2/09/2013 - "Family Day in Sin City..."
This morning before the sun came up we were heading to the airport to catch our flight to Las Vegas! This is the 2nd time in 2 years that we've been to Vegas but more on that later. Also, we bought tickets for this trip. Too bad, too, because a huge blizzard hit the northeast and our plane was only about half full. I'm guessing that was due to people who had booked through from the northeast not being able to get to Dallas for their connection. I could be wrong, but when Joe looked, there were 30 seats available. There were way more than 30 empty seats, I'm pretty sure of that. We didn't get that satisfied feeling of being right about buying tickets, but that's okay.
Our flight left DFW at 7:45AM, so with the time change, we were in Vegas at 8:45. We picked up our rental car and headed to Sin City. We're staying at the Bellagio, so I called, but they didn't have any rooms ready that early. Instead of checking in, we headed to the Egg & I. I had read about this breakfast place in the American Way magazine. It looked like there were a lot of people waiting, but the hostess said the wait was only 10 minutes. It was really good!!!! I had biscuits & gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon, & breakfast potatoes. Joe had an egg crepe. I tasted it and thought it was good. He thought it was good, too. And, it was different. The coffee, by the way, was exceptional!!! And with that, as Joe said, we did a face-plant off the wagon.
From breakfast, we headed to Caden's basketball game. Joe had texted his cousin, Christie, to let her know that we were going to be in town and she told us that Caden and Carson both had games on Saturday. So, we decided Saturday would be family day. Caden is quite the little athlete, but he is 7, so it was like watching any pee-wee sport. His team lost, but he didn't seem too disappointed.
We left the Richard's and came back and checked in to the Bellagio. The first time we were in Vegas, we were completely enamored with the Fountains at Bellagio and vowed that we would stay here some day and get a room with a view. I'm not sure how serious we were back then, but that's just what we did. Our room is all the way at the end of the hall and I was a little worried that we wouldn't have a great view, but I don't think any of these rooms have a bad view. It is so cool!!! Joe could, literally, sit in our room the whole time and watch the fountains every 15 - 30 minutes. In fact, if we didn't have tickets to "O" to pick up, we probably would have just sat and watched the fountains until it was time for the next basketball game. Ha!!!
We did, however, drag ourselves away to pick up our "O" tickets and get the lay of the land. The hotel is huge, of course, with most of it being the casino. The one thing we both hate about Vegas is the smoking. They'll never ban smoking in Sin City, I'm sure. I find that funny (in a way) given that even in Ireland, they have banned smoking in pubs. In Ireland!!! In PUBS!!! But, not here my friends. Smoke away!!! Just a walk through the casino and you smell like an ashtray.
The second basketball game was Carson's. He, apparently, wasn't feeling that well and played less than half the game, but it was still fun to hang out with the Richard's. After the game, we had ribs with them at a hole-in-the-wall place not far from their house. I think it was called "TJ's Rib Crib." I had baby backs and they were good. The mac & cheese was also tasty. Joe had the 3-meat combo and wasn't as thrilled with his meal, but again, it was more about spending time with family.
We left the Richard's and headed back to the Bellagio for the late-night performance of "O" by Cirque du Soleil. I have wanted to see this show forever, so I wonder if that didn't somewhat hamper my expectations. It was incredible Cirque, as always, with acrobatics and athletics. But, I think, I was trying to find a story and couldn't figure it out. Joe said he thought the creator was on acid when the play was written (a typical Joe comment). Ha!!! It was all done in water and the most incredible thing was the stage. One minute it's a regular stage, then it's 3" of water, and then it's a deep pool that they're diving in to from above the top of the stage. Totally perplexing!!! I loved the way the curtain was raised and lowered, too. Not just your typical raising and dropping, but more of a sweeping away of the curtain. Then it was lowered by a hot air balloon bucket.
It was a long day, so we were happy to make it back to the room for the final performance of the fountains at midnight and hit the pillows. The bed is wonderful....
2/10/2013 - "Sensory Overload..."
