Glacier National Park - Day 4 (Tuesday)

Iceberg Lake

I'm prefacing this with the fact that I've walked over 31,000 steps today and had two mojitos at dinner. With that being said ... Here we go ...

John, the proprietor of this establishment (yes, I use that term loosely because he's an arrogant ass) recommended Breakfast at Two Medicine Grill. Since this is a one horse town, we chose Two Medicine Grill for breakfast, because well, we're just that smart! It was within walking distance and we were desperate. Sounded like good motivation at the time. It wasn't horrible. It was ok. And as desperate as I was for decent coffee, I was thrilled when the coffee wasn't just passable, it was really good - not as good as mine mind you, but good since I couldn't get mine. Just sayin'.

We were on the road to Many Glacier a little after 7:30 and the sky was a gorgeous blue. No smoke in sight. And a few billowy white clouds drifting by. The only drawback was the wind. Good God the wind can whip around out here. We'd have advisories out at home. In all honesty they do here too but it's just not the same. It took a little over an hour to reach the starting point over Iceberg Lake hike. A 10-mile roundtrip hike. It was supposed to be around 70 today, and we dressed accordingly. But with the hellacious winds, we figured it would be prudent to bundle up a little more. So we changed clothes in the car. Getting a visual? Never mind. I'll just leave it with the fact that we bundled up. I'm talking hats, gloves and the works. 

We started the hike about 9:15am. It started off with a bang. Uphill. The total elevation climb is nearly 1300 feet. A good portion of that is in the beginning. Back tracking a bit - we ran into a older couple at the Lake MacDonald Lodge who told us about this hike. We really hadn't considered it since it was a 10 mile hike. But when people are are at least 10 years older than us did it and said it was great, well we rethunk it. That's kind of a challenge isn't it? If they can do it, certainly we can do it. They also said there were icebergs in the lake. Okay. Done deal. We have to do this. Fast forward to this morning ...

We hiked for a while with an older couple from San Diego, who hiked the ruins to Machi Picchu. They covered 26 miles in 4 days in groups of about 30 and said it was amazing. Sounds awesome and that will definitely go on our bucket list. Bob discovered that he played golf at the same course in Camp Penddleton as the husband. Small world. Again.

The views around every corner were amazing along the way.

Take a look at the two glaciers on the mountain in the background (photo above). Iceberg Lake is right under those glaciers. That's where we were headed. The trail was pretty easy for the most part. Towards the end, though, it just went on and on and on and on. Finally we made it to the lake. It was beautiful.

But there no icebergs in the lake which is why we did the hike in the first place. Kind of too late to make that an issue at this point, huh?

We made a friend while resting. A little Ground squirrel was very friendly. He came right up to us looking for food. We had packed nuts for a snack so pulled the bag out and that little guy was in heaven! He loved our nuts! He ate some of them (didn't like walnuts thought, left them on the ground, but his friend later snatched it up) and stored the rest in his pouches. Reminded me of Bob eating cereal. He does the same thing!! It was reminiscent of the squirrels at Yosemite on one our hikes back in 2008. We had peanut butter and jelly bagels then and they thought they had struck gold. It was the highlight of our day then and this little guy was a highlight of my day today. How cute is he?

Both of us we dragging butt on the way back. We had motivation though. The views to the east that were shadowed on the way were now lit up with the afternoon light.

Trust me when I say it was a blessing to have to stop so often to take pictures. We made it back around 3:30 and everything was screaming - my hips,my knees, my lower back, my feet (I could feel at least one blister), my calves ... Everything. I was even over the scenery. The only scenery I wanted to see was our car. 

Since it was such a pretty day we wanted to drive the Going to the Sun Road again, hoping to get better views with a pretty blue sky. We did.

Took a few shots but honestly our hearts weren't in it. We were just done. So about 5:30 we headed back. It was quarter after 6 by the time we hit 89, which is the cow road. Thankfully we didn't see too many and we're back at the hotel by 7:00. We freshened up and hopped back in the car to go to dinner at the lodge, where we will hopefully stay if we ever come back to stay in this area again. We both ordered a wonderful tortellini dinner with adult beverages. Glacier mojito for me. Pretty good. Not as good as my mojitos but not bad. 

Tomorrow is another day! Hoping for more good weather because we have at least one, if not two hikes planned. 

