solar eclipse

Today for the first time in 18 years, an annular eclipse was visible in the U.S.

An annular eclipse covers only part of the sun, producing what looks like a giant ring of fire.

see some great pictures here. We had a family bbq, so it was fun to view it with other people.

It was very bright and sunny here in Nevada, so we didn't get a dark out affect. but it did get darker and the birds got quite still and quiet. And by dark, I should say it got gray/overcast looking.

we made a pin hole camera to cast a shadow onto a plate to see more accurately what things looked like in the sky. 

then we noticed that the what was happening up in the sky was casting shadows onto my dads fencing. So first we could  see the moon as a crescent. and then when it completely covered the sun, the shadows became circles. very cool.

 

 

Bellagio walking tour

after my dad left to go back home, i grabbed a cab from Luxor and headed over to Paris, where i was checking in for 5 days to attend the art retreat, Artnsoul. It was only 10am, but i got to check in - so i was happy about that. i dropped off all my stuff and then i saw our view. we had an incredible view of the Eiffel tower overlooking the pool. i thought it was really pretty.

so i headed over to the check in area for the retreat and ran into a few friends. they recommended that i head over to the Bellagio and check out the hotel lobby and garden area.

so that is what i did. it was a beautiful day, so i headed out in the sunshine and made the walk over to Bellagio. if you've never seen the Bellagio, you must someday! it is simply gorgeous and surrounded by a huge body of water, which is where the fountain show goes on every 15-30 minutes. i took zillions of photos over there and that was before even going inside.

inside the lobby, i was treated for an amazing display of glass flowers on the ceiling by artist Dale Chihuly. you want to talk about beautiful art! and to be displayed like that in such a grouping; it was breathtaking. also, since it was Chinese New Year, they had their garden area and front desk set up to celebrate Chinese new year. again, more beauty, creativity and much more! i enjoyed the quiet time of walking around and shooting pictures of all of it. there will be more pictures of it later, when i took my friend, Z to see it for herself.

home from Vegas

wow, i was gone for a long time! my first leg of the trip started out with spending a few days with my dad. he drove to Vegas from Fallon, Nevada (about an 8 hour ride). We stayed at the Luxor hotel and had a great time. mostly we walked around, seeing the sights in the area where we were staying. lots of walking around! it gets tiring after awhile and wears you out. also, the self parking was so far away, it was always a another long walk to get the car too! finally we found a little parking lot off to the side of our hotel that was so close to the elevators where we were getting off from our room, so we moved the car there. much better! we checked out MGM, New York, New York, Mandalay Bay (very pretty!) and Excalibur. we also walked down to check out the new city center area, but did not venture in.

while we were there, President Obama flew in and we got to see his motorcade cross the freeway. we watched the whole procession from our hotel window and counted 26 cars and motorcycles in the convoy!

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also, i'm having a class here at Lemoncholy's Studio on Saturday, March 20th. you can read about it here. two spots are sold already!