THAT just happened.

On Friday morning, Jay picked Steven and I up right around 5:45am, leaving just enough time for us to catch our 7:20am flight out of BTV. We arrived in Las Vegas a few minutes late but, with no agenda in place for the afternoon, the mood stayed light despite the delay. We picked up our rental car, (a Ford Focus-silver) and headed down the strip…the long way. We hit every red light and watched the masses cross the street in front of our car. We were entirely entertained by all of the unfamiliar sites and sounds that make Vegas so unique. We finally arrived at our hotel, (The Stratosphere) to find a huge line of people waiting to check in. We were in line for 10 minutes or so until we got our keys. We checked out the room, freshened up and were off.

Our first stop was the observatory deck of our hotel, which was located 113 floors up. Getting to the deck involved a quick, dizzying ride up in the elevator.  As I got off the elevator I had to grab onto a wall to keep from swaying. The view was magnificent but, made both Steven and I a bit queasy. Then, we inspected the thrill rides located on the tippy top of our hotel. We decided not to pay to dangle ourselves 850ft off of the ground…especially when we struggled with the elevator. 

So, off to lunch we went. We decided to stay close to home and hit up the rotating restaurant 107 floors up in our hotel. We ordered 3 appetizers (grilled shrimp-Steven’s first taste of one!!!, steak and foie gras) and three mini desserts. We enjoyed the view while we took care of every last bite of food in front of us.

white chocolate macadamia nut crème brulee

do-it-yourself good humor cheesecake balls

 

 fudge topped brownie

Then, we walked... and didn’t stop for 3.5 miles. We hit practically every hotel on our side of the street! We watched a volcano erupt with fire across from the Venetian (met some new friends and in the process and came up with the trip's catch phrase, "THAT, just happened"), saw the tale end of The Treasure Island Fireworks, enjoyed The Bellagio Fountain's perform their dance and even managed to lose a bit of money gambling! Our last stop was the MGM Grand to see the lions. Unfortunately, they were asleep and at that point, I was on my way too.  We hopped in a cab and fell into our beds during the 22^nd hour of the day.

We woke the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to go!  After check out, we hit up the nearest breakfast place and mapped out the day. We decided to take a detour away from the famous Route 15, that traditionally takes people from Vegas to LA, and instead drive into the Mojave National Preserve. The temperature was going to reach near 120 in the desert so, we took the necessary precautions. We bought 20 bottles of water, snacks, more sunscreen, hats and a few other items to get us through the day. Then, we were on our way.  We travelled through an area with a huge number of Joshua Trees. We would later learn that the area we were in was more densely populated with trees than Joshua Tree National Park! We made a stop in Kelso where there was nothing more than a well-equipped visitors station, an abandoned post office and a retired outdoor jail on display. We chatted with the ranger about our options given the 120+ temperature outside. We decided against a hike to the sand dunes but, went ahead with the volcano cones, lava beds and lava tube located on an unmarked road we saw on the video at the Kelso Station. With that, we set our odometers and headed out to find the lava tube.

A bit of background: Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the rock has cooled and left a long, cave-like channel.

We finally found the road, deemed it safe enough for our Ford Focus and headed 4.7 miles in on a dirt road past the volcano cones and through the lava beds. It was a quick walk to the lava tube. We found the ladder and headed in. It was a little eerie as Steven and I were now the only ones visiting. The only other person there was on his way out just as we arrived. The cave wasn’t deep at all. There was one dark corner that we couldn’t see into. I ended up taking a picture of Steven with my flash on. It was only then that we discovered an opening to another, much larger cave that was lit naturally by the light beaming in from the opening in the earth above us. Amazing.

Before we knew it we were on our final leg to LA. We arrived in Santa Monica at around 8:30pm where Rochelle, a good friend of Steven’s, had an Italian dinner waiting for us. We gobbled it up and then took off for The Santa Monica Pier. We walked past the vendors, looked at the ocean and rode the ferris wheel. Finally, we called it a night just before 11:30pm.

Sunday was our relaxing day, well, at least our relaxing morning. We had brunch at a super cute little place around the corner from Rochelle’s place that offered, to our surprise, all you can drink mimosa’s for $4.99. Rochelle and I enjoyed what we could leaving one ½ bottle on the table. We had places to go…

We were off to The Getty were we saw endless amounts of artwork including the photography work of both Paul Outerbridge: Command Performance and Jo Ann Callis: Woman Twirling, the latter being my favorite part of the show. We also took some time to walk through the outdoor gardens that had grown so much since my first visit to The Getty a few years ago. So pretty!

After our visit to The Getty, we grabbed some lunch, put on some cooler clothes, and picked up Rochelle’s husband Jim and headed to the shark exhibit at the aquarium. What a treat it was to look at these rarely seen creatures! The highlight for me was touching one of the smaller sharks. They were not as smooth as the sting ray.

Right around the corner from the aquarium was a restaurant called, The Yard House. Why, you ask? Well, they serve beer by the yard and ½ yard. I wasn’t bold enough to go for the yard but, the half yard equals about 2 beers which was plenty for me. The Yard House also has the world’s largest selection of beers on tap! Their taps ran all they way around the bar, one right after another. Hopefully, they’re alphabetized. I had a peanut, ginger salmon dish for dinner along with my yard o’ beer. Delicious. We made two stops before the night was done. The Queen Mary Ship/Russian Submarine and the In and Out Burger by LAX to watch the planes fly in. We were right beneath them as they approached the runway. Cool!

1/2 yard of beer

Our flight home was easy. I find I rarely get to say that these days. Yesterday, everything was on time or EARLY. We arrived into Burlington 30 minutes before our scheduled arrival time and I was in bed by 11:40pm. Finally, sleep.

What an adventure! Thank you Steven, Rochelle and Jim!