Outings
red rock
May 11, 2012
We’ve been to Red Rock casino numerous times.
But we’ve never gone West on Charleston to go out to the actual red rock canyon.
So we figured now was as good of a time as any (and by “now” I really mean last weekend).
They have a pretty cool visitor’s center with all sorts of exhibits including live tortoises.
And structures which look fun enough to climb, but say “No climbing allowed.”
Gracie wasn’t too sure about the bunny ears, though.
I wouldn’t profess to have a very active lifestyle, so I picked one of the “easy” hikes.
And for some reason, this “easy” hike was not exactly just a nature walk like I expected.
Maybe it was the fact that I was carrying an 18 lb. child (she might even be 20 lbs by now).
Never mind that there was a family of 6 with little kids at the top.
Or maybe I’m just out of shape and use my child’s weight to make myself feel better.
I was completely exhausted and super hot by the time we got to the end of the hike.
Graciela was apparently hot too because she tried to swipe my water bottle from me. I did let her have a drink… which she then spilled all over both of us. I’m not gonna lie, it actually felt pretty refreshing.
happy hour
May 10, 2012
It is a good thing that there is no Sonic too close to our house.
Otherwise I’m afraid we’d be taking advantage of their happy hour way too often.
$3.33 for the both of us which included 2 drinks and 2 sandwiches? Yes, please!
feliz cinco de mayo
May 7, 2012
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Here in the Mertinso household, none of us are Mexican. But we certainly do not use that as an excuse not to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. We just celebrate it our own way… by going to eat TexMex at On the Border.
Our friends Jake, Cami and their son, Bentley (aka Gracie’s bf), joined us for dinner.
And then we finished off the night by going over to their place for a rousing game of Ticket to Ride.
Normally I refuse to play games that I know I stand no chance of winning, but since it was a holiday, I made an exception. And I didn’t even pout during the process.
birthday dinner
April 30, 2012
For my birthday, I decided that I wanted to go out for sushi. And not just any sushi, I wanted all-you-can-eat sushi because lets face it, I wanted to eat as much as I could. I was my birthday, after all. Graciela fell asleep on the drive over, so I mistakenly thought I would get to eat in peace.
Sadly, just about the second the sushi started being delivered to our table, she woke up ready to chow down.
Luis opted against the all you can eat, and just ordered a couple of rolls for himself. Smart move on his part. He didn’t go home in pain like I did.
Once we were finished with our sushi, it was on to dessert. Felipe chose the fried bananas with ice cream, chocolate sauce and nuts. Had he known the ice cream was going to be so small, he would have ordered another roll.
I ordered to mango mochi ice cream (the outside is mango-flavored mochi and the inside was mango sorbet). This thing was pretty small (about the size of a golf ball, cut into 4 pieces), which normally would have made me very disappointed. However, since I had stuffed myself with sushi until I felt like I was going to explode, this was the perfect size little dessert bite to end my meal.
The place we went to is pretty small. And as you can see, it was totally packed that night. There was another person there celebrating a birthday and the entire restaurant sang to him. I threatened Luis that if he did that to me, he would have to walk home.
Our good friends came over after all of this and brought me a cute little red velvet cake and a gift. I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but by then I was having excruciating gallbladder pain and just didn’t think to get out the camera. Luis got a video of it, but it was dark and you can’t see much of it so I won’t bother uploading it here. All in all, I had a great birthday celebration and am relatively happy to be one year away from the big 3-0 :)
wynn
April 29, 2012
We took a little stroll over to the Wynn not too long ago. That hotel is just so beautiful. I wish my backyard looked like this. But then again, I guess I would need to employ gardeners around the clock to keep it up.
Graciela was particularly fond of their waterfalls and wanted to jump in. I had to hold her back. All I wanted was a picture, but the kid is really strong and kept turning around trying to escape.
Boca do Brasil
April 26, 2012
I accidentally discovered a Brazilian restaurant here in town. Apparently it has been around for a while. So (of course) we went to try it out.
Now, we definitely could not eat Brazilian food without drinking some guarana (a Brazilian soda).
These gigantic things are what is called “pastel.” Essentially it is a deep fried dough similar to wonton wrappers, that has been filled with a few tablespoons of a variety of fillings. The pastel itself looks huge (which it is) but the puffiness is just from the deep frying, it is not completely stuffed with the filling (remember, only a few tablespoons of filling are put in it). But they are really yummy. Some of my favorite fillings are heart of palm and cheese.
We also couldn’t pass up the coxinha de galinha. Now this actually is completely stuffed. It is a deep fried dough (a very doughy dough) that is filled with a chicken mixture. Delish!
Thankfully Luis is a good sport about trying new restaurants with me.
The particular night when we went they had feijoada. I don’t particularly care one way or another whether my beans have meat in them, but since they had feijoada, I felt I would be unpatriotic if I didn’t order it. Of course, it was definitely a bonus that they were served with a side of collard greens :)
Hopefully this little one will love this food just as much as I do.
day out
April 25, 2012
I don’t know if you remember, but Luis really likes the Titanic. So when my brother offered to watch Graciela so we could go out, Luis and I decided to go see the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor.
They had all sorts of really cool artifact that have been rescued from the bottom of the ocean.
They recreated some of the rooms on the Titanic so you could see how things really were on the ship.
They even had one huge piece of the side of the ship.
At the end of the exhibit, they had a wall with the names of all those who lost their lives on the Titanic, and it was just absolutely crazy to think that those lives could have been spared.
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