At the end of April we got ourselves a lovely visit from Jen!  We all love it when she comes to town.  I don't know how I got to be so lucky but still, after all these years, I am absolutely convinced that I hit the jackpot when I met my little, long blond-hair neighbor in kindergarten/first grade.  When we met, I was a scrawny, scabbed knee, crazy-haired, incomprehensible (at that point, I still had about 8 more years of speech therapy ahead of me) tomboy.  Jen was a year older, musically cultured (a violinist and already an ardent fan of david bowie) and stunning with her waist long hair and rocking rainbow tube-top.  But most of all, she was liquid sunshine with her easy laugh and kind nature.   And that has never changed.

Off we all went to see the Vegas adventures.  Now, since this will be our 4th year here, you will, no doubt, recognize all of the sites we visited.  There are some great things to see here in Vegas, however, not so many that we don't often repeat ourselves.  The good thing about that is that we happen to really like visiting them, so apart from being a little repetitive with the pictures, we enjoy ourselves every time.

So...Hoover Dam.  We got beautiful weather for this one.  Not too warm yet and not chilly.

We knew that Jen would love little ghost town, Nelson.  We ventured into a few of the corners that we hadn't seen before.  Like two awesome, rusty bathtubs just sitting there in the middle of the pathway.  Who doesn't need a picture like that?

Here is a very dramatic back-of-the-bus-pose.

It seemed as if Jen and Laina didn't even see that giant sign that said, "private property" when they headed over for a close up of the plane.   I chided at them after I got the shot.  :)

Rock hunting.

I also learned a thing or two about desert plant life.  This lovely cactus that we are standing by is called the 'jumping cholla. '  Apparently it will detach from the main plant from even the slightest touch of a hand.  (this makes it seem like it jumps onto an unsuspecting passerby)  It is full of very sharp spines and will immediately attach to your skin and then curve into a firm spiny gripe, making if very difficult to detach.  Really, a horrible, frightening plant.   

Also a very beautiful one.  (By the way, we are not as close to that sucker as we look.  We were very cautious about standing far enough away so that there would be no accidental touching)

We also hit the Bellagio for an afternoon.  (surprised?)  I can't help it.  I love how different the atrium looks every time.  It really is fantastic how they fill that space with such creative and beautiful plant designs.  The Japanese garden did not disappoint.  

We also saw a few oddities of the strip, like this toilet like exhibit.  The water would start to swirl until it flushed out of sight.

As usual, we loved our visit together and enjoyed catching up.  Sometimes I dream of living in San Francisco...until I think about the prices and traffic, of course.