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June 29 Las Vegas, NevadaA month ago Olivia and I spent a few days in Las Vegas. There was a bi-annual reunion of Olivia's fraternal organization; Libsong International Association (LIA). Its members are former residents of Olivia's home neighborhood of Libsong, who now live abroad and have scattered throughout the world. It's main purpose is to send financial support and to undertake community projects beneficial to the children and community in her hometown. This year, LIA met at the Gold Coast Casino in Las Vegas - and the guest of honor was none other than former President: Fidel Valdez Ramos, 12th President of the Philippines who originally grew up in Olivia's metropolitan area of Lingayen, Pangasinan where Libsong is located.
 After the LIA function was over, we of course used the opportunity to check out the city and the Las Vegas Strip. And I must say, until you have actually been here and walked up and down the Boulevard you can't really grasp the amazing scene. This city never stops and the casinos are open 24 hours a day. But to really appreciate Las Vegas, you have to experience it at night.
 Walking the strip is not as simple as it was in the past, it is now 4 miles long and includes 27 casinos. Even so, several Strip hotels have undertaken efforts to make the street more pedestrian-friendly. New casinos design their facades to attract walk-up customers and many of these entrances have become attractions themselves - the Fountains at Bellagio, the volcano at The Mirage, and the Treasure Island Sirens are the most well-known. People gather on the sidewalks in front of the casinos to watch these shows.
 To alleviate traffic issues at popular intersections, footbridges have been installed to help pedestrians more safely cross the roads. The Tropicana - Las Vegas Boulevard footbridges were the first to be installed, and based on the success of this project additional footbridges have been built on Las Vegas Boulevard at the Flamingo Road intersection; between The Mirage/Treasure Island and The Venetian; and the latest ones at the Las Vegas Boulevard-Spring Mountain and Sands Avenue intersection connecting the Wynn with the Fashion Show Mall.
 These photos I've displayed here are only a sampling of what I took while in Vegas. In order to maximize the quality of these pictures I spent some time late into the morning hours with a tripod walking up and down the Strip using a low ISO and long shutter speeds. As exhausted as I was, I knew I would be cursing myself to no end if I didn't maximize my opportunity to take some real photographs using a tripod. If you wish to see the rest of these photos you can view them over on our FLICKR site.
 June 10 June UpdateHey there friends and family! Thanks for stopping by our web site. I'm in the process of updating our stuff online and would like to invite all of you to check out our new Flickr home page!
  No, we're not closing up shop here, but since I got my new camera and have been taking much more photos than before... I'm going to start using Flickr as the main archive for our pictures. The quality and features are much better than the limited photo engine here at Windows Live Spaces. There is a Spaces gadget that is supposed to work in conjunction with Flickr, but it is currently not functioning properly. When they get the bugs worked out I'll link it to this web blog.
In the meantime, enjoy the new site and don't forget to stay in touch!
-Ron & Olivia |
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