I am pleased to release my list of favorite books of 2011.  I set out to read more books this year, and managed to finish 31.  Keep in mind that very few, if any, of these books were actually released in 2011.  I just happened to have read them this year.

My reading list includes 12 fiction and 19 non-fiction.  I was surprised to see it was so heavy on the non-fiction, as I did not intentionally lean that way.  I just read what appeals to me, and I found a lot of great non-fiction books this year.

I quit 3 books during the year, which is something that I never do.  But I decided to not waste my time on books I did not understand or find enjoyment in.

My favorite books of the year…

Top 5 Non-Fiction

1 – Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  I read many fantastic books during 2011, and this one was hands-down my favorite read.  The story of a World War II soldier who went through amazing horrors and survived it all.  This book literally gave me goose bumps several times.  If you haven’t read it – make it the next book you pick up.

2 – A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.  This book does a great job of making you question how you are living your life.   Don’t just wander aimlessly through life.  Have a plan.  This book inspired me to so some soul searching of my own, and was the impetus for this blog post: Twenty Years From Now.

3 – Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo.  An amazing story of a young child named  Colton who visits heaven in the midst of receiving surgery.  This book recounts many of Colton’s conversations with his parents and others, which led to the realization of his visit.

4 – Imperial Cruise by James Bradley.  Did the United States bring the attack of Pearl Harbor on ourself by our own actions 35 years earlier?  This book brings to light some ugly truths(?) about American attitudes at the turn of the 20th century.  A very well written book that I wish was a work of fiction.

5 – Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  A fascinating book about how humans are actually designed to run.  The story weaves storylines of the Tarahumara Indians, the Leadville Trail 100 mile Ultramarathon, and the modern science of barefoot running.  As a runner, I was enthralled on every page, but without a doubt even a non-runner would find this story interesting.

Top 5 Fiction

1 – The Passage by Justin Cronin.  It may not come as much surprise that given my name, I am a fan of the works of Stephen King.  My favorite King novel is The Stand and this book would fall within that same genre.  A story of apocalypse that  spans 100 years.  Do you like vampires?  This book has them.  Sort of.  I went to see Justin Cronin speak in Tulsa earlier this year and blogged about it here: A Night with Justin Cronin.  This is the first book in a trilogy, with the second book set to come out in 2012.

2 – The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson.  This is the third book of Larsson’s trilogy, which begins with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  This book had one of the most gripping endings that I have read in quite some time.  The last 200 pages of the book were spectacular.

3 – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I am quite a bit late to the party with this book.  A friend of mine recommended it to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was not until later that I realized that my 14yo and 11yo had already read it long before I did.  This is the first book in a trilogy and I will definitely be reading the rest of the stories.

4 – The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson.  An enjoyable book in its own right, but gets forgotten a bit (at least by me) as the second book in this trilogy.

5 – The Host by Stephenie Meyer.  A science fiction book that really felt as though it was written for a female audience.  The beginning and ending were fast-paced, but the middle dragged a bit.  Overall, a nice book.  The only reason it makes my “top 5″ is that I was not impressed with the fiction books I read this year.

Most Overrated

As a bonus for you, let me identify books that I felt so indifferent about that I could not finish them, or books that promised more than they delivered.

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough.  This was not a bad book by any stretch, but this was easily the most promoted book I was aware of all year, and I could not help but feel let down.  The stories were interesting, but I did not get drawn in like I had hoped to.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel.  This is a pretty well known book, but it did not connect with me.  I had looked forward to reading it, but had to give up when I got 1/3 of the way through it.  Not engaged at all.

Jefferson Key by Steve Berry.  I have not read any Steve Berry books before, but this one had caught my eye.  A historical thriller, a la Dan Brown, or at least that was what I was led to believe.   The story plodded along but could have been so much more.  A book that intertwines Thomas Jefferson and modern day pirates sanctioned by the US Government should have had a lot going for it.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  Several years ago, I read another McCarthy book, No Country For Old Men.  The writing style in the book really caught me and I was excited to read The Road.   This is a post-apocalyptic story of a man and his son crossing America fighting for survival.  This is actually a  case where I enjoyed the movie more than the book.  Say it ain’t so!

I hope that you might find some ideas for your own reading in 2012 from this list.  If you have your own favorites from this year, I’d love to hear about them.

Being an Oklahoma State football fan is hard work.  It’s not for everybody.  It requires a certain level of eternal optimism.

