Las Vegas, Nevada

We decided last week to drive to Las Vegas to meet up with Finley, who was on vacation down there from the Bahamas.  We knew he was down there the March 18-23 and when we couldn't get ahold of him on the 18th we figured his phone didn't work in the U.S.  After trying calling, texting, facebooking him and his wife, we decided to just head to Vegas and we would find him!  We left around 4:00pm and reached Meadow, UT a few hours later and stopped by the hot springs again for a quick soak.  We met a couple here that had also sold their home and everything with it to build a boat and sail around.  She told us that after a few weeks off the coast of Oregon she couldn't handle it and so they spent the summer on the boat and the winter RVing the west coast and Mexico.  We are starting to realize that more people are up for the adventure and uncertainty that traveling the world brings than we thought.  Small world to meet a couple trying the same thing we are in a cow pasture in the middle of Utah!  The sun was still up when we were at the springs this time and we dove as deep as we could and still never touched bottom.  Back on the road and when we were just outside of Mesquite, NV we got a phone call from Finley.  We made plans to get together the next day and could tell he was very excited.  We spent the next day walking the strip seeing all the tourist sites and shops.  We met up with Finley and his wife to go to dinner and all they wanted was "Something they can't get in the Bahamas."  After deciding that everything that is in the U.S. is in the Bahamas as well we decided atmosphere was the one thing they couldn't get in the Bahamas.  We headed to Planet Hollywood in Caesars Palace.  It is a long walk from the parking garage through the casino and down the forum shops before we got to the place where Planet Hollywood used to be.  I asked around and found out it moved to the end of the forum shops probably another .25mile down.  We finally arrived at the much anticipated Planet Hollywood only to find out that it was closed for a "private party" for the night!  It was now 8:00pm and we were all starving and decided that the best option was the next closest restaurant was the best choice.  Cheesecake Factory here we come, of course it is at the opposite end of the forum shops.  We laughed all through dinner and loved the company.  After dinner we made it just in time for the last water show at the Bellagio.  Finley was hilarious during the show, he was filming himself in front of the fountains narrating the whole experience.  Talking the whole time about how you probably couldn't even see him because his skin is too dark, and he was right all it looked like in the video was a silhouette  of someone in front of the fountains.  This is something that he is always worried about when we are taking pictures.  He is constantly saying stand closer so the flash picked me up, or make sure the brightest flash is on and a few time he took it upon himself to use his flashlight to light him up! Finley has a personality that can't be explained, you just have to meet him to believe it.  A great example of this is the next day when we were standing in line to go through the Pawn Stars pawn shop he got a brilliant idea to faux autograph some papers he had in hand.  I played along and asked to get my picture taken with the one and only STILEETO, and before I knew it had a few tourists filming him asking for pictures and autographs.  We made his trip by treating him like a celebrity and laughed the the whole way home because of his crazy ideas.

Atlantic to Pacific

We have moved from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.  Crossed 19 states and managed to fit in a little bit of work all within 3 1/2 weeks.  The last few days have been very busy filled with Disneyland, the beach, and the pool.  We had a great beach day even though it wasn't your typical beach day.  It was overcast which is probably why we had the beach to ourselves.  As we were pulling into the beach we could see the dolphins swimming 50 yards off the shoreline.  We were trying to hurry down to see them, but could not get the park ranger to hurry along with our day pass.  We sat anxiously waiting for 15 minutes while he struggled to run our card on two different systems.  Finally we got our pass and cruised down to the beach as fast as we could.  The dolphins were still there popping up every few seconds and scanning the shoreline for lunch.  Turns out we didn't need to hurry as the dolphins stayed the whole day, even with five loud and crazy kids playing in the waves.  After a few hours we had some more friends show up!  A group of sea lions came rather close to check out Kitt and the kids in the water.  Popping their heads up 15 feet away and staring them straight in the face.  We continued to play in the freezing water being pounded wave after wave.  I got a little jellyfish sting on my leg but was so numb it only hurt for a few minutes.  Oh yeah the water is icy cold and feels like knives stabbing you as you get in.  Once you force yourself in past your waistline it only takes about 10 minutes before you are "used" to the cold.  Or your body is so numb it doesn't feel as cold!  After the beach we headed back to the hotel and straight to the hot tub and pushed the defrost button.

Snow? Yes Please!

We decided late in the morning to pack up and go snowmobiling for the day.  After loading up and borrowing some snow clothes we made it up the mountains around 1:00pm.  We headed deep into the hills and were almost to an area where the trees widen and we can play in open meadows when one of the snowmobiles just died.  We should have known that if the three of us go somewhere together something is guaranteed to fail.  After changing the spark plugs we somehow got it started again and were ready to play when I got my snowmobile stuck in some deep snow and had to get dug out.  Once I was out, that same snowmobile wouldn't start again.  After the second spark plug change we only had one more set of new plugs so we decided to head back to the truck.  On the way back Dan headed up a vertical hill and sunk in a snow drift, then Preston went up to help dig him out and got stuck 100 yards away from him.  I decided that I could go help but got stuck even further away.  Kitt, my oldest brother, was our last hope and he totally saved the day.  First helped me lift out then headed up and got Dan and Preston out.  After that you can guess what happens next.  We had to change the spark plugs again using all of our good plugs and we were still an hour away from the truck.  We headed back as the sun was setting and made it without killing the last plugs.  Although we were only out a few hours we still had fun and got plenty cold.