Finally, I made it back from the weeklong company meeting in Vegas after surviving a 3.5-hr delay at the LAS airport for reasons unknown (it's United, in case you're wondering). You know, it's one of those meetings where you get to hang out with 3000 of your best friends day in and day out in the same massive hotel where you don't get to see the light of day. People always ask me "How's Vegas?" when I come back, all I can describe is the pattern of the wallpaper (intimately so) and how many crystals there are in the chandelier in the ballroom we were in (482, in case you wanna know). I know, it's pathetic.
Having said that I did get a glimpse of the Strip when we were schlepped from our meeting hotel on a coach to the Palms for some after-hour partying (again, with our 3000 best friends). And I noticed the everlasting renovation going on everywhere. It's like a Botox here, a collagen injection there for the aging Strip. This time one of the major facelifts seems to be the demolishing of the familiar and pseudo-exotic facade of the Aladdin. Heard it's going through yet another transformation to become a Planet Hollywood establishment. How exciting.
Even though I was hypo-enthusiastic about the whole Vegas thing, I had to say the Palms was the premiere place to have a nice cocktail and enjoy yourself Vegas-style. Our company threw us a party at the various lounges and restaurtants in the hotel, and we got to get up to the top-floor lounge imaginatively named the Moon. The view from the Moon was truly spectacular, with all of Vegas' glory stretching before your eyes, it's a true gem... oh wait, I guess it's more like a cubic zirconia since everything's artificial. Oops!
View from the Moon @ the Palms Hotel, picture courtesy of Palms' website
Anyway, I'm glad beyond words to be home, where the grass is green, the ocean is blue and there's the real Golden Gate Bridge (instead of a miniature replica of it). And with Jacques being off this whole weekend (a true miracle), our family got to spend some quality time together in hiking one of the nearby green space- the Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.
Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, marked by point "A", 20 minutes from where we live (Emeryville, on left side of map)
I mean, who knows there's a volcano 20 minutes from where we live? I certainly didn't (but then there are a lot of things I don't know that I probably should have). This volcano, Round Top, has just celebrated its 10-millionth birthday and is now extinct. Many geologic features associated with a volcano can be viewed here, reminds me of high school geography class, which, with the risk of sounding like a geek, I must say I enjoyed quite a bit.
This park is amazingly diverse in the landscape it offers, from fragrant eucalyptus forest, to open meadows (picture perfect complete with grazing cows), to old-rock-mines-now-transformed-into-some-weird-labyrinth-thingy (just look at the pictures below), this trail is one that we'll have to go back to.
Rock specimens. Totally rock!
Hiking through eucalyptus forest
It's quite a hike, where's my Gatorade?
Our Fearless Leader, sniffing out the way to the mystic labyrinth (so Middle-Earth)
