A day in the Sun

It was a whole week under a burning sun. Plus 40 deg C (100+ deg F) temps. No clouds and surrounded by temptation. It felt like I was in hell.

Not hell, it was Las Vegas. It almost felt like I'd been placed in an oven.

Not my first idea of a vacation spot, but we've never been so why not check it out and see what the fuss is all about.

We received lots of recommendations on things to do while in LV. One was given by a lady at Tresa's work. I won't say her name so as not to embarrass her since she has a thick Filipino accent. She told us to get around the strip, to ride the Juice (I asked Bobby if it spelled like 'juice' as in orange juice and she said no d-e-u-c-e you know -joose-). Anyways, once I got the pilipino accent translator going I was fine. The Deuce is $7.00 and you can ride it as much as you want for 24hrs. But it's so sloooow. Just on the strip it takes 45mins one way.

Like all of our vacations we never stay in the same place for very long. Just when I was ready to kick my feet up and relax, we do a road trip - we headed off to Hoover dam.
You'll see in the photos, what's really powering the generators.
I contributed to the hydro generation myself.


And afterwards we headed to Zion national park. And where there were 3000 ft sandstone cliffs. This was very different from Vegas.
No bright lights. It was very eco-friendly.

But you had to be careful here. This was not a place to joke around and be a clown. People have perished (that's the story anyways). This is nature, and it can be very unforgiving.

This was Angels landing at the peak there. We were 2.0 miles into the 2.5 mile hike. There was a warning on the map that it's not for people who are afraid of heights. The photo was taken at Scouts Lookout with 0.5 mile to Angels Landing.
Man was it tough.


But we went slow and inched our way up the huge sandstone cliffs.
The trail went from a flat walkway to a series of chains to hang on to just cliffs with nothing to hang on to.

Some spots were extremely steep and I did all I could do to hang on. It's a good thing we had been working out in preparation for the climb to Angels Landing.

It was pretty scary. Just don't look down or you're in trouble.



We stayed overnight at Zion and the next day we did a hike closer to the ground, so close that it we were in the water most of the time this was the Narrows trail. It was a blast, but it was tiring navigating the rocks under the surface of the water that you couldn't see.

I didn't care if I fell in, but I was carrying my cameras and I'd be pissed if it got soaked. So I was slow going. In some parts it went up to your pits. Good thing there were no leeches, or fish. Or were there? What was that tickling me?

After this we did a couple more trails and headed back to the land of the sun and buffets. And more importantly relax by the pool and celebrate the coming of my 40th birthday.

The Bellagio hotel has some pretty awesome places to eat.
We never ate at the same place twice, whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner.

All of them impact your wallet the same way. Like a blowtorch. The food was fantastic and well worth it. But you have to go early. Everyone goes about 2 hrs after the start of each session. And the line up at that time is huge. We were only eating 2 meals a day anyways. So go early.

We watched Cirque Du Soleil - O show at the Bellagio, and I've seen the travelling one in Toronto, and this one was super! Tresa had never seen one, and I knew she'd be blown away. And it exceeded her expectations. The stage, the water, the music and the overall visuals of the show were brilliant. I am definitely looking forward to the next one we see.

Hopefully Kieran will sit through it.

It's July 10th and I'm now 40. Wow...the 30's went by really fast. But filled with many accomplishments. And no regrets. One thing is certain, things just aren't the same when you are younger. You don't heal as fast, your body hurts a lot longer than before. And whatever you can do to fight the onset of aging and all it's symptoms... do it.
I even tried this smart water. Not sure if it did any good.
If they put Maximum Strength - Smart Water. I'd buy a case.

Anyways. We are back home again to more moderate temperatures and reasonably priced food.

I definitely enjoyed the luxuries of the Bellagio, but it was nice to be home again as a family unit.


It's no use fighting Father Time. I might as well enjoy myself.
Growing old isn't so bad, as long as you stay young at heart.

Click me for photos Zion National Park, Utah

Click me for Juice Bus photos along the Vegas strip



Bonus pics:
Winecentric West Coast climbing pix

There are pics from the top of Angel's Landing that I was too chicken to make the climb myself. Impressive! For me, physically it wouldn't be a problem to do the climb, but having a fear of heights would prevent me from doing it.
Wow. I was getting jello legs from looking at the pics. You kicked ass man.

Winecentric Zion - Angels landing pix