Yard House

We discovered two new things in Vegas, Chipotle Mexican Grill and the Yard House. Two American food and beverage chains that we had never heard of, Chipotle was indeed impressive, serving self assembled burritos and bowls, after an inexpensive meal there we didn't have to eat again all day. The other chain, the Yard House, well, they had one hundred and thirty-eight beers on tap and as they say, regardless of how full you are, there's always room for beer...

The Strip at Tropicana

This was what that Gray Jay was looking at, over the road, New York, New York, the MGM Grand and lazy afternoon traffic at Tropicana and Las Vegas Blvd. A quiet November day in sin city.

Birding - Vegas Style

There really is no shortage of little birds throughout Las Vegas, what was once desert is a thriving environment for the little scavengers, we saw eagles in the desert, several ducks in a fake Casino lake, numerous opportunist white crowned sparrows, grackles, cowbirds and this little fella, sat on a wire outside of the Tropicana casino on the strip, a gray jay. The last time we saw one of these we were staying up at Whistler with Karen's mum Pat, celebrating her seventieth birthday.

  

Anniversary

In a few weeks time we will be having our twenty-sixth wedding anniversary, things are moving along as they do in this life, we worked out that this was at least our eighth trip to Las Vegas and we've been to Red Rocks about four or five times and it never gets old, hopefully, besides some number on a birthday card, neither will we.

Red Rocks

A twenty minute drive from the madness of the Las Vegas strip and we spent a nice few hours at Red Rocks, took a tour of the visitor center, a walk down the sides of a small canyon and breathed in the dry, desert air. At this time of the year, temperatures were warm with a cool breeze, or in the terminology of a typical Nevada resident, rather chilly or downright cold.

Cloudy with a sign of Vegas

Flying out of Vancouver on a Westjet 737-800 down the coast to Las Vegas, a birthday present for the half-century lady, clouds on the way there and on the way back. We stayed in Vancouver on the Saturday night and enjoyed some night life and the hockey game, an early flight on the Sunday and we started our Vegas adventure as a familiar Washington mountain said hello through the top of the clouds.

Growlers big and small

Persephone have two Growler sizes, about 1.90 Litres and 0.95 Litres. The large one costs $12 to fill, the smaller $6.50. The gift certificate of $100 from Karen's family will provide a lot of beer over the next three or four weekends! - the large one is usually filled with Goddess Golden Ale and the small one, well, that was actually filled twice this time, once with Rum Runner Red Ale and the second time with the stronger Scotch Ale. All yummy stuff.

Persephone and the old one

The other baby, we've had her over ten and a half years now, takes us to and from the brewery where we fill up our growlers.

Persephone and the Birthday Girl

November 2013, a very special month for young Karen, the big five-o as they say, or, as the annoying older people say, fifty years young, well, she is still a spring chicken and as I keep telling her, it's only a number (it's just a bloody big one), still, Karen will never be as old as me, but at least the percentage difference is getting smaller.