Road Trip
After my Ft. Lauderdale trip, I didn't have much time to get settled down again. The day after I got back from ESA I worked all day grading the final exams and then getting the grades together for the class that I helped teach. Then we headed out to Sin City. There was construction on the freeway and what normally takes 3.5 to 4 hours took us almost 6 i think. We finally got there and checked in and headed to eat dinner at the Buffet in the Aladdin. We waited another good amount of time in line and then just gorged ourselves silly. There was just so much good food and I just kept eating. Afterwards I felt so full that I felt sick hehe. My mom asked if I wanted to head down to the tables with her and I decided it would probably be some fun and I knew that my mom wanted to play. We ended up at a $10 BJ table with just the two of us at first. Somehow I got a string of fairly good cards and found myself up. I stopped playing after being up about $45. :)
The next day we went to the outlet up near the downtown area and then headed towards Death Valley. We stopped at Scotty's Castle (aka Death Valley Ranch) which is tucked up in the northeast corner of the national park. It's a spanish style mansion built for a insuranceman from Chicago in the early 20th century. He was an enginner by training and so he incorporated many innovations into the house. After that we headed through the park and into Lone Pine. We had pizza for dinner, which was quite a change of pace. The next day we went up to the Alabama Hills (just below Mt. Whitney) and hunted down these stone arches that are found there. Then we went on a short hike along this trail near the whitney portal.
Finally we headed back towards So Cal. I did all the driving on this last day and ended up driving like 6 hours total. Some of the frustrations of the road include the stupid trucks and cars that don't pull over when there are like more than 5 cars trailing right behind them.
The next day we went to the outlet up near the downtown area and then headed towards Death Valley. We stopped at Scotty's Castle (aka Death Valley Ranch) which is tucked up in the northeast corner of the national park. It's a spanish style mansion built for a insuranceman from Chicago in the early 20th century. He was an enginner by training and so he incorporated many innovations into the house. After that we headed through the park and into Lone Pine. We had pizza for dinner, which was quite a change of pace. The next day we went up to the Alabama Hills (just below Mt. Whitney) and hunted down these stone arches that are found there. Then we went on a short hike along this trail near the whitney portal.
Finally we headed back towards So Cal. I did all the driving on this last day and ended up driving like 6 hours total. Some of the frustrations of the road include the stupid trucks and cars that don't pull over when there are like more than 5 cars trailing right behind them.