Night!

Glacier National Park - Day 3 (Monday)

Many Glacier Hotel - Runñing Eagle Falls

Another smoke free day! Something to celebrate! Lots of clouds in the sky, though and the wind was whipping. Holy Moly. Breakfast today was a repeat of yesterday. We had the yogurt parfait again even though as chilly as it was, oatmeal sounded good too. We were checked out and on the road by about 8:30, driving the Going to the Sun Road again. We didn't take too many pictures because it was so cloudy, but some of the views were pretty neat because of the clouds. And the tops of the mountains were dusted with snow. So that rain we got last night fell in the form of snow in the upper elevations. Brrrrrr!

Bob had his heart set on hiking the Hidden Falls trail so we pulled in at Logan's Pass where it starts. Hahahaha. I don't know how hard was blowing, but it was wicked. And the temp? LOLOL. Let me just let the photo tell the story. 

And that's the temp not factoring in the wind chill. We decided not to risk pneumonia and got back in the car. Hopefully, we'll have the chance to do that hike another day. Just like yesterday, the sky seemed clearer and bluer in the east. Since the hike didn't pan out we decided to drive to Many Glacier hoping that it would be pretty enough to do a short hike there or get some nice shots at the very least. Yeah well, not so much. As we headed east leaving the park the sky did look better. But then we had to head west again going back into the park to Many Glacier. It's like there was this black cloud over the park. The Many Glacier Lodge is modeled after a Swiss Alps lodge. It was beautiful. And the location? Wow. But the cold temperature and the winds and the clouds made it feel like a winter day at home. We went in the lodge and had lunch. When all else fails, we eat and drink. 

After lunch we drove 89 to 49 to Two Medicine. There were hikes in that area of the park we want to do too. Plus we were still hoping the clouds would go away and show us some blue sky. These roads go through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. There are cows all over the place. They graze wherever they want to. Right next to the road. And they look at you when you drive past, as if to say, "Whatchoo lookin' at homie?"

The views on 89 were really pretty. The clouds made for some dramatic images. And when we hit 49 things got even more interesting. Glacier is huge and mountains are ginormous and there are so many of them! It's not like there are only a few. It really is mind blowing. And we haven't seen any of them under great circumstances. 

The drive into Two Medicine was equally as beautiful. Here's a view of the lake before we turned back into the park. 

This is the view we'd been seeing on the webcam for the last month or so. Looked pretty much the same. 

Everything is so dry here. All the lakes are dry, the creeks are barely even still creeks. It's just sad. It's hard to believe it's so dry when they routinely get 80' of snow a year. That's a lot of snow. Anyway, there isn't much at Two Medicine - A ranger station, campground and small store. That's about it. We did do a small 1/2 mile roundtrip walk to Running Eagle Falls. We didn't expect much so weren't too disappointed. This one is glacier fed so at least there was something coming out of it. But all in all it was really dry. 

I took these pictures to show the "bridge" you should need to walk across to access the falls. All this rock bed should be covered with water. Instead, we're walking across dry rocks. Crazy, isn't it?

It's around 4:00 so we headed to our hotel. The Dancing Bears Inn. It's a step up from the Lake MacDonald Motor Inn. When Bob made our reservations all the lodges were full so he took what he could get. But now all the lodges have vacancies. Ugh. And we couldn't cancel without losing part if not all of the reservation. It's fine. We're just scoping out where we'll stay next time we come. 

The East Glacier Lodge. Wow. Wow. Wow. Built in 1912 and it is still amazing. Would love to stay here. The support tree trunks used all throughout the lodge weigh 15 tons each. Yeah. Really. Wow. Amazing. I know. I'm repeating myself. Can't help it. So much history in this place. Google it. You'll be amazed too.

We ate dinner in the lounge. I got a Glacier Mojito, made with some kind of huckleberry liqueur. Uh huh. It was good too! Didn't send this one back! 

Bob got a local oatmeal stout he loved. And we both got a chicken salad for dinner. Nice end to the day. 

Quote of the day: Bob was eating and said he needed a FitBit for his arm. Maybe you had to have been there. It was funny at the time. LOL

It's only 10:00 and I'm done with journaling!! Early night tonight!

