Lemon Sorbetini at Trevi

For my birthday, Trish and I went to Las Vegas to enjoy the sights, sounds, eats and drinks. We don't gamble at all, but Vegas offers so much in terms of engineering marvels, cultural opportunities, and amazing dining. Our favorite afternoon pick-me-up is the Lemon Sorbetini at Trevi (in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace). It is essentially a lemon drop martini with a scoop of lemon sorbet added.

Guard House at Machu Picchu

High above the main plaza at Machu Picchu stands this small structure that served as a watch tower. The view is stunning and is the vantage point from which most Machu Picchu travel posters are shot. After we finished climbing all the way up here, a rain storm came rolling through the Andes. It made for great light and provided much exercise as we dashed back down the mountain (two weeks after our visit, a tourist was killed by lightning here in a similar scenario).

Poor Little Bunny

At the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, they turn poor little bunnies loose in the lion enclosure so the cats can keep up their hunting skills. This wouldn't be so bad, but they do it in plain sight of all the kiddies. We got there about ten minutes after the bunny release, so Alayna didn't have to witness it. The nice part is, they have excellent vantage points set up for getting pics of the lions.

Night Glow in Indianola

We went to the 2008 National Balloon Classic in Indianola, Iowa. In addition to getting to go for an awesome hot air balloon ride (complete with unplanned crash landing), I also got to enjoy the 'Night Glow', which is where the balloonists all set up on the infield (at dusk) and do multiple simultaneous burns. As darkness falls, it gets even more impressive. Unfortunately, Alayna was not a big fan of the deafening roar coming from 150 hot air balloons doing a burn.

Day of the Iguana

While enjoying a day in Mismaloya, Mexico, we happened across this fellow basking in the sun. We spotted him after eating lunch at a restaurant on Mismaloya Beach which was built for the film 'Night of the Iguana'. If you look closely at the iguana's body, you can see that he is molting. The darker black on his back is fresh skin, while the greyish areas on his sides, tail and head is the old skin waiting to come off.