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Happy birthday to our favorite aging rocker.... :)

Klingler Time

An added perk of Wacy's wedding was a quick visit from the Klinglers. We only had one Saturday afternoon, so we did our best to show them some of our favorite places. The weather was perfect and we had a really great time. 

M&M store & free 3-D movie

Our favorite form of liquid torture--the infamous Coke Around the World tour. (It's not all bad, but beware of Beverly!)

 

 Bellagio fountains-this time to a little Frank Sinatra. My favorite show yet! 

 

 This guy was awesome. I am not usually one for street performers, but this guy was really good. 

  Mr. Muscles is a reason I am not a fan of street performers.  

You may think he is a friendly body builder who likes to get his picture taken with random people. But really, he is a pushy guy who won't let you go until you take a whole bunch of pictures. You end up like this--on instagram!

When your embarrassment is complete, he demands money. What? It was a weird way to end the evening. But I guess it could have been worse, on the strip, at night, in Vegas. Mr. Muscles and all, we loved spending the day with the Klinglers. 

A Wedding for Wacy

and Kat, but I am a fan of alliteration, so she didn't make the title. 

We didn't go to California just to tour the Fender factory. The main purpose of our little trip was to attend Wacy and Kat's wedding in the San Diego Temple. 

I am not, nor do I ever aspire to be, a wedding photographer. But you would think I would try a little harder. I just don't want to impose, so here are my horrible photos of the big day. 

Another plus of this trip was spending a little bit of time with my mom and Lacey. 

 Unfortunately it was a rushed trip for me. We had time for lunch at CPK then I hit the road for home. Matt stayed in California for a work retreat. While I was home with the kids, Matt and Co. were partying with rock stars. Maybe up and coming stars is a better term, but still...

Jake & Jammin Orrall of Jeff the Brotherhood. 

 

We Totally Rocked that Fender Guitar Tour...

Are you aware that Matt likes guitars? He does. A lot. When we were first married I found a poem he'd written about his true love. I was touched until I found out it was about his guitar. True story. But I am not jealous. To prove it, I went with him to tour the Fender factory in Corona. 

Fender builds guitars in Mexico too, but the nicest, and more expensive, guitars are made here in the USA. The tour was actually really interesting. 

Of course everything I learned went straight into my short-term memory so I may have some details wrong. The guitars start out as wooden planks and are carved by that machine in the background. 

Here's a better look at the transformation from board to body. 

These are the necks and there is a machine for that too. 

There are lots of neck choices. 

I didn't take very many pictures but we saw every step of the process and it was all really interesting. It takes a lot of work to get to this point. 

These are some of the expensive custom guitars from the custom shop. Some of these can cost as much as a car. A used car, but still a car!!  

They make a lot of custom vintage guitars that are distressed (or Matt says "road worn"). They looked super old and well played even though they were brand new.

If you find yourself in the Corona area try to go on the tour. It's definitely worth it. And you can get a free pick, or several free picks. If you found my tour information lacking, ask Matt and he can tell you more than you probably want to know.  Need another reason to stop in Corona? Well, there is a really great Chik-fil-A nearby...delicious chicken and free butter mints. 

Halloween Decorating

Zack was extra excited that I was back from my two week trip. I was flattered, until I remembered that I promised him we could decorate for Halloween when I returned. His goal was to have the best decorations in our neighborhood. 

The next morning he gave me a shopping list. I only needed to pick up a coffin, skeleton, mummy and tombstones. That was it. What I didn't know was that he also gave Matt a list to buy pumpkins, a witch, spiderwebs and ghosts. He's sneakier than I suspected. Instead, I gave him a budget and took him shopping.  He fiddled with it for the rest of the month and here are the final results. 

 

 

 

  

 

It doesn't look that great in the daylight, but it was spooky enough for him to be happy about it. The first few days it was out he thought he saw more cars than usual driving by our house. He figured that people saw our house and told their friends to come check it out.  Love that optimism!

Versailles--The Grand Finale

15 years ago I went to Paris and I didn't really love it. It probably had less to do with the city and more to do with an annoying girl (who we'll call Sally) who was part of the group I was traveling with. This time around, Paris was lovely and I am sure that a big part of it was traveling with these ladies. We don't keep in contact a whole lot but when we get together it's just like old times. I am  super lucky to have such amazing friends. 

I am seriously reconsidering those sunglasses. 

Before we left Paris, I wanted to get a picture of this church that is in the process of restoration, we think is St. Paul's.  The doors were painted while we were there. 

It was a little sad to bid farewell to Paris, but we had a pretty spectacular destination. My first impression of the city of Versailles when we arrived earlier in the week was that it was a little dumpy. But when we walked by this flower clock on our way to the Palace of Versailles my opinion improved. You just don't see this very often. I better be careful, or Zack will get some lofty landscaping ideas. 

This is Versailles  and it is huge. King Louis the XIV (aka the Sun King) moved the court from Paris to Versailles in 1682. It was the center of government until the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were the last royal residents. 

 

 Shadowy picture of us, but see how big and gold trimmed it is. 

This is a little better picture of the gold detailing.

Inside you will find a whole lot of fanciness. Let's begin with a few ceilings:

Here are some ceiling and hallway photos.

The chapel:

The King's bedroom chamber:

 The Queen's bedchamber:

 A staircase

 The Queen's staircase

The famous Hall of Mirrors- or hall of a million people getting in my way. 

This is a statue of Turenne. Our apartment in Paris was on Rue Turenne. It never once occurred to me that it as named for a person. 

 Most of what we saw was just what I expected to see. Here are a few surprises: 

Stilletos made from pots.

Ugly yarn and felt chandelier trashing up the place.

In hindsight, I probably should have also taken a picture of the random helicopter that was inside the palace. I don't recall what it was decorated with (maybe feathers, maybe even peacock feathers) but it was weird and like the other things, out of place. I just don't always understand art.  

The interior of the palace is remarkable and the gardens are incredible.  We almost didn't go. Then we realized that would be completely stupid.  I would have liked to stroll out to Marie Antoinette's summer house. But the gardens are huge and we didn't have time.

 There are plenty of fountains. 

 

Some statues

and lots of pretty plants and trees.

 

This final Versailles garden picture also documents the time I became a giant. 

Versailles was a great ending to our trip in France. And so it was back to England with one last trip under water.

 This is how you get into the train. We were behind a Ferrari this time. Cool! 

When we were planning this trip I thought 12 days might be a little too long to be away. Even though we saw a lot, there was plenty more we could have seen. But all good things come to an end and really, I can hardly believe we pulled this off. Now that we know we can do it, we're in talks for the next trip--my vote is for Italy.