Glacier National Park - Day 2 (Sunday)

Avalanche Lake

The day dawned overcast and chilly, around 60 degrees. It rained a little bit last night so we had hope the smoke would be on hiatus today. It was. Yah!! We started our morning off with a Greek Yogurt parfait with huckleberries and granola for breakfast. It was soooo good! Came back to the room and made our PBJ sandwiches for lunch and was on the road by 8:00.

Our first stop was Avalanche Lake. Even though it wasn't sunny, it wasn't smoky either so we figured we'd hike down to the lake, supposedly about a 5 mile round trip, fairly easy hike with a nice view at the end. In the parking lot a guy two cars over said something to Bob about the Subaru. He had never driven one before and got it as his rental. He loved it. The conversation went from there and we ended up hiking most of the way with him (Mark) and his 10 year old son, Michah. They were great. Micah was a great kid who just love doing all kinds of things and he certainly was a trooper on this hike. Like Mark said, most of the people you meet hiking are great people because jerks don't usually hike. LOL 

The hike itself was fairly easy, albeit a bit boring. There just wasn't much to look at along the way. When we got to the lake, we could see how under different conditions it would've been incredible. But with the overcast skies and dry season, the water was very low and, while it was pretty it could've been a lot prettier. (You can see the difference in the water level from the photo above.)

We snapped our pictures, rested a bit and headed back. We took a couple of wrong turns - I know, imagine that - and that 5 mile hike turned into a little more. It's all good. 

Back at the car we dove into our PBJ sandwiches and enjoyed sitting down. About noon we started driving the rest of the way down Going to the Sun Road (hey, I didn't name the thing, just journaling about it). Again, we got glimpses of how beautiful this park is. We stopped many times and took lots of shots but with the clouds and no sun, they aren't going to begin to show the majesty that is Glacier.

As we climbed the temperature plummeted. We watched it go from the mid 60's to upper 40's at Logan's Pass, which is about 6200 feet elevation. And the wind was starting to get strong. 

Shortly past Logan's Pass we started seeing patches of blue sky and sunshine!! We got so excited! The more we drove the bluer the sky got! You should've seen us doing the happy dance! As we got closer to Goose Island we saw the remnants of the Reynolds Fire. Wow. It's hard to wrap our brains around the devastation. It was everywhere. And this was a small fire in comparison to the others. 

Of the three fires in the park the Thompson Fire is the largest. The last time we heard a figure on that fire they said it had burned about 16,000 acres. Everyone around here says the only thing that will put them out is winter. Snow. That's what they wait for. Until then it just has to burn. So sad. 

Look at that blue sky!! What a difference it makes!

By the time was got to Goose Island the wind was whipping. At St. Mary's Visitor Center it was probably gusting 35 mph. St. Mary's Lake is on the eastern side of the park. Lake MacDonald, where we are, is on the western side. As we were leaving the visitor's center we felt droplets of rain, and boy could you see it coming. The sky was dark and thick. We barely made it out of there before the bottom fell out. I had said the car needed washing. The rain we got last night made a mess of it, probably from all the smoke in the air. Well, it got washed. We got so excited about the blue sky and sunshine on the way to St. Mary's I had visions of getting all kinds of gorgeous shots on the way back. Nope. Wasn't meant to be. We didn't stop one time. There was quite a bit of traffic on the road. Between the rain and the traffic it took us about an hour to cross the park. 

Back at the room about 3:15, we unloaded the car, unpacked our bags and headed to the lodge. After all, it was pint time!! The lounge was packed so Bob got our beers and we grabbed a spot on the couch in the lobby and started uploading pictures to see if we got anything worth saving. After about an hour we slipped in and got a table so we could eat dinner. Both of us ordered a pasta dish that sounded really good - it was. Then Bob ordered a piece of huckleberry pie for dessert. It also was very good. 

We waddled back to our room, I showered and we went through pictures again. I'm sitting here thoroughly enjoying the sound of rain and a thunderstorm (and snoring) in the background while journaling. Hopefully I'll get to bed a little earlier tonight. Hopefully, this rain will keep the smoke at bay for another day and tomorrow will be bluer and brighter than today. :) 

Glacier National Park - Day 1 (Saturday)

KArrival

(Preface - it's been a dry summer for the northwest. There are fires burning all over Washington and Idaho. A couple of weeks ago Glacier started lighting up as well. We've been keeping track of what's going on, stalking the webcams all over the park, and crossing our fingers things would be better by the time we arrived. Not so much. They've closed many of the hikes around the area and at times even parts of the roads have been closed as well.)

