We left our campsite in Green River, Utah on Sunday morning and spent the day driving south through beautiful Utah. We stopped in a couple of national parks- Dead Horse National Park which overlooks Dead Horse Canyon, which was beautiful. We then drove to Canyons National Park, which spans a large part of the Utah craters and rock formations.
Utah!
All of southern Utah is filled with these huge red-rock formations of many different shapes- points and towers (the needles), arches, craters and mountains. In Canyons National Park is Mesa Arch, an amazing arch form in the rocks. We took a couple hikes through this park, to Mesa Arch and a crater that scientists think could possibly have been formed by a meteor hitting the earth! We had the genius plan of hiking in our flip flops, and the hikes were substantial and primarily very steep climbs. It was fun though and neither of us broke our ankles. :)
me and Mesa Arch
We then proceeded through Utah and entered Arizona. We thought about driving to the northern rim of the grand canyon, but it would have been a good 5 hours round trip to get back on route, and it was already about 3. So we went around to the southern rim and stopped many times at the various viewpoints of the canyon. The Grand Canyon was everything we hoped it would be. Massive and mind blowing, from each lookout the view improved. The day was again beautiful, and the light shining down into the canon make for a breathtaking sight. There were also these tiny little squirrels (i thought they were mice at first, but i was wrong!) Against my better judgement, I would say they were even a little bit cute. Although I am sure they all were rabid. There are two different breeds of squirrels- one breed on each side of the canyon! They are completely separated and evolved differently, how cool!
Us at the Grand Canyon!!!
It started to get cloudy and windy, and for fear of being blown into the grand canyon, we decided it was time to leave. It was about 6 and we had really not eaten all day and we're starving. We still had about 2 hours to go to get to Flagstaff, where we had planned on staying the night, so we just bucked down and drove, not stopping to eat until we entered the city. We went to a cute italian pizzeria and had delicious chicken and artichoke pizza. While at dinner, we discussed how much we did not want to camp in the rain (it was raining at the time) and that we were not tired at all. So, we therefore decided to drive to Vegas instead. :)
The drive took about 4 hours, and we went over the Hoover Dam. This was the first time we had driven through the night, so it was kind of creepy to see the mountain formations and realize we were driving through a desert. Driving over the Hoover Dam was intense, it felt sort of like going through some secret government area. They are building a new bridge, but we took this windy route that was very slow. We also had to stop at a police checkpoint at one point during the drive. But we made it to Vegas around 12:30, and we headed for the hotel which we had just booked a room in, using Eric's expedia coupon. Our room was in the Paris Replica hotel- we drove through the Arch de Triumph and saw the Eiffel Tower ahead of us :P
Our room was supposed to be a standard room, we were paying about 35 bucks with our coupon. But since we registered so late, we ended up being put in a huge suite!!!
The view of the Eiffel Tower from our Vegas Hotel Room :)
We actually died. It was like 5 rooms, two separate bathrooms, including a jacuzzi bathtub (I took two jacuzzi baths in the 9 hours we were there...) a dining area, sitting area, giant king sized bed and a tv that rose out of the table in front of the bed. Um... it was amazing :)
Our awesome suite!
We showered and got dolled up to walk around vegas- at this point it was like 3 am- and we were so tired that we only lasted about 15 minutes until we came back to our giant room. Oh yeah, and we had spent the entire driving day listening to book 4 of Harry Potter, like actually 15 hours. We were so close to the end so we finished the last 20 minutes of the book :)
Amazing!!!!!
So we checked out of Paris at 11 the next day, and decided we would spend the next night in Vegas as well. We wasted a couple dollars in the slot machines but couldn't really get the hang of it.
We walked around, taking in the sights of fake vegas land. We had breakfast at a really creepy saloon called "Bill's Wild West Saloon and Casino". Then we enjoyed Greece, New York, and Seattle. (All of these places are represented in Vegas, along with more). We got discounted tickets to see Stomp Out Loud, which was an excellent decision. We went to our new hotel, which was a few minutes outside the strip area. This hotel was also nice, although we were quite spoiled by our paris experience :)
We also in this time realized that our friend Graham was in the city, he is in Jersey Boys right now! Graham was a cmu student 2 years ahead of us, and so we texted him and made plans to get together after our show!
So we made it to Stomp just in time- because I forgot the tickets, and there was traffic, and we had to walk an actual mile between parking and the theater. (seriously- when we got into the casino and asked where the theater was, the lady told us "oh just go a half a mile through the mall and then upstairs". Not an exaggeration.
Stomp was amazing. I obviously enjoyed watching a bunch of very attractive drummer boys dancing and banging on stuff :) It was really, really good- definitely a good choice!
After the show, we headed to where we were supposed to meet Graham. We met at Firefly, a cool tapas place a bit outside of the hubbub of the strip. It was so great to see Graham- p.s. cmu people- he and Nicole are getting married, in Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, in like 11 days. HOW CRAZY!!!!!
Ok anyway, we had a really really fun time. Some of the actors that are in Jersey Boys with Graham came, and they were super cool. We had pomegranate mojitos (amazing!) and great food- an all around good time.
Back in the hotel- we crashed with plans of waking early to sunbathe before we had to check out! So this morning we went down to the really nice pool and laid out for about 2 hours, then we checked out of the hotel and started the drive to LA!
The traffic was not too terrible, and we got to Gino's around 5 or so. Gino was not home yet so we went to a rite aid near his apt so I could get a new hairdryer, and then starbucks where Gino met us!!!! We are so happy to be in LA and be w/ Gino! We sat at the starbucks for an hour or so to catch up, and now we are back at his really nice apt with his random weirdo roommates. Soon we will be heading out on the town! Yay california!!!!
So thats the general idea of our last couple of days!!!! Tomorrow we are spending the day with Eddie at the beach, and staying with him and Diana tomorrow night. Thursday is undecided, Friday we leave for San Francisco! Eric and I are doing a good job of re-adjusting to society. After a week in the wild we have to talk to other people now, so hopefully we will be ok :)
Lots of love,
xox
Laura and Eric
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