Day 13 (July 16): Last Night in Vegas

Total Driving Distance: 7.2 miles (trip total: 3,708.3 miles)

States Traveled To: Nevada

Main Activity: Buffet at the Bellagio, Strolling the Strip

Our last day in Vegas was by far the best. We woke up relatively early for the time we went to bed and were out by the pool by 3 pm. According to the Weather Channel, it was 107 degrees when we went outside. It certainly felt like it.

We sat by the pool for almost two hours, trying to get in some nice relaxation time before we hit the road again. Liz read an issue of GQ that she had picked up because it had a picture of Bruno on the cover, while I read the Rough Guide to the USA, trying to figure out where we were going to drive the next day. It turned out that we had about three days before we needed to be in LA (we were planning to CouchSurf with someone on July 19th and 20th), so I needed to find a couple things to do in California before we hit LA.

After I found a place for us to go, I got really bored and hot at the pool, so we went back to our hotel room.

My mom had really wanted us to go to a buffet while we were in Vegas, so she told me to find a really good place to eat and she would buy Liz and I dinner. Naturally, I picked the nicest hotel and casino in Vegas (and I paid for some!).

The Bellagio Hotel (left)

The buffet at the Bellagio was one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. I ate until I almost exploded. Between the two of us, we ate the following:

• Pasta
• Alaskan King Crab
• Salad
• Sushi
• Shrimp (a lot)
• Sirloin Steak
• Chicken
• Prime Rib
• Turkey
• Orange Chicken
• Mashed Potatoes
• Vegetables
• Mushrooms
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Corn
• Plum
• Dumplings
• Assorted Bread

And for desert:

• Creme Brulee
• Fruit Tart
• Flan
• Lemon Meringue Pie

Here is a picture of the aftermath of our last plates. WARNING: this picture is graphic.

After eating for over an hour and a half, we hobbled to the fruit table and walked out of the restaurant with two bananas, four oranges, and two nectarines.

We were in some serious pain when we left the restaurant. Before leaving the hotel, we walked around and saw all the great things there are to see in the Bellagio. We saw wedding pictures being taken, a beautiful chocolate/wedding cake factory, some fancy restaurants and clubs, and the incredible casino. Liz wants to get married there. I suggested the Hollywood Wedding Chapel across the street from our hotel, where it only cost $150 to get married (versus $150,000 at the Bellagio).

yes, that is all chocolate

On our way out of the hotel, we stopped to watch two of the famous Bellagio fountain shows, which were amazing. The second show played the song "Por Ti Volare" which just made us laugh because it is featured in a scene from one of our favorite movies, Step Brothers with Will Ferrell.

We then walked across the street to the mall by Planet Hollywood. There was a huge blowout sale going on at Urban Outfitters, so Liz went in to buy some clothes and I looked through some of the books and CDs they have there.

I had really wanted to see one of the Treasure Island Sirens shows while we were in Vegas, so after shopping we went back to the Bellagio, picked up the car, and drove over to Treasure Island. On the way, we passed Flamingo Street where Tupac was shot and killed (respect.). The next Sirens show wasnt for about 45 minutes, so we walked to a nearby souvenir shop and bought a bunch of souvenir, then sprinted back to Treasure Island just in time to see the show.

The Sirens show was pretty cool, but not as good as I thought it would be. There are two giant pirate ships in front of the hotel sitting in a mini-ocean. The show featured the "Sirens" on one boat and pirates on the other. There were cannons and fireworks and a sinking ship to end it, but that was pretty much it. Maybe we didnt get a close-enough look at the show (there were a lot of people there) or maybe I was tired and full of food, but the Sirens show just wasnt that cool.

After the show, we drove back to the Stratosphere and went to our room. I instantly passed out on the bed, but Liz stayed up and cleaned the room, which is quite a feat, because it looked like this when we got back:

Day 12 (July 15): Surfing the Strip

Total Driving Distance: 0!!! (trip total: 3,701.3 miles)

States Traveled To: Nevada

Main Activity: Sleeping, walking the Strip

After going to bed at 5:30 in the morning the previous night, we predictably slept until about 4:30 pm. Luckily, we didnt have much to do that day either. We finally started our day around 6 pm when we went to the pool on the 8th floor. It was blistering hot so we stood in the warm water for a little bit. Then for the next hour or so, we laid out by the pool. Liz read a magazine and I read one of my travel books.

the view of the hotel from the pool

After the pool, we showered and got ready to hit the strip once again. Before we left the hotel, we had to get our free passes (as guests of the hotel) to the top of the tower. We road the elevator 866 feet to the top and stepped out to a gorgeous view of the Strip.

