Mystery Trip 2015: Viva Las Vegas

As a milestone birthday loomed for me, A offered to plan our first vacation for 2015 all on his own and keep it a surprise. Mystery Trip 2015 was born. I knew literally nothing about this trip until my actual birthday (about two weeks before we were to head out). At that time, A gave me the most complicated puzzle to solve in order to determine where we were going. For those of you who remember the Student Honors Organization (SHO) at UF, dig in your memories to find some epic scavenger hunts. A helped write those puzzles, which were difficult. This puzzle was even harder. But I set my mind to it and with a few hints, found out we were going to the Seattle area!

Wait. No.

But the first clue to the puzzle said "Even when you're right, you'll be wrong." Turns out we were headed to Las Vegas!

But only for a weekend.

After that, the rest of the week was still a mystery which would be revealed day-by-day.

Let's start at the beginning: Viva Las Vegas!

We flew into Vegas early on the most epic of Pi Days (3/14/15) and hit the ground running. It was too early to check in to our hotel, the Monte Carlo, so we took a long walk up the Strip, checking out the resorts. It's definitely like an adult version of Disney World. At Circus Circus, we watched an acrobat show.

One of my friends in Chicago happened to be in Vegas the same weekend, so we met up for lunch at Guy Fieri's restaurant at The Linq. 

That night we saw the Cirque du Soleil show Ka, followed by dinner at L'atelier de Joel Robuchon, a delicious Michelin-starred French restaurant. It was another show in itself as we were able to watch the chefs work their magic. I don't want to give too much away about Ka, but it was amazing. There were times my palms were sweaty just watching the crazy stunts. (It didn't help when A told me there had been a death during this show's run!)

The next day, we had brunch at Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris hotel, then caught a taxi to downtown Las Vegas to take a tour of the Neon Museum. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Las Vegas. They rescue old neon signs, many of which are iconic to Vegas. 

After the museum, we headed back to the Strip to do all those things expected of tourists. We took a ride in a gondola at The Venetian.

Saw the volcano erupt at The Mirage.

Watched the fountains dance at The Bellagio.

I also rode the roller coaster at New York, New York (A opted out).

That night we saw Penn & Teller - amazing magic tricks! We don't know how they did most of them (though we have some theories on a few). After the show, we strolled down the Strip, taking in the bright lights.

The next day we rented a car and drove into the desert. I wasn't sure where we were going. Around a bend, we saw these bright orange rocks.

It was the Valley of Fire State Park. Perfectly named based on the beautiful colors of the landscape.

We can't resist a good warning sign in a park. Especially when people blatantly ignore it. (Side note: Recently, part of a cliff at Point Reyes in San Francisco sheared off and a woman died. The park officials had closed the area due to fissures, but she and another hiker ignored the signs. The warnings are there to help you - take them to heart.)

This was marked as a photo spot (as opposed to... anywhere else in the park?), so of course we took one. We're good at following directions (sometimes).

A couple trails took us past petroglyphs. Experts can only guess at what they mean.

We took a trail to Elephant Rock and kept wondering where it was. Walked around a bend and oh yeah, there it is!

After a full day of hiking, we drove back through Vegas and stopped downtown to check out the older casinos on Fremont Street.

We found a taco joint nearby for dinner which ended up being in an open-air mall created from old shipping containers. At the entrance, there was a giant praying mantis sculpture on top of a van. As we walked by, its antennae suddenly shot fire! Turns out there was a person inside controlling the fire and music and he loved to make passersby jump. The sculpture was used in Burning Man.

Next Up: Dam, that's cool!