Day 8

Haha did you guys really think I’d leave you hanging like that with no details on our Vegas trip?? Vegas, wow. It still feels like a dream. So last night we went to the pool for a little while and big shout out goes to Oma & Opa for their $25.00 chip to the Rio. While Aunt Donna, Jake, Amber, and I were poolside Dad did some gambling and number one rule when gambling: ALWAYS quit when you’re ahead. Dad took the initial $25 chip and turned it into a huge jackpot winning of $42.00!! Thanks Oma & Opa for sponsoring our lunch at Hooters, Vegas style. After poolside and gambling we hit the strip. Oh my goodness. Bright lights, big city! The first thing we did was ride the tram to all the major hotels in Vegas. Including the Luxor, Mandalin Bay, Excalibur, New York New York, and Paris (with crepes at midnight or as we say those really thin pancakes). The Casino’s were on the bottom floors of almost every hotel. It was unbelievable to see all the machines and tables. I can’t wait to turn 21 and be able to play some poker, Texas Hold ‘em is my game ;) The displays were remarkable; it’s all showy, showy. The more lights and statues, the better. And the water show at the Belagio…words can’t even describe. Music played and the water danced along to the beat. The patterns it made were so cool. People were lined all in front of the hotel for what seemed like a mile down. When it started everyone jumped because it was so loud but it was so amazing. Visiting all the hotels was awesome because you saw all the different displays. Throughout our hotel touring we acquired a guitar which was the conservation starter of the night and made us a lot of friends along the way. The streets were crowded with people, we saw a few bachorlette parties being taken place and one wedding procession happening right in front of a restaurant. Hey whatever floats your boat I guess. We got to ride a head banging roller coaster ride while in New York New York, no really it was head banging cause it slammed your head against the headrest around every turn. There were a few cork screws, a couple loops, and some pretty steep hills with some barrels to thrash your head around. The Paris hotel was pretty cool with the Eiffel Tower sticking out of it and you could take an elevator all the way to the top. Haha sorry Jake you will never get me to ride that elevator ride, give me any roller coaster no problem but elevators uh no thanks. The walkways in the hotel were fake cobblestone to make it look like the real thing; there were little shops and cafés with small tables in front so you could get the feel of the Paris life. We made a crepe run while in Paris, we downed FOUR crepes. Oh man, can you say delicious?? After Paris we attempted to find our way back to the hotel. Now remember this: shortcuts are not always shorter if you don’t know where they are going to lead you. Our adventure started by trying to cut through the mile shop mall which actually ended up leading us near our hotel but we just wanted to walk around the WHOLE mall twice before finding an exit. I’m not gunna mention any names but someone had a genius idea; instead of going the way we went after lunch back to our hotel we should try this “shortcut”. Famous last words haha well big plus we did walk off those really thin pancakes. Once at the hotel we all crashed. We were wiped, I guess Vegas has that affect on people. This morning we called the valet (oh yeah did I forget to mention the hotel had a valet?) and said our goodbyes to the Serrao’s (minus one) clan. Big thanks goes to Uncle Frank and his company for putting us up in that magnificent hotel, it rocked! Another big thanks goes to the whole Serrao family for putting us up for two nights and hosting us mucho appreciado!! Any one up for a burrito?!?
Left Nevada for the beautiful mountains of Utah. Talk about breath taking, I’ve never seen anything like it. The way the mountains are carved out, it just makes you feel so small. How did the settlers bring wagons over them and what convinced them to keep going? I mean how did they know that water was going to be on the other side of those mountains? That’s been the big debate so far, that and how long do we think it’ll take to climb one of those mountains. We stopped in Hurricane, Utah to go see Riley. That was awesome. He seems to be doing really good and it was great to see him. Thanks Aunt Suzie for setting it up for us and also the directions were perfect, our personal favorite was the “pass truck lane 500 ft., ½ way down truck lane dirt road on right by pile of rocks about 3 ft high” we totally knew what you were talking about.
We’re driving through the mountains right now and there are truck runaway areas about every 6 miles and a “test brake area” about every 15 miles. Apparently it gets pretty intense out here.
Day 7 mileage: 274.5 miles
Total driving as of today at 7:11 p.m. eastern time: 3515.4 miles
Song of today: Barefoot and Crazy by Jack Ingram
Were not sure about our plans for the night but it’s sure to be interesting. More to come…