Day 27: Death Valley

On Friday we headed from Pahrump, Nevada to Death Valley. We used the east entrance, paid $20 to get in an opened the roof as it was H-O-T. We visited several spots in Death Valley National Park but did not even try to do any hiking. A is not really compatible with too high or low temperatures :) we enjoyed the breath taking views of the Artist Drive, the salt flats and the lowest point of thr US (-86 metres below sea level). It was relatively quiet at the park which was nice. We were also happy that we got some gas before hand as it was almost $6 per gallon there! That's a lot compared to the usual 3,50-4 that we pay elsewhere.

After Death Valley we headed for the evening to Barstow, California. We found a nice hotel with towels that were folded to animal shape and quite patriotic blanket. We found out there was a drive-in movie theatre jn town, and of course we needed to go and see that. We drove to the ticket booth and when we indicated it was our first time (ever) to such a place, they gave us advice how it works. "Drive left and straight back, there's another screen on your left which is full but for the movie you are seeing there's almost nobody there". Good choice obviously! :)

We found an empty field with one car additional to us there. For some reason, the Avengers movie was much more popular than the Pirates animation that we chose :-) there was a bar where we got huge container of pop corn and hot chocolate (not such a good combination) and we enjoyed the movie. The sound was transmitted on FM and was surprisingly good. What we missed thouh was a big american pick-up truck that we could've parked the other way around and watch the movie from the flatbed.

Waiting for the movie to start, quite empty on our side.. It got really dark also few mins after this picture

 

Day 26: Fallout

On Thursday it was time to say good-bye to Vegas. We wanted to head towards Death Valley, so that we could visit there on Friday. We drove through some of the sites of Fallout NV, which is a xbox game that has been played quite a lot in our residence. We drove to Goodsprings which is a small village literally in the middle of nowhere. Amazing places where people live.

Afterwards we went to a outside-Vegas casino for some breakfast/lunch. It was definitely a different kind of casino, not so much glitter ans glamour but rather unhappy looking people playing with a strong smell of tobacco in the air. This must be the other side of gambling. After a surprisingly good 6,99$ buffet we headed onwards to the town of Primm.

Primm happened to have an outlet, and we decided to make a "quick stop" there. While we were walking out we (A) still spotted a Karen Millen store. With 50% off of even the outlet prices. As a result half of the Karen Millen collection ended up to our hotel room. It was just too good enough opportunity to not shop some. The save to normal prices was way over 1000$! So practically by spending a bit of money we made even more! ;-)

After this spending shopping we ended up to a casino/hotel in Pahrump. At the same time there was some airforce party, but despite of that we got really nice quiet room and overall the day was great success :-)

 

Day 24 - 25: Las Vegas

On Tuesday we slept in and decided to explore the strip and find some breakfast. It was incredibly hot and the air was just standing still. It took some time to get oriented again on how to walk the strip. Even though it is a straight road, it sometimes goes through casino's or you need to change the side of the road or take some bridge here and there. We ended up having lunch in Caesar's Palace shopping mall. The place was filled with Louis Vuitton and Gucci shops so we felt just like we belong there (not...). We parked ourselves to a nice Italian restaurant by a replica of a fontana and enjoyed the best pizza so far, called lasagna pizza and some caesar salad.

We continued walking to the Wynn/Encore complex as we wanted to see the place of our evening program. It was a long and exhausting walk and after four hours we came back to our hotel to relax a bit and cool off. During our walk we saw Paris (Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomph), New York (Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building), Venice (gondolieers) etc. So quite a walk through Europe. We did not spot anything scandinavian, but later in Bellagio we found a dutch garden filled with wooden shoes, windmills and other funky stuff. We again had the conversation of the wooden shoes (A: "Do you ever wear them?" R: "No, they are really uncomfortable").

For the evening we got great seats on Cirque du Soleil show called "Le Reve" in Wynn hotel through Terri whose cousin, Chelsea, was performing on the show. We had a great 1,5 hrs in the show and we both wished it would not end. There was also so much to see on the show all the time that it felt like we missed half of it. Afterwards we met up with Chelsea and got also a tour in the backstage. It was really interesting to talk to someone from the show and actually get some insight how those kind of things work (and we also learned how they change the dresses so quickly). Unfortunately it was not possible to take pictures during the show. If they ever come to Europe with a show involving water, we will definitely go, it was so amazing.

On Wednesday we again had our lazy day. We spent most of the day hanging out at the pool of Tropicana, which was really cool with palm trees, big river like pool that you can swim long distances and some birds chirping around us. For the evening we decided to treat us for a dinner at the Bellagio. It took some waiting to get in, but we had an excellent (and filling!) dinner from sushi to selection of desserts. What we could not understand though is why people horded the salty tasting big crab legs. Strange.

