Day 15: Viva Las Vegas

We woke up around 11 a.m. It was so nice to sleep in and not have to get up and get in the car! We got ready and took the dogs outside for a walk. Walking the dogs to their 'potty area' outside of the hotel, we had to walk through the casino. I can't tell you how many people "awed" at our pups. Everyone seemed to be amazed by them--like they've never seen dogs before.

Billie would turn his head at the machines when they'd make noise, and overtime we'd walk by this cafe, he'd try to pull me in there. He really wanted some food!

We had lunch at the Tequila Bar in Bally's hotel and casino (which is connected to Paris Hotel), where we ordered the biggest plate of nachos. It was $16, but we split it. We didn't even scratch the surface of the plate. These were some TEXAS size nachos (I know all my Alaska buddies will roll their eyes at that comment). We gambled at Bally's  where we had no luck and then walked to Planet Hollywood, and gambled a bit there (again, no luck!). We just walked around seeing what all Vegas had to offer.

We went back to the hotel to check on the pups, and Klay took a nap (it was already 6 p.m.). Since he fell asleep, so did I. We woke up around 8:30 p.m. and headed out again. We walked over to the Bellagio to watch the famous fountain. That was pretty cool. Of course, we saw it shoot up the night before, but we didn't actually watch the entire thing.

We walked all the way down to MGM (gambled a bit; again, won nothing) and New York, New York, which was pretty cool. We ate and by the time we left, it was already past midnight, so we headed back toward the hotel.

One thing that was sort of annoying are the people on the corners of the street trying to hand men cards with the number for escorts on there. These people are everywhere handing out these cards and there are at least five of them on each corner. That sort of gets old.


But overall Vegas at night is a sight to see. It's seriously a town that never sleeps. I'm amazed at how many people are there and work at all hours of the night. I don't know how they do it.

Klay and I enjoyed our last night walking around and taking in Vegas. We actually got to spend some quality time together, laughing and enjoying each other.

For some reason, Klay thinks it's funny to talk in different accents to people. So, he definitely kept me amused!

We got back to the room past 1 a.m., took showers (have to get that smoke-smell off!)  and then went to bed. Off to the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and stay up-to-date "From the Road…" for more details from our trip! It's not over yet! =)

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Day 10: San Francisco & Carmel, CA

I can't believe we've been on this trip for 10 days! Sorry had to get that out!

Ok, so last night, I had a migraine (hence the short and probably boring post for day 9). I tend to get migraines a lot, so it wasn't much of a surprise (and no, I don't think it was the wine!). On top of that, ever since we left Anchorage my eye has been bothering me. My tear duct is swollen and hurts and tears pour out of it from time to time. Everyone probably thinks I'm crying! For a couple of days it stopped bothering me, so I figured I wouldn't worry. But after staying in the horrible hotel that smelled like gas and nursing home mixed together, it started acting up again.

It's worse today and we tried to go to an eye doctor, but they didn't have any appointments til 3:30 p.m. so we couldn't wait that long. Hopefully, I'll be able to get in somewhere tomorrow. Therefore, the day was off to a rough start. We did get some really great sleep though! FINALLY!

We embarked on our journey to San Francisco (SF), which was only about a little over an hour. We crossed into SF on the Golden Gate Bridge! That was pretty cool to finally see it! We didn't know you had to pay a $6 toll while traveling south on hwy 101.



Alcatraz is right across from the Golden Gate Bridge. We wished we would have been able to take a tour over to it or by it to get a more 'up close' look at it. Of course, we weren't surprised how many people there were in SF. People were walking, jogging, kiting, sailing and out and about walking all around the city. From our experience, MOST of these people are begging to get hit by cars! They walk and run out in front of cars expecting everyone to stop no matter what. So, that was a bit frustrating. And there were a couple of them that if I were driving, I might have 'accidentally' hit the gas to scare them a bit. Ok, I'm kidding, I'd never do that! But it does cross your mind!

It was so windy outside in San Fran. Both of us wore jackets, and my hair was going nuts. So, these pics aren't really the best!