“How can this be?”, you may ask.  Just a few days ago, the Cowboys achieved their highest ever BCS ranking at #3.  Anybody can be optimistic when your team is 7-0 and ranked third.

0-10-1.  That’s what I’m talking about.  During 1991, Oklahoma State played an entire season without winning a single game.  The high point of that season, a 6-6 tie at Iowa State, was played 20 years ago today, on 10/26/1991.

My wife and I were at that game.  Stephanie had a college friend who was living in Iowa, so we made a road trip to Ames to see her and our team.  Little did we know that we would see the highlight of the season.

Being at that game has been something akin to a badge of Cowboy honor for us.  When Poke fans get together and become giddy about our current situation, it is not uncommon to contrast that with the way things used to be.

Over the years since 1991, a solid season or two was quickly followed up by a return to sub .500 football.  That is when that Cowboy fan characteristic – optimism – would come into play.  There’s always next year.

Well, we have finally arrived.  This is next year.

All those years where it would just be me and 25,000 of my closest friends at an OSU football game are long gone.  Earlier this month over 58,000 fans showed up for a game with Kansas.  Kansas!  It would have taken 2 to 3 games in 1991 to get that many fans through the turnstiles.

Now is not the time for Cowboy fans to get anxious and lose sleep over the few remaining games on the schedule.  Now is the time to exhale and realize that OSU is producing a season that we would not have dared to dream about 20 years ago.

We need to enjoy our moment.  And to be clear, I’m not predicting this is a fleeting moment.  But things change very rapidly.  Just ask Michigan.  Or Texas.

Justin Blackmon said it best, “We’re not OSU history.  We’re OSU now.”

Cowboy fans, enjoy the now.  You’ve earned it.

Chad Gibbs.  God & Football: Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC.  Zondervan, 2010.  240 pages.

If you have ever felt like your mood on Sunday is determined by how your college team performs on Saturday, this book will be proof that you are not alone.  A good friend of mine in Alabama sent me this book.  Maybe he knows I take my team’s wins and losses to heart a bit too much.

Chad Gibbs attended a football game at every SEC campus over the course of 12 weeks during the 2009 season.  His goal was to seek out people who love football and love God, and hopefully learn some secrets on how to prioritize the two.

Gibbs does a nice job of weaving his own history of being an Auburn University fan throughout the book.  No matter what town he is in, he is always subconsciously comparing that school (atmosphere, stadium, fight song, etc.) against his own alma mater.

The book is full of amusing stories from pastors and youth leaders he met throughout the season.  A personal favorite is during Gibbs’ visit to a game at LSU.  Gibbs visited with Father Burns from the St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Baton Rouge.  Father Burns told the story of how he was chanting “Go to hell, Ole Miss, go to hell!” at the game, and the Ole Miss fan in front of him didn’t appreciate it.  In retrospect, Father Burns said, “I regret I wore my collar to the game.”

The book makes a good point of how some (perhaps most) fans get an inflated sense of self worth based on how their team performs.   The minister, David Nasser, summed it up nicely, “Football is a great hobby, but a horrible god.”

I would highly recommend this book.  It was a hilarious & quick read, yet still had enough substance to make you think about your own relationship with God.

This author knows how to suck up!

Running.  Running is what I love to do.  And Reading.  Running and Reading are what I really love to do.  And I love it when the two comingle.

During the Fall of 2010, one of members of my running group was a young lady who enjoyed reading every bit as much as I do.  We would often find a few minutes to talk about what we were reading during those long Saturday morning runs.

It was during one of these runs that she told me about an organization called BookSmart Tulsa.  This group arranges for authors to visit Tulsa and talk about their books.  My friend, Sarah, had been to several of these and encouraged me to check it out.

And so I did.  It turns out that there was a book that both of us had read & loved.  It was The Passage by Justin Cronin.  It was rated by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 Fiction books of 2010 and I have now made my way through most of that list.  This book has been my runaway favorite.

As it turns out, BookSmart Tulsa hosted Justin Cronin at the McBirney Mansion to talk about this book.  I had this on my calendar for months and even convinced my wife to go with me.

I had, of course, never been to anything like this and I didn’t know what to expect.  Even Sarah told me that every one she attended was different.

We arrived early enough to get a couple of seats together.  By the time the event started at 7pm, there were perhaps 25 people in attendance.

Jeff Martin, one of the principles of BookSmart Tulsa, opened the evening for us, giving us some background information on Cronin.  He did a nice job by weaving in a connection between Cronin and Tulsa from many years ago.