Our morning started in the middle of the night with a 3:15 wake up alarm for a 6am flight. Needless to say, there weren't many cars on the road. The airport was hopping though. Thankfully, both flights were pretty uneventful (our connection was in Chicago - O'Hare). As we got closer to Glacier, we could even smell smoke on the plane. It was pretty eerie. We landed in Kalispell about noon, had the keys to the rental car (a little Subaru XV Crosstrek - Bob was stoked) and our luggage and were on the road by 12:30

It was crazy smoky. You really couldn't see a thing other than maybe a faint outline of some of the mountains. Even though we had been stalking the webcams for the last month and knew it wasn't good, we were still disappointed. But it is what it is and we'll do our best to make the most of it. The lady at Alamo told us we'd find a Super 1 Foods on the way to the park, so we stopped in there to pick up a few items. We were at the entrance to the park by 1:30. 

The smoke wasn't dissipating, it seemed to be getting worse. After having seen the pictures and knowing what it was supposed to look like, it really was deflating to know how much we couldn't see. We passed Apgar Village on the way to Lake MacDonald (which is where we're staying). This is where one of the webcams is located. And yup, it looked just like the images we'd been seeing every day at home. The man at the Visitor's Center said the smoke was mainly from the Washington and Idaho fires, not the Glacier fires. Huh! We hadn't even thought about that. 

We found our way to the Lake MacDonald Motor Inn where we were booked. The lodge was full back in February when Bob was trying to find rooms. So for a couple of nights, this is Home Sweet Home ...

I guess that fan on the wall is our air conditioning. I ask Bob if he'd mount it on the ceiling song could have a ceiling fan. I suffered. No fan. 

After checking into our room at about 3pm, we headed to the lounge at the lodge for an adult beverage. And it went down real smooooooth. Since we hadn't had lunch we thought it smart to order a little to nibble on to tide us over until dinner. The beer was a Scotch Ale that even I liked. Our appetizer was some toasted baguettes, celery and carrot sticks served with a salmon dip. Yummm, it all hit the spot.

We walked down to the lake for a view and could tell it would've been gorgeous ... if you could see anything. You could barely see across the lake. There's hope that we'll get some rain tonight and wash the smoke away, even temporarily. We'll take what we can get. Supposedly, there's even more of a chance of rain tomorrow. As I'm sitting here writing I just heard some rain for a few minutes. I sure hope we get more than that. 

We went back to the room and chilled until we got to close to falling asleep and ventured out to the lodge again. Even though we really weren't hungry yet, we figured we'd walk over and see how long the wait for the main restaurant was. Forty-five minutes, so we put our name down. It ended up being only about twenty-five minutes. Not too bad. There are plenty of people here, but it doesn't seem to be too crowded.

I ordered a Huckleberry Smash (Huckleberries are big around here! They have huckleberry everything!) and Bob stuck with the Scotch Ale from earlier. Our server promised if I didn't like it I could send it back so I stepped outside my box and went for it. Eh. I sent it back. LOL. It really didn't have much flavor and what flavor it did have needed to be a little sweeter. I don't like sweet drinks, but I don't want to pucker up when enjoying one either. 

I continued my out of the box ordering by choosing a Black Bean Burger for my entree. Bob followed the outside the box movement by going for the bison meatloaf, which came highly recommended. My burger was good. Not great but ok. I'll try something else next time. My burger was better than Bob's meatloaf. Not what we were expecting. Oh well, you live and learn, right?

The sun wanted so badly to come out and put on a show for us. It kept trying to peek through all the smoke and clouds. People were walking around with cameras like there was actually something to take a picture of! I didn't get it. What I was seeing wasn't worthy of me dragging my camera out. I just popped out my iPhone and was done with it. 

There were two couples sitting at the table behind us. Bob thought he heard the lady mention Virginia Beach. So at some point he turned around and asked her if that's what she said. Would you believe one of the couples lives on Sandbridge Road, about a mile from us? And the other couple lives in Kempsville? Holy cow it's a small world. They're on a bus trip together that does a loop from Calgary. They said the smoke has been on again, off again. They've had some good days and some decent mornings. There is hope.

