C'est La Vie: Viva Las Vegas

Time flies when you're having fun!

It's Thursday night, and Darren and I just finished a delicious meal at Sensi in the Bellagio. Holy smokes... our food was amazing! Darren had pork chops, and I had halibut. If you stay at the Bellagio the next time you're in Vegas, you gotta try this restaurant. They use natural, local foods, but it's not bland at all. 5 stars in our books!

Backing up...
Darren and I made it to Las Vegas today after a 7 hour drive from Sequoia National Park. We saw the largest tree on Earth there (General Sherman) and did a nice hike through the Giant Forest. WOW! These trees are HUGE! While on our hike, we had 2 different encounters with deer. What beautiful animals to watch. I'll admit, I was a bit scared that there was going to be a bear on our hike because we were in the thick forest, but luckily, we didn't see any. Some thunder during the hike made us pick up our pace a bit though. We had to rush back to the campground (Lodgepole Village) to throw our rainfly over the tent because we hadn't done it during our quick set up a few hours previous. The tent didn't get too wet in the rain. Phew! Overall, we had a great, speedy trip to Sequoia. Unfortunately, we didn't made it up to King's Canyon. Next time! We did see a bear though! Last night there were 2 black bear cubs in the campground. Didn't see Momma...

On Monday and Tuesday we were in Yosemite National Park... another beautiful place on Earth. The views from Glacier Point were beyond anything I've ever seen before. Darren and I also got other great views from the surrounding waterfalls and giant mountains from a river rafting adventure we did. We rented a raft and rafted down the river running through the valley over a course of 3 miles. Also, we hiked the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Falls. Gorgeous! I feel like I keep saying the same adjectives for every place we visit, but these places are really breathtaking. One downfall to Yosemite was Tamarack Flats, the campground where we spent 2 nights. As we turned left onto the road to the campground, we found it was extremely rough with potholes etc. Also, right next to the check in area, there was a heaping pile of trash on the ground. This is bear country people!!! Clean up your crap! The campground was buggy and had loud people that were up til 5 AM shouting, but nothing we could do about that. I was glad when we left the campground, but we didn't let it take away from the nice time we had in Yosemite.

Over the weekend, we visited Darren's friend Spencer. He lives on the Stanford University campus, so he gave us the tour. Wow... another beautiful place! He also brought us into Palo Alto that night to watch the Bruins beat the Penguins! Woot woot! Go B's!!! On Sunday, Spencer gave us a quick, touristy tour of San Francisco. We went to Fishermen's Pier, got clam chowder, saw the sea lions (loved em), got an ice cream shake at Ghirardelli, and went to the top of a hill to overlook the city. It was great to see a friend along the way since it's been 2 weeks or so since we've left. Thank you Spencer! We will come and see you again :)

Here's is the itinerary for the next several days:
Tomorrow: 5 hour drive to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Friday and Saturday nights: enjoy the Grand Canyon
Sunday: arrive to Zion or Bryce National Parks in Utah and spend 1 night
Monday & Tuesday: Denver to see another one of Darren's friends, Brian!