To start, I know it's been a while, but as the post indicates I was in Vegas and it's hard to find time to blog when you get no sleep. But to begin my story with the above picture. I finally caught a chipmunk in the gift shop. You can see it pressed up against the right corner of the box.... It was quite the triumphant moment for myself and don't worry he was happily let free a few miles away, with the hope that he wouldn't make it back very soon.
But now to the real story. Megan, Felice and Katie ventured down to visit me last week. They got here Tuesday evening just in time for dinner and a ery quick tour. The next day we got up and went hiking. I took them for about 2.5 miles along the rim. The above picture is a shot from Bryce Point. The day was perfect and aside from mini yoga-on-the-rim detours that Felice kept taking it was uneventful but absolutely beautiful.
Here are some pictures of the yoga-ing as we progressed along the trail. They almost skipped the trip to Bryce and were considering just having me meet them in Vegas, but all were very happy they made the trip to see this gorgeous area. I was stoked too, because Felice in particular has never really seen much of this country. She's been all around the world, but hasn't spent much time here. Granted I had never seen this place before this summer, but I do admit, southern Utah is absolutely and completely beautiful.
Out of everywhere any of us have been, there's nowhere like Bryce Canyon, and it was fun getting to show off my temporary home. Especially since both Megan and Katie also got to experience glacier with me.
After a quick lunch in the employee dining room, we went on another hike below the rim, on the Navaho loop trail. I had never been on this one, so it was fun for all of us (not that the other wasn't fun, but rather it was new and thus exciting.) So, we traveled down into the canyon, which is amazing, except of course that you always have to hike back up. This is our mermaid picture below. Some French visitors told us that we look like mermaids on a rock as they took our photo.
The Navaho Loop Trail traverses through what are known as slot canyons, or rather narrow canyons, that water largely shaped. They are all over here in Utah, and absolutely beautiful and kind of mysterious as you don't know what's around the bend, what you will find, where they will go, and what lies within them. Also, they are not the best place to be in a rain storm. 
After our beautiful hike on Navaho loop, we connected to Queens Garden and posed for some pictures at the tunnels over the trail and headed out for a driving tour of the park, where I took them to several of the viewpoints in the park. Finally I exhausted them and we all headed back for naps, showers, and karaoke preparation.
I took the girls to the Big Fish Saloon, the only bar within an hour of Bryce. Here we had some pitchers, some appetizers and sang, "I come from a land down under," "The Pina Colada Song," "Paradise by the dashboard lights", "My Way" by limp biskit, and Carrie Underwood's angry "if she catches you cheating" song. It was a lot of fun. There was dancing, laughing, hanging out by the bon fire out back and some great stories. The next morning we left for Vegas. I took them through Cedar Breaks National Monument on the way and we stopped for Thai Food (Thankfully!) on the way, as of course i was suffering withdrawals. Finally we arrived in Vegas with glazed over looks.
There are far too many shiny things in Vegas, none of us knew what to look at or where. Our first stop after the hotel was Margaritaville, where I had a very disappointing margarita, but got to watch a girl in a bathing suit slide down a volcano and into a giant margarita pitcher.... interesting entertainment. We also had to get our picture taken with some street folks, so we chose a large man in a silver bikini... why not? Elvis and Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Carribean were just so cliche.
That first night, Katie, Meg and I went to see "Thunder from Down Under", the australian men's version of Chip N' Dales! Yes, it was a show where men dance around and take their clothes off, but they never got fully naked, and I forgot my glasses anyways. But it was entertaining and there were a lot of brides-to-be that were pulled up on stage and danced around. The audience was also mostly women, and we were all laughing, cheering and it was overall a super fun time. The show was at the Excalibur, which was only like 4 casinos away from the Mirage, which is where we were staying. However, we were completely unaware that four casinos took up about a mile and a half of the strip, which took a while to walk to. Poor Meg was in heels too.
After the show, we walked back, watched the water show at the Bellagio, checked out the insides of some casinos and landed at Treasure Island. We did head to bed early however, (by that I mean 3). The next day began at the pool and then lunch. This was followed by an insanely hot trek to Circus Circus where we entered, the adventuredome and rode a roller coaster, which was so much fun that afterwards, we took a taxi to New York New York and rode that roller coaster.
New York New York was one of my favorites of the casinos as it is so decked out and is built to immitate the New York Skyline. They have a bridge, classic looking apartment buildings, skyscrapers and of course the roller coaster. It was immense and took up at least two city blocks... IT WAS CRAZY! After this we headed back, stopped to watch the water show at the Bellagio and a beer. Then we went to get ready for Cirque Du Soleil: Love (the Beatles version), which was amazing!
The show was a lot of fun and just incredible... You must really have an imagination in order to choreograph, do the costume design or simply be a part of any Cirque Du Soleil show. It was amazing again. We stopped before the show at the "Revolution" bar, which was the themed bar to go along with the show.Afterwards we stopped for pizza, then went back to Revolution for what must have been almost 3 hours of dancing. Once we were danced out, Meg, Katie and I went and sat in front of the fountain at Caesar's Palace Forum Shops. Here we met a nice security gaurd who let us borrow his hat, some republicans from Texas who gave me $40 in Casino Chips, and many other funny characters who we danced with, talked to, and entertained. Afterwards, after becoming suddenly $40 richer, I went and cashed in my chips and bought the girls a round. I then put a dollar in the slot machine and gained a dollar, and figure I'd stop there at a 100% profit. Finally we ended the night drinking our cocktails in front of the Venetian, which has boats and waterways and buildings that are supposed to immitate Venice. It was cool because in Vegas you can just walk around with liquor in your hands in any possible form. It really fuels the alcoholism that comes from being in Vegas. Finally we trekked back to the Mirage at 5:45 in the morning which was really 6:45 my time. I then crashed only to get up two hours later to drive back to work, which I still arrive 15 minutes late for. The adventure was epic, and long, thus the reasoning behind how long it took me to post this. I'm pretty sure my stories will be endless however. More on hiking and life since I've been back soon!
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