La Reve - The Dream

La Reve - The Dream

Several years ago, (I think 2014) the season finale of Face Off was held at the Wynn in Las Vegas. The finalists had to create make ups for their final that would be worn in the show La Reve the Dream. Ever since seeing that episode, I was super excited to see the show. La Reve is super popular and sells out every night. It is consistently rated the Best Show in Vegas. Due to its popularity, it is very rare to find any discounts for the show online, or in person, even in the off season. Since moving to California, my husband and I have been visiting Las Vegas frequently, so I knew eventually we would get to see the show. 

My husband was deployed and I got an email offer from the Wynn hotel. It was a package that included 2 nights, 2 buffets, and 2 tickets to La Reve the Dream for about the price of the 2 hotel nights. I got a friend to go with me, and we took Wynn up on their offer. 

The show was every bit of amazing. The theater is in the round, with performers on the stage and in the air. Honestly, there really isn't a bad seat. It is truly a show where there is action every where. We were sitting sort of in the middle and we saw everything without an issue. Those who choose to sit closer to the stage might have an issue.

If you are going to be spending time in Vegas, you definitely need to check out the show. It is an amazing show that takes you through a beautiful journey. The show goes through love, dreams, happiness, challenges and sends the viewers on a roller coaster ride of emotions.

The acrobats and performers are extremely talented. The show takes place in and out of the water, and high in the air. Prepare to be thrilled and see the best show of your life.

Heroes and Villains Fan Fest, San Jose, CA

 

Heroes and Villains Fan Fest

San Jose, CA

December 1, 2018

 

 

 

Fan Conventions, or "Comic Con" are super popular these days. I think it is a combination of the fans going to any length to see their favorite celebrity in person and celebrities either trying to stay relevant or trying to reboot a career. Some of the conventions are super small, and some like the notorious Comic Con in San Diego are ridiculously huge.

 

 

After getting a ton of emails, I randomly decided to get tickets to Heroes and Villains. I have always been a huge fan of Arrow and Flash, so I felt like I just HAD to go.  Unfortunately for me, San Jose is a hike, so the cost of the convention was also airfare and hotel. But it was worth it!

 



 

 

 

The Heroes and Villains Convention was also in combination with a Walker Stalker event, which is a fan event for those fans of the Walking Dead. I've watched one episode of the show, so I am definitely not in the fan category for that show. I was there to see everyone from Arrow and Flash.

 

The panels were pretty good. The Flash panel was quite funny with Robbie Amell crashing and joining when his booth time was up. There were some good questions, and some typically bad questions. Overall, it was a good convention.

 

 

 

I feel like for the size of the convention center in San Jose, I figured the convention would actually have been bigger than what it was, especially with the Walker Stalker convention. I was thinking that there was going to be more vendors there. There was a fairly good quantity of vendors, but I guess I was just thinking there would be more.

 





 



La Mesa Oktoberfest, Sept 2018

La Mesa Oktoberfest
Sept 28, 2018

Being of German Heritage, there isn't anything in life I love more than German Food and Oktoberfest.  Back when I drank, I am sure I would put German Beer on that list of LOVES as well. But now, I haven't drank alcohol of any kind in years. Honestly though, I do miss German Beer.

I decided to pre-purchase the Hoffbrau House VIP Pass. I don't remember what the price difference was, but it wasn't much by buying it ahead. I do remember that with the web fees, it ended up being more expensive to buy a Ferris wheel ticket ahead online as opposed to cash in person.

La Mesa Oktoberfest goes over 3 days, Fri Sat and Sun. Each day there are bands, contests, lots and lots of vendors and plenty of food. Don't worry if German food really isn't your thing, because there were plenty of other food vendors. La Mesa Oktoberfest is held in the downtown area right across from the MTS Station, so there were other food options in the area as well.

There really isn't much parking in the area. I decided to take the trolley all the way from Moreno to La Mesa. In retrospect, I should have just drive to a few stops before La Mesa and parked. It took much longer to ride the trolley the whole way than if I had driven.

MSC Seaside, June 9-16, 2018

MSC Seaside

Miami, Florida

Phillipsburg, St. Maarten

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Nassau, Bahamas

Our First Cruise on MSC was MSC Seaside out of Miami. 

This was our 10th cruise overall. However, the first 9 were on Carnival.

