Vegas and … bust!

The next stop on our whirlwind farewell tour of North America (yeah, I’m starting to feel a little bit like Farhnsy actually) was good ‘ol Sin City – Las Vegas, Nevada. Our trip almost got off to a sad start when we’d forgotten to adjust our watches to local time after arriving at Portland airport from Anchorage – a one-hour time difference. So we were casually eating dinner thinking we had plenty of time and suddenly I looked at my phone (which self-adjusts thank goodness!) and realized our flight started boarding ten minutes ago. Thankfully we made it to our gate in time. In fact, the airhostess was very blasé about it all. I’m sure you can imagine I was the exact opposite.

We arrived in Vegas late Thursday evening and checked in to the Trump Tower, which is just off the strip (if you’re familiar with Vegas, it’s more or less opposite Wynn and Encore). Well, our room was pretty amazing. Fortunately we’d scored a good deal on our accommodation and spent the rest of the night basking in the novelty of having a television in the bathroom - grossly unnecessary, but surprisingly entertaining.

Almost wet his pants with excitement...

Yep. We watched the NFL too.

Our room at the Trump Tower.

Kitchen and living area!

Friday morning we caught our hotel shuttle to Caesar’s Palace and the rest of our time was spent trying to navigate our way out of Caesar’s Palace – wow. Caesar’s Palace is the largest hotel/casino in Las Vegas and I think if I enjoyed gambling more (okay, more realistically, if I had a platinum Amex – OH! the designer boutiques), I would voluntarily spend a lot more time there. It was pretty embarrassing when our Trump Tower shuttle driver spotted us wandering aimlessly around underneath one of the side hotel entrances/delivery area and drove over to us. We explained we got lost and he almost couldn’t control his laughter. When he’d wiped his tears away he told us to get in and gave us a lift back to Trump. After a few days we managed to develop a fail-safe casino-exit technique, which was to follow the signs to the lobby – 90% of the time this would successfully lead us back to the strip.

Of course we’d already visited Vegas previously (albeit briefly) so I won’t go into too much extra detail except to repeat my golden rule – ‘just embrace it’. Aromas of stale vomit, cigarettes, beer and urine abound – there’s nothing quite like it, that’s for sure. Las Vegas is the epitome of an extreme sensory overload, which you must expect and embrace. It’s outrageous, dramatic, theatrical and exaggerated in every way, shape and form – a perfect place for someone with ADD. And if you don’t have ADD, it certainly makes you feel like you do!  These characteristics are quintessential Vegas and if you don’t embrace that, I can guarantee you’ll be miserable. So if you ever get the chance to go, do yourself a favour and just embrace it! We did, and we had a blast.

For the majority of our time in Vegas we occupied ourselves by walking up and down the strip, exploring almost every hotel and/or casino on offer. For my birthday present (along with some new sunglasses), we went to see Jersey Boys at Paris (we highly recommend it – great show!) and spent the evening eating dinner overlooking the Bellagio Fountain show. We put a few dollars on the pokies here and there but nothing serious. Neither of us are big gamblers (except me, during the Spring Racing Carnival ;-), and I was more interested in the shopping anyway, even though it was just window shopping this time. I tried my hardest to find something to buy but it just wasn’t happening. Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed browsing and Steven thoroughly enjoyed the free mini bottles of water the sales assistants would hand him every time I walked into a fancy store (I guess they had to give him something to occupy his time). The dare devil in me also had to give the New York, New York rollercoaster a run for its money (literally – quite expensive at $14 per person, per ride) – it was great fun. Much to the delight of Steven’s ear canal, I actually couldn’t force a scream out I was so scared.

NY NY rollercoaster - we did it!

Jersey Boys.

Trevi Fountain inside Caesars Palace.

The Vegas Eiffel Tower.

Bellagio fountains show.

On Sunday morning (my actual birthday), we headed out to Henderson, Nevada, to watch our friend (and former cycling coach) Cam race in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Although it was steaming hot all day (48.5 degrees), we embraced the sunshine and hot weather as much as we could and cheered Cam and other new-found friends on during the day. Cam ended up finishing 9^th in his age group overall which is no small feat given the circumstances! 

Activ support crew.

Cam and his finisher's medal.

We spent our last night in Vegas at the Mirage Hotel and Casino. With a more open travel schedule we had an additional free night in Vegas and we’d decided on our final night we wanted to experience a hotel right on the strip. It was certainly different – a lot busier and more chaotic than Trump, owing mostly to the casino aspect I think. We spent most of the afternoon hanging out in the pool and drinking ridiculously expensive pool bar cocktails.

Our view lounging by the pool at the Mirage.

