Oct 2023 Wild West Northern Arizona Adventure

 Below is my trip report from Trip Advisor with added pictures and a little extra blog rambling.  It was just the 3 days we spent in Az before annual Bday time in Vegas which I'll do as a separate post.

FRI - Flew American into Pheonix. Landed about 11:30am. In our rental car and headed immediately north towards today's stop before Flagstaff for the night. We stopped in Winslow Az to stand on Corner (Eagles song Take it Easy). 

This is almost all the town has going for it aside, from La Postada Hotel & Gardens. (Old Fred Harvey hotel that Mary Colter designed and called her "Masterpiece" we stopped here for a quick 10 min walk around & bathroom break). There is also the meteor crator nearby but it closes at 5p during 'winter hours' and we passed it too late. Personally I don't think this town is worth a visit unless passing through but Mr. Juice requested and it was only an hour out of the way so why not? Drove on to Flag and got dinner at Diners, Drive Ins and Dives spot - Fat Olives.  

Saturday- My typical problem on Pacific Standard Time, I was awake first day at 345am. But we were aware this would happen and were back on the road at 445am to hit a spot we missed in 2019's visit to the south rim - the East Entrance views. So we arrived rim side with enough light to enjoy Navajo Point and then a beautiful sunrise at the Desert View Watchtower. Then onto Cameron Trading Post for breakfast which was good. Now onto Monument Valley.

We drove onto Forrest Gump Point for the obligatory photo stop. Our photos are hilarious but I did need an ap to erase other bystanders from the photos. I had bought a Bubba Gump hat and fake beard just for this LOL.  My brother thought they had a props stand on the side of the road.  Nope we are the only ones there with props.  Then a wander around Gouldings movie museum and grounds, and then onto the View Hotel to check in before our tour.

Our Monument Valley sunset tour with MV Safari was fantastic. A nearly 4 hours back country tour, a fantastic Navajo guide who also gave great photo suggestions or took them for us, and ended at the Mittens for the last 15 mins before sunset at the golden hour. I cannot say enough about how well this tour exceeded expectations and I'm so glad we opted to do it.  We enjoyed dinner at the hotel (Navajo taco) and star gazing from our balcony before early bedtime.  We saw what we think was a desert fox or bob cat feet from our first floor balcony. The below image is from sunrise from our room.  I have so many photos from the tour but nothing beats this sunrise!

Sunday - Up for watching sunrise over the buttes from our balcony and then back on the road. We arrived at Antelope Canyon X for a 940am tour. The slot canyon (from a couple who have never done one before) was awesome!  This was the one this from this day I had considered cutting from our itinerary but in the end I thought screw it!  I don't know we'll ever have the opportunity for another slot canyon, our joints are not gonna get better, etc.  And like the MV tour, so glad we decided to spend the money as it was so awesome.  

Stopped at Horseshoe Bend next. While it's pretty, unless you're a professional photog it is really just a 30 min stop hopefully on the way to something else as it's not worth a special visit otherwise in our opinion.

As we headed on to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon we passed by Vermillion Cliffs, and over the historical bridge over the Colorado River in Marble Canyon. Beautiful drive! There is one part right before you drop into the valley before the river that I wish I had filmed or had my camera out for fast enough but at least I have the experience in my memory as the end of Marble Canyon is crazy cool.  We started our visit to the North Rim by driving to furthest viewpoint- Cape Royal Trail & Angels Window, then backtracking to Point Imperial for another view, (highest in park - it was windy and chilly with a possible storm in coming). 

We somehow missed all rain, though the ground at lodge was wet. Feared no sunset with cloud cover, but they broke just in time as we were doing the Bright Angel Trail for a fantastic sunset! Followed by beer at Rough Rider Saloon then dinner at lodge. I highly recommend the Supai Pablano Chicken. More star gazing and checking into cabin.

