Viva Las Vegas

Contrary to popular beliefs, the Burgs like a lot of relatively pedestrian things. Take Karen's love of American cheese, '80s action films and Pamela Anderson (these are not typos). Or Erik's affinity for imitation crab meat, Nacho Cheese Doritos (especially after swimming in a pool) and true crime novels.  But the one thing that always seems to shock our friends is our overwhelming love of of Las Vegas. That's right, Las Vegas, Nevada. We both L-O-V-E it! 

 

Look at it from our side: it's got prime people watching, non-judgmental bartenders offering liquor 24 hrs a day, all you can eat crab legs, black out curtains in every hotel room and lots and lots of examples of American excess...and sadness. Don't forget the sadness.

Sometimes we have trouble remembering to go to sleep because there's just so many things to see. A few examples:

We don't think this is the "Disneyfication" of Vegas people talk about.

Donny and Marie have a show here now. One of the greatest brother-sister acts of our time are back together (well, they've been here since 2009) to perform their hits at the Flamingo night after night after night. We didn't go.

I've met Lady Liberty. You're no Lady Liberty. Sadly, we're pretty sure there's more porn in fake Times Square at New York, New York casino than the real thing.

A prime example of the excesses of Vegas. The Aria is a newish casino, this is part of their absurdly expensive floor. M.C. Escher called. He wants his design back.

(Temp) Room With a View

Karen is currently located at a temporary work station at her work while they build her new office. This is her temporary view:

Let's all have a moment of silence while we feel sorry for her.


Jerk.

Bar-B-Cool

The Burgs are VERY excited about having a deck. So excited that before the furniture arrived they bought and assembled their Barbecue. In the classic Cool Hand Burg tradition, Karen captured Erik mid-assembly.

First meal in the Burg house? Why, a simple teriyaki shrimp with grilled pineapple and veggies, of course.

Speaking of Snoopy . . .

Another thing we miss about NYC? The weird abandoned stuff on the street, I mean, who could forget this gem? It always feels like one big inside joke that no one wants to let us in on.

I don't get it. Why won't someone clue us in? We're cool, come on! I promise we'll laugh.

Schulz Museum

Did you know that Charles Schulz lived only about 60 miles from our new home? It's true! There's a museum there and the Burgs visited it on their anniversary. It was pretty good actually, excellent rotating exhibits (we will be back) a theater, and lots of Linus to love (and Snoopy, but Karen's more of a Linus girl.)

 Mr. Burg was feeling empathetic for Charlie Brown in front of the Kite Eating Tree.

 The level of detail was pretty admirable. Even the bathroom doors were adorned with Peanuts goodness.

Good picture but not very classy, (we know), but the interior of the bathrooms were also pretty amazing. Sadly, the comic strip tiles were not for sale.

Bodega Bay

Our second waiting for furniture escape (also known as "tired of sleeping on a floor/air mattress) was to Bodega Bay. You may or may not know, but they filmed The Birds here. As many of you may have guessed, that film had a lot of of influence on Mrs. Burg, so she was extra jumpy.

It had some pretty gorgeous beaches.

And a gorgeous bird sanctuary. Well, we assume it's gorgeous, this is as close as Karen would get. This was the view from the hot tub at the hotel.

About eight feet from our lounge chairs we made some new deer friends, they were not shy at all. 

One last shot to reiterate how pretty it was there. It's like a painting...Happy little sky.

The Window

Meet the window. It's in our living room. We really, really like it.

No Photoshop.

It doesn't really need any actually, it's just that amazing.

Window at night. Sometimes we can see the moon without getting off of our couch. (The furniture did eventually arrive, don't worry.)

It also makes for some pretty sweet sun patches. If we had a cat they'd be really, really happy. Too bad we're allergic.

Escape to Monterey

Tired of waiting for our furniture, we decided to check out the local getaway spots. Location number one: Monterey.

It's kind of beautiful there, but you probably knew that.

We met a lot of cute sea life. Look at these guys! They were just hanging out waiting to meet us.

More cuteness. Erik again demonstrated the superiority of his zoom lens. Look at the whiskers on him!

Our playful little buddy had a slightly less active friend nearby. Look at him! He was just laying there in all of his Jabba style glory.

YUM! They have some pretty decent seafood there. Nothing as undignified as some of the things we ate in Maine, but delicious in all of there own West coasty glory.

Erik indulged in something called "Seafood Pile Up" . . . It was way more delicious than it sounds.

 Worst likeness of John Steinbeck ever. 

You may have heard, Monterey has a pretty decent aquarium.

We had a lot of fun over at the newish Open Sea exhibit. Karen plans on spending about 75% of our weekends right in this exact spot.

Nature's little joke: the sunfish. Yikes! 

We've got nothing to say here, except "really?" So many Ringo fans in this world!

 Karen is sort of obsessed with jellyfish. She took some pretty amazing shots.

Ever find yourself bored in Monterey? Wishing you could be both terrified and amused at the same time? Well, we've got the perfect answer for you!

Ta Da! It's the Steinbeck's Spirit of Monterey Wax Museum*. 

*Please note, we're about 99% sure that Mr. Steinbeck was not at all involved in the making of this museum.

We're also pretty sure we're the only people to visit the museum in the past few months. The lady who took our money was a little bit shocked that we weren't just asking for directions somewhere else.

The whole thing was an riveting wax adventure through the story of Monetrey's founding and history through present day. There were moving eyes on some of the figures, horrifying lighting effects and even creepier narration.

The sardine cannery section was Karen's favorite. Erik favored our friend above. 

Good times for everyone involved.

New Digs

We found a place in CA pretty fast. It had everything we need, a giant kitchen, a deck, room for our books AND a parking space. Sadly, our furniture didn't arrive for quite some time after we did, which means this was what the living room looked like for roughly 18 days.

Last View

The final shot of the Burgs' sweet Brooklyn digs.

Sorry kids, it's already been rented.