It was warmer than a person would like in the room.  Martin quipped that he was sorry about the temperature , but please don’t forget there is a cash bar in the back of the room.

Finally Cronin took to the microphone and talked for about 15 minutes about the book, some of his early writing history, what he’s doing now, etc.  It was all quite interesting.

Although I loved The Passage, I obviously wasn’t fanatical enough to know that the book is actually part 1 of a trilogy.  Cronin is wrapping up book # 2 this summer.

At this point, Cronin reads from the book for about 20 minutes.  One continuous chapter.  He chose to read about the character Anthony Carter, who rises from street peddler to neighborhood handyman to convicted murderer.  Cronin had a great voice for reading and it was easy to visualize the story as it unfolded.

After the reading, he took a handful of questions from the audience.  Somebody asked about his daughter, and it turns out that she collaborated with him on this book.  She is quite young – 14 at this time – but a very advanced reader and writer.

And what may have been the most interesting part of the whole evening was when Cronin talked about his daughter’s abilities for memorization.  He said she has a near-photographic memory, but if she hears it, she can remember it.

Cronin would read at bedtime to his daughter when she was younger.  Before they started reading, he would ask her to recite the last paragraph that he read the night before.  She was always able to recite it from memory perfectly.

No big surprise that at the conclusion of the evening, Cronin sat at a table where he was selling copies of his book and signing them for guests.  I would say that well over half the people in attendance got in line for a book.

The entire event lasted one hour.  I enjoyed it a lot.  Even my wife, who was not overly excited to be there, told me “It was a lot less painful than I thought it would be”.

I’m glad that my friend Sarah told me about BookSmart Tulsa.  She also gave me a lot of information on training for triathlons.  I wonder if I should tell my wife about that?

Getting my tires rotated is a pain.  The tire shop where I bought them offers free rotations, but I prefer not to get my oil changed or get other maintenance there.

In the past, I have actually paid to have them rotated at my mechanic’s shop while he was working on other things.  I am tight with my money, so when I say I would rather pay than make an extra trip to the tire shop for a free rotation, that is saying something.

But tonight after work, I made a beeline for the tire shop.  I was prepared to leave the car overnight so they could complete the rotation in the morning.  My wife was “on standby” to come pick me up after I dropped it off.  My plan was beautifully prepared and ready to be executed.

But a funny thing happened when I pulled into the tire shop.  I parked right in front because there was not a single other car in the lot.  I got out of my car and suspiciously eyeballed the front door to see if they were open.  Yep, I could see employees inside.

I walked through the empty lobby and approached the counter.  The manager took my name & address.  Then…

“How many miles do you have on the car?”

I hemmed and hawed.

“Just give me an estimate.  It doesn’t need to be exact.  80,000?  100,000?”

“Less than a million.”

“Good enough.  I’ll need your key.”

He took the key and handed it to one of the two men standing next to him, and he raced out to my car to move it inside.

I immediately called my wife to tell her I didn’t think I would need her to pick me up.  But she had a crisis going on and couldn’t talk.  ”I’ll call you back”, she said.

I sat down and looked around.  It was 4:30 and I was the only one in the lobby, and now there were no cars in the parking lot.  Glenn Beck was talking to me on the television.  I ignored all these distractions and opened up the book I brought.  At least I could get a few pages read while I wait.

About this time, the door from the shop opens and the manager tells me my car is ready.  Even though he has a big smile on his face, he is actually breathing heavy from his exertion.

It turns out that he had every employee in the shop, including himself, rotating my tires NASCAR-style.  ”I haven’t done anything like that in 10 years” he said to one of the mechanics.

They couldn’t have had my car for 3 minutes before they returned it back to me.  I pulled out of the parking lot by 4:35.

I am not going to dread my next visit to the tire shop.  In fact, I am already looking forward to it.

It is typical for a person to submit themselves to some self-reflection around January 1st.  But mid-March?  Events in my life are conspiring to make me take notice again now.

I recently finished reading the book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.  This was a fantastic book where the author reflects on the similarities between a good story and a good life.  And he does so in such a way that you naturally assess the story your own life is telling.  I have been thinking a lot about this book and what changes I might want to make in my life.  Are you just wandering through life one day at a time?  Or, do you have a plan for your life?  Do you have audacious goals?

