22.07.17-25.07.17 Vegas Baby!

Saturday: First of all, have a proper breakfast. After three days of a 'budget menu' in the hotel room, it's a treat. The Tenaya Lodge near Fish Camp is perfect for this, top service and an amazingly great brunch offer. After 3 days of 'pure nature', we are looking forward to the big city feeling... Vegas Baby!

After a 7-hour car ride through 'nowhere' and singing along to the playlists, we reach Las Vegas. Somehow, the luggage has multiplied instead of decreasing, overloaded with two suitcases, backpacks, and shopping bags, we stand in the lobby of the MGM Grand Hotel, or rather the casino/shopping hall/reception/restaurant. Since we haven't been traveling long enough today, we decided to wait in line for another hour and look a bit silly out of sheer overwhelm. Huge, a lot, and a bit 'too much' were our first thoughts. Then came the 'room search challenge'... Through the casino and back, here and there, finding the room is difficult..

For dinner, it was, of course, too late, we are experienced chaos. So we made use of the abundant fast-food options offered by the Americans for the first time, somehow we are not very good at it, the choice fell on rice with vegetables and beef :-) Happy us.

Sunday: Breakfast with a view. First, enjoy an Acai bowl and coffee in the room and off we go. The preparations for the pool party are in full swing, it's nice to dress up again after a week of no make-up and 7 days of bed hair in a row, otherwise we would have carried the extra 2 kilos of luggage for nothing.

The hours between 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm.. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.. or something ;-) Just imagine it. The mix of Mojito, beer, 44 degrees, wild music, pool, and hundreds of crazy people. Lovely!

After the party-filled afternoon, first a hearty meal.. Dinner in the (money) frenzy.

Somehow we are getting old, around 8:00 pm we are exhausted and lie down in bed. So the next day was dedicated to regeneration. Hungry, we set out to find the great brunch place we had picked out. And who would have thought, we never actually made it there! Because you had to be a hotel guest to get in. The planned hearty brunch turned into a late lunch. This was followed by shopping at the Fashion Mall (typical regeneration cardio), but after a short time we ran out of interest and money.

Next on the agenda was planning for the next few days. Amazing, the efficiency we always show in this matter.. we actually wanted to go to the pool today, but at 9:00 pm the sun doesn't shine anymore even in Las Vegas.

We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, strolled along the Strip, and treated ourselves to a roller coaster ride at the New York New York Hotel on a full stomach. Personally, we liked this hotel much better than the highly praised MGM, everything with a lot of attention to detail, it somehow felt like being at Europa-Park. Otherwise, Vegas is simply a city like no other, a bit too much of everything, great for parties, but extremely expensive for poor students! The three days were perfect as a change of pace between the national parks, but in the long run, we would both get a little bored here.

Tuesday: The best departure day so far, started off relaxed, shopping escalation part two, and only about 2 hours of driving time from Vegas towards Zion National Park. We are looking forward to going back to nature. The way there leads through a beautiful landscape that leaves you in awe..

.. .Utah here we come!