Sunday, January 15, 2012

Our Trip to Las Vegas…

As a child, I (Sidney) drove the stretch from Salt Lake to Vegas many times with my family.  I remember seeing the sign from the freeway for Valley of Fire State Park and asking if we could go there.  Of course, we were 20 miles from home so the answer was ‘no’.  (I don’t blame my parents for saying no!)

This trip, I saw the sign, mentioned my childhood desire to Mike and the next thing you know, we were driving the desolate 13 miles to Valley of Fire State Park.  Basically, it is red rocks and slick rocks, much like the terrain of where I currently live, but… I have another item knocked off my bucket list!

 

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This picture makes me look like I hiked quite a long distance, but in reality, it was about 15 feet!

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Mike, posing in a couple of different formations.

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We then drove Shoreline Road, which goes around Lake Mead into Boulder City and then drove into Las Vegas.

 

Our timeshare was at The Grandview.  We were amazed by our accommodations!!!

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We fulfilled our goal of eating at a Chinese Buffet.

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Mike went to his favorite gift store, only to be disappointment because it has turned into a real tourist trinket shop, not the odds and ends shop of 2005.  The only good news is that it sells pottery from Cedar Mesa Pottery.  Mike’s Uncle Joe originally started the business and now his cousin, Joe B. runs the business here in Blanding.

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Sunday we attended the Calico Ridge Ward in Henderson, Nevada.  We loved the building because it dates back to the early ‘60s.

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Afterwards, we drove out to Hoover Dam and walked along the new bridge that was recently completed. 

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If the light pole were not in this shot, (and the people) it would be a beautiful print!

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We drove up to a view spot to view Lake Mead.  Mike specifically wanted me to take of picture of him fixing his tie.

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Mike is the best husband.  He graciously drives me around to fabric stores.  I went to all of the stores in Las Vegas, plus JoAnn’s.

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One night, we rented five movies from Red Box.  We had a movie marathon.  (The good thing about living in Blanding is that we don’t see all of the new movies that come out.  So, in this case, going to Red Box, they had many movies available which we had not seen!  Otherwise, we don’t generally like Red Box’s selection.)

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Our FREE MONEY - $39.40.  Okay, we do not gamble our own money.  I need to make that clear.   But, the Grandview had an agreement with the casino next door.  The casino offered us free cards which entitled us to $25.00 of money to gamble with as well as discounts on food, etc.  I told Mike, “I wonder if we can cash in the $50.00.”  The answer was no.  But, I found out that if I played the slot machine, when I ‘won’, I could cash out the money.  So, we played our $50.00 and ended up cashing out $39.40.  We definitely made money on the hotel.  Yea!

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All and all, Mike and I are so grateful to his sister Marjorie, for offering us her timeshare and to his sister Suzanne, who came and stayed with Mike’s mother.  We had a GREAT TIME relaxing.  We have returned to Blanding RELAXED and REFRESHED.