We'd read about SF having the crookedest street in the world and took a drive down it. It was crazy curvy (5 mph was the speed limit), and of course, it made me nervous! (I didn't take this pic; pulled it from the net so you could see!). I videoed this, but it was sort of long and internet is slow at our hotel, so I'll upload later!



We stopped off at Fishermans Wharf and Pier 39 to walk around and do some shopping.



This is where the most unexpected thing happened. I'd joked earlier, while on the phone with my grandparents, that Klay gets hit on by gay guys a lot (because he has; he's a handsome guy so I don't blame them).

So, Klay and I were walking down the street holding hands, surrounded by people in Fishermans Wharf, when a girl walked passing us. While looking at me she said, "Hey sweetie," and said something else that at first we didn't quite catch. I just kept looking at her when we passed because I didn't really process it all at the moment.  We continued walking and Klay said, "What did she say?" And then it registered in my head (ding! ding! ding!), as I said to him, "She said, 'Hey sweetie... would you like another sweetie?'"

Klay said, "And you thought I would be the one that would get hit on!"

So that was an unexpected part of the day! After that experience, we continued walking and saw a bum (I tried to take a pic) with a sign that said "Why lie? I need a beer." At least he was telling the truth!

After we had both of those encounters in SF, we decided to head to the car. The dogs were in there waiting for us! It was time to go check on them. They seemed to be amused by San Francisco--both of them stared out the window the entire time.

We left SF heading toward Santa Barbara trying to find a place to stay. We ended up being in traffic for about 2 hours (it wasn't that bad because it was moving, but just slowly. So, that set us back. We went through Monterey to Carmel where we are staying tonight.

Santa Barbara is on our list for tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a nice day to wine, dine and spend time at the beach!

Keep reading "From the Road..." every night, new blogs/photos/videos.

Carmel on Dwellable

Day 3: British Columbia & Cassiar Hwy

Day 3 was interesting for us. Westmark hotel was great, so we started the day bright and early. We wanted to get to Bell 2 Lodge, and that was our original plan, but when I called this morning, their cheapest room was $230--with taxes and extra fees for pets. So instead, we decided to go as far as we could and see what happens.

We saw some more swans (they're funny to watch in the water) and while driving, Klay almost murdered a squirrel running across the road and a bird who just stood in the middle of the highway like he was committing suicide. But thankfully, we all came out alive.

That was about as exciting as the wildlife got for us--besides Klay seeing a wild ferret. But we finally made it to Cassiar Hwy and it was a beautiful drive. It was pretty warm out, sunny and snowing--a combination I've never seen before. It was beautiful.

We had our first "gas scare" today. When we left Whitehorse, we filled up our tank (like $84) and headed toward Cassiar. The first gas stations on the Cassiar were closed and by that point we had maybe a half tank left. Then, a sign said "Check Gas. Next Gas 100 km" (they go by kilometers), so we planned to stop there. Little did we know, that Good Hope Lake (the town 100 km away that's supposed to have gas) doesn't sell gas until May 1! Klay and I at that point started to get concerned. We had a 2 gallon gas can (which was full), and were running on empty in the car. The extra 2 gallons we had would get us to Dease Lake, the next closest town (that's also supposed to have gas), but if they were closed, we were screwed. Luckily, Dease Lake was open and running (what they call a "gas bar" aka gas station was also a grocery store for the small town).

It was about 4:30 p.m. when we got through Dease Lake, so we decided to keep on trucking forward. We passed Bell 2 Lodge, actually we stopped and got gas there, and it was a beautiful place! I wanted to stay, but I still wanted to see how far we could get.

After another 4 hours in the car, we had our first 'night drive' which was scary--at least it was for me. It made me nervous and took way longer to get to Smithers than planned.

After 14 hrs and crossing one lane bridges over rivers at dusk, it was time to find a hotel and get some sleep.

So here we are...at Hudson Bay Lodge in Smithers, BC and I'm on the computer blogging! This is probably my only means of communication for a while--other than Facebook. I know my Mom will want to know what's happening. So, Mom--we're ok. The dogs are great, Stretch found new spots to lay at in the car (see pictures). It's beautiful here. Love you!

I need to go to sleep, if we're trying to get to Vancouver tomorrow. We'll see how that goes!

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