It's always a dilemma for me when we're on vacation. Part of the fun of vacation is not having a schedule. But not having a schedule also means that we don't make the most of our time. After our long day yesterday, we took full advantage of not having a schedule by sleeping late. VERY LATE!!! Actually, we were awake and talking at 8:00, but fell back asleep and didn't really get going until afternoon. At home, I love to sleep late and after our marathon of sleep, I admit that I felt rested and was excited for that. But the anal retentive side of me decided that we had wasted half a day, so we must put it in high gear!!!
We grabbed the car and headed to lunch at Four Kegs. This is a Triple D spot - and the only one in Vegas that I really wanted to try. It's in a strip center and I'm not even sure it's in a decent part of town, but we tried the Stromboli and the Philly Cheesesteak and liked them both very much. We also liked the fact that the dining room was walled off with glass from the bar/slot machine section. This meant that the smokers could smoke away and not bother us (although one man did walk from the bar to the bathroom with his cigarette in hand. Really? You can't pee without your cigarette?).
From breakfast (I mean, lunch), we headed downtown to the Mob Museum. We LOVED this museum. You start out on the top floor (3rd) and work your way down. The top floor is all about mob activity and how they gained such prominence during prohibition. But when prohibition was repealed, they still managed to find other illegal activities to participate in. The 2nd floor is about law enforcement and the mob. The museum is in an old courthouse building and they show a movie in the actual courtroom where the "Kefauver" trials took place in Vegas. There's also a lot of history about the city of Las Vegas and how it became "Sin City" and the mecca of drinking, gambling, and in the day, mob activity. The bottom floor recaps a list of mobsters - some famous, some not as famous. It also talks about the mob in movies and how Hollywood has glamorized the mob. There are a few artifacts sprinkled throughout the museum - most notably, a section of the wall from the Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, some guns and other weapons used by mob members, and one of John Gotti's suits. There were also a couple of outfits that James Gandolfini wore as Tony Soprano.
We didn't get to do the bottom floor justice at the Mob Museum because we had reservations at Olives at our hotel. A friend of mine had recommended this restaurant years ago, but we had never eaten there. Part of the draw is that there is a patio that overlooks the fountains, but it was too cold to sit out there, so we decided to just enjoy a nice meal. There is, of course, an olive theme. The bread is olive bread (and it is DELICIOUS!) served with a couple of types of olive spread and whole olives. I had a bellini and it was very good. We both had salad appetizers - Joe, a Greek salad and I a Caesar. Then Joe had salmon, which looked wonderful and I had chicken and gnocchi, which was also wonderful. Overall, it was a fun experience to have a nice (although expensive) meal at the Bellagio.
From dinner, we high-tailed it down the street to the MGM Grand with the intention of going to Brad Garrett's Comedy Club. We only had about 20 minutes so we tried to hustle (it's about .9 miles to the MGM from the Bellagio). The club is, of course, at the far end of the hotel in the "Underground" and by the time we made our way through the casino to the club, bought tickets, and got to our seats, we were about 10 minutes late. But, they said the show had started a few minutes late, so apparently we didn't miss much. I forget the name of the host, but he did a little routine before the two main comics of the night came out. The first one was Michael Somerville and I thought he was really, really funny. The headliner was a guy named Larry Reeb and, believe it or not, he's from Dwight, IL, just a few miles down the road from Campus. We actually talked to him a bit after the show and he mentioned a couple of people from Campus that Joe knows. Too funny!!! The show overall was hysterical. Much, much funnier than the night we spent at the Cobb Comedy Club in San Francisco. Both of the main comedians were really funny and the show was pretty clean, too. They did say a few cuss words (probably fewer than Joe and I say) and some sexual innuendo, but overall, a great, GREAT, night.
One thing I figured out is that Vegas gives me sensory overload. While Joe would be happy just watching the fountains every 15 minutes from our room, I feel like there is so much to see and do and I just don't know where to start. Should I see a show? Should I try this restaurant? Should I go shopping? Should I walk around the latest and greatest hotel? Should I go back to a place I've seen before and finish up my visit so I can cross it off my "to-do" list? Should I buy a hooker? WHAT SHOULD I DO???? It's crippling, really. Joe says to focus on 3 things. Okay... But what 3 things???