After dinner we walked back down to the lake. Amazingly, we saw patches of blue sky and some clouds. Major improvement. Crossing our fingers tomorrow is better. Came back to the room, packed our backpacks, cleaned camera lenses and have a plan for tomorrow. 

Of course Bob is snoring while I'm journaling. Life is good. And I'm out. Been up about twenty hours. I'm done. 

Night. 

Vegas!!!

We planned this out so well. Or so we thought. Bob found a flight on US Air leaving at 5:30 Tuesday evening, arriving in Vegas at 9:30 - going through Charlotte. Not bad, right? I ran my last minute errands and did all the laundry Monday. This morning I watered my garden and plants, went to the gym, then by Cullipher's for my CSA box. Was home in time to shower, have lunch and actually have some down time. I even had time to go get my sunglasses adjusted. Piece of cake. 

I left at 2:45 to pick up Bob at 3:30 - plenty of time to get to the airport in time for our 5:30 flight. Uh huh. On the way to the airport Bob got a phone call saying the flight had been delayed until 6:40. Ugh. Well that presents a problem catching our 8:00 flight out to Vegas. So we ended up getting re routed through Philadelphia. It was 4:10 and the flight boards at 4:25. Nice. The connecting flight left Philadelphia at 8:30. Still gave us plenty of time to grab some dinner, right? 

We boarded the plane. And sat on the Tarmac. And sat. And sat. There were strong storms going through Philly so we couldn't take off. We ended up coming back to the gate about 5:35. Around 6:15 we were given the okay to board and try it again. It was around 6:45 by the time we took off. We still have hope we'll make our connection at this point. 

We landed in Philly about 7:25. Taxi to the gate. 40-50' from our gate we stop only to be informed that the "ramp" (Tarmac) has been shut down. Apparently there was lightening. If there is lightening within 5 miles of the airport, the ramp is shut down for 15 min for safety reasons. If there is another strike the 15 minutes starts over. Not looking good for our connection. The captain comes on at some point and says it's going to be at least 30 minutes before they reopen the ramp. Sigh. Really? It was 8:15 by the time we made it to the gate and could get off the plane. 

Our current gate was at the "F" terminal. Our connection was at the "C" terminal. This required a shuttle ride. Running through the airport, knowing we had missed this flight, we finally got to our gate only to see long lines of passengers waiting to board. I asked someone in line what flight this was and was shocked when she said it was for Vegas. We made it!! Hope our bags did too!!

So we board, and we're in the back of the bus. No really. The very last row, which doesn't recline or anything. For a 5 hour flight. Oh well. Better to be in the last row than not on the plane. It's all that was left on the plane for us to sit together. So we make our way to the back and settle in. They closed the cabin doors somewhere around 9:10. And we sat and waited some more. It was 9:50 by the time we actually took off. Keep in mind that neither one of us had eaten since noon and we both had relatively light lunches. Needless to say, we were starving. Guess it's one way to get on west coast time. 

We got a cheese tray and a couple of southwest salads - at 10:30. Oh and a couple of 1/2 bottles of Meiomi. So Bob is now jamming out to his jazz and in la la land. It's nearly 12:30am our time. I think we're sleeping late in the morning. This was the temp at 12:30am in Vegas. How crazy is that?

Wednesday

We did sleep late but with the 3 hours difference we ended up on west coast time pretty quickly. Mr. Lucky's was a restaurant in the hotel that got good reviews so we went there for breakfast. Bob got a quesadilla and I ordered an omelet. We could've split either one and been fine. But since we didn't, we stuffed our faces to the gills and waddled back to our room ... to put our bathing suits on - oh fun!

The only pool that was open before 11am was the Nirvana pool. It was made to look like a beach on one side. They brought sand in and had chairs set in the sand which extended into the pool. It really did look like a beach. So we picked out chairs and settled in for however long we could stand the 100+ plus degree sun. Needless to say it didn't take long for us to feel parched so we had to order a drink. 

I wasn't feeling the beer so ordered a Mojito. It hit the spot. Shortly thereafter we waded in the water. Wow. It was like bath water. Seriously. No shock factor here. So we hung out in the water in the shade under an umbrella for a while and just soaked in the moment. 

