Today is our final day in Vegas - I woke up and wanted to go exercise before sitting in the car for six hours, so I headed to the gym. Normally, the gym is in the basement of a hotel, but in Vegas, no one actually uses the gym so first I had to descend through the casino (not very busy at 9am), and then exit the building, cross the street, and enter a different building.
The gym was smaller than my bedroom back in Golden (slight under exageration, p.s. is there a better word for that?), and I chuckled when I saw a voucher for $0.90 on the seat of a stationary cardio equipment. Hey, making 90 cents is better than gambling away your life savings so it’s all about perspective. I left it there for the next lucky patron.
The title of this post alludes to the BEST brunch food I’ve ever had. It was so good, we came back a second day and ordered the same thing. I’m not one to take pictures of food typically, so of course we don’t have a photo of the infamous Croque Monsieur, which is a fancy ham grilled cheese doused in bechamel sauce, I think. Not my normal fare, which is why I ordered it. I like ordering things I would never cook at home but will probably enjoy, and this ol’ croque definitely delivered. Pictured below is a typical but still very delicious breakfast burrito. If you are ever in Las Vegas - do yourself a favor and get coffee and a croque monsieur at Parlour on Carson Ave in Vegas.
The giant praying mantis is so cool
After catching up on the last three days of blogs, Jason urged me that we should leave soon since we had a six hour drive ahead of us to get to Salt Lake City. D’oh! I quickly wrapped up the posts from yesterday’s adventures, closed my laptop, and we retrieved the van. We rested easy the past two nights knowing that the van was safe in a covered, staffed parking garage. Thankfully they had spots on the ground floor for oversize vehicles, since there was no way the van was making it up the 6’ vertical clearance ramp to the upper levels of the parking garage. We tipped the security guy because he was really, really, awesome and helpful during our stay, and hit the I-15 N. A highlight along the drive was a man excitedly asking us about our solar panels when we stopped to get gas somewhere in Arizona, maybe. He was a self-proclaimed “renewable energy enthusiast”, which describes every single one of my friends in Colorado but is heart-warming to hear when you’re in that gray zone of America where fossil fuels are still cool.
Several hours later, darkness hit, and several hours even later, we spotted Mormon temples shining like Disney castles, or beacons of hope, whichever you prefer. Or maybe you equate the two, Disney-lover you. We had made it to the outskirts of SLC! A bit more driving delivered us to SLC proper, and we bedded down for the night, alarms set to catch the ski bus the next morning to go to Brighton ski resort (on the IKON pass) and meet up with some friends from Carbon, the 3D printing company I used to work at in Redwood City, CA. Good night!