As you can see, our pictures did not turn out great. But the view was awesome, trust me.

There are several famous amusement park rides on the top of the Tower, such as a rollercoaster and ferris wheel-type thing, but we decided not to do those because the lines were long and they were kind of expensive. So we took the elevator back down and went out to see Las Vegas from ground-level.

We really wanted to go to this Hookah bar that we had seen the night before but had been closed at 4 in the morning. We slowly made our way there, stopping to look at different places along the Strip. When we did reach the Hookah bar, we noticed that no one was in there. We walked inside the dark room and asked the lady working there if they were open. "No, sorry, we are closing," she said. "But the sign out front says you're open until 1," I told her. It was only 12:20. "Sorry, we are closed." When I asked her if there was another hookah bar nearby, she said that there was one inside Treasure Island. So we walked there.

Treasure Island is a really cool hotel and casino. If I go back to Vegas when I am 21, Treasure Island is the place I want to stay (unless I am rich enough to stay at Caesar's or the Bellagio). We walked through the whole casino and checked out some of the hotel before we asked someone where the hookah bar was. It turns out that the hookah bar was inside a restaurant/night club where you had to be 21 years or older to enter.

Treasure Island was pretty far from our hotel, so once again we had a long walk ahead of us. This time, we decided to stop for a bite to eat at one of the few places open at that time that we could afford: McDonald's. After finishing our food, we were craving some McFlurries, but when we went back up to order, the girl told us that they were closing, too! And we thought this was a town that never slept.

The walk back to our hotel on a stomach full of McDonald's was arduous. We stopped to get ice cream at a CVS Pharmacy, but once we were inside I felt like I couldn't eat any ice cream...so I bought two Charleston Chews instead.

When we got back to our hotel room, we pretty much passed out. But before we did, we took a look at our extremely dirty feet and the bottom of Liz's flip-flops and decided that the next night, we were wearing tennis shoes.

Day 11 (July 14): Viva Las Vegas!

Total Driving Distance: 239 miles (trip total: 3,701.3 miles)

States Traveled To: Arizona, Nevada

Main Activity: Hoover Dam, Las Vegas

the view of our hotel from our dirty car windshield

We took our time getting ready the morning of Day 11. We couldnt check into our hotel until 3 pm and we didnt have anything to do until then. Our KOA in Williams, AZ was one of the best we stayed in. The night before, we swam in the indoor pool and relaxed in the jacuzzi. The only complaint would be the showers. Since water is scarce in Williams, the KOA has to import all of their water so they instilled a mechanism in the showers similar to one in a public bathroom sink. Where you usually turn the shower on, there is only a button that will dispense water for 5 seconds at a time and believe it or not, holding a button down while you are taking a shower turns out to be sort of a pain. But by the grace of God, we survived.

The KOA had a great little cafe at the front that we ate at before we left. I had some great French toast with bacon and Liz had a plate of potatoes. We both had an extremely hot cup of coffee to go with it.

The drive to Las Vegas was not long at all (when compared to some of the other drives we have been on). It took about three and a half hours to get to the Hoover Dam (30 miles from Vegas), a place I wanted to take a tour of. We stepped out of the car to take a couple pictures and 105 degree dry heat just about killed us. We stayed outside for about 3 minutes before we felt like we were suffocating and sprinted back to the car.

The $7 parking and extreme heat kept us from stopping for a Hoover Dam tour. We drove thirty minutes and finally arrived at our hotel, the Stratosphere.

After checking in, we went straight to our room on the 15th floor, collapsed on the bed, and turned on the TV. Unfortunately, our TV only had about twenty channels: 10 or so news stations, usa, tnt, tbs, and about 7 channels dedicated solely to advertising our hotels and random stuff around Vegas. So TV got old...fast.

