Since neither of us has a car, we deicded to fly into Las Vegas, avoid the long and unamusing drive to Nevada, and pick up a car there. Vegas wasn't really a destination for us, more of an easy stop-over spot on the way to Utah's national parks. But, since I had never been there, we decided to try it out for two nights. We flew after work on a Tuesday and got to our AirBnb around 8pm. We had a chill night exploring the Wynn Hotel.

We played some slots with compelling themes (Britney Spears! Sea creatures!) but struggled to make sense of the machines. I was too intimidated to play at a poker table with a real dealer, so we found a digital Black Jack table that entertained us for a while. We were doing well for a bit, but utlimately lost the money we started with in under 2 hours. I had figured that would happen, so I wasn't too bummed. It's weird how ok everyone is with losing money there. I couldn't stop thinking about the cash flow running through each machine...each table...the exclusive roped-off tables!

We woke up the next day and it was 104°. Neither of us were too excited about the heat. Luckily, we spent most of the day in AC walking through the hotels, starting from the bottom of the strip at Mandalay Bay. The hotels jumped you from New York City to Paris, sent you back in time to see King Arthur, the Ancient Greeks, the Pyramids! We giggled and gawked at the facades, each trying to out-do the the next. Outside they were all so different, but inside they were all the same, which I found to be a little disappointing.

We ate at a stereotypical (yet delicious!) all-you-can-eat buffet and stumbled upon our true joy in the Luxor Arcade. It was much easier to justify spending money on video games we actually enjoyed rather than slot machines. And we still got prizes! Jordan won a unicorn and I won a Dinosaur.

I soon realized that Vegas is an exceptionally odd place. Mostly becuase it's all fake and a giant money-sucker. But, it's unapologetically fake, and blantanly takes your money. It knows and it doesn't care, along with all the people visiting. I started to respect that strange transparency. As someone who doesn't drink, partake much in night-life, or gamble, I was somehow still allured by Vegas. It must have been the bright lights.

If there's one thing I'll splurge on, it's show tickets. We landed front-row seats to "O" the aquatic-themed Cirque de Soleil show at The Bellagio and were blown away. The show mixed synchronized swimming, acrobatics, diving, comedy, and stunts that made you say "Oh SH***!" It had us looking up, down, and behind us - a fully immersive show. That in itself made Vegas a place I'd visit again.

We were supposed to wake up and start driving to Zion in the morning, but decided last minute to change our plans and book a tour of the Neon Museum, or "Neon Boneyard" as it's commonly referred. The museum collects and exhibits retired signs from the surrounding Las Vegas area and you can only see them by guided tour. Some of the signs have been restored and light up at night, while others still need rescuing.

The signs were perfectly placed in eclectic piles showcasing a wide range of sizes and design styles, an instagrammer's dream. The tour guide pointed out some famous ones from Ceasar's Palace, Liberace's show, and even two signs of a cowboy and show girl that were legally married at a ceremony downtown. Again, Vegas is odd.

After the tour, we drove two hours into Zion National Park in Utah. The drive in was pretty gorgeous with lots of winding roads through undeveloped land. Looming towers of sandstone let us know we were getting close to the park boundries.

It was an overcast and windy day in the park (yet somehow still hot!) and we didnt really feel like exerting ourselves too much, so we opted for a simple hiking trail, going against the reccommendations from our friends to hike Angel's Landing. We set out to hike the Upper Emerald Pool Trail, a moderately-strenuous hike that ends at a green lagoon & waterfall, but made an accidental wrong turn and ended up on an unnamed horse path. It took us a while to realize that we weren't heading towards an emerald pool, because we were enjoying the secluded and sandy trail along the river.

We stumbled across a lot of wildlife on the horse path (though surprisingly, no horses) including creek-dwelling deer, bunnies, woodpeckers, and even a scorprion! Jordan had the hawk eyes all day, spotting most of the animals, and even saw a big-horned sheep on the side of the cliff when we were on our way out of the park at dusk.

We stayed about 1.5 hours outside of Zion in a town called Kanab for the next three nights. Kanab didnt have much to offer besides its proximity to our next two days of destinations, but we stayed in the comfiest AirBnb - a full house with a yard and jetted bathtub. It also had a great kitchen, and since Kanab isn't really the reaturant captial of the world, we cooked most of our meals at home those days.

On Day 3 we set out for Bryce Canyon. On the way, we passed signs for the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. My Life Coach mentioned this park to me in passing, but with our full itenerary, I never planned on going. Discovering that they were so close, we made a quick decision to turn off and see them.

The pictures don't capture exactly how pink or how vast these sand dunes were. I hadn't seen anything like them before. Walking up and down the sand hills was a riot. Wind was blowing the sand like crazy, there was nothing to grip your feet on to, and we would randomly sink a foot or so when walking.

Walking around was disorienting, everything looked the same. After walking for 15 minutes, we realized we had no clue which direction we came from. We got out eventually, of course, and spent about 10 minutes shaking the sand out of our shoes and clothes.

After the dunes, it was about an hour drive to Bryce Canyon. I'm already struggling to write about just how awesome Bryce was. Hands down my favorite of the National Parks we visited. It also felt the most visitor-friendly. They had a see-it-how-you-like approach that offered a completely driveable loop around the the top rim along with a variety of hikes down and out of the canyon at different levels of difficulty. We did the drive first, looking down onto the rock formations that seemed other-worldly; like they belonged on Mars or something. My favorite sights from the overlooks along the drive were the natural rock arches. We even got to drive through one on our way in.

We decided to do two short hikes in the park. The first was the Navajo Loop Trail; starting at the Sunset Point Lookout with about an hour-long decent down to the canyon floor. The trail was moderately strenuous, but was made easier by several hundred switch backs. I was taken aback by the massive Hoodoos (fun name, right?) as we hiked into the canyon. The lumpy mis-shapen pillars of rock felt like giant bean stalks growing towards the sky as we kept hiking lower and lower. Photographs do not do it justice.

Along the trail we were able to visit some iconic hoodoo formations such as Wall Street, Twin Bridges, and Thor’s Hammer.

The second hike we did was actually slightly outside the park bounds, just beyond the northern end off Route 12. The "Mossy Cave Trail" sounded like a nice reprieve from the heat, plus we were intrigued to see green amid this rocky dessert. As we neared the cave, parts of the trail were blocked, so we had to get creative to reach our destination. We walked along the river banks and ended at a seeping cave behind a refreshing waterfall. The area felt like a smaller-scale sample of Bryce and was much less crowded than the Navajo Loop, so we sat in front of the water and relaxed for a bit in the shade.

Day 4 was probably the day I was most excited for on the entire trip.