I don’t even know how many concerts I’ve attended in my lifetime.  There are a handful, though, that I’ll remember forever – Garth Brooks in Kansas City in 2008, Newsboys in Tulsa in 2000, New Kids on the Block in Atlanta in 2009, NSync in Little Rock in 2001, and DC Talk in Springdale when I was in 7th grade.

Last Wednesday night I added another one to the list (although, it still includes one of the afforementioned artists) – NKOTBSB (New Kids on the Block + Backstreet Boys).  I saw them in Atlanta with my friends Penni & Karah.

We had a great view of the stage.  We were 4 rows up from the floor down beside the tip of the stage.  Both groups spent quite a bit of time all over the stage so we had a great view.  (As Penni said, the guys were lifesize.)

Highlight of the concert was this…

This is NKOTB’s Joey McIntyre standing right in front of me.  The guys came down in the audience at one point and Joey ended up in our section.

Here are some more pictures from the concert (& then a link to a slideshow of all of my pictures).  Enjoy!

As I mentioned the other day, I went to Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago on a business trip.  We got there Monday afternoon and left Friday morning.  The conference was Tuesday-Thursday but we took some time in the evenings and in our spare time during the day to explore the city.

One of the best ways to see Vegas (and probably any other major city with lots to see) is to hitch a ride on one of those open top hop off/on tour buses.  We got a ticket on Tuesday night that was good through Thursday night.  If we stayed on the entire time, the tour would have lasted 2 hours.  It went from the Vegas sign to the Stratosphere and several places in between.

The other major photo opportunity we had was atop the Stratosphere.  It is the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.  There are 2 observation decks – one inside and then one outside a floor above.  There are theme park-type rides atop the Stratosphere.  One was called Insanity.  I’m pretty sure those that ride it are insane (no offense to any of my readers who have rode).  They scared me just watching them.  It was really neat to see the city from up there, though.  Even though there are mountains in the distance, the land just looks so flat.

Here is a slide show of the photos I took in Las Vegas.

I went on a business trip to a conference in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago.  The conference was in an expo center that is connected to the Venetian & Palazzo resorts.  We stayed at the Palazzo.  I stayed at the Palazzo 2 years ago for the same conference.  At that time, it was practically brand new.  This time, you could tell it was starting to show some wear & tear but it was still a great hotel.  I’m going to have a Pioneer Woman moment right now and share some pictures of the hotel and my hotel room.  If I could afford it personally and vacationed in Vegas, I’d definitely stay here.

This is the lobby.  The fall decorations and the fountain didn’t quite go together but they are both still really neat to look at.

 The last time we stayed at the Palazzo they had turn down service each night.  They’d turn the bedding down, turn down the lights, and leave some chocolate on our pillows.  The 2 of us that came last time kept telling the other 2 with us about this.  When we got to our rooms the first night, we were a bit disappointed because there was no turn down service.

I’m not much of a bath person but this made me want to take a nice long relaxing bath.  I loved the glass shower, which you can see on the left side.

 There is a tv in the bathroom.  I got pretty used to turning the tv on in there and turning the same channel on in the bed area while I was getting around.  As I was moving about, I never missed a piece of news.

Friday Night:  Texas State Fair

Saturday:  Southwest Classic – Arkansas vs Texas A&M – Cowboys Stadium
Go Hogs!!!

Day 5 – Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Wednesday was our last full day in Chicago.  The plan at the beginning of the day was to go to the Shedd Aquarium and then Navy Pier that evening for fireworks.  We went to the Shedd Aquarium but it decided to pour rain about the time we were walking to Navy Pier so we hopped in a cab and skipped the fireworks.

Outside of the Shedd Aquarium, there was a hot dog stand so we ate our obligatory Chicago Style Hot Dog.  Well, I didn’t.  I had mustard & onions on mine.  A couple of girls with us did get the Chicago Style – mustard, ketchup, onions, peppers, pickle, relish, and probably something else that I can’t think of right now.  The birds were very interested in our food.

Wednesday evening we went to Gino’s East Pizza.  We tried Giordana’s Sunday, which is a stuffed pizza.  Gino’s is a deep dish pizza.  I loved Gino’s!  It is definitely the best pizza I’ve ever eaten.

