Hello Vegas, Goodbye Vegas

We made our way south toward Furnace Creek, made a quick stop for some pricey gas (I guess $4.89 a gallon is still better than running out of gas in the desert), and checked out the gift shop before making our way toward the park exit.

We did manage to squeeze in one last scenic stop before we left Death Valley - Zabriskie Point. It was an easy walk to the overlook and had a really cool view. We spent a few minutes checking out the view before hopping back in the car. Time to head back to Vegas!

The drive went by fairly fast, with a quick stop at a carwash along the way to clean off the rental car since it was covered in sand from the night before. Mark really wanted to check out In-N-Out for burgers since he had heard that they were good, so we stopped there for lunch. People were right...they were good.  :)

We made it back to Vegas, checked into Bellagio, and grabbed quick showers so we could go explore. It was our last night before going home, so we wanted to make the most of it. We had to make our way over to Treasure Island, since we had tickets to see Mystere (one of the Cirque du Soleil shows), but we decided to try our luck on some video roulette first...and each won $2! We decided to quit while we were ahead and cashed out.

Bellagio has a whole section of high end designer stores, so I did some window shopping on the way out. Window shopping accidentally turned into actual shopping. Oops. This bag cost more than my first car, but my only regret is not buying one sooner. I love it!

We walked over to Treasure Island for Mystere. I liked it, especially the parts where people were doing crazy flipping stuff, but I think it may have been a little too trippy for Mark. After the show, we took the tram over to Mirage and had a fancy dinner at Stack.

We walked out of Mirage just as the fire show was wrapping up. There were really loud drums and big explosions and jets of fire...it was pretty neat. We watched the end of it all, then walked back to Bellagio.

The fountain show was pretty neat!  :)

There is a Chihuly glass ceiling in Bellagio. Very cool! We wandered around a bit more, played a little more video roulette (and won again!), then made our way back to the room and passed out in the ridiculously comfy bed.

I didn't want to leave the next day, but since I probably couldn't afford to stay in Vegas much longer with how expensive everything was, it was time to head home. We grabbed breakfast in a little cafe in the casino, gambled one last time (and lost...I ended the trip up a single dollar), then packed up our bags and checked out.

Bye, Vegas! I'll definitely be back someday.   :)

The scenery on the way home was pretty neat. At one point, I think we flew over part of the Grand Canyon.

Eventually the desert gave way to mountains, then the clouds filled in below and the view was gone. We made it back to Baltimore just fine, grabbed dinner at the Silver Diner in the terminal to pass time until traffic died down, then drove back home. Overall, it was a fantastic trip...Vegas was great, Death Valley was great, and I can't wait to go back to both of them again!