The vacation in Vacation Races!

To make my first Vacation Races a lot of fun, I took Nathan and Camden with me!  We flew into Las Vegas and the boys were super excited to head to Vegas Baby!!  Our night in Vegas was the first night in which hotels were open again after quarantine, so I figured the rooms would be nice and clean!  We booked our night at the Paris hotel, but were moved to Caesars Palace!  I was fine with that!  

Caesar's Palace is an enormous hotel with lots of restaurants and shopping on its property.  Not everything was open, but it still had a lot of cool things to see.  One thing I was especially thankful for was that Vegas was not totally open.  There is a reason it is called sin city and we saw advertisements for shows that I was glad weren't happening!

But we did have fun looking at all the hotels, eating at Wahlburgers and seeing the Bellagio Fountains.  That was the only thing I have ever wanted to see in Vegas and was glad they were performing! 

Inside the Bellagio

 

Bellagio Fountain

Our hotel room was very luxurious and we were able to find a divine Italian restaurant for our Thursday night dinner.  One thing that I noted was how hot it was and how thirsty I was all the time.    

The view from our room

Dinner time!

Friday morning we left for Utah after a dip in the cold waters of the pool at Caesars.  We had been ready to swim the night before after walking around all day, but the pool closed at 6.  

On our drive to Utah, we saw a sign for the Valley of Fire.  Not knowing what it was, we drove into the state park and were very happy we did! We climbed on the red rocks and went for a short hike through the sandy desert.  It was different from any place I have ever been.  Another hot place and there was no water around.  I am used to waterfalls when hiking!  

The red rock formations

Views from our hike

We arrived in Springdale, UT on Friday night and then got up super early to get a parking spot in Zion National Park.  We weren't able to get near the Narrows hike, but we were able to hike to the Emerald Pools.  It was another group of mountains that were so different from what we have in the east.   

Zion is a beautiful place!  A great example of God's handiwork!  Between looking up at the mountains and looking around at the deer who were very tame and walked right near you, we had a great time at the park.  And that night I ran the half!  It was a great weekend of spending time with my boys and enjoying the great outdoors.  So thankful to be able to visit and run in Utah!