We did laundry (for free!) on the 6th floor, then watched Family Guy and The Office before finally getting ourselves out the door to see Vegas at night.

Our only plan was to walk around the Strip and see Harry Potter at midnight. We walked across the street in front of our hotel (after checking out the casino in our hotel) over to the Sahara Hotel where we hopped on the Monorail. We rode it all the way down to the MGM Hotel which is near a theater. Here we are on the Monorail:

Once we reached MGM, we headed straight for the beautiful bathrooms where Liz took another picture:

We missed the midnight showing of Harry Potter but there was another at 12:30 that we went to. If you havent seen the movie, you should go see it. It was our favorite of all the Harry Potter movies and definitely one of the best movies of the summer. We've already seen it twice and want to see it again.

When we left the movie theater at 3:45 in the morning, we were upset to find that the Monorail had stopped running at 2. And since MGM is on one side of the Strip and the Stratosphere is on the other, we had quite a bit of walking ahead of us.

We certainly saw the Strip that night. 3.6 miles of it. The temperatures were in the high 80s that night and we were tired. It was a long, long walk, but we finally got back around 5 in the morning. We saw plenty of Vegas that night, including some of the weirdos walking around in the wee hours of the night. We saw plenty of lights, but we would have preferred to have been out a little earlier than 5 in the morning.

Day 10 (July 13): The Grand Ol' Canyon

Total Driving Distance: 340.5 miles (trip total: 3,462.3 miles)

States Traveled To: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona

Main Activity: Using the bathroom at Four Corners, Grand Canyon

On the way to the Grand Canyon, we decided to stop at Four Corners. However, once we got there, we found out that it cost $6 to enter the fenced-in area and to stand on the plaque. We did not think it was worth it, so instead of paying the $6 to go inside, we pulled up to the attendant's booth and asked if they had a bathroom. "Uhh, we have a porty-house," the lady told us. She then pointed to a Porta-Potty in the distant desert, standing alone.

In any other situation,we would not have used the porty-house, but we really had to go and bathrooms were pretty rare in this part of the country. So we used the extremely hot, out-of-toilet-paper, nasty porty-house. And that was our experience at Four Corners.

A few hours later, we were at the Grand Canyon. We entered through the eastern entrance and the Visitors Center and the more famous parts of the Canyon were on the western side (about 30 miles away). Before we headed that way, we got out and looked at the Watch Tower that had originally been built to house the Visitors Center.

We got our great first view of the Canyon and the Colorado River:

After that, we drove to the other side of the Park. We walked around for a bit, mostly along the scenic Rim Trail that follows the edge of the cliff. We then rode the bus down to some of the other viewpoints. We decided not to do any hiking that day because we were tired and kinda freaked out from some of the signs posted around the park. One sign told the story of a woman who had run the Boston Marathon, then died while hiking in the Grand Canyon with her boyfriend (you should know that it was 107 degrees outside and they had been hiking with only 1 liter of water for both of them on a 27 mile trail that should have taken at least two days but they decided to do it in one). We also feared some of the wildlife in the area because of signs like these:

We saw some incredible viewpoints, but some of them looked a little fake, like the one below:

We visited the John Wesley Powell memorial which was near another scenic viewpoint, then decided to walk back to where our car was parked. I really underestimated how far away the car was. We probably walked almost two miles back to the car and most of it was through the woods (we took a shortcut). On the way, we saw a mule deer walking across our path. It wasn't the only deer we saw in the Park (see below).

When we finally did make it back to the car, the sun had begun to set. A Grand Canyon sunset is not something you want to miss, so we found a good spot on the cliffs with everyone else and stopped to watch the sunset. And I'm glad we did, because it was one of the best I've ever seen.

Day 9 (July 12): "You think you have it tough?" You could have lived in Cliff Palace.

Total Driving Distance: 79.6 miles (trip total: 3,121.8 miles)

States Traveled To: Colorado

Main Activity: Mesa Verde National Park

Before we went to sleep on July 11, we drove a couple hundred miles to Cortez, Colorado, the closest city to Mesa Verde National Park and about 40 miles from Four Corners. When we reached Cortez, we tried to find a good place to eat, which was hard to do at 11 at night, so Denny's it was. We then had to decide where we

were going to sleep that night. My plan was to check out the campgrounds in the National Park and see if there was anything available, or head to a nearby KOA and do night registration there. The Park turned out to be kinda creepy at night with no lights and the sign at the entrance said it was 15 miles to the campground, so we turned around and headed for the KOA.

