Finally - some Vegas pics

The Bellagio is one beautiful hotel at night, and it's even more beautiful when the building's floodlights change color, and, best of all, during the water show set to music, whic hgoes off about every 15 minutes or so.

This is a shot of the water right before the water show started. Notice the water starting to "mist" at lower left.

This could be my favorite shot of the water show pics I took.

I take the above sentence back - this one is my favorite - cool water jets, drag shutter, cool night colors of the hotel.

This was the grand finale of the show. (Do water shows have grand finales?) If so, this was it. Kinda cool.

An okay shot of The Flamingo, taken from an elevated walkway. I would have preferred to zoom back, but I only took my point-and-shoot HP Photosmart R967 with me when we went out at night. I just didn't want to chance taking my Canon EOS digital out. Hey, it WAS Vegas. I know I could have gotten better shots with the Canon, but I figured I'd just improvise.

The Grand Canyon at sunset. This one came out underexposed, and I tried to lighten it in Photoshop, but it washed out the background somewhat. I'm disappointed with this one, but it does give you a flavor of the view. It looks like we are standing in front of a poster, doesn't it?

The Canyon at sunset. The view was amazing and totally mesmemorizing.

I took lots of photos and had a ball. It was cold though! I'm pretty ignorant in the ways of the west, but I'll confess to not knowing the climate of The Grand Canyon (or checking on it ahead of time!). So, thank God we brought sweatshirts and enough clothes to keep warm. This was taken by Vandra close to dusk. By the way, I'll have some photography equipment thoughts later.

We woke up the next morning at 6 a.m. to catch the sunrise bus tour, and we were the only two on the tour! It was so worth it, even with the massive consumption of coffee and Red Bull to get us going. Notice the sun in this shot just starting to hit the tops of the canyon.

We stayed inside the south rim of the canyon at the Thunderbird Lodge, which is right next to El Tovar. If you are ever going to the canyon, that's the place to go. The accomodations are great, the prices are reasonable and the view spectacular. Oh, and if you can't get a room at El Tovar, make sure you eat dinner there - there's a fine dining restaurant in El Tovar that serves very good food.

The sun is more prominent in this shot, taken about 10-15 minutes after sunrise.

This one is about 1/2 hour after the sun came up (approx.) and it's probably my favorite shot from the group of sunrise pics I have. Keep in mind I haven't really played with these much in Photoshop yet. The "smokiness" you see in the pictures above is a foggy mist that hung over the canyon at daybreak. I like what it adds to the picture.

My bride, just before sunrise (notice no sun on the tops of the canyon peaks yet).

Cold, but enjoying the view, with the love of my life.

Just because. Always representin' my favorite hockey team! I guess the wedding started the tradition of having a picture taken in an Oilers jersey wherever we go. Hopefully, in 20 years, I'll have a pretty cool collage of crazy places I've donned Oiler silks.

Anyway, that's it for now, but I will definitely post more later today. I've got a long drive ahead of me, so I must be headed home.

Vegas here we come!

I'm sooo far behind on blogging - I've got about a million things I want to write about, but most of it will have to wait until this weekend, when I will most definitely catch up. Anyway, just a few quick posts this morning.

I'm pretty excited to say that we are going to Vegas at the end of January; it will be my first trip to Las Vegas. I'm going to be speaking at the Far West Popular Culture & American Culture Association Conference the weekend of January 26-28.

In case you're curious, here's what I'll be speaking about:

Title: American Idle: How Pop Culture Pap is Hindering Real Debate in
U.S. Elections

Abstract: National U.S. elections are increasingly driven by pop culture, specifically reality shows. Election coverage, as well as campaign ads, are rife with examples of reality TV's influence on American political discourse. Gone are the days when the issues mattered most; contemporary elections are now dominated by superficial non sequiturs. This tilt toward the mundane is a decades-long movement, but reality television and pop culture have conspired to dramatically increase this troubling trend.

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It will also be my first time speaking at a conference, so I'm pretty excited about that, too. I'm really look forward to writing my paper, too; anyone who spends five minutes on this blog knows how passionate and driven I am about politics.

We are also going to wedge in some time for a short trip to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. I've never been to either one, and neither has Vandra.

So, this promises to be a pretty big trip. Oh, and you know that I'll be sharing lots and lots of pictures on here when we get back.

Psst - while I'm there, I'm going to be putting a few greenbacks down on the Cowboys winning the Super Bowl (if they are still in it by then!) and the Oilers winning the Stanley Cup. Hey, why not? I think both teams have a shot.