Posted on by Anne Sandler

Family reunion in Las Vegas and the Valley of Fire

It’s a wonder that near the neon, fast paced city called Las Vegas, there are two beautiful natural areas. Yesterday I showed you Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and today I’ll show you images I took last night at the Valley of Fire State Park. They are both beautiful, but different.

While the Valley of Fire also has red rock, it has more formations like you’d find in Arches National Park. We did miss some formations because we stuck to the road due to the late hour and lack of any shoes to hike in. But, there still was much to see during the golden hours. My only regret was the lack of a sunset worthy of shooting.

That was because the high winds blew sand and grit into the air creating a haze of sorts. The wind was so strong that as soon as I released my car door lock, it blew the door open. Many times I had to brace myself so I wouldn’t fall down. I hope you like today’s photos and, maybe, visit the two awesome areas someday.

Tonight we are going into town to catch some neon and whatever else we can.

 

Posted on by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

On the road again: Family reunion in Las Vegas and Red Rock Canyon

On the way back to the resort from visiting The Valley of Fire State Park and just as we were getting into Las Vegas, Simon and Garfunkel (singing the Sounds of Silence) sang, “and the people bowed and prayed to a neon God they made..” That was a wicked amazing sense of timing! Neon was all over the city.

Another wicked bad timing has been the wind. Tonight’s sunset wasn’t. There was just light colored haze up in the mountains. At least it’s keeping us cooler. It was windy last night too when we had the reunion dinner. I’m hoping our hosts are resting today. They deserve to.

Last night was great. People mixed before dinner, looked at the boards again and after dinner Anita showed a slide show she put together with all the pictures we cut out. She’s going to create a DVD and mail it to all of us. I didn’t do too well in the capturing images department last night. I guess if I knew the clan better, I would have gotten in their faces with my camera. Jim was taking groups for another DVD, and at the very end of the evening, he got a group shot of all of us. It took some time to set up, and I’m anxious to find out how it came out.

By the way, Jim and Anita’s photography can be viewed at their website Sandstone Photography.

In addition to a few pictures of the dinner last night, I do have some images to show you of Red Rock Canyon. This beauty is relatively close to our resort, and reminded me of parts of Sedona Arizona and Southern Utah. We drove the 13-mile scenic route. The only disappointment was the sunset–not too grand.

Tomorrow we are having breakfast with friends. After that, I’m not too sure what we will be doing. Maybe if the wind dies down, Richard can put up his sun scope, and I’ll edit my Valley of Fire shots.

Posted on by Anne Sandler

On the road again: Las Vegas family reunion, part 2

What do you do when you’re shy and know you’re about to meet a whole bunch of family for the first time? You get anxious–at least I did. But, cousin Anita did a great job of helping us sort out the branches of the family tree.

Since we arrived in Las Vegas early, we went to help Anita and Jim Ziegler prepare for the reunion. Actually, the only help we could give was to cut pictures. Anita had asked us all to send her family photos. She edited them, printed them, cut them (that’s where we came in) and glued them on poster board according to family. She also made up family organization charts, showing us where and which part of the family tree we belonged to. To say that she put in a lot of effort is an understatement.

This effort began last summer with her asking for phone numbers and emails of all family members. She had no idea that she’d have 80 of us attend. This afternoon was the day we all met at the LVH Hotel. Even though I was anxious to begin with, I rapidly got caught up in the “who are you?” game. Anita had made up button badges of various colors according to our family branch. So once you understood the color/branch connection it was easy. Everyone was eager to meet and learn.

The Zieglers took time away from their photography business to plan and execute this reunion. I was amazed at their images, or should I say ART. From portraits to landscapes, their work is wonderful. And, they made sure that 66 high school seniors who couldn’t afford their senior pictures got them taken with out charge.

We have taken time to visit other places in the area and I’ll show you some images in a later post. Right now here isare some photos about the reunion itself–the preparation and first meeting. Tomorrow is breakfast and dinner. I won’t be so anxious.