North & South Carolina

Thursay I left Lexington and made the trek to Asheville NC. I hung out with Amanda (my friend who I am going on the mission trip with) at her office before dinner. I unpacked and repacked for Costa Rica, the time at her place, and for the lake in South Carolina. Friday (this morning) we drove to South Carolina to her parent's lake house. We went out of on the lake in their new pontoon boat...and here come the clouds...and the thunder. We headed back to the house before the lightning started (thank goodness). We are going to dinner and then will hang out here tonight with her parents. Her brother will be in town tonight then we will spend the day on the lake tomorrow. I am hoping for lots of sun and a good tan :). Tomorrow night we have a wedding reception to go to. Sunday the church (Biltmore United Methodist Church) will commission us for the trip that we leave for on the following Saturday. We have lunch plans after church and then the plans are a little fuzzy. We plan to spend more time at the lake and finishing things up for the mission trip. I will keep you posted as the time passes. I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Next on the agenda

So now that I had a good nights sleep in my own bed, had lunch with Tasha & Larry, done lots of laundry, ran some errands, updated my blog, and had dinner with Ben & Virginia I have began my to do list for Wednesday. I have to run some more errands, figure out how to put pictures on my blog, pack (for the next 3 weeks), and clean my room. I leave on Thursday to go to North and South Carolina until July 7 when I leave to go to Costa Rica. We get back to North Carolina from Costa Rica on July 15th and I plan to drive back to KY on the 16th. What a summer!!! I am so fortunate to have so many wonderful opportunities!!! I should have access for updates in North & South Carolina, but I am not sure about the time that I am in Costa Rica. Check back often, I will update when I can. :)

Monday...back to KY

The say started at 2:30 am when the alarm went off so that we would be checked out and ready for our 3:30 am shuttle to the airport. It was at the Las Vegas airport very early in the morning that I was finally able to check my email...it is the little things we take for granted in life. From las vegas it was off to pheonix, which was a short flight. After about an hour layover we were Louisville bound. Once I got back to KY Tasha and Jeff picked me up, we went to the Louisville Bats baseball game and had dinner at hooters before getting home at 12:30.
Vegas was a lot of fun and I only lost $3.00 in the slot machines...but I only played $3.00 in the slot machines.
Here are some things that I would like to share about Vegas:
*don't go in June, it is the dessert, it is very hot (~ !05-110 degrees) and dry.
*it is a lot to see, I had been told 3 or 4 days is plenty of time to be in Vegas and that is so true, 3 days and I felt like I had seen most of the big things that there were to see (sure there was lots I didn't see but I think it would be impossible to see EVERYTHING in one trip.
*water is at least $3.00 per bottle and you need to drink lots because it is so hot & dry
Vegas was fun and I am glad that I had the opportunity to go.
*the 3 hour time difference between Lexington and Las Vegas was a little tricky to adjust to

Sunday in Vegas

We went and got tickets to see Mama Mia that night, first thing in the morning at the half price ticket store. We went to Caesars hotel, casino, and forum shops. It was here that we humored ourselves by going into the Gucci store, I thought a dress was really cute...I looked at the price tag...$1685...for a dress...I decided I didn't need to be in that store. We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in the Caesars shops, it was so hot and i was full from lunch and couldn't get cheesecake...what a shame. We went into the Venetian, which is a hotel that has the ceiling painted like the Sisteen chapel and offers gondola rides (for $15 per person). We made it back to our hotel in time to get ready to see Mama Mia. This was a very cute play, I would recommend it! After the play it was time to get packed up for our 6:30 am flight...and for the shuttle to pick us up at 3:30 am.

Saturday in Vegas

This morning I woke up with a migraine...which is never fun but even worse to have on vacation. :( Eventually after lots of advil and 2 rounds of Imitrex I was able to leave our dark room. We had lunch at the hotel and went walking to some of the other hotels. Since I had the migraine we didn't leave the room until after 2 so I felt that I wasted most of the day. That night we went to see the covered Folies Bergere show, which was along the lines of the typical vegas show. After this we ventured to Coyote Ugly, we didn't stay long but it was neat to see the atmosphere, which is very much like the movie.