The next morning we searched for a place to get a decent breakfast. The GPS pointed us in the direction of a place called Pipp's Cafe, which was closed. This turned out to be a good thing, because we found a place down the road called the Spruce Tree Coffeehouse. The Spruce Tree used to be someone's house. There was a kitchen that was the actual coffeeshop, where the coffee and bagels were made. The rest of the rooms were full of small tables and comfortable chairs. Bookshelves lined the walls, full of used books and dvds for sale. There was a back porch if you needed to get some fresh air. We ordered two everything bagels and a couple cups of Guatemalan coffee. It was by far the best food and coffee we had had on the trip so far.

We drove to the way-less-creepy-in-the-daytime Mesa Verde National Park and headed for the Visitors Center. There are about 10 or so different cliff dwellings you can visit, with about five of them having ranger-guided tours (the others you can visit on your own). We signed up for the Balcony House and Cliff Palace tours, the two most popular dwellings.

The Balcony House tour was first. According to the information booklet, the Balcony House tour is the most challenging ranger-led tour. It involved "climbing a 32-foot ladder, crawling through a 12 ft-long tunnel, and climbing up a 60 ft open cliff face with stone steps and two 10 ft ladders to exit the site." The tour started with a steep walk down a stone staircase that had been built into the cliffs. We then had to climb the 32-ft ladder up to the dwelling. Before we climbed, our park ranger Rachel gave a little pep-talk in which she informed us that she is deathly afraid of heights.

"No one is allowed to talk to me while I'm climbing the ladder. Seriously. This is the only part of the tour where I get freaked out, so no one can talk to me while I am climbing." The ladder honestly did not look that scary, but her speech made everyone nervous and wonder why Rachel became a park ranger at a Park full of cliff dwellings.

No one talked to Rachel while she was climbing and she did indeed make it to the top. So did the rest of us. We then had to squeeze through a tight tunnel to get to the actual dwelling. Balcony House was awesome. The balcony itself was pretty small (in the picture below, the balcony is all the way on the right, where the lady is ducking), but the rest of the dwelling was huge.

Rachel led us over to a kiva, a big hole in the ground where the ancestral Puebloans lived. Back in the 1200s when the Puebloans lived there, the kivas were covered with a roof, but the ones we saw had been uncovered so we could see inside them. There was a hole in the bottom, which I told Liz must be their bathroom or something to do with a draining system. "You see that hole in the bottom? It was called a sipapu, and it was the most sacred thing in the world to them, a symbol of their religion. To them it was their origin story. It was the hole that they came through to enter the world and the hole that they would go through when they died to enter the underworld." Their bathroom, it turned out, was going over the side of the cliff.

To exit the Balcony House tour, we had to crawl through the 6-ft tunnel tunnel which was actually sort of hard to get through. The woman behind us almost had a panic attack getting through the tunnel. The ladders and stairs we had to climb after the tunnel didn't help.

We had about thirty minutes to burn before our tour at the largest cliff dwelling, Cliff Palace, began. We spent some time looking through the museum near the Visitors Center, where we saw a girl bang her head on a glass display case attempting to get a closer look at a Puebloan pot.

The Cliff Palace tour was especially cool because you got a great view of the entire dwelling before the tour began.

During the tour, most of what we heard we had already learned from the Balcony House tour, but Cliff Palace was a cooler dwelling. We got to see some cliff paintings and a food storage area. Our park ranger was a little different from Rachel, he put a sort of "take care of the earth" spin on his tour. He also asked us to imagine life through the eyes of an ancestral Puebloan living in Cliff Palace. "You think you have it tough? Next time you are mad because your favorite TV show isn't on or because you have to do a chore, just think about the lives of the ancestral Puebloans." Okay, in all honesty, I do not think it would have been too bad living the life of the ancestral Puebloans. I mean, they did live in a place called Cliff Palace. Aside from the drought that probably drove them off, I think I would have enjoyed life in the cliff dwellings. Nevertheless, our park ranger kept reminding us that the lives of the ancestral Puebloans truly sucked.