The Mirage also hosts the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show “LOVE” which makes it quite busy at night. We ended up buying last minute tickets to see LOVE. Unfortunately we were a little disappointed with the show itself – by no means with the music or the visual spectacle (which it most certainly was), but with the fact that we both expected the show to include many more acrobatic elements – it failed miserably in this respect. To me, the show was more akin to a really impressive episode of So You Think You Can Dance – the Beatles special. If I knew going in this is what it would be, I definitely would not have been disappointed (although I would have then paid a lot less money!).

After another day taking in the sights (and smells) of Vegas, we were originally due to embark on an eight-hour road trip to Yosemite National Park in California. This was actually something I had been particularly looking forward to since … forever. Of course as you may or may not know, Yosemite had recently experienced an outbreak of Hantavirus, so we reluctantly (but wisely) cancelled our trip to Yosemite. Thankfully during my mammoth researching sessions for this trip I had also looked into Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. Zion and Bryce were both closer, viable options so we madly booked some last minute accommodation just outside Zion and spent three full days hiking and exploring these two lesser known beauties. 

It’s funny when I used to think about the USA all I would picture were the big cities – New York, LA etc. I am so grateful that during our time living in Canada we’ve been able to travel to many lesser known cities and/or places in the USA that have the most amazing natural beauty which is something so many tourists miss out on. Honestly, the USA has so much more to offer. Don’t get me wrong, I love New York (haven’t been to LA but it doesn’t particularly interest me at this point) but Alaska, Zion, Bryce, the Oregon coast … they are equally impressive in their own right.

After finalizing our last minute plans, we made our way to Springdale, Utah, a small town just outside Zion National Park. Well, it couldn’t be helped, but our accommodation left a lot to be desired, to say the very least. I was sure that evil Hantavirus would be hanging around in our room in Zion somewhere. Thankfully we were determined to spend as much time outside in the park as possible, and we did.

Zion was amazing. We had been so spoiled having just visited Alaska, I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but I wasn’t disappointed. It was so breathtakingly beautiful and an entirely different landscape. Our first stop was the Visitor Centre to get a map and some guidance from a local ranger. We then spent our two days in Zion hiking both easy and more difficult trails – ranging from 2 – 5 hours in length. We saw deer, giant spiders, birds and ground squirrels and hiked some great trails, which were quite challenging in places. 

Zion NP - Day 1.

Some views ... again, photos don't do them justice.

This little image made us feel REALLY comfortable hiking the trails!!

We split our time in Zion National Park by spending a day hiking in Bryce Canyon, which was approximately a two-hour drive away. Again, Bryce Canyon was completely different to Zion and incredibly picturesque itself. We spent the entire day hiking down, into, through and up the other side of a very small portion of the vast area. From memory we did about 12 miles of hiking that day, with an 8000-foot elevation gain. It was challenging but definitely the best way to experience Bryce. 

On our way to Bryce Canyon for the day. Stopping for photo ops. There were plenty!

Steven goes for a climb.

Views from our drive - Bryce Canyon back to Zion.

Some views from our Bryce Canyon hike.

It’s almost impossible to take a bad photograph in places like Zion and Bryce. Reflecting on our adventures, Steven and I both agreed that it all probably worked out for the best because there is a possibility we would never have returned to Utah to visit these two parks if we had gone to Yosemite as originally intended. I know I’ll get to Yosemite one day.

Relaxing by the river after a hard day of hiking.

Sunrise in Zion - our final day.

Pre-hike stretches.

Cam, Sheree & Taylor joined us for the hike to Observation Point.

We did it!

Just one of the many little ground squirrels we came across.

More stunning scenery.

Cooling off in the river post-hike.

Steven decides to venture into the "quick-mud"

Almost got him!

Thankfully he survived.

On Friday we woke early to make our way from Springdale back to Vegas. We had scheduled a Grand Canyon helicopter tour, which was to pick us up at the Mirage at 9:50 am that morning. Everything was running smoothly until the bus turned up (on time), the driver got out and told us our tour had been cancelled. My immediate reaction was extreme disappointment and then some anger. Particularly when the company knew the tour was cancelled two hours prior and they didn’t call us. If they’d called us when they first cancelled it we would have been able to detour via the Grand Canyon on our way back to Vegas and we could have then at least seen it.  Anyway, after the failure of the tour, we spent the rest of the day wandering around and exploring the last few hotels we hadn’t managed to see. Once of these was the Venetian which is really impressive (I would highly recommend checking it out). We indulged in a gondola ride and some gelato (for the authentic Italian experience!). 

The indoor gondola ride at the Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas.

Friday evening we caught a flight back to Vancouver and arrived very early on Saturday morning. It’s safe to say we were both absolutely shattered after the two hectic, but fun weeks of travel. As they say there’s no rest for the wicked so no sooner had we arrived, but we began gearing up for a week of furniture selling and house cleaning in preparation for the final departure.

Fun times ahead … x.