No, this is not a whole new journal thing, well technically it is, but I'm starting where I left off from my last one. So anyways, I just got back from my 2 vacation, which consisted of: 2 days in totaly in Las Vegas, Nevada; 7 days in Palm Springs, California; and 5 days in St. George, Utah; and then a half day in Las Vegas, Nevada again.

   I guess I'll start off explaining the first day we got into Las Vegas. Our flight came in on time...thank god. 2 hours of being in a plane is enough for me, although I've endured a 16 hour flight before. The airport smelled so bad and it was way too loud for me. I offically hate the sound of slot machines as of right now.
   We got to our hotel - The Tuscany (Tuskany? whatever) Hotel/Casino - which was a relatively new place to the strip. We would have enjoyed our stay more if the service has been better. They didn't provide enough towels for the 4 of us, and we called them and asked for more and didnt get any until 2AM in the morning...which wasn't right. Room service should not be knocking on your door that late at night... aside from that it was a pretty nice place. We ended up walking all around vegas that first day. Went on the rollercoaster at New York, New York; ate at Nathan's Hot Dogs - which is funny because I work at a Nathan's Hot Dog Stand/place kind of thing. (lovely description isnt it?).
   The next day we went to circus circus and did all the rides and stuff and looked forward to a car drive that consisted of a 4 hours to our next stop - Palm Springs/Desert. We stayed at the Marriot Palm Desert Villas. Those condos were so nice! Better looking than our house. I was amazed. If your not rich, let me tell you, palm springs is not the best place to vacation. I couldn't afford anything in any of the shops on El Paseo (its a mock up of Rodeo Dr in Beverly Hills) - but I did however find a nice outfit at a store called Rampage in Kalazoo or something of that name outside of Palm Srpings. We also saw Seabiscuit at the Rancho 16 movie theater (they have 16 movie screens...and the funny/stupid thing was they had that dumbass spy-kids 3d movie playing on 3 of them! wtf? who is going to go see that movie there?) Anyways. It was here in Palm Springs that I decided I'd rack up the dinero and use my instant messaging on my phone because we did absolutely nothing but lay out by the pool, swim, and tan - well with the exception of going to Joshua Tree National Park, The Tram, and seeing a few old school moviestar homes - we did nothing.
   7 days later, we packed up and headed back to vegas (4 hour drive keep in mind). There in vegas we stayed at the MGM Grand. Saw a hilarous improv comedy act known as Second City - which by the way I recommend you ALL GO SEE if you are ever at the flamingo in vegas. Once we got back to our room after the show my friend and I decided to walk around while my parents went out on the strip for awhile. They came back with $500 my dad had one on a sucker bet or something like that. Whatever it was, it was $500 more we had to spend on vacation =) Any won money is good. We also won $180 earlier that day before we saw Second City, which pretty much payed for the show and our dinner.
   Back in the car the day after staying at MGM Grand, we were on our way to our 5 day stay at the very dull city of St. George, Utah; which literally only offers 3 tourist attractions that take 3 hours to get to ... Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, and The Grand Canyon/National Park. Since my parents are nature freaks we went to all 3. The only two things we did I actually enjoyed were going to The Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, except I sprained my ankle at Bryce. It was worth it though.
   During our stay at St. George we met this really cool guy named Cody Merit (Merit was his last night I *think*) from Hickville, Idaho - but he wasnt a hick! Don't be fooled. He was actually a really funny guy who ended up talking to us for 3 hours the night before we left. We also met a guy from San Diego, California named Josh - he was a surfer...it was interesting talking to him, but he was also really funny.
   The only thing I could think about on Saturday was holy crap I'm so glad we are going home. Except I didnt really want to leave because of work, but I think I was starting to get a little home sick. Oh yea, while we were in vegas we got henna tatoos, but anyways. So from St. George we went back to Vegas and walked around for awhile, my dad won about $100 more dollars. Oh, we went to the Rio also. The Rio is one of my favorite places in Vegas because its the home of those sexy dancers...haha Chippendales..aghh good god. We kept hoping we'd see them at the Rio's little marde gras thing they hold every hour, except the Chippendales dancers only come out after 9, so we lucked out on that one. I've been promised by my mom that I will get to see them when I'm 21 because she's taking me there. (grrreat). 
   That concludes my lovely 2 week adventure...some of the stuff I left out, but for the most part, that was my summer vacation experience. I'm back home now, and sick of the cold weather here in Oregon... I miss those days where it was 105 - 110 degree's outside!

-Sarah