Concert at the T-Mobile

Got to go to my first of hopefully many concerts at the New t-mobile arena here in Las Vegas.

Thing is massive!

The walk through the park into arena.

But what a way to break it in...Garth Brooks back in the saddle, touring again after taking time off to raise his daughters. He sang all the oldies, the crowd just ate him up! They were in hog heaven! Loved it when he would start singing then stop and the whole crowd would finish his sentence! The sound system in there was excellent, so clear and pure. And great big clear picture screens. I was impressed. Plus we got a little bit of Trisha Yearwood with him, she came out and sang a few songs!
I will be back in October to see Keith Urban. Going to be fun!

I know a lot of people are concerned about parking but we had friends who went and bought 12,00 premium parking and they got right in and right out.

My hubby and I stayed off strip at the Green Valley ranch Resort, my home away from home,

I love that place! They shuttled us for free over to the Mandalay Bay at 4:00pm, we then just walked to the tram and rode that to Excalibur, from there you walk across the bridge into New York New York Hotel then out the doors a short walk through the new parkway (packed with places to eat, hang out, drink, play games, like big jenga games, bean bag toss games and more) and right into the arena you go! So fun and easy.

If you come to town and like to be away from the hustle and bustle but want to do a concert at the new arena, try out the Green valley resort,  Here is the link: Green Valley Resort has all you need in one place and after the concert just reverse your steps back to Mandalay bay and you hop in a cab for 30.00 back to GVR! Easy Peasy and no drinking and driving!

The concert was great, and I forgot just how many of his songs I really liked....Shameless, More than a Memory, The Dance....

 Thanks for a wonderful night of good music, Garth!

I have to say a big Thank you to our friends Chuck and Donna for meeting up with us and having a great dinner at the New York, New York, Damn, those burgers at the Burger Bar were fabulous! We owe you big time!!

First day of summer, time for soup???

My heaven here on earth, I will be playing here all summer!

Slicing and dicing is half the fun!

The liquid gold, so yummy, yummy, ENJOY!

My sister and I melded a few different recipes together to come up with this amazing COLD soup, if you have never had gazpacho in the summer, you truly have not lived a full life!

You must make up a batch ASAP! Start in the early morning, this soup needs time to come together and chill properly. It is a lot of chopping and dicing but in the end you will find the work is sooooo worth it!

Let's start off with HAPPY HALLELUJAH it is SUMMER!!! My favorite time of year, I am happy, I am glowing, I am living la vida loca!
Tank tops and flip flops and pool time and grilling goodies.....oh yes, I am in paradise.

OK, on to some chilling good soup!

We called this: TWO SISTERS GAZPACHO

You will need:
one large glass gallon jar

1 bottle 64 oz. spicy V8 juice
1 large English cucumber peeled and diced
1 regular cucumber peeled and diced
3 large garlic cloves minced
1 large jalapeno seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper seeded and diced
1 orange bell pepper seeded and diced
1/2 a red onion peeled and diced
3 vine ripe tomatoes diced
3 green onions diced
4 stalks celery diced
3 tablespoons cilantro chopped fine
juice of one lime
1/8 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon coarse black pepper
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Put all ingredients in the jar, stir to combine, and let chill in fridge for 3 hours or more. To serve, ladle into bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream, so refreshing and delicious!
Trust me, you will thank me for this summer time recipe!

Beautiful places and some travel tips!

Now that we have a few trips under our belts, I would like to share some travel tips we have figured out.
When embarking on a cruise, plan 2 days to spend at your embarkation place. Then 2 days at your disembarkation place or the last place you visit before sailing to your disembarkation place.

Take for instance our trip we just took, we allowed 2 days in London to see the sights, then we hopped a bus tour from our hotel that took us to Stonehenge and then to our cruise port where we boarded the ship. Worked out great!

On the return trip our last stop was Le Havre/Paris, many people disembarked there and left the ship for good to spend a couple days in Paris before flying to their homes direct from Paris. We did not think of that...hmm would have been nice, but many excursions were cancelled that day and the rain and flooding had just started the day we docked in Le Havre, so now looking back I am glad we did not plan a couple days in Paris. But it is a great plan to have a couple days to see a new place and then relax before flying home. Something to think about!

Plan your flights with plenty of hours to spare, I had a mishap happen to me, My flight home was at the minimum already- at 4 hours of disembarkation of ship, when Virgin Atlantic changed my flight to an hour earlier! Who does that?? Most flights get delayed not moved up!! So now I had no chance of leaving ship at 7 am, driving 2 hours to the airport and then getting through security and customs in order to make a now 10:30 (board at 9:30) flight!!! I had to book an extra night in Gatwick to make the next flight the next day. Had I booked my flight home at say 6:00pm I could have had no problem making the flight the day of disembarkation of ship. Instead it costed me about 300.00 extra, which I am hoping to get back from my travel insurance.

Long flights: I thought booking a non stop to Southampton London would be the best thing, just 10 hours and I am there, but now I am reconsidering long flights, I think having a stop over where you actually get out of the plane walk around, recharge, and take a break from flying is a much better plan, Break up the monotony of being packed in the plane like sardines with no chance of any rest. So next time I am going to find a flight that goes 5 hours with a 2 hour break then 5 hours more...I really think that would be the best thing! Unless of course I can fly first class! Those people have it made!

We do need one more trip to Europe, we need to see Germany, Switzerland and Holland! So I hope to remember these tips in say 4 years....

Now for some more of London, Scotland and Ireland:

London

Big Ben

Changing of the guard, Buckingham Palace

Stonehenge

Herm Island, Guernsey

Blarney Castle, I did not kiss anything while here!

Christy and Jeff at Powerscourt Waterfall

The view a top Conway Castle, Wales

Another view, it was amazing!

Duke and Baron, the Kelpies. 115 foot tall metal horse heads, we only got to drive by, no excursion to this place!

Christy wanted to wrap him up and take him home, he was so sweet!
Gotta love a man in a kilt!

Traveling Fool and my reasons why...

I tell anyone who will listen, I tell anyone who asks about my wrist tattoos...."Get busy living or get busy dying"

The story behind them is real and meaningful...

When my mom lived, she worked her whole life from a young mom with 3 daughters to being on her own after we grew up and moved on. She retired and bought herself a little mobile home and dreamt of all the things she could now do.

But, she didn't do any of them, she just sat in her little mobile home and watched TV and bought frivolous stuff on eBay. She passed away, not fulfilling her long time dream of going to Ireland. 

She passed away not going anywhere.

My sister and I made a pact, we were not going to let this happen to us, damn it.

We made plans and booked cruises...we got out there and now I am proud to say I have been places, I have seen things...I have ventured beyond my own backyard!

Our first big trip was for our Grandma Ginia, she use to go to Italy with her long time boyfriend Dante. She loved it. So we went to pay homage to her. Our next trip to Scandinavia was for us, how far could we go and push ourselves, well, pretty damn far....we went to Russia!! For Pete's sake, we went to Russia!!

This trip was an homage to our mom, she wanted to see Ireland always dreaming about the green, green fields and the castles. Oh, and "I would like to have tea with the Queen of England" she always said as she drank her tea, talking in an English accent.
We didn't have tea with the queen, but we stood at the gates of Buckingham palace and watched as the guests left after having tea with the queen at a garden party!

My mom was also an avid reader of books, her favorite being the Sherlock Holmes novels by Sir Conan Doyle. So while searching things to see in London, I came across Sherlock Holmes Pub, We must go I told my sister!! And go we did, and we had the most delicious lunch of steak and ale pie! 

Now, keep an open mind, while you are dining in hundreds of years old buildings, you will meet some curious little friends, as we did there, it was a beautiful pub full of all sorts of Sherlock memorabilia, highly rated place and got quiet busy as the lunch crowd came in, but just there scurrying around under the table, we met a little mouse, we named him Sherlock, of course, and he scurried off, the waitress just shrugging and saying "they just come with the old buildings".

Later on in our trip we came across Sir Conan Doyle pub and we dined there and had the most delicious lunch of Chicken Pie and Spinach Pie! How cool is that!!

So coming up in the next few posts, I will share some pictures of our 17 day travels to London, Scotland and Ireland, why? Because....We just Got Busy Living!

London

Scotland

Ireland

Lunch with Sherlock!
Wish you could have been here Mom!