Escape From The Doom And Gloom (AKA: Spring Break)

Thinking of what I could title this post, I had several ideas, some of them not so original. Here are a few that didn't make the cut: Nevada Time (had a great picture from Hoover dam of a clock with that written on the wall.), Vegas Ain't For Children, Hot as Haiti, Why Can't I Find Spring?, and for the finale: How to Single-Handedly Keep Whole Foods in Business.

Details of our Spring Break 2011 trip, found in this marathon post, should help you stop scratching your head questioning what the h@&& I am blabbering on about.


An easy 7 hour drive from Salt Lake later, we checked into our condo hotel. Sick of sitting in the car, and needing a nice walk to stretch our legs, we headed out to walk around the strip. The boys wanted to see New York, New York and MGM and so we parked thinking we would stay on that end of the strip. In need of exercise, our young men wanted to head to the Paris to see the Eiffel tower (I think this may have been a product of Romney having "French Fridays" at school.) We got there, grabbed some dinner and the boys were almost asleep at the table. Bill offered to walk back to car to pick it up and come grab us, while the rest of us waited. Over an hour later, he called to say he made it and tell us where he was. However, in a Casino, words like "north, south, east and west" mean very little when all you can see are lights and blackjack tables stretching across the immense void of space. We exited the casino and once outside realized we needed to walk around to the other side. Easy, right? Wrong. Between the employee only entrances and fences and delivery zones, we were stuck. Bill would have to come to us. We found a bench outside the "Stage Deliveries" door, where the sidewalk around the Paris ended, and were headed to sit there when 4 well dressed employees exited the door right in front of us. 3 men, 1 woman and all we could see were there backsides. One of the men had spiky-blonde hair and I was thinking how funny would it be if that were Barry Manilow (the signs for his show were plastered all over the casino, so he was fresh in my mind.) The employees then turned to "face us" as they walked down a ramp next to side walk and that is when I saw the freshly nip-tucked Copacabana crooner-- mere inches away. Did I swoon and beg him to autograph my décolletage, all while gushing about how much his music had meant to my formative years imploring him to pose for a picture with me and my offspring? Of course not, it was only Barry Manilow after all, and I do have some pride. It's not like it was Paul McCartney or anything. I just smiled that "I know who you are, but you are safe. I have no intention of bugging you" smile (He did smile back. Well, as much as his face would allow.) and walked myself and my two boys past him and quietly waited on the bench for Bill (who was impressed by our unexpected celebrity encounter.) As I was telling Bill who we had seen, Romney asked "Was it that man with a creepy smile?"


Day 1 found us exploring an area we have never been to. Not a single one of us. Ever. The Hover Dam/ Lake Mead. Perplexing how that slipped through the cracks on our other approximately 1,000,000,000 trips to this area. Really, how did that happen? We did the obligatory tour. Obligatory, only because Romney was DEAD set on seeing the inside of the Damn Dam (I mean, how great was that scene from Vegas Vacation?) We stood in line with the plethora of other tourists who also had a similar spring break idea and shuffled in long lines from elevator to room, to elevator to tunnel, to room, to elevator again. At least we can say "We came, We saw, We marveled."

We wanted to get a hike in as well, and drove to Lake Mead where we found a path that looked promising. Looking at the trail map we were promised some old rail tunnels to hike through, perfect shade and fun for the boys. But almost an hour of hiking in the 90 degree scorching sun without any cover-no tunnels in sight- the boys were fried and so were we. 4 hot Barbers baking in the sun turned around and hiked back out. Six months of not felling any kind of outdoor warmth we jumped from the dead of winter to the middle of summer by driving south a few hours. It was a shock to the system.

Needing to cool down we thought a swim at the hotel was in order.










Cooled off and fed (Thank you to the very close Whole Foods cafe for keeping us feed for more than half of our Vegas meals.) Romney asked if we could see the Mirage volcano explode again. I wanted to let them see the Atlantis show/aquarium next door at Caesar's we had missed last time. It got late on us again, but this time we wised up and stayed together.



Day 2 meant more hiking, since being outside was the whole point of this trip. We weren't going to let a little 90+ degree heat stop us from getting our Vitamin D. Red Rock Canyon has several great hikes and the one we picked for this day was Lost Creek. It was incredibly crowded, incredibly hot and incredibly short. The payoff was a shaded area with a waterfall to hang out in with about 50 other people all of whom were dreading the scorching walk back to their cars. We were stuck in a traffic jam of people all the way back down the trail. The waterfall was very cool and fun to play in, but overall not our favorite hike.



We checked into our second hotel and explored and swam in it's amazing pool.











Lisa and Steve happened to be in Vegas this weekend as well. They climbed in Red Rock for most of the day. I had asked her to call us at the end of their day to see if Steve would be willing to let the boys get up on the ropes for a minute to climb with some Uncle Steve instruction. The boys were more excited about this part of the trip than anything else we had planned. Steve had tried to find some easy routes to tie off for the boys, but after an unsuccessful hour of hunting around, everyone was happy just letting them boulder around a giant rock. Romney, the monkey, and William, the mountain goat (or MG for short) followed Steve around religiously-- scoping out the area for any pins in rocks, and hanging on every word he uttered as advice to help them scramble up the rock. Lucky for the boys, Lisa has very tiny feet and two pairs of climbing shoes, so they were all decked out like pros.

Day 3 equalled our last full day in Vegas. We lucked out and it cooled off to the perfect 80 degrees. We grabbed food to pack a picnic lunch (Again, thanks Whole Foods for feeding our picky clan.) and headed again to Red Rocks to hike into Ice Box Canyon (the name sounded appealing after the unseasonal heat we had endured.) It was a 2.6 mile hike into a gorgeous canyon of gold and black rocks. The entire hike was just an exercise in rock scrambling. (Good thing the boys had practiced the evening before.) It was slow and challenging, but also super fun and unique. There were pools of water smattered throughout the hike for hikers to find their way across. The boys loved throwing rocks (of which there was no shortage) into them. The trail was much less busy than the day before, much less hot and much more enjoyable. We found a perfect picnic spot next to one of the pools, ate our food and relaxed laying down on our blanket marveling at the rocks and sky and sun. Heaven.

The pool at this hotel is amazing. There are two pools with a huge "Mayan" temple separating them. 4 water slides wind their way down from the temple into one of the pools and rafts and noodles are free to borrow. Again, heaven.

Dinner and a movie for the boys, while Bill and I sat contentedly on the balcony capped off our night and our vacation. Just as we are finally relaxing and enjoying it is time to get home and tackle the next project-- the kitchen floor.