Chasing Life

Day 12 Nevada, Utah This morning, we tried to see the shows that we hadn’t the night before. Unfortunately, we struck out on all of them for various reasons and ended up just wandering around The Strip. The most notable sights were the canals and gondolas at the Venetian, the birds at the Flamingo, the waterfall at the Mirage, and the plaza at Caesars Palace. After leaving Las Vegas, we drove to Valley of Fire State Park. Upon arriving, we waited in a line for almost 30 minutes just to get in and saw a lone Bighorn sheep along the road. Once in, we drove all the way to the back of the park to the White Domes trail. After hiking it, we went to the Mouse Tanks trail, where we saw some petroglyphs, before getting back on the road. On our way out of the park, we spotted several more Bighorn sheep. Our hotel was in St. George, Utah, and had a hot tub and numbingly cold pool that Kade and Jolie tried out before bed (in the 35-degree weather).

Day 11 California, Nevada After waking up, we packed the car up to leave San Diego. Just before we left, the owner of the house where we were staying stopped by, so we talked with them for a bit before starting our drive. Our first stop was the Ring Trail, at Hole in the Wall. We hiked the whole trail, then up to a small overlook. Kade, Kye, and Jolie decided to try and cut across the edge of the “mountain”, and almost got stuck/lost in the dark and cold when they couldn’t find a way down, but got back to the car just as the light disappeared. Our drive away was snowy, even though there were cacti and Joshua trees all around. Next, we drove into Las Vegas. We planned to see the free light and water shows around town, but unfortunately, our first try (the rain show at Planet Hollywood) was a bust. While there, however, we did see a store called “Jolie”, so Jolie got pictures in front of it. After walking through to “The Strip” (Las Vegas Boulevard), we saw the beautiful Bellagio fou...