Click here to view the photo album from Chicago.

Day 4 – Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The first location on Tuesday’s agenda was the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower.  The Willis Tower is the tallest building in the western hemisphere.  It was called the Sears Tower until a year ago.  I still want to call it the Sears Tower, mostly because that’s the most popular and recognized name of the tower.

A relatively new feature of the Willis Tower Skydeck is The Ledge.  One side of the building’s skydeck has 4 sets of plexiglas boxes protrude out from the building.  You can stand on the ledges and find yourself essentially standing over 103 floors of air.  I didn’t experience The Ledge.  My sisters & mom did, though.

After we left the Willis Tower, we took a taxi down to Chinatown.  I’ve never been to NYC or anywhere with a Chinatown so I had no idea what to expect.  The ones that had were pretty disappointed.  They expected some good deals but over half of the shops were groceries and/or restaurants.  All I know is that it was HOT.  Some of the shops we went into weren’t even air conditioned.

Click here to view my photo album from Chicago.

The plans for Monday revolved around 2 things – a 9:30 appt in the American Girl Cafe and an 11:15 appt at the Apple Genius Bar.

I didn’t take any pictures this day.  Crazy.  It just wasn’t really a sight seeing day.

We took a taxi down Michigan Ave to American Girl Place.  In case you don’t know what American Girl is, it is a line of children’s dolls, books, clothes, etc, etc.  In some cities across the US, there is a large store called American Girl Place.  It contains a doll hospital (to fix the dolls), a doll salon (to fix the dolls’ hair), and a cafe (to eat).  Shelby’s teacher brought her 5 year old daughter with us on the trip so this visit was all for her.  I must say the food was very good.  (Was it worth the money?  Not for me but I’m sure the 5 year old with us thought so.)  The cafe is covered in a slightly darker color of Pepto Bismol and black.  Part of the excitement of the cafe for children is that their American Girl dolls get to eat with them.  They have special chairs that attach to the table top and have a little tea set that is set in front of them.  I must say that that part is cute.

Why the Apple Genius Bar appointment?  Well, I bought the iPhone 4 the day it came out.  (Actually, I ordered the first date it was available.)  Ever since I got it, I’ve been getting a message saying “No SIM card installed” which is followed by a complete loss of service.  The temporary fix requires restarting the phone.  After getting a new SIM card at AT&T and talking to Apple support, I was told it was a hardware problem (that multiple owners are having…not just me) and that they would replace my phone.  The standard method for replacing an iPhone is to mail the phone to Apple & then they’ll mail the replacement back.  This process could take 7-10 days and would mean I would be without my iPhone 4 for the Chicago trip so I came up with a better solution.  I would deal with the error for 1 more week and make myself an appointment at the Apple store to get a replacement.  I was in and out in around 30 minutes (had to wait a few minutes before a rep could see me or I probably would have only been in there for around 10 minutes).  No more problems with the iPhone 4!  I have no idea what the complaint is with the phone losing signal when held a certain way.  I can’t even make the phone do it on purpose.  Like I said, I’m very happy with the iPhone 4!

American Girl (& the Apple store) was about a mile from our hotel on Michigan Ave (aka The Magnificent Mile) so we walked back, shopping in the various stores along the way…we could afford.  The girls loved H&M and a huge Forever 21 store.

Here is a link to the photo album of my trip to Chicago.

Day 2 – Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Birthday, America!

On Sunday, we decided to take a 90 minute boat tour down the Chicago River and onto Lake Michigan.  This would allow us to see the sights.  I don’t think we quite thought it through as thoroughly as we should have.  It was HOT in Chicago.  We started our boat tour around 11 and were on the top deck of a floating sun/heat magnet.  The heat was pretty unbearable for the beginning of the tour.  When we got out onto Lake Michigan, though, the wind picked up and it really felt good.  I did get a bit of a sunburn, though.

On to the tour…

The tour took us down the Chicago River.  The tour guide told us stories and pointed out buildings of interest.  It’s definitely a different perspective to see some of the buildings that way as opposed to on the street walking by.