Eventually we moved to chairs in the shade and ordered a light lunch - a fruit plate and a protein power plate. Both were pretty good. The fruit plate had grapes, cantaloupe, honey dew, a couple of strawberries and pineapple with a honey yogurt dressing. The protein power plate had a boiled egg, grilled chicken strips, cheese, carrots and celery. Of course we ordered another round of drinks as well.  And water? Yes, we're in the desert so water is at a prime. $4.75 for a liter of smart water. Dumb people paying that much money for water - shake my head. But since we couldn't take any outside food or drink into the pool area there wasn't any other choice. 

By the time we were taking our last dip in the pool, the water was no longer like bath water. It was now like a hot tub.  Seriously, it was hot. It was only 4.5' at the deepest part and most of the water was only 3.5' deep. Combine that with the sun baking down at triple digits, well it just stayed hot. 

Around 3:00 we closed out our tab and were hit with my little 12 oz Mojitos being $15. I had two. The large 32 oz souvenir cup was $28. And those cups were in lots of people's hands. Crazy. Just crazy! A nap sounded good so we went back to the room and rented up from our busy day. We still weren't really hungry for dinner so we ended up a Mr. Lucky's again and split a flat bread pizza. Catching a cab to the Mirage for Jeff Dunham was a piece of cake and it didn't take long to get there. I was really excited about seeing him again. And was excited for Bob to see him. He's never really been a fan, but he's never really sat and watched him either. I knew he'd enjoy it more than he thought he would. I was right. Of course.

It was a great show!! Jeff started out with some background history which was thoroughly entertaining. Then Walter came out of the box. Ya gotta love Walter. And yes, Bob was laughing too. He's just so grumpy!! Walter, not Bob. 

Bubba J was the next, then Peanut, Jose and Little Jeff. Achmed closed the show as only Achmed can. Jeff shot baby Peanut dolls out of his big gun and I GOT ONE!!!! How cool!! Bob walked away with a new respect for Jeff and really enjoyed the show. My face hurt. He truly is an artist. We'd both go back to see him anytime. Of course we had to visit the merchandise store. I picked up a really cool shirt with all the gang on it. Thanks, honey!

Back at Hard Rock we looked for some ice cream. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to find ice cream at this place. Bob thought he had seen gelato somewhere. We couldn't find it. We asked a couple of people. All they could come up with was the little cafe had pints of Ben and Jerry's we could buy. Not what we had in mind. So we found ourselves at Mr. Lucky's once again! We ordered simple bowls of ice cream and it hit the spot. Afterward we played our free $5 worth of slots (voucher when we checked in). Won $5 and lost it again. We were done. Went back up to our room. 

Thursday

More pool time today after breakfast at Mr. Lucky's again - we split an omelet and it was plenty. We chose chairs in the shade right off the bat this morning. It didn't take long before we were looking at the menu to see what else I could get besides the crazy, ridiculously priced Mojitos. Guess what we discovered? We could get draft beer for $5! Well hell! That's a no brainer. And they even had Shock Top which I like! 

It went down so easy - no shock there! More floating and drinking, and a replay of lunch from yesterday. We were starting to get into the chill groove today. That really surprised me that we could hang out poolside that long in that kind of heat. But honestly, it really wasn't that bad! Even though the water was warm/hot, I guess being wet made a difference. And even though the temps were 100+, it was doable in the shade. Sounds crazy but there ya go. 

A buffet dinner was included with our tickets for the Beatles Love Cirque du Soleil. So we had to get out of there a little earlier than last night. Plus we had to pick up the tickets at Will Call. Wouldn't you think they'd have a different line for Will Call other than the normal line for purchasing tickets? Nope. So that took a little while. The place was packed! It made us appreciate being at the Hard Rock, which is kind of on the outside of the strip and much quieter. Tickets in hand, we headed to the Cravings Buffet. Another line. Again, wouldn't you think they'd have a separate line for those who already had tickets? Again, nope they did not. Thank goodness we got there when we did. This was a great buffet. There was something for everyone. Beer and wine was included as well - like we really needed that after our lazy day at the pool, but hey! It was free, right?

