Vegas, Baby!

That's right! We went to Vegas...in the middle of August. Not our most brilliant plan, but we did have ulterior motives. To see the entire Vegas experience, click here:

http://babywesthoff.blogspot.com/

February 24th - Cruise 2008

Day One:

Welcome to the Carnival Conquest! Using art and inspiration from French Impressionists, the entire ship was a floating art gallery. I don't know if anybody was as excited as I was to see Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, and Degas all over the place, but it had me stunned. Please enjoy your tour of the gorgeous ship that took our group (10 total) from Texas to Jamaica to Grand Cayman to Mexico and back up to Galveston in seven days:

(waiting in the lobby while we switched our rooms, signed up for excursions, and drank fruity rum cocktails.)

(the entire ceiling of the lobby was painted like this)

(the stadium seating, hot tubs, water slide, pools and deck chairs)

(mini golf course)

(the Renoir restaurant - where we had dinner every night...see all of the little eiffel towers?)

(the Toulouse-Loutrec lounge, where all of the "performances" happened. p.s. they weren't great. After the first three nights, we just gave up and played UNO in our room - which quickly became our favorite game.)

(the casino)

(this was for my sister who works for "Gear" - they had a store in our lobby!)

(this was for my mom who would have noticed instantly...Degas "Little Dancer" was part of every staircase.)

(the arcade...that's Bettina and Ryan up ahead.)

(here she is again, in the Degas Lounge - real tulle and ribbon in her hair)

(huge stained glass sunflower hanging outside the Monet Dining Room)

(our room - where a lot of UNO happened...that's not a metaphor or anything. We seriously played a LOT of UNO!)

(...because it never stops being amazing to me how tiny the bathrooms are.)

February 25th - Cruise 2008

Formal Captain's Dinner:

Everybody got all cleaned up to meet the captain and drink his booze. (Except for us. We went right to the booze. The line was way too long to shake his hand. Besides, he needed to get back to steering the boat!)

(a happy guy)

(Captain Mossimo Marino saying, "hello" and "welcome to my ship" or something...I don't know...we weren't really listening.)

(cuteness)

(Bob, Mary, Linda and Lou)

(steak and lobster dinner. YUM!)

(some randy little lobster tails...)

(our waiter Kevin - dancing to "hot, hot, hot", I think?)

February 26th - Cruise 2008

An Evening of Live Music and Dancing: