Andrew and Steve » Travel

Rockwater Resort

Andrew — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:15:00 +0000

We spent a post-winter vacation at the Rockwater Resort on BC’s Sunshine Coast (Halfmoon Bay).

Shuswap River Float

Andrew — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:49:31 +0000

Steve and I spent some of our vacation in Salmon Arm visiting our nieces, nephews and related family.Â We spent one of the afternoons floating down the Shuswap river in Enderby.

Easter 2009 With Family In Salmon Arm, BC.

Steve — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:18:51 +0000

Our trip to Ucluelet 2009

Steve — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:04:19 +0000

Here is our trip to Ucluelet in March 2009.

Don’t forget about me

Andrew — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:13:26 +0000

The Princess staked out her territory while we were packing for our trip to Ucluelet. I’m not sure if she was trying to stow away, or if she just didn’t want to be left alone. In any case, we will soon be on our way to a nice little getaway.

For Bill & Sheila

Andrew — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:12:33 +0000

Christmas came early at the Walker-Hunt household.Â We got our first robot.Â See the video for a demonstration.Â Steve is now slightly concerned about whether it will become self-aware and terminate us.

Leaving Las Vegas

Andrew — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:48:57 +0000

So that’s it! This is the end of our Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Las Vegas trip. We departed the Luxor and headed for the airport. Got on our flight without incident, other than having to deal with a snarky barista at the Starbuck’s at the airport.

We flew first class to Seattle where we caught a cab and went to the Cruise Ship terminal and boarded our cruise ship. We got a free room upgrade, which meant we had to go looking for our luggage since it was sent to the room we were originally assigned to, but after that was accomplished, we settled in for a relaxed evening returning to Vancouver.

When the ship arrived in Vancouver early the next morning, we managed to get off fairly quickly and didn’t have any hassle with customs. And that was all she wrote!Â Now GET BACK TO WORK!

Last Ve-Gasp

Andrew — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:00:11 +0000

We started this day in Vegas (our last real day there) by having an overpriced light breakfast of fruit and pastries, along with some ridiculously priced coffee at Starbucks. After that we went back to the Paris hotel and did the normal tourist thing of walking around in the hotel/casino. Paris has a replica of the Eiffel tower that goes up 50 stories, so we went for a ride to the top to check out the view. Quite an amazing architectural marvel, even despite being the scaled down version of the French original. Great views at the top, too. The Paris hotel was very charming and certainly replicated the feel of Paris.

After touring the Paris hotel, we went back to Luxor and checked out the “Bodies” exhibit. This is the display of the plastinated bodies, disected in various ways to show how the human body works. It was extremely interesting, despite being somewhat creepy. The one thing that Andrew couldn’t take was the display showing the various stages of embryo to baby – just a bit too much to take.

After grossing ourselves out with that, we decided to relax for the rest of the day and enjoyed some time at the Luxor pool. Of course it was a hot and sunny day and the pool was teeming with people to watch.

After the pool came the really interesting part of the day, which was the 7 course dinner (actually 8 course – we had a bonus course, courtesy Chef Rick Moonen) at RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay (see menue below). Absolutely amazing. The first few servings were barely large enough to cover our forks, but holy mackerel was it ever delicious.

Then we packed for the return trip and fell asleep.

CHEFâ€™S TASTING MENU
first
sliced KONA KAMPACHI, micro salad,

sour plum, rhubarb & fig vincotto

second
SPRING GARLIC soup, escargot,
quail egg & brioche

third
medallion of COBIA, piquillo pepper chutney,
sticky rice & sake lees â€œgazpachoâ€

fourth
lightly poached BLUE POINT OYSTER, braised bacon
& spicy creamed cabbage

sixth
butter-poached MAINE LOBSTER, wild mushroom,
toasted gnocchi, favas & grand marnier monte
($20 supplement)
or
niman ranch NY STRIP, seared foie gras,
buttermilk mashed potato & cabernet reduction
selection of ARTISAN CHEESES
($15 supplement)

seventh
choice of DESSERT

Circque

Andrew — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:16:52 +0000

This was one of the more exciting days in Vegas. We started the day by changing our car from the little SUV that we used to get to the Grand Canyon for a more interesting Dodge Charger. We kept squealing the tires on it everywhere we went, even though it only had a 6-cylinder engine in it. It was a very “torque-y” car with just the right weight to it – really comfortable and easy and fun to drive for a mid-size car.

We drove the car off the strip to check out “The Orleans” casino and had lunch there. After that we went to the Mandalay Bay to see the Shark Reef Aquarium. On the way back to Luxor, Andrew bought some clothes for relatively cheap, and had fun with the staff there.

The big event of the day was heading over to the Bellagio to see “O”, the Circque de Soleil show. We roamed around the hotel for a while then went and enjoyed the superior buffet there. There was a whole bunch of Circque promotional stuff in that hotel – there were so many O’s I thought Oprah was going to pop out of somewhere at any minute. After eating we went directly to the O theatre and waited for the performance to begin.

The show was absolutely incredible. There was so much going on that you couldn’t keep up with all the activity. I’m sure you could have seen the show one or two more times without feeling like watching a re-run.

Then as we were leaving the Bellagio we lucked out and the Fountain show was just starting, so we caught that as well.

Here’s some video:

Expensive Grand Canyon Booties

Andrew — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:05:33 +0000

This day we went for a road trip across the Nevada desert to the Grand Canyon. Stopped for a great breakfast in Boulder City, NV which for the two of us, cost less than one buffet breakfast at the Luxor. We continued along to Lake Mead and made our way along the top of the Hoover Dam.

The road to the west end of the Grand Canyon took us along a fairly rough gravel road – Good thing we had our trusty Toyota Highlander (4-Runner in sheep’s clothing). Mucked around at the Grand Canyon for a bit (see video).

Made our way back to Vegas but stopped in Boulder City again to do some laundry at a friendly little laundromat. Andrew washed the Toyota which became covered in dust from the trip to the Canyon, then we continued in to Vegas. Stopped for a great (cheap) Mexican dinner off of The Strip, then continued home for a well deserved rest. We also spent a bit of time on the casino floor, gambling away some cash.Â More on that later…