of stamped fondant. With the red design, it was just amazing looking. And it was delicious too!

I've been working on another set of pincushions. I'll be back soon to post pictures of my other set. Gee, if I just had a little spare time, I could get so much done! :o)

Wicked friends and family

Gotta wrap up posting these Wicked pictures from my trip to San Diego. My pal Sherrie was driving us all in her Sequoia. It was a little bumpy. (The girl drives like she lives in TJ!) hehe Just kidding. Here we are on our way to the Wicked performance. That's our mama, Virginia (youngest sis), Isabel (oldest sis) and Rachel, Virgie's friend and co-worker.

Here is the dorkus Liz and the mad hatter driver Sherrie. You can't see the speedometer from this shot but she was going 95. Look at the scenery flying by. LOL

A view of the Performing Arts center from the parking garage. The crowd was starting to gather. It was a beautiful afternoon in downtown San Diego.

In this photo, my mom is practicing her "Wicked" face. LOL I don't know what she was looking at. She probably didn't hear Rachel say smile. But actually, this face is probably why most of us girls behaved as children. LOL (You know Virgie is going to show my mother these comments and I'm going to get in trouble.)

You're not supposed to take pictures in the theatre but I've been to this play four times and I wanted something to scrapbook. I had my camera on no-flash (so I wouldn't get busted!) and my shutter stays open too long for me to get a good shot but it'll just have to do. Unless I go back to see it a fifth time. :o)))

I finished my cherry tart pincushions. I'm trying to figure out if I want to post a picture or tease the girls I'm swapping with. They sure came out cute.

Las Vegas in July

WHAT WERE WE THINKING????

Blech!!! That's all I've got to say. Well, I have a lot more to say but that pretty much sums it up. :o)

My youngest daughter has played softball since she could walk. She earned a scholarship for college, too. Well, she can't seem to give it up. Even though she graduated a few years ago, she still loves the game. She was in a tournament this past weekend in Vegas so my hubby was going to go. He LOVES Las Vegas. His wife (that would be me) HATES Las Vegas. Even when the thermostat isn't reading 102, I still don't like it. We hit traffic going there, we hit traffic coming home and to me, it's just a yucky place. But parents make sacrifices and I decided to go along.

Here's a pic of the stud, Ashley. :o)

I won't show you the disgusting scrape this girl got when she slid into 2nd base. Oh my gosh, it was ugly. During her younger years, I would tell Ashley it was a good thing she wasn't into beauty pageants because with all her scars, she would never make it. lol

It was hot and humid in Vegas. There was a storm in the mountains rolling in. So on top of the high 90 degrees, it was a yucky 90 degrees. This shot is taken from the shady trees we were sitting under watching the games. That helped quite a bit. Unfortunately, the didn't play at this park the entire tournament. The other place didn't have mature trees and I was miserable. It's not pretty when mama's miserable.

This is a "zoom" picture of the girls getting their awards from the Hooter girls. lol It's not a very good picture but I wasn't going out in the sun to get a picture! And honestly, who needs to see a bunch of 100 lb. girls in tank tops and Daisy Duke shorts? Yeah, me either. LOL

Tonight I'm working on finishing a wallet so hopefully, I'll have some "sewing" pictures tomorrow.