Las Vegas, April 2025

Travel

4/1/2025-4/6/2025

Sophie picked Courtney and I up at work in the afternoon and drove us to the airport where, after a pre flight beer, we had a long flight to Vegas getting there at 10:00PM where Thomas picked us up and drove us to their house.
The next day we drove Grace to work, borrowed her car and went out to breakfast downtown at a place called Winnie and Ethel’s diner that sounded interesting. It was a good choice. I had these evil deep fried french toast above and Courtney had a full southern breakfast with grits and biscuits with sausage gravy. Good stuff.
After breakfast we drove a few blocks to this little coffee spot to buy some coffee as it is what they served at the breakfast spot and it was delicious. We did a bit of shopping and then drove back toward the strip to meet Grace for lunch.
After walking around the strip for just a bit we met Grace at the Aria for some Din Thai Fung. Can’t not go there. Can’t not get the cucumber salad.
We had a delicious meal getting all our favorites. The Xiao Long Bao are still my favorite though.
After our long leisurely lunch we drove back to Grace and TJ’s house. They moved into their new house just a few weeks ago. Their house is super nice – especially their back yard with great patios, pool and hot tub.
The next day Grace dropped us off at the car rental and we drove to Zion National Park for the day. It was an easy 2 1/2 hour drive through beautiful scenery in Nevada, Arizona and Utah.
We got to Zion around lunch time. We were staying at the NP lodge for the night so we dropped off our car and put on our hiking books and hit the trails.
Happy to be back in beautiful Zion.
We started at the grottoes and did the west rim trail up to scout overlook. It was a very difficult hike. Up. Up. Up. But we stuck in there and made it.
The trail ended at the start of Angels Landing which we will do in some other lifetime. It looks super scary.
One of the many switchbacks going up – and back down.
Amazing scenery everywhere.
Pictures don’t do it justice.
It took us about 3 1/2 hours and we were very happy to make it back for a post hike beer.
We stayed at the lodge in the middle of the park in this cute little cabin.
Nice and cozy.
The next morning after breakfast in the lodge we did the Sand Bench Trail that several people reccomended.
We had the trail to ourselves mostly.
A group on horseback passing us by.
We overdressed as it was chilly in the morning but it quickly warmed up as the sun came out.
This trail was so different than the previous one going through many different terrains. So amazing.
Heading back down through the sand.
We drove back to Vegas in the afternoon meeting Grace and Thomas who just finished work. We dropped the rental car off and went to get some ice cream at a custard place we like that was in a local casino by their house. We went out to dinner at a local bar w TJs Mom that night.
Our last day we spent the whole day lounging in the sun by the pool while Thomas smoked some chickens.
Love the blue skies.

We watched NCAA playoffs from the hot tub and had a nice dinner. We headed off to the airport around 8:00 to catch the red eye back to CLE which was uneventful – but sucked as it always does. Another nice trip to Vegas – can’t wait until our next one when baby Ealy will be here.

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