Huy Cat Photography Blog

As a kid, Cypress Garden wasn’t high on my list of “must-go”. That’s probably because we lived so close to Disney and Sea World. So, I never paid attention much to the Cypress Garden ads on TV.

Fast forward to today, I have a new appreciation for Cypress Garden. There are lots of rides the kids really loved. The park isn’t packed to the point of waiting in line for an hour. In fact, a five minute line was more typical. That allow us to accomplish many things during the day.

The dark black ring below are the kids getting spun around in the air!

As part of a trip to play in the USTA 3.5 National Championship, I was able to also take a quick tour of Las Vegas. This isn’t the first time I’ve photographed Las Vegas. But this is the first time I’ve been to some of the following places.
View all the pictures by clicking here.

The first part of the day trip started with a quick run to the Hoover Dam.

Then, down Las Vegas Blvd to the Stratosphere.

One of the neat thing about this visit is that we were able to arrive at the top of the Stratosphere Hotel just before sunset. Here’s a view from atop the Stratosphere minutes before sunset.

One of the craziest rides I can imagine is the X-Scream atop the Stratosphere. Imagine a ride hanging over the edge of the top of the  Stratoshpere.

Here’s another view of the sunset atop the Stratosphere

After a quick dinner delivery, we visited Fremont Street.

The next day, we took a quick walk around the Bellagio Casino. Here’s the Paris Casino from the Bellagio.

And returning back to the Bellagio, the sunset view of Paris.

SPRING BREAK - It’s that time of the year again and since we had a quick sneak peak at Myrtle Beach, SC a few weeks ago, the kids were very much in beach mode. So, after my friend mentioned Destin during a friendly game of cards, we decided to hook up for spring break in Florida.

Before we left town, the weather forecast was pretty bleak… rain all week down in Destin. With nothing else to do for spring break, we decided to chance it. We got there late in the afternoon after catching down during the travel down. Things were clearing up just a bit. After meeting up with Jeff, we were determine that we were going to at least see the beach, even if it’s double red flag warning level and no one else was on the beach.

All we could do was to just head out to a nice dinner. The next morning started out the same, a very isolated and quiet beach.

It would only be hours later when mass chaos would appear.

But let’s not get too far ahead here. The beach was still under double red flag warning. So, the kids decided to just start digging a hole in the beach.

and dig….

and dig…

and even the little ones were digging…

In between digging, they decided to take a little dip in the waters.

In the evening, we did more beach things.

like hunting for sand crabs. The kids found a few, but it must not be crab season.

By the end of our trip, the kids dug a big hole.

But others that gave up on digging, just decided to enjoy the day under the umbrella.

Our spring break tripto Washington, D.C. We were there at the peak of the Cherry Blossom Festival and the weather was great! Photos viewable here.