My Family Jeep

The day started out quiet and we had no idea of the events that were going to unfold later that evening. Since an extra day was added to the trip and we couldn’t get a room at NY NY we had to change hotels. The decision was made to go to the complete opposite end of the strip and stay at Stratosphere and have dinner at Top of the World, their revolving restaurant. We checked out of NY NY, put the top up on the Jeep so we wouldn’t have to do it the following day, called Stratosphere and were delighted to find out we could check in 3 hours early. Due to price alone we weren’t expecting much at Stratosphere, we were shocked! It was completely opposite of NY NY, they had staff working the check in counter and they were even friendly. They completely managed to change our view in Vegas in a few short hours.

After check in we headed to the Sahara so Shane could have lunch at the NASCAR cafe’. The bartender there was brilliant and was giving us happy hour prices before happy hour started. We had a few drinks there then went to find non tacky gifts, we discovered in Vegas they don’t exist. We passed by a Fat Tuesday’s got us a couple of big ol’ 38 ounce drinks with an extra shot of alcohol and went to the casino and played the slots. There is a Wheel of Fortune one that has double seats sitting in front of it so we settled there and proceeded to get socially excited. At 5:30 we cashed out, went up stairs and somehow managed to get dressed and make it all the way up to Top of the World on time. We were still really happy when we got up there and chose a wine pairing menu where they bring you alcohol with each course. The food was unbelievably delicious and our waitress Lou was fantastic.

This is where things start getting a bit fuzzy. I know we complemented the manager and he gave us free drink vouchers for the bar upstairs. Somewhere between there and dessert we decided that we HAD to get our vows renewed by Elvis. So we hopped in a cab and headed to Graceland Wedding Chapel. They were more than happy to accommodate us. We really wanted fat Elvis but skinny Elvis turned out to be great. I know we had fun, the pictures show it. There is a DVD but not even we have been brave enough to watch it yet. I think we’re afraid seeing it might scare us into sobriety. At least we are both happy drunks.

After we were hitched for the second time we left and were unable to find a taxi. It was only a little over a mile so we started walking. I guess some things are just meant to be. We walked right by Atomic City Tattoo and I had to go in. I have been wanting a tat for a long time and never found the right design, this time it was easy. By dumb luck the owner and a brilliant tattoo artist Johnny Vegas was working that night. He gave us a great deal on our tats and we are very happy with them. I went first and Shane keeps telling me I made him get one. He didn’t want to look like a wuss! By the time our tats were finished we were disappointed to find we were sobering up so we went back to Stratosphere, drank mass quantities of alcohol, played the slots and eventually went to bed and passed out in the wee hours of the morning.

When in Vegas……

Not much went on during the day, it was too hot out to comfortably go down the strip and NY NY had so much jack hammering going on in the casino that we didn’t want to stay there. We ventured over to MGM Grand, ate a wonderful lunch and went back to the hotel room for a nap. That was the best nap. We had to wake up at 4 because I had an appointment to get my hair done and I surprised Shane by booking him in for a massage at the same time. After I had my hair done I picked up a couple of drinks and went to the room and started getting dressed for the evening.

We went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Zumanity. There is a reason this show is for 18 and older, it is not for the prudish. If you like raunchy jokes, half naked men and women mixed in with the usual Cirque du Soleil high flying then this is the show for you. It caters to all sexual orientations and would certainly not go over well here in rural Arkansas. We had great seats only three rows back from the stage and thoroughly enjoyed the show, it made the rest of the stay at NY NY seem worthwhile. If your curious about the show search YouTube, there are plenty of video clips on there.

We ate dinner at the Italian restaurant in NY NY after the show and it was way overpriced for the quality of the food. It was good but nowhere near gourmet which they try to push it as.

Here’s a couple of Vegas pics from our first night.

New York New York

A picture from the fountain show at Belagio

Finally a sleep in! Knowing that we only had a 4.5 hour drive into Vegas and we couldn’t check in until 2:00pm there was need need to rush. We got up, went to the hotel cafe’ and had breakfast then back up top the room to pack up and head out.

