MikeSandy.net

Latest Archived Travel Posts

March 13, 2012

We woke up in our ridiculous Encore suite, ate lunch at Gilley's, checked out of the hotel, and then drove back to Salt Lake City.

March 12, 2012

After checking out at the New York-New York, we ate breakfast at a nearby Blueberry Hill restaurant, and then drove to the Wynn to, hopefully, check in early at the Encore. We got a 59th floor panoramic suite that overlooked the Strip. The view was amazing and the suite was amazing!

After walking through the ridiculously opulent spa to get to the pool, we lounged by one of the pools for the afternoon.

For dinner, we ate at Gilley's barbecue restaurant at Treasure Island. The food was amazing. At night, we walked down the Strip to about Imperial Palace, and then back.

311 Day Weekend - Night Two

We spent some time at the Monte Carlo pool during the day. In the evening, just like last night, we walked over to the MGM Grand where I got in line to get into the concert.

Today was the fifth time I've seen 311 perform on the 11th day of a month (2 of which were on a March 11). I didn't think this show was as good of a show as the night before. It felt choppy. I wasn't thrilled with the setlist, and their energy and performances weren't as good as the prior night. With that said, this show was still amazing. The percussion ensemble was an awesome addition to the four songs they performed with them.

I saw nine songs live for the first time at this show. So, in the past two weekends covering three 311 shows, I saw 86 different songs performed, and 23 for the first time (or 27 for the first time, if you count Coda, the Sunset in July remix, and the Waiting in Vain cover).

Some song highlights at this show were Hive, Firewater, Lucky, Brodels, and the 4 songs performed with the percussion ensemble.

Visit my 311 website for a full setlist, with notes.

311 Day Weekend - Night One

We walked up and down the Strip during the day. In the evening, we walked over to the MGM Grand where I got in line to get into the concert. I got in just after the doors opened, which was too early, but was much easier to deal with than the ridiculous crowds I encountered last time.

It turned out to be the best 311 concert I have ever attended, to date. The show was much better than 311 Day 2010, in my opinion. The sound was perfect. The crowd was awesome. My seat location was great. The band's energy was way up there. Their performances were nearly flawless. The added specialties for 311 Day Weekend actually enhanced the show. The intermission was short and didn't really interrupt the energy of the show much, unlike the multiple intermissions in 2010. And, of course, the setlist was full of rarely played songs. I saw 14 311 songs I had never seen performed live before, or 17 songs, if you count the bass instrumental, Coda, the remixed version of Sunset in July, and Nick's solo performance of Bob Marley's Waiting in Vain.

Visit my 311 website for a full setlist, with notes.

March 9, 2012

We got a fairly early start, given that Mindy had to work today. The drive was relaxing and we made pretty good time. Once we checked into the New York-New York, we took a walk to the MGM Grand and had some drinks.

We also saw Spring Cup Champion Tony Stewart at the MGM Grand, where he was taking part in a celebrity poker tournament. He would go on to win the race that took place in Las Vegas this weekend.

August 28, 2011

We drove back through the park one last time, and then back to real life back in Salt Lake City.

August 27, 2011

We woke up very early to get sunrise photos of Mount Moran from the Oxbow Bend Turnout. I didn't think the sunrise ended up being as spectacular as it could've been, but we each ended up with a few awesome photos.

After breakfast, we rented mountain bikes and rode from Moose to the Jenny Lake Lodge and back. I highly recommend this relatively short bike ride to anyone visiting the park. It is the best way to see the Tetons from the park road, for sure!

A late afternoon thunderstorm put a damper on plans to go for a boat ride, but I did get some amazing photos of the storm (and its lightning) from near Jackson Lake Lodge.

We capped off a full day with a nice dinner and, later, a campfire. Later at night, we got to see the International Space Station streak across the night sky.

August 26, 2011

We drove up to the Tetons, set up camp at Signal Mountain Campground, ate dinner at the Gun Barrel Steakhouse, and then drove up to the top of Signal Mountain to watch the sun set behind the Tetons.

Oops

On account of our the tail light snafu from the night earlier, we woke up very early in our overpriced La Quinta room because Mindy and I had to get back to Salt Lake for work. Despite getting only a few hours of sleep, I was able to make the drive safely back to Salt Lake.

Awesome

We started the day by driving to Mesa Verde National Park to explore some of the Native American ruins.

We had a couple options for our drive back to Salt Lake City. One option was to drive to Four Corners because Mindy hadn't been there yet, and then backtrack and head back to Salt Lake. Another option was to drive north from Cortez, visit Telluride (a place I have always wanted to see), and then drive back to Salt Lake. We chose the Telluride option.

And it was an excellent choice. The scenery along the drive to Telluride was both lush--with lots of trees--and rugged. Telluride itself was a beautiful place, which I had heard before. The whole drive and the area around Telluride exceeded even my lofty expectations for its natural beauty.

To make things even better, on the drive back to Ridgway, a particularly perfect view of the Sneffels Range just blew us away. My view of the Colorado Rockies in general were of mountains much less rugged than their counterparts in the Tetons and even the Wasatch, but the Sneffels Range seems a worthy rival to at least the Wasatch and maybe even the Tetons. The sunset lighting probably helped enhance our perceptions.

We started the last leg of our 6-hour drive back to Salt Lake for good, finally, with only about 4 hours of the day left.

It was awesome to see fireworks in Grand Junction as we drove through. It was not awesome, however, when a Colorado State Patrol officer pulled me over only a couple exits on I-70 past Grand Junction because both of my tail lights were burned out.

The officer didn't give me a ticket, but he instructed me to get off the highway and fix the lights before I should continue our drive back to Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a store open this late on a federal holiday that had the type of light bulb I needed for my tail lights, so we were forced to spend the night at an overpriced La Quinta Inn for the night. It happens.