Secondly, I am coming up on the 20th anniversary on a number of significant events in my life.  Apparently, 1991 was a very good year for me.

The following occasions occurred during that year – in chronological order, not order of importance (in case my wife reads this):

• The grade school I attended held a “Steve King Day” and I was invited back to talk to the students about the importance of education.  Truly one of the high points of my life up to that point, and still is today.
• I married my best friend. The best decision I ever made!
• I graduated from college.  And I still bleed orange.
• I started my first “real” job.  I must have liked it, because I am still working here today.

Not surprisingly, I have not had another year like 1991.  As a matter of fact, if I think back to random years like 1994 or 2002, it is hard to name a single thing I accomplished in those years.  Even though I may not have recognized it at the time, I think that I have been guilty of doing a little wandering myself.

I am trying to be more intentional with my life, and I felt like I had a personal resurgence during 2010.  I had several “firsts”.  Occasions that I think I will remember for a long time.  I trained for, and completed, my first two marathons (P/R: 04:31:08).  I bought my first domain and migrated my travel blog there.  I was elected President of a national organization I belong to.  In all these events, I was stepping out of my comfort zone – a typical common denominator for accomplishing new goals.

Now that 2011 is almost 1/4 complete, it is a good time to assess where you are with this year’s goals.  Have you done anything you said you would back on January 1st?  Are you making progress?  Are your goals BIG enough?

If you accomplished all the goals you set for yourself in 2011, will you remember them 20 years from now?  It’s not too late to get started on something special.

I love my Saturday group runs.  It is the one day each week that I run without my iPod.  Visiting with the other members in the group always makes the time fly by.  But it didn’t work out this week, as my group was running 12 miles and I had 20 miles planned.  This happens when my marathon is 3 weeks earlier than the date everyone else is training for.

In late April, I am going to be going on a bike ride on the Osage Prairie Trail with some co-workers.  It dawned on me this week that this would be a great route to take on my Saturday long run.  It is built on the path of an old railroad, so it is relatively flat and it would also be something new.  Two attributes that excite me.

I arrived shortly after 7:00 am at the OSU-Tulsa campus.  The trailhead is hidden away in the northeast corner of the parking lot.  I had never seen it before, but I had a pretty good idea of where it was.

Trailhead with the Tulsa skyline.

The weather was not what you would consider “ideal” for a 20 mile run.  The temperature sat around 35 degrees with a strong wind from the North.  I wore my running pants, long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker.  I warm up fast, and this turned out to be a great selection for me.

My plan was to run 10 miles North on the trail, then run this same trail back.  It was pretty uneventful.  2 of the 3 available water fountains worked.  I saw a white-tailed deer running through a field.  I also saw some wild dogs roaming around, but none of them bothered me.

I ran the first half straight through, except for stopping for a few drinks.  On the way back, I stopped to take pictures with my phone whenever something interested me.  I am not a big fan of stopping & starting, so this actually added to the degree of difficulty for me.

I thought these mile markers were great. An image of a locomotive. I turned around here at Mile 10.

Between miles 9 and 10 is the town of Sperry.  I have never been to Sperry in my life.  It was a quiet little town.  As the trail crossed Main Street and I ran through their small downtown area, I wondered how many runners had done this before me?  Probably not many.

An old drugstore on Main Street, with the Sperry water tower in the background.

As I was running the first 10 miles, I made mental notes of interesting things with the intention of stopping to take pictures on the way back.  One of those things was an oversized nest built on a power line tower.  I suspect that this was an eagle’s nest.  We have eagles in northeast Oklahoma and I have no idea what other bird could make a nest this large.

Large nest on the tower’s middle support – right side.

The trail did not pass too many cow pastures, but there were a couple.  This particular cow pasture intrigued me because the cows were sharing it with a boat.  On the other side of the trail was a pasture that had 3 boats!  As it turns out, Sperry is only a few miles from Skiatook Lake, which explains the pasture boat storage.

Surf and Turf - Oklahoma Style!

Not to be outdone, another mile down the trail, somebody was keeping several horses and goats in their backyard.  My daughter, Mallory, would want to move here in a heartbeat.

Note the goats hamming it up in the background.

At this point, I was really enjoying myself.  It is very unlike me to stop a dozen times during a run to take pictures, but this was fun.  The constant change of scenery and never knowing what was around the next bend really gave some punch to my run.

One thing that North Tulsa seems to have a monopoly on is salvage yards.  I passed two of them, located right next to the trail.

Sanford & Son's. (Not really, but it's the only salvage yard name I know.)

At several points on the trail, I noticed hoof prints in the soft gravel to the side of the trail.  I never saw anybody riding their horses this morning, but I wish I had.  Maybe we could have raced?

Hoofprints.

On the first half of the run, I noticed a teddy bear lying in the middle of the trail.  It struck me as sad for some reason.  On the way back, it was still there, of course.  I stopped to take this picture.

There is a story for how this bear got here, and I'm sure it's not a happy one.

There were several bridges that the trail crossed on my route.  This was the longest one.

A bridge with some very interesting shadows.

Several miles from downtown.  Yes, I’m getting close!  Seeing the skyline provided me encouragement to keep trucking.

Running for the Skyline.

Less than a mile to go.  The trail actually detours off the railroad track bed.  The picture below illustrates this pretty well.

Leaving the Tracks.

The last 3 miles were difficult.  I had not run more than 16 miles in the past 3 months.  For me, the knowledge that my marathon is in 5 weeks is all the motivation I needed to keep going.   To make my life more interesting, I had to run the last 1/4 mile around the parking lot so I could get my full 20 miles.

The trail was very well maintained.  But for such a beautiful trail, it was not heavily used.  I saw exactly 4 other people during my run, and I think that I actually saw one guy twice as he walked to the Indian smoke shop and back.  Another of the 4 was just sitting on a fence next to the trail.  I saw way more stray dogs, horses, goats, cows and boats than I did people.  I would guess that most people are not even aware this trail is here.  I did not know of it until a friend had mentioned it to me earlier this year.

I completed my run in 3 hours, 23 minutes, for a 10:08 pace.  My goal was a 10:10 pace, so I was right on target.  I passed the time by listening to podcasts from Stuff You Missed In History Class, Stuff You Should Know, and This Week In Tech.

Two weeks from now, I am scheduled to run 22 miles.  I think I might be back on the  Osage Prairie Trail.

On the evening of Valentine’s Day, I pulled into a convenience store to use the ATM.  I parked next to a truck with a flat tire and a raised hood.  Good move, Steve.

As I walked toward the front of the store, a young man in a monster truck got my attention and asked if I had a car jack or a lug wrench.  I was in no particular hurry so I told him I did, and we popped my trunk.

I dug around looking for what he needed while he told me an unsolicited story of how he came to own the truck.  ”I bought it from a Mexican for $500.  He needed the cash.”

I found my jack and my lug wrench and handed them over.  He sat down at the tire to loosen the lugnuts.  Surprisingly, my wrench did not fit the lugnuts on his truck.  He handed me back my tools and I put them away while the new truck owner began propositioning other people in the parking lot for a lug wrench.  As I walked past him to go inside the store, he told me, “I may still need that jack”.  I like his optimism, if not his used car evaluation skills.

When I come back outside, he sees me and asks if he can borrow my jack again.  He has convinced another innocent bystander to dig a socket wrench out of his toolbox, and he is in the process of loosening the lug nuts.

While working the socket wrench, we hear more about the story.  He was just sitting in the parking lot and a Mexican came up to him and asked him if he’d like to buy his truck for $500.  The Mexican had the title, so he bought it.  My new friend was confident that he’d be able to resell it for at least three thousand!

Judging by the looks of the truck owner, he was likely to sell his profits on tattoes.  Now, I have nothing in particular against tattoos, but this guy had them all up & down both arms.  What better way to say I will never have a normal job in my life.  And if that’s not enough for you, he had piercings in his lip & his ears, and of course, he wore his hat sideways.

At this point, Eminem was crawling on the ground beneath his car getting the jack in place.  His phone rings, his shirt & pants are covered in water, and he starts dropping a few f-bombs.  All the time, he keeps repeating his story about what a great deal he got on this truck to me and the other good samaratin.  The truck is a ’97 Ford, but the good tire & rim he plans to put on is from a Dodge.  He assures us that he has heard they use the same size rims.

While taking off the bad tire and putting on the new one, who shows up but the Mexican who sold him the truck!  He had purchased a new battery for the truck and dropped it off for the new owner.  Curiously, he told the owner that he didn’t have a receipt.

After the Mexican left, we are told that the Mexican had just had just got out of prison after six years.  I wonder if his lockup had anything to do with stolen car batteries?

As the new tire was being placed on the truck, a surprising development occurred.  The rim didn’t fit.  That was his clue to drop a few more profanities.

The new tire comes off, the old tire goes back on, and the jack is removed.  During this process, the young fellow’s girlfriend got out of the monster truck and came over to watch.  One look at her lip piercing and I know that she found her soul mate.  During the entire time I was there – maybe 20 to 30 minutes – I never heard her say a word.  I even tried talking to her while she stood nearby, but she only smiled.

To top it all off, I find out as we part ways that it is the man’s birthday.  He may be getting older, but I am getting wiser – now I know that I should never claim to own a lug wrench.

Apple is trying their best to make me feel like a second-class citizen, and I will admit they’re not doing a bad job.

I do not own an iPhone.  It is not a case of me not wanting to own an iPhone.  Rather, I am locked into a contract with a carrier other than AT&T and Verizon.  In other words, I will not own an iPhone any time soon.

When I originally heard about the iPhone, I didn’t give it a second thought.  It sounded like an overpriced novelty.  However, it wasn’t long before a co-worker showed up with one.  Then my sister-in-law bought one.  These phones rapidly started infiltrating my circle of influence.

Jealousy is an ugly thing.  But I know that if I block it out and don’t actively dwell on it, I’ll be okay.  Or maybe not.

Some things you just can’t ignore.  While traveling, the nicer hotels will have an iPhone/iPod docking station on the nightstand.  For some reason, they don’t seem to work so well with my Sansa mp3 player.  Can’t a man just listen to his 80s music on his Sansa without wondering how much better it would sound on an Apple product?

So 5 months ago, I did something about my feelings of inferiority.  I bought a very nice Samsung phone running Android.  Finally!  Now, I can have any application that those “iPhone users” have.  After all, 1 in 3 phones sold today run on Android and Apple is a distant 3^rd.  But it doesn’t work that way.

Apple & the iTunes store still has all the cool stuff.

Instagram Only available in the iTunes store.

Vegas Mate Only available in the iTunes store.

My bank has an iPhone-only app, my university, my favorite magazine.  You get the idea.

This onslaught has been happening for years.   Why bother complaining about it “out loud” now?  I read an interesting story a few days ago about a company and an application called Path.  It is a new social networking site that recently turned down a $100 million buyout from Google.

The app sounds pretty cool.  It limits the number of people that you can share with.  It encourages you to share with your close friends & family, and not necessarily that friend-of-a-friend who sent you a friend request on Facebook.

So, I went to their website and signed up.  And I hunted around for a way to post an update.  And I searched, and scoured, and explored.  There was no way for me to post an update, or even invite others to be in my inner circle.  All I could do was look at my account page.

It turns out that this groundbreaking new application (which the company holds in such high esteem that it turned down $100 million dollars) is only operational on the iPhone.  It does not function on the web, and it certainly doesn’t exist on Android.

It appears that my desire for an iPhone will not be going away anytime soon.

So what will I do for the next 712 days of my phone contract?  I am open to ideas.  In the meantime, I should probably brush up on my affirmations.

I am an Android user and I am a first-class citizen!

I have been fortunate enough to be a relatively frequent visitor to Las Vegas over the past handful of years.  Earlier this month, my wife and I made our 10th trip to Vegas.  It is our favorite city and we combined this trip with running the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon while there.

As a person who visits routinely, we don’t always want to spend an hour watching the fountains at Bellagio, or the volcano at the Mirage.  We are looking for new experiences.  Well, I found one.

A month before our trip, I had an epiphany.  Wouldn’t it be fun to get our pictures taken while we were in Vegas?  The last time my wife and I had pictures taken exclusively of the two of us, it was probably our engagement pictures.  We have now been married for 19 years.  Combine this portrait drought and being in our favorite city, and I thought I had a winning idea.

Finding a photographer in Las Vegas, while being 1,000 miles away, is not as easy as it sounds.  To clarify, if you’re not looking for a wedding photographer or getting some head shots, it is not that easy.  I eventually made contact with a few photographers, traded emails, had phone conversations, and looked at their work.

I was very fortunate that my brother has a good friend, Rebecca, who is a photographer.  Rebecca answered some questions for me and helped me know what to expect as far as cost and time for a photo shoot.  I probably would not have actually followed through with the whole experience if it had not been for her setting my expectations.

Ultimately, I selected Laura Glines for our photo shoot.  My mission was to get some pics of us on Freemont Street with the old-school neon in the background.  Laura had a great plan for this and I enjoyed talking to her on the phone.  Two weeks before our arrival in Vegas, a plan was made.

