BIG CITIES, BIG ROCKS

Las Vegas! A place I never thought I wanted to go to or stay in for very long. But alas, my mind has been changed and I almost wish I had more time there. Brena's flight home left out of McCarran around 7am on Saturday morning so we decided we were going to drive from the Grand Canyon on Friday and spend the entire night out on the town, getting silly and dancing and then I'd drop her off at the airport in the morning. As we're driving down the strip, I wondered what hotel prices were like for some of these enormous structures lined up. In the end, we decided to get a hotel room for the night... for less than $100! On the strip! So now, what to do? Gamble? Eat at a buffet? See a show? Nope, none of those! We decided to zip line down Fremont Street. We ate at New York New York, right before all of the food places were closing. We walked. And walked. And walked. And nearly before we gave up on a finding a fun place to dance that didn't have a horrendous line, we heard something familiar. Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, NSYNC. Yes, it was the 90s that initially drew us in to a mostly outside bar/dance area. 4 hours of dancing later the bar closed and we got a ride home from a nice gentlemen who was going to school in Vegas, how's that for a distraction! An hour of sleep later and I dropped Brena off at the airport. Took a shower, grabbed a donut and headed out to Joshua Tree.

Joshua Tree was mainly a stop because it was on the path to Los Angeles but also cause I keep hearing about it. But really, it's a bunch of rocks out in the Mojave Desert. I climbed up and out onto some rocks to eat lunch and noticed a bunch of guys hopping around on the rocks. Having a ton of fun. Almost like parkour but with rocks. Also I don't know what parkour is so maybe it's just parkour.

I made my way on to LA. A little unimpressed I have to admit. I had previously been to Santa Monica and it was gorgeous and I loved it. Not so much for the Highland Park area of LA. Everything is so spread out. To get to places you have to drive an hour to see people you know. I took a hike up around the Hollywood sign, it's so small! I was also surprised at the amount of billboards for TV shows and movies there. Like shouldn't people in Hollywood already know about the new season of the Mindy Project or Captain America? I headed out to a beach. Another hour drive. I think LA would be a fun place for a group of close friends to live and hang out around. Maybe not so welcoming to a one person party.

Up next: Breakfast at Tartine Bakery (again!) and the forest! Specifically Mendocino National Forest #bigtrees

Pastries eaten in San Fran: 3

Wineries visited: 4