2/11/2013 - "Seeing some more of Sin City and saying goodbye to the fam...for now"
This morning we got up and headed to breakfast at Cafe Bellagio. It was good and gave us a chance to walk around the hotel a bit and see the Conservatory & Botanical Gardens. The current show is the Chinese New Year and all the flowers are quite beautiful! This hotel is really impressive. Our room is comfortable, as I've mentioned we love the view of the fountains, and the whole hotel is just beautiful. At this moment, it seems, quite easily, a favorite so far in our travels. We also took a pass at the pools and courtyard outside. It's too cold to swim, but the water looks very inviting!!! One of the pools was heated, but there was no way I was getting in. That being because after you get in - you have to get out.
As many times as I've been to Las Vegas, I had never taken a picture of the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. We decided to walk to it, instead of driving. We got to walk through a few of the other casinos. We walked to the sign on one side of the strip, then crossed the street and walked back on the other side. We stopped for a snack at Pink's at Planet Hollywood. Pink's has been on my LA to-do list for a while. There wasn't really anything fabulous about their hot dogs, it didn't seem, but I decided not to remove it from my LA to-do list anyway. And, just for the record, we passed on the opportunity to buy Garrett's popcorn. I saw a couple with bags and my antennae went up. I even searched until I figured out where it was, but in the end, we just said no. No.
From our snack at Pink's, we did a short tour of the Flamingo Habitat at the Flamingo Hotel. I think they actually call it the Wildlife Habitat now, but of course, the draw is the Chilean Flamingos. It was kind of fun - just something to do to kill time before meeting the Richard's for dinner. This was our last night in Vegas, so we met them at a Mexican restaurant to say goodbye. We even had a little Dairy Queen after dinner.
2/12/2013 - "Visiting some friends from Chicago and making our way to our next destination"
We tried to get up a little earlier today for our drive to Arizona. We had breakfast at Cafe Bellagio again and then hit the road. A friend that we worked with in Chicago has moved to Kingman, Arizona, so we wanted to stop and see them on the way. Joe has known Eddie and Laura Pyrzynski since the early 90's when he first went to work at American Eagle. In fact, Laura was his supervisor at one time. And, I've known them since 2001 when I worked in Chicago. Eddie and Laura even opened up their home to me when I was in between Chicago and DFW. I stayed in their basement and it was so awesome of them. They are both retired now, living in Kingman, so it was fun to stop and visit. Eddie even made his famous tuna salad for lunch for us.
The drive to Kingman was only about 2 hours and we had no trouble finding Laura's and Eddie's place. After lunch and all our catching up, we drove the rest of the way to our final destination - Grand Canyon Village - another 3 hours. So, yes, hiking the Grand Canyon is the real reason for the trip. I should take this opportunity to admit that this was my idea. A friend of mine that I worked with a few years ago, Carole Quarles, had hiked the canyon twice. She has long been my travel inspiration and from the day she told me about this adventure, I have wanted to do it. Convincing Joe was about as easy as talking him into eating ice cream. The problem is, of course, that I'm not quite in the shape I was 20 years ago when Carole first told me about this. I'm also a lot older and a lot fatter (hey - just calling a spade, a spade). We had scheduled to do this last year, but didn't do what we thought needed to be done to accomplish the hike, so we postponed it a year (that's why we were in Vegas last year, too). This time, I still am not 100% confident that we have worked out enough, but we naively decided to do it anyway. We actually got the perfect itinerary this year, so we decided that maybe it was fate that we go ahead and do the hike.
We arrived at the canyon just before sunset and decided to get the lay of the land, so to speak. Our first stop was the visitor center (which was closed by the time we arrived), but we checked out Mather Point, which is typically everyone's first view of the canyon. They have had some snow here, which is typical in February. We walked - carefully - around the scenic vista. Some of the snow had turned to ice, but we got our first look at the massive canyon that we would be hiking. And, it was just as daunting as I expected it to be!!! From here, we went to Bright Angel Lodge to check in for the night. Seeing the snow, we decided that we should go ahead and invest in crampons, so we went to the gift store and loaded up on all of our souvenirs AND the crampons. That would turn out to be money well spent. We had dinner at the Bright Angel Dining Room and then got ourselves organized for the hike. I hope I can sleep tonight...