To get out onto Lake Michigan from the river, you have to go through a lock.  It was interesting to see the lock system at work.  Lake Michigan is 2 feet taller than the Chicago River.  When the lock into the lake opened (after the lock into the river closed), water came rushing into the lock and we were able to watch the water level rise on the dock.  (Likewise, we could see the water level falling when we were leaving the lake.)

Lake Michigan was gorgeous.  It was like you were on an ocean because there was literally water as far as you could see.  It was a gorgeous color of blue.  Like I mentioned above, the wind really picked up (as did the waves) when we got out on the lake.  I would have loved to have been able to jump in the water for a swim.  The view of the Chicago skyline from the lake was awesome.

I definitely recommend a boat tour if you are in Chicago.

After the boat tour, we were all pretty hungry so we went to eat at Giordano’s Pizza.  We were all looking forward to eating some Chicago style pizza.  Giordana’s didn’t disappoint.  It is a stuffed pizza.  Basically, the layers are…crust, cheese (and lots of it), crust, topping (i.e. pepperoni), sauce.  The sauce was a marinara-style sauce, really tomatoee.  (Is tomatoee a word?  I might have just made that up.  I basically meant that it tasted mostly like tomatoes and not many spices.)

Here is a link to the photo album from my trip to Chicago.

My sister Shelby won a state competition (& a trip to nationals) for a high school club she is a member of.  The national competition/convention was in Chicago.  Mom, Lindsey, & I decided to go along and make it a girls’ vacation while we were at it.  We left Saturday July 3rd and came back Thursday July 8th.  We packed a lot of sight seeing (& heat) into the 4 full days we were there.  I’m going to do a blog entry for each day so I don’t have to pack several stories and a lot of photos into one entry.

Day 1 – Saturday, July 3, 2010

We got into town late afternoon (after having a slight airplane delay).  We checked into our hotel and decided to walk down to Millennium Park (which was only a couple of blocks from our hotel).  We saw Pritzker Pavilion and the Bean (actually called Cloud Gate).  Everyone had fun taking pictures of themselves in the Bean.

The one aggravation we had the entire trip revolved around paying for meals.  There were a total of 9 people in our party.  1 person was not paying for all 9 meals.  However, almost every restaurant we ventured into required us to submit one payment instead of the 6 splits we needed.  It became a math session for some of us to sit and calculate how much everyone’s meal, tax, & tip amounted to and then to try to come up with the right amount of cash (because no one dared put the whole thing on a debit or credit card).  Is it really so strange to want to pay for our own meals?  I’ve never encountered this problem at home.  (As a matter of fact, I went out to eat with my family last night.  We had 13 people and most of us paid separately.)

Click here to see the photo album from my trip to Chicago.

My friend Penni mentioned to me in early spring that the Backstreet Boys were going to be pretty close to her hometown in concert June 5 at Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA.  Penni is a HUGE Backstreet Boys fan.  I had been wanting to visit her in Georgia at some point in the near future and decided I might as well come at that time and go to the concert with her.  Our friend Karah was gracious enough to get us front row (and center) seats.  (Thanks, Karah!!!)

I’ve never considered myself that much of a Backstreet Boys fan.  In high school and early college when they were at the peak of popularity, I listened to and liked their music.  I was more of an N Sync fan, though.  The concert didn’t make me like BSB better than NSync (sorry Penni & Karah) but I did come home and add quite a bit of their music to my iPod to listen to.

The highlight of the night wasn’t necessarily even music related.  Brian Littrell’s 7 year old son Baylee came out on stage after the opening act.  The crowd was already going nuts in anticipation.  Baylee came out and simply said…”Are you ready for the Backstreet Boys?  Here are Nick, AJ, Howie, and <insert pause> my Daddy.”  It was adorable and the crowd went crazy!

The worst part of the night was my camera situation.  I didn’t want to lug both a point & shoot and my DSLR camera through the airport while traveling so I opted to just bring my DSLR.  I wasn’t allowed to use it at the concert, though.  The photos in this entry are courtesy of my iPhone.  Penni & Karah are sharing their photos with me but it isn’t quite the same.  Lesson learned.