Vegas! - Day 4

Finally, the long-awaited trip to the Valley of Fire.

Nominally, it's a large pile of red rocks, with a visitor's center and well cared-for roads leading all around.  But to actually be out there and seeing it for yourself, well, that's an experience that I can't accurately describe.  Once again, I had the cell phone out to take pictures, and I was thwarted by the sheer scale of the whole thing.  So I stopped trying and accepted that I'd have to use my brain to remember the imagery.

I probably shouldn't have had pizza the day before.  Certainly not five slices.

We tried to make the best of it anyway.  Any time we saw a giant rock formation (which was often), we speculated about seeing people atop it slugging it out with supernatural phenomena.

There's nothing like slugging it out with supernatural phenomena.

After seeing all that was out there at Valley of Fire (including petrified trees, petroglyphs, and plenty of red sand), we took the scenic route back to the city.  It's a longish road that doesn't seem too pleasant for much of it, but there are some great views of Lake Mead to be had.  Eventually it comes back to Lake Las Vegas.  It was interesting to see that from the other side that we hadn't explored before.

Since we had been up early and gone hiking through the entirety of the Valley of Fire, we figured it was probably time for a drink.  So we headed back to the hotel and camped out in the room for awhile.  Once we got hungry, we headed down to the buffet.  It wasn't quite as good as the one at Green Valley Ranch or Red Rock.  Ah, well.

I had to take a break for a bit after our trip to the buffet.  But once that was done, we headed out.  Back to the Strip we went; this time our destination was two casinos situated next to each other: the Palms and the Gold Coast. The major attraction at Gold Coast were the baccarat tables.  It also helped that I hit a bonus on a slot machine and doubled up on my initial bet. Baccarat looked fun, but good luck getting a seat.  All the tables there seemed to be full.

Another thing we had looked forward to doing was hitting up Guitar Center to try out some guitars we couldn't afford.  More on that next time.