Our first stop for the day was a lookout just a few miles outside of Page, once again…WOW. If we had know exactly has amazing the scenery was we would have dragged our weary butts out the night before to get some pictures when we had good light. But we didn’t know and the rest before hitting Vegas was much needed. We carried on driving and came to a beautiful town named Kanab that is seven miles North of the Arizona border. We made a note to research this town further as a potential place to live, It had us written all over it.

The drive out of Page and heading back up into Utah was beautiful with the exception of the massive amount of power lines. I have nothing against power lines but these were always on the side of the road that had the great view. I see many hours playing with Photoshop to remove them from some of my photos.

Not far past Kanab we came across a sign for Coral Pink Sand Dunes and of course had to go see what it was. What we thought would be a side trip turned out to be a short cut down a dirt road, once again I love our GPS. The sand dunes were well worth the side trip and the dirt road with the beautiful scenery made it that much better.

We still managed to get into Vegas right on time, found NY NY with no problems and managed to wait in the long line for over half an hour to check in without losing our cool, after all its Vegas! I have been to Vegas before but it has been a long time, last time I stayed in Vegas was at Excalibur and NY NY was still being built. If you are going to Vegas I don’t recommend staying here, don’t waste your money. Our room was seriously a five minute hike from the elevators, how do they expect drunks to stagger that far? The room itself was very nice, we had booked a spa room and it was huge but the casino right now is not exactly our idea of fun. There is construction going on and the days are filled with the sounds of jackhammers.

When we finally got to our room we ordered room service and enjoyed a bottle of bubbly before getting dressed and heading out. We went to Excalibur, Mandalay Bay, Luxor and all the way down the strip to Caesars Palace stopping and having a drink at every hotel and casino along the way. We eventually decided getting one really big drink and carrying it around so we could drink all the time was a better idea so we got a couple of 32oz drinks from Fat Tuesdays and proceeded to get very drunk. Despite being fueled by alcohol our feet eventually gave out and we made our way back to the hotel and passed out.

Outside of Page

Going into Kanab

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Getting closer to Vegas

Shane and I really enjoying our drinks and obviously all the ones before

I am not known for being a morning person and today started at 4:30am. Surprisingly I was out the door and loading up the Jeep before my husband who is a morning person. We started the day freezing our butts off in an open top Jeep while flying down the highway trying to make sure we got to Monument Valley before sunrise. We realized half way that we had spent what we thought was the last of our cash the previous day and with us being no where near an ATM thought we weren’t going to be able to scrape together the entrance fee. After scrounging around on the floor boards, through the depths of my purse and my husbands wallet we just managed to scrape together enough money to get into the park.

We were excited, there was a full moon that night and we could see the black outlines of the monuments and by the time we got there could see the glimmer of the sun threatening to rise up over the horizon. Everything was perfect, except the park was closed. I researched and researched this trip and everything said that the park opened at 6am, we are guessing the guy who opens the gate was late or the park actually opens after sunrise. Fortunately there was a great parking area and I managed to take some amazing photo’s of sunrise while we were waiting for the park to open. Eventually we got into the park and were the first ones in. We loved the drive around Monument Valley, the dirt road through it was poorly maintained and very bumpy, the scenery magnificent so to us it was perfect.

We had no plans for the rest of the day, we were going to our next destination of Page AZ and calling it quits for the day. We passed a brown tourist sign that said Navajo National Monument and decided to turn off and have a look. WOW!! It was a beautiful drive complete with horses walking down the road (no other humans in sight). We finally managed to find something free! The walk into the canyon was easy, walk up a different story. We were greeted at the end with great views over very well preserved cliff dwellings built in an alcove. I am still kicking myself over not taking the camera bag and not having my zoom lens to get a better shot.

It was then on to Page with one stop at a scenic viewing area with American Natives selling jewelry. We rolled into Page with the intention of going out later to get some good photo’s, the city itself isn’t much but the surrounding area is gorgeous. Needless to say that after our early morning start we were done for the night.

Sunrise at Monument Valley, worth the early morning start

Monument Valley National Park

Finally a Jeep pic!

Long lonely road heading into Arizona

Navajo National Monument