2/13/2013 - "Are we really going to do this???"
We had a beautiful view of the canyon from our room. Kind of a waste since we arrived after dark and have to head out so early, but we did appreciate it nonetheless. We headed back to the Bright Angel Dining Room for breakfast and tried to load up on carbs and protein so we would have lots of energy. Before heading to the South Kaibab Trail, the trail we had decided to descend, we went back to the visitor center for our stamp. God knows, we wanted to make sure we got our stamp!!!
The Bright Angel Trail parking lot is under construction, so when we got back to check out of Bright Angel Lodge, we moved our car to the street. We wanted to be parked there because our plan was to come back up Bright Angel. We had a bit of trouble getting to our shuttle stop (for once, I was right and Joe was wrong, but I didn't say "I told you so" - well, until now), but once on the shuttle, our next stop was the South Kaibab Trailhead.
I wasn't so nervous about the hike down, but I was super, SUPER grateful for the crampons when I saw the trail. The first mile was very snow packed and the crampons helped tremendously! When I saw them, I was skeptical. They look pretty simple, but they definitely helped.
The hike down was just beautiful. Despite the snow - or maybe even because of it - it was awe inspiring. I did tweak my knee a bit, but just tried not to put too much pressure on that side. It wasn't horrible, just a little annoying when I put weight on that leg. There were parts of the trail that were tremendously muddy and that ended up slowing us down quite a bit. We thought it would take us about 5 or 6 hours, but it ended up taking closer to 7. At one point, we were worried that we were going to miss dinner! The first half of the trail is mostly just a steady decline into the canyon, but the last half ended up being more like a staircase to the river. We kept going down and down and down, but it still seemed like it was a long way to the river! We would round a corner and think we were almost there, but then realize we still had a long way to go. Finally, we rounded a corner and saw the black bridge across the Colorado River. Once you cross the bridge, Phantom Ranch is a half-mile away.
We ended up getting to the ranch in plenty of time to check in to our cabin and unload for dinner. Our dinner on the first night was Hiker's Stew. I'm not a huge fan of stew, but wanted to try it and it wasn't bad. Meals at Phantom Ranch are at the Canteen and are served family style. We sat with 4 older ladies, but they were quite nice.
One thing I failed to mention was that when we checked in at the Bright Angel Lodge for our hike (you have to check in the day before you hike down), we were informed that Phantom Ranch had a pipe break. This meant that the toilets would have to be bucket flushed and there were no showers. I guess it didn't matter, I wasn't exactly going to a beauty contest or out to a nice restaurant, but I don't know how long it's been since I went 3 days without a shower. This would be interesting!!!
2/14/2013 - "Happy Valentine's Day from the bottom of the Grand Canyon!"
I wasn't really sure what "bucket flush" meant, but as it turns out, you get a bucket of water and you pour it into the toilet and it flushes. So, that part of the pipe break wasn't that inconvenient, other than having to then go fill up your bucket for the next time you need to use the bathroom.
Our breakfast this morning was at 7:00AM. We had eggs, bacon, and pancakes and it was all good. On the way out, we picked up our sack lunch, which wasn't exactly what I expected, but was sustenance nonetheless.
We decided to do a little hiking on our day at the bottom so that we wouldn't get too stiff. Our first venture was the River Trail. It took us back up from where we had come down South Kaibab, but then veers off along the river on the other side. The River Trail actually goes all the way down to Bright Angel, but we knew we would be doing that tomorrow, so when we got to the silver bridge, we headed back to the ranch.
We hung out around the ranch and took pictures. We ate some of our sack lunch and enjoyed the absolutely beautiful weather at the bottom of the canyon. After a bit, we decided to head up the North Kaibab Trail. It was quite beautiful, too, and we walked as far as we could - that is, until we hit the pipe break. At that point, they had the trail blocked off as the workers were digging up the pipe to repair it.
