Waiting at the Las Vegas airport to go home.

I’ve been watching people play at the slot machines. Our business partners haven’t arrived yet. I was betting that they get here around 5. Our flight takes off around 12, midnight. Now it looks like they’re going to be super last minute. It’s 10:06 now. We were kidding that they arrive late with ice cream and riding the emergency cart.
We spent 3 nights in Big Water and talked with Vicki and Henry every night about the motel or them telling us unbelievable stories. It was sad leaving them this morning. We had a good time with them.

We didn’t make it to the Wave for the third time. This time it snowed too heavily and the road was impassible. We drove to the gate on Houserock Valley Road and we probably could have drove the rest of the way since we had a 4×4 vehicle. The problem was that there would be too much snow on the Wave to take pictures. We got rain checks to use in July if Andre’s parents visit. Instead we had to find other stuff to see, like Toadstool Hoodoo, Horseshoe Bend, Wahweap Creek and that’s about it around Big Water. In Zion we hiked twice to the Canyon Overlook. The second time was better because I didn’t get my boots wet and I built a snow hoodoo. Plus we used our yaktrax sice it was below freezing and everything was slick. Toadstool was fun. We also hiked twice to it and saw some mountain lion prints in the snow and mud. When we hear people seeing lion tracks on a trail, they always say they turn back. We always keep walking.

We stopped in Springdale outside of Zion to look for gifts and I ended up buying myself an ammonite necklace and a handmade bracelet. The ammonite necklace is unique and it’s the most expensive piece of jewelry I’ve ever bought. It’s polished and about the size of two fingertips.

We’re finally boarding now and will soon be back in Fort Lauderdale. Andre has to go to work tomorrow and as soon as we land he has to get ready. I don’t see how he can do it, but he planned the flight like that.
This was one of the best vacations I’ve had in a long time, I even enjoyed hiking in 21 degree weather.

We’re staying overnight in Kanab, Utah.

We drove earlier out to Pink Sand Dunes and it was sleeting, but we saw more deer running around and heard some coyotes howling in the distance. We came from Las Vegas after attending the affiliate convention. So much information and worth every penny of our money. Everyone is excited (again) about the company. It was fun and educational. One of our partners was complaining one night that she was too shy to talk to these people when after her husband brought in her bag and dumped all of the promo items she had collected from the booths. It was too funny.

So there is snow here right now and I hear it melting from the roof of our room. I’m about to try out my snow pants and see how warm they actually keep me.

We arrived an hour late and caught the tri-rail shuttle to the train station.

At home it stunk because one of our friends didn’t know to clean out the urine in the cats’ litter boxes. I quickly cleaned them and lit incense to help.

We all unpacked quickly and headed for the beach. It was great and the water was nice. We got home around 5pm.

Andre didn’t have to go back to work til Tuesday. So he and Christoph went to the beach again on Wednesday. On Thursday Christoph rode the bike around Hollywood Beach. Then on Friday he took my car to shop at Sawgrass Mills Mall. At first my car wouldn’t start but it was because it hadn’t been driven in a while.
I dropped Christoph off at the train station to leave for Germany. When I returned home, I cleaned and played with the cats. The house was quiet.

Last day of vacation. I don’t want to leave.

I was seriously thinking of buying a house in Big Water, Utah.

We drove back to Las Vegas an stopped at Dante’s View. At least no buses would be there because the road is too narrow and steep. The weather was nice and in the lower 70s. I overheard some Germans talk about the movie 21.

In Vegas, we parked at the Venetian to do a little sightseeing for Christoph. The Venetian is nice and Andre and Christoph took pictures of the gondolas. Next was Encore but it wasn’t so great. We went to Caesars Palace to wait for the 7pm show at Treasure Island. I went into the Energie store and found some cute clothes. I didn’t look at the price tags. I also found a very nice dress at another store, but didn’t look at the price tag either. I didn’t buy anything, this was all window shopping


We walked to see the TI show but it got canceled. So we raced to the Mirage but it was already too late.

We found a Home Depot to return our shovel we bought for Coyote Buttes. We never used it. We bought it in case we got stuck in the sand. Then we ate at Jack-in-the-Box, which was a mistake. We haven’t eaten any fast-food while on the trip and we ate there for fun so Christoph would have the experience. American fast-food is soft, greasy and disgusting. I took out my chicken patty at the end and just ate the “bread” with the little lettuce that there was.

We parked our luggage behind the Jack-in-the-Box, because we were about to return the rental jeep. We were joking that the jeep would probably fall apart as soon as we return it.

The flight was awful leaving at 11pm. I couldn’t sleep and didn’t want the vacation to end.

We all wake up early to watch the sunrise

at Sunset Point and it’s already crowded there with several cars, but no buses yet. I stayed in the car with my sleeping bag and ate some of the banana bread I bought at the bakery near our hotel last night. After that I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t get comfortable. So I watched the sun rise over Bryce Canyon from the car. (American style – I’ve been to Bryce more times than I can count.) By then, it wasn’t cold anymore and there wasn’t as much wind. Andre and Christoph came back and we all got ready to hike the Navajo Trail. It’s onethe of the easy and popular trails in Bryce Canyon. But as we started our hike a bus pulled up, but they only went tot he lookout and not the trial. We started on the north side to leave Wall Street at the end. We started around 9 and finished around 9:30 – 9:45. It was a very short hike compared to what we have been hiking. At the end in Wall Street was where everyone was at. People were just hiking down into this part and then hiking back up again.

We headed back to the hotel to check out and Andre almost runs into the car in front of us. They weren’t using their blinker and they stopped suddenly to only see a deer.

Now we loaded up the car for a 6-hour drive to Death Valley. Of course, we’re going through Las Vegas and stopping by Whole Foods to pick up beer, bread, fruits, chips, and soda. We knew we weren’t eating at Death Valley. The food at the restaurants is from the freezer and it’s too expensive.

We arrived at Death Valley just in time for the sunset. We stopped by the Ashford Mill ruins, Devil’s Golf Course, Bad Water, and then through Artists Drive, where we started having car trouble. The car didn’t crank at first and we though it was the battery. We then drove straight to our hotel at Stove Pipe Wells. Andre left the car running while he checked in. We ere worried about driving in Titus Canyon tomorrow.

We decided to jump into the pool as soon as we brought in our luggage into the room. The water wasn’t as cold as I remembered from last time and I believe I was the only American there. I left early, because I was starting to get hungry.

For dinner, I decided just to eat some cold stuff, like a banana, carrots, apple save, some bread, because the heat was too much for to eat soup for dinner.

When Andre and Christoph returned, I was watching some show on Discovery about this guy surviving in the woods of Alabama in the winter time. He showed how to set a trap for deer and wrestled a wild pig for dinner. He looked for food in a nearby cave, which he said Alabama has the most concentration of caves in the world. He made a torch from a strip of his shirt and soaked it in the pig fat. A little ways into the cave and he had to explore a drop-off. He fell in the underground river and his torch went out. He got out by using lint and the camera’s light. He then talks about how to survive a forest fire and runs through a controlled fire out of the woods and onto a logging truck. (I’m originally from Alabama, so it was quite interesting to watch this show.)

After that I quickly fell asleep.