Middle of August

I have been reading all the blogs, but I have not posted for quite some time. It seems that everyone has been on vacation and sharing all the photos. We have not really been on a full-fledged vacation this summer, but we have taken a few weekend trips which have been documented previously. The most recent trip was to Vegas a couple of weekends ago. We went for Mom's birthday - since she is such a Vegas type of lady. You can read all about it on Zack's blog. I encourage you to visit his spot! He is as enamoured of his camera as any of the Melchin clan and has some nice photos to show for it.

I will add my 2 cents about the Vegas trip: I guess I knew what I was getting in to when we planned the trip, I just never realized how really disgusting the Strip can be. I realize that it's a nice city, overall. But the Strip area is definately not for me. I think it only took about 10 minutes for me to come to that conclusion. We do not drink, we do not smoke, and we gamble poorly. (It only took me about 5 minutes to lose $20.) We dress modestly, we don't really draw attention to ourselves, and we don't drag our kids out on the sidewalk at 11:00 at night. We don't really do anything to earn "comps" from the casinos or hotels, and most of the shows I wouldn't see for free. We go to bed early, wake up relatively early, and we don't need a drink to wake up. But...

The show we saw at the Mirage -"Beatles LOVE"- was without a doubt the most exciting, evocative, emotional thing I've experienced in quite some time - even better than Taylor Hicks. You can hardly imagine how one could combine the artistry of Cirque de Soleil with the music of the Beatles - but it has been done, and done mighty well. I have to confess that I did not want it to be over...ever. The music in and of itself seemingly takes me to another world. Add the creativity of the stage show, and I was in a world of my own. I hope I didn't embarrass my family, but honestly, I didn't care all that much. The show was just for me! I highly recommend that if you get a chance, SEE IT!!! You will not be disappointed. Zack's decription of our reaction when the show was over is very accurate. I was looking around at people wondering if they had seen the same thing I had just seen!

Ok, after the show we went to eat at Joe's Stone Crab. For several years I have had a craving to try stone crab. Can I say that I no longer have that craving? Just think of rubbery, sinewy, cold chicken that tastes like crab, with a really thick egg shell on it. It was not at all what I expected. The sauce was delicious. Becky and I traded - I ate her shrimp and she ate my crab.

So now we have nothing to look forward to - except for the American Idol concert in a two weeks. We are driving to LA for a Saturday night show, and we'll drive back Sunday. Oh, and when we drive in the car? We get to carry on our shampoo and toothpaste.