After the tour, we drove back to the KOA we had stayed at the night before. We stopped on the way at a Walmart to get some groceries. We then had a delicious Walmart meal at the picnic table of our tent site, then climbed into our comfortable room in the back of our van and watched Freaks and Geeks until we fell asleep.

We also got to see a cool rainbow after it rained!

Day 8 (July 11): Unbelievable Utah

Total Driving Distance: 316.8 miles (trip total: 3,042.2 miles)

States Traveled To: Utah, Colorado

Main Activity: Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park

The night at the KOA in Moab was an uncomfortable one. It was hot and stuffy in the van as we tried to fall asleep and that night was extremely windy. I woke up several times to hear what sounded like a tornado outside. I almost thought I was dreaming it, but sure enough in the morning all our stuff had been blown around the campsite.

I went for a run that morning and saw all that Moab had to offer. Dozens of souvenir shops, a restaurant hanging on the edge of a cliff, a dried-up water park with a For Sale sign, and a post office which we desperately needed (we kept forgetting to pick up postcard stamps).

We ate a big breakfast at the local Pancake Haus, which had good food and ehh coffee. Though there wasnt a cloud in the sky, it started sprinkling while we ate breakfast. It only lasted for about five minutes, but it was a sign of what was to follow us the rest of the day (read on!).

We drove back over to Arches and finally started our day around noon. At the Visitors Center, we stopped to watch a very interesting video about how the arches are formed. Erosion and shifting salt deposits, it seems.

With a newfound interest in the geology of arches, we began a hike up to the Window Arches. This hike was slightly easier than the one the previous night, but with stomachs full of Pancake Hausen, it still turned out to be a hump.

From the first arch we climbed to, we could see in the distance the storm that was following us. We only felt a few raindrops, but when we saw enormous bolts of lightning in the distance, we headed back to the car.

Our next stop was the famous (Utah famous, not real world famous) Hole N'' The Rock, a diner-turned-home in a red rock cave built by Albert Christensen and his wife, Gladys. Perhaps to make the frequently visited tourist destination even more random, Albert also built a sculpture of FDR's head into the outside of his home (seen below the C in "ROCK"), as well as added a petting zoo and a car made entirely out of license plates. Surprisingly, none of these things made the twenty-mile drive there worth it, although we did not take the tour of the Hole ($12), so we did not get the full experience.

We left as quickly as possible and drove north to Canyonlands National Park. We only had time to visit one section of the Park (Island in the Sky), though I really wanted to do the Needles scenic drive through another section of cool rock shapes. The third section is called the Maze and you need a backpack and several days to get lost in the harrowing heights of the most rarely visited section of Canyonlands. It's on my list of things to do.

Having already seen the Grand Canyon (I'm sorta far behind on updating the blog. I am currently writing this on Day 17 in Los Angeles...), I can honestly say that I actually liked Canyonlands National Park more than the Grand Canyon. I feel a little weird saying that...unAmerican or something. But that is not to say that if you are planning a family trip to the Grand Canyon, cancel your plans and fly to Utah instead. No, no, no. I cant even really explain how it is better. Liz said the difference to her was that the Grand Canyon was just SO big that you cant even comprehend how big it really is. It could pretty much be a picture and you wouldnt be able to tell the difference; it is too far away. Whereas Canyonlands is a bit smaller and more fathomable.

There was an awesome trail leading from the viewpoint seen above along the edge of the cliffs. Along the path we saw lizards, fake cave paintings, and some of the most amazing views I have ever seen in my life.

On our way out of the Park, we stopped at the other highlight of the Island in the Sky section, the Upheaval Dome.

The Dome was created in one of two ways: either a layer of salt underneath the canyon is pushing against the three mile-wide hole...or a meteor hit it. Whatever the reason, it was a pretty cool sight to see. The view from the top also gave us another chance to see our storm:

I climbed around on some rocks and almost fell on some cacti while Liz took more pictures of the storm and the Dome before we finally left the Park and headed south and back to Colorado, this time: Mesa Verde.