Day 20 & 21: Las Vegas 7/20/15-7/21/15

Currently in: San Diego, CA

We hit the road and headed to VEGAS!  We got there a little after lunch time and unpacked.  I looked up a park online to take the pups for a walk before we left to hit the strip.  We went to Charlie Frias park that was literally just down the street from the hotel. 

 The dogs had a blast walking around the path way and were exhausted by the end.   We dropped them off at the hotel, changed and were ready to hit the strip.  



The hotel was about a mile a way, but conveniently, about half a mile in there was an In N Out Burger so of course we had to stop there for dinner!  I got a cheeseburger and Jeremy got a double double and a fry.  

We walked the rest of the way and checked out the south end of the strip.  We walked through the Lux and then we headed to Mandalay Bay to got to the Border Grill where we had our rehearsal dinner! 

 We had a drink (I had a margasangria YUM) and some chips and just reminisced about the night before the wedding.  After that we continued to wander the strip and check out the different hotels/casinos.  

Our last stop of the night was the Platinum Hotel for another drink and to reminisce even more about the actual wedding.  My feet were dead from walking (TMI alert: they are literally COVERED in blisters from all of the walking we've done the last 4 weeks) so I was ready to head back to the hotel. But OF COURSE we had to stop for the 2nd In N Out experience of the day.  I got a shake and Jeremy got a late night burger.  My feet were crying by the time we made it back!  :*(

THE NEXT DAY 

We woke up SUPER early because we wanted to beat the heat and head out to the desert to check out the Red Rocks.  We got the Red Rock Canyon by about 9:00 am and it was STILL hot hot hot! 

We did about 8 miles of the scenic drive and decided to do a hike with the dogs to Keystone Thrust.  It was only a short one, maybe 3 miles, because we didn't want the dogs to overheat.  We got about 2/3 of the way in and we decided it was just TOO HOT for the pups.  We didn't want to risk them getting heatstroke.  We were stopping about every 10 minutes to give them water.  We walked for just about an hour total.  

We headed back to the car to finish the scenic drive and we saw a guy practicing his unicycle like Mr. Adler!  

We also saw wild burros!  That was so cool!  They were just chilling by the side of the road eating some grass.  

We headed back to the hotel to drop off the exhausted pups and went to get Jeremy's car an oil change and get some money from the bank to gamble with!  Of course the guy at the oil change place had a sister who lives in Boston and even named her daughter Boston!  

This is the best picture of Chester EVER.  

We went back to the hotel, not without picking up In N Out for lunch (stop #3) and ate poolside.  We hung out in the hot tub for a bit and then took a nap!  The sun really wore us out!  Then we took the dogs back to the park to walk around a bit before we headed out for the eventing.

That night we had reservations at Giada's restaurant at the Cromwell Hotel.  I have a not so secret love for Giada from all of my years watching it with my girl Melissa!  

The food was unbelievable.  The bread plate in itself was insane.  Jeremy got oysters as an appetizer and we shared the eggplant parm to start.  I ended up getting the lobster ravioli which was to DIE for and Jeremy got the buccatini with ricotta.  SO GOOD! 

 (Sorry about the random bald head at the bottom here ^)

Jeremy also got a ginger beard, I mean beer, that was so delicious!  They also took their time serving us and giving time between courses which was so nice to just relax and chat.  

Afterwards we headed north on the strip and ended up at the Venetian where we played a little blackjack.  We both played $40 which I lost after a while but Jeremy ended up winning $40 so between the both of us we broke even.  We spent the rest of the night meandering through the different hotels checking everything out.  At the end of the night we of course stopped at In N Out for the FOURTH stop in 2 days (I think Jeremy's a little obsessed!) but the shake was of course delicious. 

It was such a nice couple of days hanging out in Vegas.  We got to remember all of the fun we had at our wedding 8 months ago AND Jeremy didn't lose his wallet!  Win-Win!  

Our next stop: the Grand Canyon and camping for the next 3 days!  

Day 19: Canyonlands & Moab 7/19/15

We woke up and grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel.  Then we were off to Canyonlands National Park.  It's crazy that there are 2 national parks so close to each other.  

We arrived at the Canyonlands Visitor's Center and met the first rude park ranger the entire trip.  Booooo.... But!  I also met a girl from Boston College who graduated the same year as me! Go BC '10!  I had no idea who she was.  Oh well!


 

Jeremy's pretty sweet whale socks - perfect for hiking in the desert!







We decided to hike the Neck Spring Trail which was just under 6 miles long.  It sounded cool because you go into a canyon and check out a couple of springs that are located down there.  






First, we stopped at the Mesa Arch which was pretty unbelievable.  That was just a short easy hike there and we were one of the first people there that day.  











The hike was unlike any hike we have ever been on before.  Luckily we got a randomly overcast day that kept the temperature around 80*.  If it had been a HOT day like had been forecasted, we would've been pretty miserable.  It's a canyon + desert = NO SHADE!  Here's the spring:









We saw lots of hoof prints and were hoping to run into some desert rams or goats but no luck.  We did see about 10 desert hares though!  







There weren't any signs and there were several trails interweaving, so we had to follow cairns the entire way which was pretty cool.  






We did not see a single other person the entire hike!  We ate a quick pb &j lunch we packed and headed back to the car.  We had to scramble up rocks to get back to the top which was something new too.  




We headed back to the hotel and took the pups for a walk around the trail in the back of the hotel.  They were wiped by the heat so we headed into Moab to walk around and check out the shops.  There were lots of cool southwestern souvenirs and Indian crafts.  

We had dinner at Blu's BBQ which was just eh and then went and hung out at the pool at the hotel to cool off.  

We were supposed to do 2 more days in Arches and Canyonlands but decided since the dogs couldn't hike with us we were better off moving on so we decided.... Las Vegas, Baby!  

Day 18: Arches National Park 7/18/15

The next morning we packed the car for Moab to see Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.  It was a longer drive but route 70 was so scenic to the point where  Jeremy was getting too distracted by the nature to drive!  

We got to the hotel and I guess the dogs were wiped from the drive and fell right asleep.  

We went straight to Delicate Arch to hike the 1.5 miles to the lookout. 

It was a tough hike but definitely doable. 

It was the most crowded hike we had been on so far, even after being at Rocky Mountain NP. 

But there was a lot of space to hike so it didn’t feel too bad.  

Jeremy DID NOT like that there were ledges and a looooooong fall down.  

We found about 1,000 tadpoles in this puddle!  Anyone need them for science class?!?

We hiked back to the car but stopped to see some petroglyphs along the way.  So cool!  

It was getting to be dinner time so we stopped at the Moab Brewery for dinner.  They had a ton of vegetarian options: we got veggie nachos and Jeremy got a veggie burrito.  I really liked their Moab Especial beer.  Plus the logo was cool too!  

After that we decided to call it a night.  It was a long day driving and we were getting up early to head to Canyonlands to hike!