Out West. Tuesday. 6/29/2010.

This morning we took out time getting up and out of Zion. We slept in a bit, ate a leisurely breakfast, and hit the road for Nevada at about 11:30am. I know this place is just the first of many stops to come this week, but it really pained me to go. There was so much more I wanted to do, so many more nooks and crannies to explore. My biggest disappointment was that we ran out of time to hike up Angels Landing. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular hike, it's about a 2.4 mile trail. Starting off following the path of the Virgin River it slowly gains elevation and leaving the river behind, morphs into a series of steep switchbacks. However, it is the final summit that is the beauty of the Angel's Landing trek and is more often than not a turnaround point for the faint of heart. The last half mile of the hike is replete with sharp drop offs of some thousand feet on either side of you and narrow paths to tread. Chains are in place into the side of the cliff face to aid your hike, but do little to ease the immensity of the great heights you reach on a psychological level. One day I'm going back and conquering it. One day. Anyways, we got to Vegas afternoonish and checked in at our hotel, Excalibur before heading off to explore the strip. It is a world of its own. In all honesty, I thought I wouldn't particularly care for Vegas. My intial impression of it prior to arriving was a trashy stip of junk and immature idiots acting regrettably out of control. I'll admit that I was dead wrong. I absolutely loved it. I'd say the city has a certain class to it. It's a pretty badass awesome place. There's so much to take in, the hotels as architectual immensities, the atmosphere lively and electric, the shops overwhelming, the casinos buzzing with luck and misfourtune, the people ecclectic to say the least, the days short and nights long. It's insane. We spent most of the day wandering in and out of the hotels on the strip and ate dinner at the Bellagio's buffet. In all my life I have never been so amazed by food, and that's saying something. While I'm at it, nor have I ever been so completely stuffed after a meal. They had everything from lamb, CRAB, and portobello risotto to bite size key lime tarts and to-die-for chocolate raspberry mousse. In retrospect it's a little embarassing how many times I revisited the buffet for more, however it was quite worth it at the time. After dinner we headed back to the room to get dressed and ready for the main reason why we were in Vegas in the first place, to see Criss Angel live at his show Believe in the Luxor nextdoor. My sister had recieved 9th row tickets for her birthday. It would be a gross understatement to say she is in love with this man. I don't think there is anyone she respects and looks up to more than Criss Angel. She had been looking forward to the show since the beginning of June when she found out she was going. Needless to say, I was more than excited as well. The seats were exceptional and Criss Angel is probably the most badass person on the face of the earth. Although I'm not nearly as obsessed with him as my sister, my love for this guy is a little off the scales. Now if you would allow me to gush for a second, I feel the need to tell the world how deeply my life changed during the course of the show. Not only was the show in itself amazing and Criss just as impressive as ever, but I was quite literally an arms length away from him. I don't know if anyone understands what a big deal this is to me but IT'S A BIG DEAL. Not only that, but we had a definitive moment of locked eye contact. For a few seconds Criss Angel acknowledged my existence. Believe me, I am fully aware of how lame I probably sound and trust me the last thing I want to be known as is an obsessive fan, however now knowing that Criss Angel at least in some way knows of my existence automatically makes the world a better place, and I mean that. For anyone of you who do not know of Criss Angel 1) You have no right to read this blog right now 2) He is probably the most inspirational person on the planet 3) You haven't known badass until you've seen this guy in person. I'm going to cut myself off right about now so as to not tarnish your perspective of me any more than I already have, just know that my day spent in this city was more than amazing. Vegas, I will definitely be seeing you again come my 21st birthday.