Chinese New Year Decoration in Las Vegas 2012

Wearing the tourist hat today in Las Vegas, I took the opportunity to shoot some seasonal pictures around town. On foot, I got to Aria and the Bellagio. Since this is the year of the dragon in the Chinese lunar calendar, all the decor centered around that theme.

The entire dragon and cherry blossom tree was constructed piece by piece in milk, dark, and white chocolate by the staffs at Jean Philippe Patisserie. The lanterns were made of fondant. Pretty amazing! This is also the spot I come for a nice quick lunch. The salads and the pastries are very delicious and worth the pricey tabs.

At the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, one can always find a great display of seasonal celebration. They put up an excellent show of Chinese children made with flowers for the Chinese New Year. The doll faces were a bit scary and unreal if you took a closer look, but the colors of their clothes were amazing.

Chinese New Year Dinner @Capital Seafood

This year's Chinese New Year Eve dinner was held at the Capital Seafood in Irvine Spectrum. None of us wanted or able to afford the time to host it at home. It is only appropriate to have a Chinese meal for this evening. Since it is really a distance to travel for a meal in the Alhambra area. So we settled for Irvine, especially when some of us had to work until 6pm.

I arrived at Vanessa's early. For reason unbeknownst to me but obviously to Duncan, he wanted to go pick up pau pau (my mom, his grandmon) with me instead of waiting to go with daddy and mommy. Yes, I found out not too long later, this little devil somehow thought I promised to give him a surprise gift. Well one way or another, grandma was very very pleased to see Duncan came along to pick her up, so a surprise gift is a small token grandma is very willing to offer!

Our normal routine ... have a big meal, then pass out the red packages to the kids and grand ma. There was a bit of mixed up with the red packages. It took like 3 counts to straight out whose's whom...too many kids, too many packages to count since each couple gave two to each child.

The littlest nephew, shy from the crowd.

Here is a picture of the happiest mommy collecting the red packages.

Oumi Sasaya Udon

I have first read about Oumi Sasaya udon restaurant in LA Times. Since then, I have lunched here a few times whenever I am off and in the mood for udon. Since I dined by myself, it was never an issue waiting for a seat at the counter. Watching the cooks working behind the counter is quite interesting.

A square of cold tofu is served with the meal, you drizzled soy sauce to your own liking. It is a bit blend but the tofu is silky.

Each time I have ordered a hot udon with shrimp and mochi tempura. Before this shop, I never had fried mochi with udon before; a chewy texture with the tasty hot broth. I love it.

Zabriskie Point

It's time to go home...after this amazing weekend here.

I made Tom stopped at the Zabriskie Point on our way out to say "see you later" to Death Valley, as we will be back in the future. A last look at this rough terrain and an ever lasting captured on camera. Until next time...

Artist’s Drive

Our last stop for the day is at the Artist's Palette. We wanted to hit it in late afternoon light to capture the intense colours. The scenic loop drives through multi-hued volcanic and sedimentary hills, a bit of roller coaster feel.

We made it just in time, beating all those other people trying to set up their tripod!!! Way to go....

As for the palette, it is different colors. But honestly, it looks more like a "starting to melt" ice cream sundae, except for the blue. The green blue color stands out from the earth tone brown.



Driving out afterward, we were rewarded with a great sunset to end our day of adventures.

Badwater

Now, I can brag about being to the lowest point in North America! This is one of the most photographed spot in the Death Valley, because of its easy access, and the surreal salt flats. Sodium Chloride—i.e. table salt—makes up the majority of salts at Badwater Basin. We got the late afternoon lights, so the white salt was not as blinding.

If we wandered further from the road, we probably would be able to see more of the structural patterns undisturbed by human traffic....but we didn't. The salt flats is fragile, so I am not sure foot traffic is good. This is always an internal struggle for me when it comes to nature preservation.