July 4th in Washington D.C.

July 4 weekend - 2010

Continuing with our tradition to visit as many neat places with fireworks, we are visiting our nation’s capital this year.

We leave on AirTran at 6:40am on Friday, July 2 and arrive in Washington DC at Noon.

We are staying at the Courtyard by Marriott, Embassy Row and will go there immediately from the plane because we have to check in and go to Representative Tim Johnson’s office for a 2:40pm tour of the United States Capitol.

On Saturday, July 3, Representative Johnson’s office has arranged for us to go on a tour of the White House what a special tour this will be for us.

Both of us have been to Washington DC in our past lives, but not together so this should be a great time.

The fireworks should be fantastic and we are looking forward to them as well as seeing everything we can in a very short period of time.

As this had been a hectic last couple of weeks, with the Bloomington Gold show, Barb’s job on the airplane is to catch up on her sleep and then pick out the places that she wants to visit and away we will run.

We leave Washington on Monday at 2:59pm and arrive back in Bloomington at 6:17pm.

Las Vegas – Day 4

The pictures are: - The Venetian Hotel
1. The view from our room
2. The new City Center
3. The buffet at the Flamingo

As we have every day, we got up late and were out of the room by 10:30am. We then headed down the strip to see some of the new developments.

Plant Hollywood has a new hotel casino and is it ever spectacular. Of all the casinos on the strip, it was probably the prettiest to us. But, we really, really do like the Venetian.

We ate a not so good lunch on the street and then went into the new City Center property. This just opened property is the largest privately financed development in the world. It consists of several hotels, one huge casino and a number of condominiums and office buildings. As you can see from the picture, some of the buildings are even built on an angle.

Then we worked our way back up the strip, stopping at the Beliago and Caesar’s Palace.

At Caesar’s we sat in their huge sports book and watched the last period of the US vs Canada hockey meet. What an event to see on their big screens and when the US tied the game, the crowd in the sports book went wild. Then we had to leave to go across the street to see an afternoon show at the Flamingo. Before the show, we were able to watch the finals when Canada won.

We saw a magician by the name of Nathan Burton in a very fast-paced magic act. We had front row seats and it was a really good performance. Then it was on to their buffet as we had purchased a package that included the show and dinner.

After that it was back to the Venetian where Ed had absolutely the best run that he has ever had. Barb had just arrived when the steak started so she got to cheer and it was almost unbelievable. There were three of us at the table and everything went right for a really long streak for all of us. As best we can figure, Ed won 18 out of 20 hands, and then lost twice and he stopped playing to protect the winnings for the best run ever.

We then took a cab downtown to see how that area had changed. It was about the same as it was in 2001 when we here before but it was fun seeing and walking in this area again – it is so totally different than the strip. We went into a number of casinos and did well.

Finally it was time to go back to the Venetian and we crashed for the day – a really long, fun day.

See every one on Tuesday. We will write about Monday if anything happens, but we plan to get up late, go to the airport and come home.

Las Vegas – Day 3

The pictures are:
1. One of the lobbies.
2. One of 8 pools.
3. The fashion show at the mall
4. Dinner in the room during the game

Well we awoke late to cloudy skies, but there is not snow and we didn’t need a jacket to walk around the strip so the weather was great in comparison to Illinois.

First we walked around the hotel complex – wow. There are 8,108 rooms. A total of 64 restaurants and bars and over 150 shops. They, whoever “they” are say that “this is the largest 5-star hotel complex in the world” and it is really big and everything is over the top, even for Las Vegas.

Our walk around, tourist trip today was to go to the big fashion mall a few blocks away from the hotel. We found out that they were going to have a fashion show on a runway in the mall, so we stayed around to watch it. Then it was pizza in a nice restaurant in the mall.

Next we went to the sports book at the hotel and placed a bet on Syracuse.

Then it was onto the casino for an afternoon session and we both lost – but we are still ahead for the trip.

After the casino, we went to see an acrobatic show in the afternoon which was fun.

We had reserved a couch in the beautiful sports book to watch the Syracuse game and eat; however, when we got there they had Tony Stewart from NASCAR and he was going to be giving a presentation and Q & A’s until 7:30pm. We had a private large TV with our couch but we couldn’t hear because of Stewart so we left and had dinner in our room and watched the game which Syracuse won.

Then it was onto the casino for our evenings play and it wasn’t a very good session for Ed. Yesterday we were up and today Barb was up and Ed was down.

We cashed in our winning Syracuse basketball ticket – should have bet more but we really don’t follow sports betting.

People watching was fun and the “kids” just streamed into the hotel going straight for the entertainment venues. There was a big deal in the front of the casino because Kim Kardashium (sp) was on the property - a red carpet and photo backdrop and lots of photographers were set up for her arrival. We didn’t wait!!

Everything was so crowed – they said it was their biggest Saturday of the last 12 months. We have walked and walked and it is very, very crowed and so it is time for bed – a fun Saturday.

Las Vegas – Day 2

The pictures are:
1. Inside Ceasars Forumn shopping area.
2. The antimated statues.
3. Pete Rose and no customers!!

What a nice day it was – the tempteture were in the middle 60’s. Just nice enough to go outside without a jacket.

We found out yesterday when we checked in that this was going to be the biggest weekend for the hotels as over 150,000 fans are expected for the NASCAR races. What fun we had today just people watching everyone arriving and walking the streets. I forgot to tell you yesterday that last night, the city blocked off the main strip street and the semis for NASCAR drove at high speed up the strip with a police escort – what a sight that was.

