Day 10

Vegas Baby!

Yo, it’s D Rock, rockin’ da blog. We left the north rim of the GC at 6:30, not bad after freezing all night. On our way to Vegas, we drove through Zion National Park in Southern Utah. I’m still not sure whether that was a smart decision or not because all it made me do was want to stay there instead of moving on with our trip. But I’m glad I did because Vegas was definitely worth it.  We went straight to our campground at “Las Vegas Bay” on Lake Mead, (a national recreation area, yet another place accessible with the national park pass, thanks mom and dad!). It wasn’t really a bay, seeing as the nearest water was half a mile away. We wished it was much, much closer as we set up our tent in the 100 degree desert sun. Before painting the town, we drove to Hoover Dam, walked across it, proposed, that is, watched a proposal (Katie says Hoover Dam isn’t her idea of a romantic spot anyways), and drove into Vegas. We parked at a park and ride south of the strip and rode a bus to the main section. After a confusing and hot walk around Mandalay Bay, we went into MGM (no lions though L) and New York New York, saw the solar eclipse outside (wow) and went into Excalibur. As we left there, we realized that the Billboard Music Awards were being held in MGM’s Grand Garden Arena at that very moment, so we rushed back over there, but found no celebrities. We left, heading north to eat and see the Bellagio fountains, hoping we would see a celebrity out partying somewhere along the way.  The fountains were a hit with both of us, so we watched them twice in a row. We proceeded to walk all the way down Caesar’s Palace and got to Treasure Island where we decided it was time to go back to the car and back to sleep. We waited and watched the pirate show at TI first, and it was terrible. It reminded me of a zombie musical I saw at Scarowinds. It was no longer an adventure pirate show, but scandalous sirens and pirate show.  We watched the Bellagio fountains one more time and continued to the car. We road the bus back with a very loud southern woman who was yelling  about moonshine, not a good representation of the south. We got back to the campsite around 12:20 (after Taco Bell…Shhhh we’re supposed to be cooking), and went to sleep for a much warmer night that the one before.