All You Need Is Love and George Strait

We went to Vegas for our annual George Strait super bowl weekend show.  I've seen him every year, except one, in Vegas on this weekend since 2004.  I figured out that this was my 16th overall time (I think) seeing George.  I've tried to see him at least once a year since college.  This year's show was the same as last years with Leann Womack and Reba, but we missed Leann last year.  Of course, Reba puts on a great show, so it's worth seeing her twice.



We also saw Cirque Du Soleil's Love show at the Mirage the night before seeing George.  It was a great show.  I loved the Beatles music, of course.

Leann and Reba singing duet "Does He Love You"

Reba in her "Fancy" dress for her encore

He's looking at me!

"Troubadour"

Mammoth Lakes, CA

Mike and I went up to Mammoth Lakes for a blues festival a couple of weeks ago.  We decided to go on this camping trip with some people from Meet Up mainly to check out Mammoth for the first time.  Mammoth is so pretty and it smelled so good because of the pine trees.  We hiked the Devils Postpile National Monument on Saturday morning and drove back home through Yosemite on Sunday.

Our campsite.

Bluesapalooza

Hiking on Saturday

Devils Postpile

Rainbow Falls

Driving through Tioga Pass through Yosemite

Half Dome from Olmsted Point

You can see all our photos here:  Mammoth Aug 2010

Las Vegas

It was our annual trip to Las Vegas to see George Strait, here are some photos....

We stayed at the Mirage

Watching the Bellagio Water Show

Enjoying a beverage watching the KU game.

Lee Ann Womack and Reba duet.

Ahhhh, George!

The Nutcracker and Carols By Candlelight

We had a nice Christmas-y weekend.  We took Mike's grandmother to see the Nutcracker.  We always like to take her to a Christmas program every year. 


We also went to Carols By Candlelight.  It's a concert that has been held every year for the past 20 years and the event raises money for local children's charities.  We bought our tickets through a local radio station, so we got meet and greet passes also.  We got autographs from all the performers and a couple of photos.


After the show, everyone gets a candle and goes outside to sing Silent Night.  This was the first year it rained the night of the show, but everyone still stood outside under umbrellas singing Silent Night.

Leann Rimes

Bucky Covington

Autographs from Leann Rimes, Bucky Covington, Little River Band, Buck Howdy, and Jordan Pruitt.

I have no idea which signature belongs to everyone.  We weren't really interested in autographs, just a couple of photos, but didn't want to be the only ones going down the line not getting autographs.

Our Annual George Strait Vegas Trip

Those that know me well, know that I am a HUGE George Strait fan. So serious that I am a member of his fan club, I have every CD ever recorded (which is over 30 if anyone was wondering) and I go to see him in concert once (sometimes twice) a year. Being a member of the fan club pays off by allowing me to get tickets a day before the public. So, we usually are within the first few rows off the floor.

George Strait started playing in Vegas on Superbowl Weekend a few years ago. We usually go every year, but last year we decided to skip Vegas and go to Stagecoach to see him. I decided this year that I really enjoy the tradition of going to Vegas on Superbowl Weekend to see George.

This year his new-comer opener was Sarah Johns, never heard of her, but she was ok. His next opener was Josh Turner, I love his deep voice! It was, as usual, a great show and I can't WAIT until next year!


Josh Turner

George!

This year our seats were pretty close to where the performers enter and leave the stage.

Stagecoach - Indio, CA

Over the past weekend, we drove out to Indio (about 2 and 1/2 hours) to go to a country music festival, Stagecoach . It was the first year for the festival. For those of you that don't know, I'm a HUGE George Strait fan. We usually go see him every year in Las Vegas, but when I heard about Stagecoach and the opportunity to see him and other favorites, we sold our Vegas tickets.

We decided to camp out there instead of getting a room, so that we could be right there and not have to worry about traffic everyday. We were able to go in and out, which helped on Saturday, so we could change in the afternoon. The desert is hot during the day, but once the sun goes down, it can get a little cold.

Well, it wasn't really camping; it was just pitching your tent amongst hundreds of other people. You couldn't even have a campfire! I've had my fill of porta-potties for a while!!

There were 4 stages at the festival. One of the stages was under a large covered area and had bluegrass bands. We spent a lot of time in that tent hiding from the sun listening to some cool bands. 2 of my favorites were Abigail Washburn and The Grascals. If you like bluegrass, check out their websites for samples.

The Grascals have a more traditional sound. Abigail is very unique, she has an awesome voice. She lived in China for a while, so she has incorporated her knowledge of the language into some bluegrass music (Listen to "Song of the Traveling Daughter") and it sounds really cool!

Bela Fleck (from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) was also with Abigail playing in her quartet. I first heard of Bela Fleck from him traveling with the Dave Matthews Band, who I used to see in concert a lot.

The Grascals

Saturday, we saw Willie Nelson, Alan Jackson, and the one and only George Strait. The were all fabulous! For George's oncore, we moved up front to watch him closer. A lot of people had left for some reason.

Willie

Alan Jackson

George

We don't know if we'll go next year, it might be back to Vegas, but we had tons of fun. We are back home catching up on sleep since we didn't get much while there.