Ed slept late and woke up at 7 and went downstairs and had two business calls right away – but that is just fine – the iPhone is wonderful to use.

Barb slept in until 10 and then it was up and out of the hotel. This time we walked south along the strip. We headed for Caesar’s Palace and the Forum Shops. They had expanded since we were here in 2001 and we wanted to see the new shops. What a place it is with every top of the line store there is. Then we watched the two major shows that they have inside the mall - the fountains and sculptures that are animated – a fun show.

As we were leaving the shops, we walked by a sports shop and right in front was Pete Rose who was supposed to be signing autographs, but amazingly, no one was stopping to get his autograph. Barb wanted to go up to him and ask him why he shattered so many dreams, including hers. He was her hero at one time. This was a very sad sight.

Lunch was at the Cheesecake factory where we split a sandwich

After dinner it was to the theater to see Phantom of the Opera and wow, what a play. Even though this place is jammed, we were able to get great center main floor tickets from the casino host. The sets were amazing and there is no question this show is not coming to Bloomington with this set-up and with scaled down sets it just wouldn’t be the same. It had to be maybe the best musical that we have ever seen.

Then it was back to the hotel for a casino session where we did well. As a matter of fact we had the perfect session, Ed won and Barb beat him with a jackpot!! A great night.

Las Vegas – Day 1

The Pictures are:
1. The room
2. Barb waiting for Ed
3. Part of the front of the hotel
4. Street performers in St. Mark’s Square
5. Outside the restaurant where we had pizza.


It was up at 4am and to the airport by 5 and after going through security, we walked right on the plane. The plane arrived in Atlanta ½ hour early, but there was no place to park the plane so we sat on the taxiway for the ½ hour!

The flight to Las Vegas was just fine but that is a long flight – over 3 hours. We arrived at the Venetian at 12:30pm and checked into a beautiful room. Maybe one of the best we have ever had that wasn't on a beach with a balcony.

The room is 650 square feet. You walk into a hall, with a huge bathroom to the left, then the bedroom and two steps down to the living room. The bathroom has a tub and a separate shower, gold fixtures and a TV, one of three in the room.

There are also 3 phones, each with two lines and even a fax machine installed next to the desk. Then the curtains operate by a remote control! The couch in the living room could probably seat 8, at least.

We walked across the street to the Mirage to the Carnegie Deli which has been rated the best lunch on the strip. What a sandwich we shared. We also sat next to a couple who had just arrived from Australia and they had to drive 5 hours to the airport and flew for 14 hours – and we thought our flight was long.

Later it was onto the casino to check in with a host and set up our line of credit. We then went for a pizza at the indoor St. Marks square and ate in the square.

Then to the casino for a little while and it was then time for bed.

Our first day was very long and we are tired.

Las Vegas - 2010

Well our spring trip is to Las Vegas. Barb and I have not been there since 2001 when we took the kids on a trip. That was a great trip with everyone and on top of that, Barb hit for a big jackpot on the last night there - let's hope for that again!

We leave at 5:45am on AirTran for Atlanta and then on to Las Vegas arriving at 12:09pm.

We are staying at the Venetian so it should be fun staying in a little bit of Italy. The Venetian has over 4,000 rooms, more than in all of Bloomington/Normal.

Take a look at its web site at http://www.venetian.com/.

We come back home on Monday afternoon, leaving Las Vegas at 2:30pm and arriving in Bloomington at 10:55pm. A quick trip but it should be very relaxing and lots of fun - wish us luck.

Day 10– January 8, 2010

The pictures are:

At the airport - the pictures will not load - will try later!!
1. Part of the water slide and pool deck.
2. The main pool.
3. Our wait staff.

Today was our last day at sea before arriving in Florida and it was one of the nicest sea days we have ever had. The weather was perfect, little if no wind and the seas were calm.

We had sandwiches from the Deli on our deck chairs and laid out until 1:30pm and then cleaned up and went to the slot tournament. Neither of us qualified so we went back to the cabin and packed. Then it was onto the spa, rested for a little bit and it was finally time for watching people and dinner.

The last dinner is always a little sad. We made new friends and may never see them again – but they were fun for the week and great tablemates.

We went to the comedy club and then onto the casino were we both lost a little. The good news is that we are way up for the trip.

At 1:00 am we said our good bys to the casino staff and went to our cabin for the night.

Tomorrow we get off the ship at 8:30am, pick up our shuttle and fly out of the Orlando Airport. We hope that we can get home with all the bad weather they have been having.

As always, it was good to get away after a hectic holiday season and now we are ready to get back home and onto work.

The Carnival Dream is a wonderful ship and we look forward to sailing on it again sometime.

That’s it for this trip – thanks for reading.

Well I went to send this last night and it was too late, they had cut off the internet at midnight and we were going to be at 2am. So I am sending this from the Orland o Airport. We awoke to 31 degrees outside and raining – welcome to Florida!!

From what we have seen the weather is going to be miserable back home – so here we come, we hope that we can make it home and into our house.

Well we had wonderful on time flights on AirTran. At the airport, Ed went and got the car and took quite a while because of all the snow on the car. After we loaded up, we went and picked up a Pizza and picked up our dog.

Everything was just fine until we got to the house and made it most of the way into the drive; however, we got stuck before we could get to the garage. It was zero out so we unloaded the car and left it in the drift. Ed will plow out tomorrow.

A special thanks to the casino staff of the Carnival Dream - they truly made our trip a wonderful experience.

Until next trip - night from Ed & Barb

That's the blog for this year.