Hoover Dam!

Unlike the Grand Canyon, Christopher and I had both seen Hoover Dam prior to this trip. So we didn't feel the need to stop, other than to take this one picture:

Grand Canyon

After CES we decided to check out the Grand Canyon since neither of had ever seen it. Chris actually thought he had already been, but upon later confirmation from his parents that turns out to be untrue. Interestingly enough his brother thought the same thing, even recalling identical memories of cave-dwellings.

The Grand Canyon was absolutely spectacular. Way larger than I imagined and words and even pictures cannot do justice to its beauty. Since it was January it was very cold at night, but it warmed up during the daytime. However, the tops of the trails into the canyon were covered with ice and snow and the guides recommended crampons. But then he asked us where we were from and when we told him Connecticut he said that we'd be okay without them. I can only imagine what he would have said if we told him we were Canadian!

We did the South Kaibab Trail day hike down to Cedar Ridge. We were totally unprepared. Not only did we not have crampons, but both of us had on sneakers and I was carrying my purse! In my purse were a couple of granola bars, half a tube of pizza flavoured Pringles (my fave), and one small bottle of water. Definitely poor planning on our part, but at least it was wintertime. If it was summer we would have been in trouble!

CES 2008

Every job has its perks. One of the perks of my job is that I get to go to Las Vegas for 3-4 weeks each calendar year. It's kinda crazy when you add up how much time I spend there - good thing I don't have a gambling addiction!

R2D2 remote-controllable webcams and projectors

This year, my division was exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show and I got to attend. And since Christopher's winter semester doesn't start until January 23rd, I thought it would be nice to bring him along in celebration of his 30th birthday.

I saw lots of neat things at the show - too many to list really. The Creative Technology booth was a frenzy of activity as they had some pretty good giveaways. I saw two guys battle it out on Guitar Hero on Expert level and was thoroughly impressed. They also had a professional gamer on their booth beating the pants off everyone even though he as playing handicapped (one hand, with 75% of his screen covered, etc.) At the Sony booth they had Sony-BMG artists in for live performances and I got to take in a Natasha Beddingfield concert one afternoon. That was a fun treat.

Larger than life Transformer on the Dolby booth

It was funny seeing little independent vendors selling their plastic Wii controller accessories or CD scratch removing tonic next to behemoth CE companies like HP, Samsung, & LG. And gaming chairs - there were SO MANY booths selling gaming chairs. There is no way to decorate a nice room around a gaming chair - it is not possible.

Ringing in the New Year

While we were driving back to Connecticut after spending the holidays back in the motherland I decided that this would be the perfect year to ring in the New Year in Times Square. The animals were being watched by family members back home in anticipation of our upcoming trip to Las Vegas and vacation in Florida. And weather-wise you really couldn't ask for anything better in December- high of 42 F and no wind or precipitation.

When I shared my great idea with Christopher he seemed less than thrilled (he was just getting over a cold and is not fond of crowds). But, being the good sport that he is and seeing how excited I was about it, he got online and managed to pull off a Priceline miracle - $205 for the Hyatt at Grand Central Station, only a few blocks from Times Square!

So we took the train into the city and walked over to the hotel to drop off our stuff and meet up with my friend M who was also planning to hit Times Square for NYE. We worked our way through the various checkpoints, debated the differences between handbags and purses (handbags are not allowed into Times Square for New Year's but a purse is...), and then stopped for a slice of pizza and our last bathroom break of the night before joining the revelers in the "pen" at 51st and Broadway.

I really enjoyed the experience of spending New Year's in Times Square. It's one of those things that I've always wanted to do. That being said, there is a reason why everyone else we met that evening had never done NYE in Times Square before. There is also a reason why we were glad that we hadn't driven all the way from Washington State to be there that evening, like a couple of others in our pen.