Chihuly in the Garden

Yesterday, my friend Lisa and I went to the Botanical Gardens to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit. I'm not real art savvy, but I know what I like. I first saw his work about eleven years ago in Lost Wages. My mom was staying with me, and we went up there to meet with my sister Charlotte and her husband, they had my niece Erin with them at the time, and she was to young to go into the casinos, so we hung around. It was around Easter, and the Bellagio hadn't been open but a few years at the time, so we walked over there to check out the new casino in town. In the center of the lobby, they had a Dale Chihuly sculptor hanging from the ceiling. I recognized it as his because I had just seen a PBS special of his work. I was completely enamoured to see it up close. I must of sat there for an hour looking up at the ceiling! I asked an employee about it, and he confirmed his work, he also told me at the time it cost 13 million dollars! It's a vivid series of plates, or discs grouped together in a way that it looks like a field of vibrantly colored poppies, just spectacular! If you get to Vegas, I suggest you go to see it, I hope it's still there. At the time Steve Wynn owned the casino, and he had some of his private art collection set up in a gallery he had specially built for it. The collection was limited due to space, but it's now housed in his new casino Wynn. I suggest you check that out too, it's awesome! Anyway, back to Chihuly. Mike and Courtney were to go with me, but he had to work, and the babies both were sick, so I actually had three tickets. I was glad I got to go. The weather was nice, even when the wind kicked up a little. We walked until both are backs started to hurt, then had an early dinner there. We sat in the Terrace cafe, both had salads it was great! The gardens weren't crowded, you have to reserve a time because they don't want too many people there at once because of the glass exhibit. I do recommend you pay the extra 3bucks for the audio tour, it's well worth it!