We also did some gambling, but clearly we were amateurs. This could be told with few tell-tales: we played with 1-10$ amounts at a time, and when we went to the roulette table, we were a bit lost how the whole thing works. The one who plays sensibly (thinking of the odds and some mathematics and other weird stuff) actually managed to win and the other one who plays with gut feeling ("I saw the number 16 on my dream") was equally good on losing everything that was won by the other :-)

Overall we had few really relaxing days in Vegas with some nice food, gambling, shows, pool, good books, good weather, bars and of course amazement for the whole thing that has been built in the middle of Nevada desert.

This seemed like the perfect occasion to enjoy the champagne we got in Memphis

 

Day 23: SHOPPING!

On Vappu / Queen's Day we headed towards Las Vegas. We decided this is a good day for some Outlet shopping and our navigator got a destination Las Vegas Premiun Outlets North. We were baking under the sun (incredibly hot) and did many many hours of shopping. At some point I parked R to a bench where he continued reading a book while I still browsed through the shops. We both did some pretty good discoveries there, and now we really need a new suitcase. And we haven't even been to A&F, Pink or Victoria's secret, these are saved for San Francisco. Below few of the best finds from Monday's shopping

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Pour elle (and also a bit pour lui...)

"if you buy this one you can get another t-shirt for $5". You don't need to repeat that one.. :)

Hippie abba-style white summer pants from Kenneth Cole

Black & blue shirt for R from Kenneth Cole (he opted for the blue, I made him also to buy the black ;-)

A perfect fit CK dress with less than 50eur! ("Don't you already have similar ones at home?")

Sailor things are in now, rrrrrright? Summer dress from Ann Taylor

Guess biker jacket, a bargain! ("can you close that?" asks the rational thinker)

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For the rest we arrived to our hotel in Vegas for the next three nights. Tropicana is located right across New York, New York and offers us a really nice room with strip view. Niceness!

The Strip from far

 

Day 21 - 22: Sedona & Grand Canyon

On Saturday we had The Official Holiday -day. We started by going to nearby Barnes & Noble. We could've easily spend hours here. However after 5 books and a magazine, we thought it is better to go before we need to buy new suitcase just for books. We headed towards Sedona, which we had heard good things of. We were certainly not the only ones with the same idea though. The road to Sedona goes through a national forest, and once we got to Sedona it was full of cars, shops and restaurants.

Since it was our lazy day, we decided to find a nice picnic place. We parked the car, took our space blanket, some cranberry juice, water and nut-mix and made a camp for the day. After a day in the sun and 1,5 read books later we headed back and had also a very relaxing evening in Flagstaff.

On Sunday it was time to move on. We headed to Grand Canyon. It was also the last day of the free entry to national parks, and another $25 saved :-) Grand Canyon was very impressive, even though we already had seen few canyons before on this trip, it still is the biggest and best. We decided to get away from the crowds a bit and selected a hike bit further by the rim of the canyon.

Before starting the hike, there were warning signs of people not preparing enough for the hike and getting severe troubles with de-hydration. Apparently they need to rescue 250 people / year who are hiking down the river but cannot anymore get back up. We did not dream of such a hike, but we did a small one leading to a place called the Ooh Aah Point. The hike was different as first comes the easy part (going down) and only afterwards the hard part (going up). We managed well though, and after that drove around in the canyon a bit. On our way we also came across to mules that were transporting stuff from the bottom of the canyon back up. After the hike we saw their resting place, and they looked like they have really given all they got. Without the snoring sound it would have been difficult to say whether they are still alive.

For the evening we drove to a historic town on route 66 called Kingman. The town is still on Arizona's side. As it was Sunday evening, it was very quiet and everything was closed. However we managed to find a really good bbq place, and after some ribs and nice red wine from Napa, California we were ready to call it a day.

Drink size: 5 litres.. Or at least close. :)

Only after three days in Arizona we noticed that Arizona while being on the same time zone as Utah and Colorado does not follow Daylight Saving Time. We already wondered why our navigator was showing us strange arrival times. The final confirmation we got when getting breakfast from Subway and actually asking them what is the time. We also notice, that further west we go the more attention our license plate from Florida gets. People ask things like "so how long exactly did it get you to drive here" and "you are long way from home", to which we reply that actually we are quite far from home, which is across the Atlantic. All these interactions make the amount of social contact increase exponentially ;-)