We met at the Las Vegas sign at 3:00 in the afternoon on a Tuesday.  You would think this would be pretty late in the day, but would you believe that when you’re on “Vegas time”, this can come pretty early.  We actually had to skip lunch because we could not get ourselves out of the room in time to go eat a meal.  There was a lot of primping, ironing and admiring in the mirror going on.  And that was just me – I have no idea what Stephanie was doing.

We rode the Deuce to the Mandalay Bay and walked the last 1/2 mile.  We literally arrived at the sign a few minutes before 3:00.  We could not have timed it any more perfect.

It was the ideal time to take pictures at the sign.  It was not busy at all, except for the strung-out twenty-something who was hanging around offering to take pictures of the tourists (for a donation).

We finally got to meet Laura face-to-face.  What a perky young lady!  We liked her immediately.  She also brought along her smiling sidekick-assistant, Amanda.  While shooting at the Las Vegas sign, Amanda’s job was to hold a large reflector so Stephanie and I had to squint in all the pictures.   We quickly found other assignments for Amanda, such as driving us down the strip.

We Own This Town!

Race Bling from the Rock 'n Roll Marathon & Half Marathon

It was into Amanda’s car and down the Strip we went.  Laura kept her eye out for a location that caught her eye, and we found ourselves at City Center.  Amanda stopped her car on a side street and we scrambled out of the car.  We were literally walking down the street, climbing up & over barriers, and winding through the foliage.  Laura made the statement that this was “guerilla photography”.  Well said!

A relaxing moment after hiking through landscaping & scaling a wall.

I love the fact that the monorail was in the background.

Amanda’s instructions were to circle the block a few times and then pick us up.  We had some fun trying to meet up with Amanda when we were done.  We found her on Harmon, and she had to drive her car in reverse up the street to meet us.  As soon as Laura & Stephanie got in the car, Amanda took off while I was reaching for the door handle.  Looks like I need to find another job for Amanda besides driving us around.

Our next stop was the Fabulous Flamingo.  True to form, Laura found some landscaping that Stephanie and I could stand in, and we took a few pics.

We decided to take some pictures at the Wynn, and Amanda took us there via some side streets that had no traffic at all.  It’s nice to hang out with the locals.

During our drive time, it was fun to learn about Laura’s background and what she does.  One of her skills is waitressing at the Outback Steakhouse in the Casino Royale on the Strip.  As a former waitress, this is near & dear to Stephanie’s heart.  Before I continue, I must tell you that as we were making our way to meet Laura today, my attention focused on this exact restaurant for a moment, and I wondered why there are chain restaurants in Vegas.  Stephanie and I would never dream of eating somewhere in Vegas that we can eat at back home.  As Laura was telling us about her adventures in waitressing, she mentioned that her Outback was the #1 busiest one in the chain.  Wow!  Let’s try something new, people!  (Disclaimer: If you do go to this Outback, please ask for Laura and tip generously!)

Shooting at the Wynn was a breeze.  It helped that Amanda knows all the lingo.  We pulled up in the Porte Cochere and Amanda cooly asked the Valet if she could “stage” the car for a few minutes.  Amanda is cute as a button, so of course the young man had no problem with this.

The grass may be fake, but those smiles are real.

A gorgeous backdrop.

Finally, we made our way to Freemont Street.  This is what I was waiting for.  Stephanie and I love the laid-back atmosphere and vintage feel of downtown.

We started at the East end of Freemont.  As we were taking our first few pictures, an old lady walked by and told our photographer, “You need to take their picture with that Horse & Rider in the background.”  Laura very politely thanked her.  We didn’t make fun of the old lady until she was out of earshot.  But out of respect for our elders, we followed her instruction.

This one's for you, Grandma!

From there, we simply walked all the way down to the other end of Freemont, stopping here and there for pictures.  The light was perfect and the crowds were minimal.

Party Pic at the neon Cowboy!

We have paid for a few of those light bulbs at the Golden Gate over the years.

Do we look happy? We are!

We wrapped up our great experience with Laura at 5:00.  Going into this, we had no idea what to expect, or how this would go.  But we had a great time, and I think Laura had a LOT to do that.

So the next time you are in Las Vegas and have had all of the volcanos, pirate ships and dam jokes you can stand, consider setting aside an afternoon with a photographer.  I shutter to think that you wouldn’t take my advice.