Dinner tonight was a bit later and it was steak. I was surprised at how good it was. And, it came with a baked potato. At dinner, we did get a "pep talk" from one of the guys that works at the ranch. He was so encouraging that I actually felt better about being able to make it up and out of the canyon. He didn't deny that it was tough, but he said that if we made it down, we could make it back up and I was actually grateful for his talk. After dinner, we retired back to our cabin to get ready for our hike back up.
2/15/2013 - "And now the part I have feared..."
We woke up this morning and approximately 3 seconds after I had all my clothes on, I realized that we had a little visitor in our sink. It was a scorpion. Picture me jumping around like a mad woman trying to make sure I didn't have any scorpions in my clothes. Sigh... For some reason, it never occurred to me that they would come out in winter. Don't they hibernate or something? At any rate, if I did have a scorpion in my clothes, he never bothered me. For the record, we did unpack our suitcases in the garage when we got home. Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself...
Breakfast this morning was at 5:30 AM. We had to get an early start to make sure we had enough time to get out of the canyon before the sun went down. We were packed and ready to go, and we hit the trail at 6:21 (to be exact). Our goal was to be at Indian Garden (halfway) by noon. We actually made it by 10:10, but took a long break there. The hike to Indian Garden wasn't bad at all. The only switchback was Devil's Corkscrew, but mostly the trail was a slight upward slope. In fact, the elevation gain between Phantom Ranch and Indian Garden is only 1,214 feet. We had to cross a couple of creeks and I almost slipped once, but I made it through without getting wet.
From Indian Garden to the top is much more steep and full of switchbacks. To put that in perspective, the elevation gain on the last half of the trail is 3,100 feet. It took us 6 hours to do the second half, but of course we made stops along the way. It was definitely a challenge. At first, I was trying to walk the length of each switchback without stopping, but by the end, I was stopping to catch my breath quite a bit. Poor Joe was better off when he kept moving, but I had to stop along the way and he wouldn't leave me behind, even though I told him he could. It seemed like we walked and walked and walked and yet when I would look up, it still seemed like miles to the top. A couple of observations... I had a really, really hard time eating throughout the day. I would try to eat a Cliff Bar, but it just turned to hay in my mouth. We drank a lot of water, including Gatorade, but I'm pretty sure I was still a bit dehydrated by the time I got to the top. At some pointed, I stopped and had my bagel from my sack lunch because Joe was worried about my lack of nutrition. He also made me put on my hat since it got colder and colder as we got to the top. We didn't have as much problem with mud on this trail, but there was quite a bit of snow towards the top of the trail.
Remember the four "older" ladies we had dinner with? We passed them on the River Trail, but at the junction of Bright Angel, we stopped to use the restroom. They passed us and we never saw them again. God Bless 'em! Between them, they probably had an average age of 60, but they totally kicked our asses!
We made it to the car in the nick of time - that being that I had a problem with my boot rubbing my ankle, even though I tried several times to adjust it. About the time we reached the car, my feet and ankle hurt so bad I could barely stand it. We had several people stop and ask if we had hiked from the bottom and how long it had taken. It was kind of funny. We did make it before the sun set. Fortunately, it wasn't far to retrieve our car from where we had left it near the trailhead.
Our last night was spent at the historic El Tovar Hotel. I have never in my life been so happy to see a shower!! I tried to joke around with the front desk, but they didn't find me amusing. Our room was absolutely teeny, tiny, but it was fine. My clothes were absolutely soaking wet from sweat. It felt fabulous to get out of the wet clothes and take a hot shower. But, it also felt fabulous to know that I successfully accomplished something I had wanted to do for a really long time.
We had a fabulous dinner at the El Tovar Dining Room later that evening. Of course, we were so exhausted, that we were in bed with the lights out by 9:00 PM. It was an exhausting day, but full of adventure and I know that we will look back at this fondly for years and years to come.
2/16/2013 - "Making our way home..."
We were catching a flight home on Saturday, so we were up and packing before we really wanted to be. Before we left the El Tovar, we took one last look at the beautiful canyon.
Our flight home was uneventful, as all good flights are (and also half full!!!). As I mentioned before, we left our luggage in the garage for unpacking, but just for the record, we didn't find any critters (thank goodness!).