Time for the show. Our seats were perfect. But really, any seat in the venue was perfect. The stage was in the center so there isn't a bad seat in the place. Bob had seen the show back in January and had been wanting to take me to it since he walked out. It. Was. Amazing. I've never seen anything like it before. I had expected acrobats. But this was far more than that. It was like a Broadway show telling the Beatles' life story with their music. There were so many things going on at once it was impossible to know what to watch! You could see this show five times and still miss action. The short 90 minutes flew by.

Then we got to stand in line to catch a taxi back to Hard Rock. That actually didn't take too long even though the line seemed like it would. What took so long was sitting in traffic trying to get out of the area. As soon as you get in the cab the meter starts at $3.45. It was over $12 before we even started to move. The traffic was horrible. And the people! Holy cow! I thought July was the middle of summer, dead time in Vegas. Not so much. The triple digit heat didn't stop the people! They were like ants at a picnic. No lie! It was fascinating, but Vegas is a people watching place anyway. And as one traveler pointed out, night is when the freaks come out. LOLOL Truth. 

Back in our room it was lights out. I mean, we'd had a long, hard day, right? We had to regroup for our last long, hard day by the pool. But wait, before I go any further I have to talk about the framed photographs in our room. It's a series of four images all framed together but the only common denominator we can assume is that they're all musicians that have stayed at the hotel. Still, I just couldn't understand why anyone would take these images, much less think they were worthy of framing in a public place!! What? See for yourself. 

Friday

Breakfast at Mr. Lucky's again. Bob had oatmeal and I got the yogurt parfait. Both were good and lasted us longer than we thought it would. Our chairs in the shade were empty so we planted. Keeping well hydrated (before we ordered our first adult beverage of the day) we killed a $5 bottle of water. I wasn't feeling the beer today so actually caved and ordered one of the 32 oz Mojitos. It was good, but I'm not sure it was that good. Anyway. When in Rome, right?

I will have to say I thought three days was plenty to chill by the pool. I told Bob yesterday that three days was perfect, that I couldn't do more than that. Half-way though the day I knew I had been wrong. We were so much more relaxed today. Surprisingly, the day flew by. Part of me was excited about that because we were going to see Kenny at the end of the day, but the other part of me was a bit sad because it was coming to a close. It reaffirmed what we've said in the past about vacations. It takes a good three days to get in the mode and start letting things go to truly relax. 

But there was something we had to do before leaving. We had to go check out the other pools. In order to do that we had to get wristbands. Those pools don't open until 11:00 so that's why we hadn't gone there before. Getting wristbands ended up being a total PITA (pain in the ass). But we did it. And finally made it to the big party pool. Oh my. It was huge. And loud. And they weren't playing country. Or rock. Or pop. Or anything worth listening to. And the people. OMG. Definitely the party pool. It was like a flippin' frat party. Reminded us of Pittsburgh all over again. Needless to say, we didn't stay too long. It's just not our scene. 

We found ourselves at Culinary Dropout for dinner. The hummus was recommended and it was really good. Since I make my own hummus, I'm pretty hard on finding it elsewhere. This was good. We both got salads that were also very good. Should we find ourselves back at the Hard Rock in the future, we'll definitely eat here again. 

Finally, it was time to make our way to The Joint for Kenny!!! For a Kenny show, it's a small place. We were kind of in the back of the bus as Bob likes to say and we still had good seats (although Bob says we'll get sandbar next time - hehehe). I've journaled about Kenny so many times. He's always awesome and tonight was no exception. The boy was on point and seemed to be having a ball. He rolled! There was more jamming this show than we've seen in the past and Kenny was more into the fans tonight than we've seen in a while. I guess the smaller venue allowed more of that, although he has a sandbar wherever he goes. The surprise tonight was Uncle Kracker showing up! They did "When The Sun Goes Down" together and a couple of Kracker's songs. Of course it was over way too fast. We were hoping for a longer show but sadly 1 hour 40 minutes was it. I was hoping he'd have some shirts with Vegas on them but there weren't, so we left without buying anything. 

It was time to pack our stuff up and crawl into bed. We had to catch the 7:10am shuttle to the airport. 

Saturday

Crossing our fingers the trip home is much less eventful than the trip out. I'm grateful to say it was. There were no hiccups whatsoever. We were home around 8:30. It's so excited to go on vacation, but it also so nice to come home.