Our cruise journey definitely started out quite interesting. First when booking and checking in, we had to get used to how MSC does it. I actually liked their system better.
Instead of opening your on board account ahead of time, you have until you have been on the ship for 48 hours before your account is "on hold" until you put a credit card down. It can be done from one of their many kiosks, so we definitely did not have to stand in some long line.

We have cruised out of Miami before but MSC was at a different terminal. When we got to the terminal, our Lyft driver pulled right to the luggage cart. He was actually not in a parking space. He was just trying to get us to the pile of luggage as close as he could.
As we get out of the car, I have my husband asking me questions, the Lyft driver talking to me, and the dock worker talking to me asking me questions. Even though the dock workers are unionized, get an $15 an hour, they still expect tips. We had 3 bags that the handlers had to move from the ground to the cart. That was it. We were right by the luggage cart. If we had been further away, I could understand. I opened my wallet while talking to the driver and my husband and THOUGHT I grabbed a $5 for our 3 bags. My standard in the past had been $2-$3 basically $1 per bag. If we are getting on earlier and our room isn't ready, we check more. If our room would be ready, we carry on more.

In this case, our room would be ready. The dock worker took our 3 bags, one spinner suitcase, one regular roller, and a garment bag. I thought I handed him a $5. He looked at what I tipped and gave me the world's dirtiest look. I have gotten worse looks from people when I intentionally did something bad to them. Finally the Lyft driver was satisfied and left, my husband took off towards where we would check in, and took off after him.
Later, I looked in my wallet and realized I must have given him a $1 instead of a $5 based on what was in my wallet. It was an accident. 
We got on the ship, ate, did the safety drill, went to dinner, waited and waited waited. My husband had his luggage. But my suitcase with our toiletries, my medication, ALL of my clothes was never delivered.
Finally at 9:15pm I could not wait any longer and I went to guest services and then was directed to the "no tag: area. Thankfully my suitcase was there, and my luggage tag was easily visible.
I could tell where the tag had been ripped off clearly the dock worker was angry that I had not tipped what he expected. It made the cruise start off on a sour note, but it was not MSC's fault.

Other things about the cruise definitely made up for it. 

San Diego Padres Vs Cincinnati Reds, June 2, 2018

Hawaiian Shirt Night!

We decided that the promise of a Padres Hawaiian Shirt was too much to turn down. So we ended up going to two games in 3 days.

It was a really good game. Of course the Padres won. We had great seats on the first base side. This season we have sat in a different section each time we have gone to a game. 

We plan to hop around and sit in every section we can, just to check out the view from each area.

For Saturday games, usually starts at 5:40pm. Within the first 3-4 innings, the sun is really changing as it is going down. Next time on a Saturday 5:40pm game, we will sit on the 3rd base side. We were right in the line of the sun being blinded.

The crazy part of San Diego is that when the sun is up, it was right in our face and we were melting. Then suddenly the sun is completely down, and its COLD! You gotta love San Diego!

San Diego County Fair, June 1, 2018

San Diego County Fair

"How Sweet It Is"

June 1, 2018

Living in Virginia most of my life, we never had a "County Fair". We had the State Fair, and that is pretty much what I relate the San Diego County Fair to. We had festivals, small fairs. But nothing on the scale of the SD Fair, in length or attendees. 

Since moving to San Diego County, I have made sure that we go to the SD Fair each year. The first day of the fair, opening day, is the military appreciation day. Military members with their families get in free. The fair also does a special event for Albertson's and Vons employees on opening day.

The theme this year is How Sweet It Is. It is very cute. It is like Willy Wonka, and Candyland witn unicorns. Even the food vendors have Unicorn specials. One of the vendors has a "Unicorn Leg", which is just basically a smoked pig leg. One has a "Unicorn Horn" which is basically just a churro with icing and sprinkles. It is cute. The San Diego County fair runs at the Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar until July 4. 

San Diego Padres VS Miami Marlins, May 31, 2018

San Diego Padres 

VS

Miami Marlins 

Thursday. May 31, 2018

Final Score Padres 8 Miami 3

Another beautiful night at Petco Park. Tonight we sat in section 312. 

This season we have been going to as many Padres games as possible. We have always enjoyed baseball, but living about an hour from the stadium, it can be a challenge to go to games during the week after work.  We have decided just to make it work, and just to do our best. Without having season tickets, it can get really expensive to buy individual game tickets, plus parking. Luckily, the Padres have a military discount, and relationships with the ASYMCA that allows us to enjoy games on the cheap.