KISS, Live and on Fire!

Big

Hot

Awesome
Last night we got the chance to experience "The Hottest Show on Earth" and I do agree. KISS was AWESOME and more than I had excepted. There were lights, smoke, fire and even a sonic boom or two, all I know is that I could not hear by the end of the show.


The opening act was a new group from Toronto, The Envy. I liked them and will be looking for more music from them.

The second group was The Academy Is..., one that I am not familiar with and I did not like it as much as the first band.

But then it was time for KISS and all previous performances were forgotten.

Gotta love the big screen

Hotel Quito [Ecuador]

We arrived in Quito at 7:25 pm and the airport was crazy, well the custom line was long and crazy, but with Maria's help, we were able to go through customs easy and fast. Next we were on to finding our luggage and the driver from the tour company that was supposed to be there to drive us to the hotel, but we could not find him. Both Rick and I made trips around the airport looking for someone holding a sign with our names on it, but no one would claim us, so Maria and her husband Pablo, his brother, Luis, and their mother and father drove us to our hotel. Thanks guys!!!

The hotel was fabulous! The hotel staff was pleasant, helpful and very professional and the hotel. The room was nice and clean, even a chocolate on the bed (you know you have arrived when there is chocolate on your bed.)  (p.s. Don't tell Rick about the chocolate, I grabbed it before he saw it.)

Here are some photos of the hotel.

 

Hotel lobby with beautiful roses, one of Ecuador's larger exports.

Nice, simple, but elegant bedding.

Even nicer with the chocolate.

A view from our balcony...

and another view...

and a night view.

This view is from one of the hotel's terraces.

A view of the hotel grounds.

Hotel's pool which looked very inviting, but the temperature was too cold for me to go in.

The hotel had its own casino, I gave it some money.

And Rick won some.

RDU: Day One

Well it has been more than a week now since we returned from our wonderful vacation to Quito, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. A week of work, of unpacking, of doing laundry and the start of school, a week of downloading, categorizing and looking at 1721 photos of our travels. Yes, that total is right, 1721 photos, 1398 taken with my two cameras and the other 323 taken by Rick. 

Needless to say I am trying to get the photos ready to post. I want to post the photo and tell you a little about each post in the order of our trip, by each tour we took and the places we visited.

I start with the first day, which is at RDU. Not very exciting, but it's where we started. We were very lucky and was able to fly to Ecuador with Maria and Eva. Maria has made this trip several times and is a pro at the international check in process and with this being my first time I was very thankful for her help. Thanks Maria!!!

Beautiful Maria and her adorable daughter Eva, who is busy checking the ticket stub.

The very roomy and organized new terminal for American Airlines.

Nice open area for many travelers to walk.

This is what I would call a huge skylight.

Old City Quito

Vegetables for me

It is wonderful to have great friends who have vegetable gardens. And it's extra nice that they give me the opportunity to go out in the garden and pick fresh vegetables.

White eggplant and purple peppers.

But I must say that these vegetables made me do a double-take and wonder.... did I picked them at the right time, are they ripe or too ripe.......one like me who does not garden, white eggplant and purple peppers just don't seem right. But once battered and fried, they were delicious. (I know, frying takes away some of the "nutritional" value, but they were oh so good.)

Cucumbers

The cucumbers were monsters. I wasn't sure if I would survive picking them (many spiders live in the cucumber plants and you all know I feel about spiders) but with all those cucumbers, it did leave me with a question... can you freeze cucumbers?

Bowl full of cherry tomatoes.

Along with the bounty of peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, I also picked many cherry tomatoes. I like to keep a bowl of them in the refrigerator and grab a couple at a time for a healthy snack... do you think I could dip them in chocolate? hey there is such a thing as a tomato chocolate cake, wonder how many cherry tomatoes it would take to make such a cake? and who could I get to make me one?