Las Vegas Road Trip!

We returned from Las Vegas today. Had a fun time. Didn't win any money, but also didn't gamble much. We took in Mystere, a Cirque du Soleil show, on Tuesday night, which was great. The production was a mix of comedy, dance, acrobatics, and color.

One of the days we went back out to Lake Mead Visitor Center. There is a hiking trail / rails-to-trails that we ran on out to Hoover Dam & back. The top photo shows Lake Mead from the Visitor Center just above the Railroad trail parking.

On Wednesday, Steve went for a run but I didn't. I decided instead to walk from Circus Circus (where we were staying) down to the Luxor, at the opposite end of the Strip. I took several pics of various places along the Strip. There's a lot to see! I find the photo of the Statue of Liberty & the NYNY roller coaster pretty humorous. :-) We went to see "Bodies: The Exhibition" at the Luxor. A must, if you are into Anatomy & Physiology. I only wish we had had access to this during my A&P classes this past semester! It was awesome; done in good taste & with respect.

That evening, we took the Deuce bus downtown for a prime rib dinner at the Golden Gate casino. It was fun to play a few rounds of Tower Poker on the machines. Dinner was good, too! I enjoyed looking at some of the old neon signs. We're back in Santa Fe now. School starts again on Monday, with about 5 1/2 weeks to go before I graduate.

Hoover Dam

The photos above are from Hoover Dam. We stopped, took the abbreviated tour on our way out to Las Vegas. The basic Dam tour was much better than a few years ago. There's now an informative exhibit in the Visitor Center. Lots of artwork and sculptures decorate the visitors' areas. I still enjoy the old exhibit (bottom photo), the old diorama of the Colorado River, which I fondly call the "Science Project".

End of First Semester!

One more day of Student Clinic and we are on a week-long break! We just completed our final week of First Semester (total 16 weeks of classes so far, whew!). One more "Semester" to go -- it's only six weeks long when we come back & I'm sure that will go fast.

Above you can see some flashcards that I made for Anatomy Class. On one side of the card, I drew a representation of the muscle we were studying, while on the other side I listed its actions, origins, and insertions. A must-know for Massage Therapists! :-) That really was the most artwork I've done for a while. We've been so busy with classes, tests, and final projects these past few weeks that I didn't even have a chance to blog.

Steve & I are headed out to Las Vegas for a couple of days this week. Vegas? Yep, Vegas. While I find grounding in nature & the mountains, I do like the contrast of visual input & people watching that Vegas has. I also have a thing for neon signs, go figure! Not so much the new stuff, but the "retro" signs, like on old Route 66. Love them! We saw the Cirque du Soleil show, "KA", last trip and really enjoyed it. Especially the rigging & costumes (rigging = climbing in my mind). We will probably see "Mystere" this time, which will also be interesting!

I think we will probably check out some trails near Lake Mead & Boulder, NV. Otherwise, perhaps we'll make a trip out to Red Rocks. There's a short but cool trail called "Calico Tanks" that leads up to a "tank" (pond in rocks). I hiked up above the tank last time I was there & there was a cool view of Las Vegas from the "top". Reminded me of Moss Eisley on the original Star Wars movie! Haha. Anyway, if we are not hiking out in the desert somewhere, we can usually be found hanging out in front of the Bellagio, watching people & the musical fountain they have in front of the hotel. Or maybe in Margaritaville or Bahama Breeze! Anyway, I'm looking forward to no homework for a week, woohoo!

Another thing I want to do this coming week is run. Although I prefer trail running, I've signed up for the "Flying Pig" Half Marathon in Cincinnati this May. Steve usually runs the marathon and I needed an excuse to get in shape during/after massage school. For me, I hope this leads to appropriate fitness to do some hiking & backpacking this summer and perhaps even a trail race at some point. I do not claim to be fast, so I guess I've gotta train for distance. I don't get that many fossil points, I'm only 47! Plus, people my age discover that running = endorphins, which overrides "normal" pain... so is that why there are so many long distance runners over the age of 40? :-) Wish me luck, especially with training here in Santa Fe. The streets & sidewalks are quite uneven, so I guess that is a lot like training on a rocky trail. You have to watch every step.

Hope everyone is having a good January. I've been kind of spoiled into thinking it's March already with the weather we have here. Have a great week!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year everyone! Started the new year off with a nice breakfast and a run this morning. The sun was shining, snow was melting, and it didn't really feel like January 1st!

I've been working on my Body Mechanics class project today, playing with the idea of this collage. The first thing that intuitively came to mind when coming up with the idea was Da Vinci's Vitruvian man. As the write up in Wikipedia says, "...has also come to represent alternative medicine and the holistic approach to wellness".

Well, it's back to the drawing board for me (literally). Wherever you are, I hope you all have a great 2009!