Friday in Vegas

This morning we woke up and spent a couple of hours at the pool. One of my favorite things to do!!! We had lunch and walked through the Bellagio, in my opinion, the prettiest of the hotels there and New York New York, a very fun place to be. We spent some time shopping in the mall at the planet hollywood hotel and casino. We got ready for our night tour of the town. This was a fun excursion with a tour guide named Merle who was almost as funny as Etta May. We went to the Rio a hotel that is at the far end of the strip, we watched a show there and we also met a couple of Chippendales (we didn't watch their show). Next it was out to the Bellagio and lots of information and history about things along the strip. We went out to see the famous sign that says welcome to the fabulous Las Vegas. We went down to where it all began and had some time to walk around the old casinos. We ended the night overlooking las vegas from the top of the stratosphere. This was a long day but very interesting.

Thursday in Vegas

This was our first day to explore Vegas. We started down at one of the "strip" at Mandalay Bay. This hotel was beautiful with lots to see. Next we were off to Luxor, this was en egyptian themed hotel and casino. We had lunch here and watched a 3-D imax about the deep sea. We went through MGM Grand where we were able to see lions. The M&M store was lots of fun (4 stories) including a short 3D movie about red losing his "m" in Vegas. We had to browse the gift shops :). We went to several other hotels along the strip before watching a show at treasure island. We had dinner at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill. We took the monorail back to our end of the strip. We were exhausted after a day of walking and be in and out of the 105+ degree heat.

I have been to Vegas and back...the beginning of the trip

I had hoped to be able to post throughout my trip to Vegas, but they want to charge you for everything there...including internet ($10.99 per day). So I was without internet the whole trip and was able to check my email at the airport in Vegas bright and early on Monday morning.
So now I will back up a week, I was at the early childhood conference in Louisville Monday-Wednesday, spending Monday night at the galt house and Tuesday night at the hyatt in downtown Louisville. When the conference was over on Wednesday Tasha, Larry, Casie (my friend that I was going to Vegas with) & I had lunch before Casie and I were off to the airport.
Casie and I decided to go to Las Vegas to celebrate our degrees. I earned my masters last August and Casie graduated medical school in May of this year. We have been friend since elementary school, lived together throgh college and went our seperate ways when she went to medical school in Pikeville; she has spent the past 2 years doing rotations in Henderson KY. So Vegas is how we chose to celebrate.
We flew to Vegas on a direct flight. We got there and took a shuttle to our hotel, the Excalibur, which looks like a castle. The room was ok, no comparison to where I had spent the last 2 nights. We were pretty tired after the day of traveling and just had dinner in the food court at our hotel.
I will post my adventrures day by day so that you can read day by day rather than one big novel. Thanks for reading!

My first race

Last minute we were offered tickets to the Busch race in Sparta, KY. Tasha, Erik, Jeff, & I went to the race. It was my first race. :) Tasha and Erik are huge racing fans and know the ins and outs of going to races; they have the radios to listen to the drivers communicating with their crews. So not only did I go to my first race but I got to listen to the drivers on the radio. It was a lot of fun!!! Now I am packing for my conference and trip to Vegas. I will let you know how that goes :)

Louisville then Vegas

So...I started this blog to keep friends updated about my plans and adventures this summer. I have the next few days to prepare for the beginning of my summer adventures. I have spent lots of time in the sun this week, I have had to take a couple of days away from the pool because I burnt my eyelids :(. They are getting better and hopefully I will be able to spend tomorrow by the pool :).
Monday-Wednesday, June 18-20, I have an early childhood conference to attend in Louisville. After the conference ends on Wednesday I will have a couple of hours to wait around...then it is off to the Vegas!!! I am excited about this trip! I am going with Casie, my best friend from high school. She finished medical school in May and I finished my masters in August 2006, so this is our celebration for both of our accomplishments. We fly from Louisville directly to Vegas (a 4 hour flight) on Wednesday. We are staying at the Excalibur hotel. We will be flying back on Monday, June 25th. Neither of us know anything about Vegas...we just thought it would be a fun place to go. :) I will share the details of adventure 1 with you later.
Keep checking my blog because after the Louisville/Vegas trip then I will be home for a few days before going to South Carolina for a week. We will be spending the week at my friends' parent's lake house before going on a mission trip to Costa Rica for 9 days. I will drive back to KY on July16th, I think...which will end my traveling for the summer. Before I know it, it will be time to go back to school.
Thanks for reading, check back regularly!!! Have a great summer!!!

Summer 07

I thought I would start a blog to share about my summer. I have lots of traveling plans and I am looking forward to enjoying summer break.