Lazy day

last night we had dinner at the peppermill lounge in las vegas. we discovered it last time we were in vegas, and liked it, so we just went again... :) although i have never seen such a restaurant in the us before, i think its very american. big booths with pluche seats, a large table, and lots of neonlights everywhere. and the portions? crazy, crazy big. even for american standards. i had a salad and tim a starter; half or so was lunch for today... nice! i had a margarita and tim a gin tonic, hmmmm...

today we didnt do too much, compared to the days before. as i read in the comments, it must be quite a cultureshock... well, yes. but, unexpectly, its a welcome one! we saw so much, we had a natural beauty-overload.... and..  we are staying at the trump hotel, which is so very luxurious, and... we dont have to pay! the room is enormous, and the bathroom is crazy big too, with a huge jacuzzi. the bathrobes are very nice too :) so much luxury (i never saw so many towels in a hotelroom, there are 2 sinks and there is a tv in the huge mirror above it, for whatever reason...), it feels a little weird, and wasteful, but nice at the same time. only thing i dont like is that there is only valetparking, so everytime you need your car they get it for you... thats actually how we got the 2 free nights (and is the reason we are here again); we stayed in this hotel in may last year (through some discount site, ofcourse, its far too expensive for us!), and then the valet made a scratch on our rental car (luckily we had insurance), but the hotel really didnt handle it well while we were here and never admitted that it happened while they handled the car... so eventually they just gave us 2 free nights....

anyways, we did some laps in the fancy outdoor pool, went to the shopping outlet center (booooring), drove to the desert and took numerous pictures, and the day was over again. tomorrow we go back to boston, where its supposed to be quite cold!

Last park....

i think today we visited our last park for this trip. we drove to zion national park, an hour or so from where we stayed for the night. another 25 dollars park fee (just like grand canyon, but you can actually also buy a pass for 80 dollars, which will grant you access for 1 year to all national parks... somehow we didnt do that...). and yet again; it was so pretty! and the scenery was so different once again! to me the mountains looked really delicate, like silk or something; but yet again it was hard to photograph... :) it was great to walk around, however. the weather was perfect too; not hot (as would be in summer), and not cold, as it was very sunny. we needed coats and so on, but we had lunch outside. unfortunately many of the hiking trails were closed (some halfway, so we had to turn around), due ice on the paths.

in 1909 this park was named mukuntuweap national monument, but in 1917 the visiting director renamed it zion, as mukuntuweap was very unpopular (now i just wonder why he named it zion, but im too tired to figure it out tonight).

and now, we both have had a bit of an overload of natural beauty. i didnt know it was possible, but we both have seen so much, that it is actually enough for now... :) and so... this evening we gained another hour as we are in the pacific time zone. to be specific; las vegas, nevada! in the city itself we dont have to fear for natural beauty, thats for sure... ;) we are here to cash in the 2 free nights we still had at the trump hotel... we are in a very fancy room, at the 40th floor, and it might be that tomorrow we will just do nothing.... 

(this evening we went to see django unchained from tarantino. it started out great, showing a lot of the wilderness we saw for ourselves the past days, but somewhere halfway it started to become really weird and bloody and now im still not sure whether i liked it or not. lets sleep on it.... good night!)