Up well before sun again, more star gazing. Got coffee as soon as Rough Rider opened at 530 and enjoyed morning twilight on the lodge patio, then did the overlook jutting over the canyon before deciding to go to a little spot just off the parking lot (right behind visitor info booth) for a wonderful and private view of the sunrise on benchs sipping the last of our coffee. Packed up, checked out and now on to Vegas by 645am! Stopped in Jacobs Lake for cookies for breakfast.

Reading my 'travel plan' blog entry for this trip I can say we stuck to it 9 months after initial plan almost completely and it was nearly perfect.  Only issue was perhaps too much driving for Jeff on day 3.  If there had been buses in the North Rim like in the south so he didn't have to do the last 2 hrs around the viewpoints after 3 hours of earlier driving he would have been a happier camper.  In that plan I talked about hoping to upgrade from outside the park to a cabin I can tell anyone that stumbles across this that checking daily for cancelations works! 3 weeks before the trip I scored a room in the motel.  Then a week later I scored a western cabin.  And canceling both our out of park reservations and from the NPS motel to upgrade to western cabin was easy.  I loved our cabin.  And it turns out while we found a beautiful spot for sunrise, our cabin actually faced it.  We could have just sat on that porch LOL.  

Final thoughts.  I need to just accept that some things in life I am willing to pay for.  And experiences are far an away *the* thing.  The two tours were not exactly cheap. Neither was the room at The View or Grand Canyon.  But those four expenses are what made this 3 day side trip before Vegas a wonderful vacation.  I know we are privileged to be able to do them.  I know much of the trip could have been enjoyed on the cheap but those two tours? Only way to see what we saw.  Keeping that in mind as we start planning the Mediterranean Cruise excursions.  There are reasons why some things are once in a life time.  One, they are expensive.  But two they ARE special.  And memories to last a lifetime.  I think I will forever smile when I think back on this trip as the beauty of the southwest really was something.

Oct 2022 Vegas trip report

For someone who uses this simply as a personal diary for travel and home improvements, I sure suck at remembering to use it. Thankfully, for Vegas I can just copy & paste my trip report from Trip Advisor and just add some pics. So now that I've written our 2023 plans in another post, I saw Vegas Oct 2023 was missing so here it is almost 4 months after the fact for any Vegas junkies that come across here. Monday- Unremarkable flight ORD to LAS landed 935AM and cab to Paris. Drop bags and slot played for 90 mins before grabbing brunch at Hexx. Hubs loved his Cinnamon roll waffle, I just had basic egg & bacon breakfast. Service was a bit lagging but they were very busy as it appeared a lot of convention people were arriving that day to stay at Paris. Tried to check in afterwards at Diamond check in a little after noon but our End of hall room wasn't ready yet. Told we'd get a text. Didn't by four but we stopped back then and it was ready. Side note on our room...this is our 6th stay at Paris and second time in this exact room (1625P) but the first time ever with the 'sewer smell' in the bathroom others complain about sometimes when reviewing the hotel. It seemed to come from the tub drain. If the drain was closed the smell went away. But housekeeping kept opening the drain when they cleaned and we had no paper to leave them a note. So once a day the bathroom would smell but it was livable 20 mins after closing drain so didn't bother complaining as room was comped without resort fees.

We finished day one playing around the nearby casinos and dinner at Giada in Cromwell. While it was a good meal (lobster ravioli was small enough to leave room for hazelnut crunch cake), it was not as good as our first visit. Maybe in part as we were seated facing the bar with no windows in sight. I wasn't going to pay extra for a winodw seat but last time there was at least natural light and open feel. This spot felt cramped and dark. Oh well. My best win of the day came when I threw a $20 in a Buffalo Gold low rolling at 60 cents a spin as I was just trying to make it last as I ordered a drink having just sat down next to Mr. Juice. Went to bonus and won $640. I kept saying 'why was I only betting 60 cents Tuesday - South trip Aria to MB. Typical of our first full day we did the south side MLife casinos and lost almost everywhere on everything from 7am to noon. Uber back to Paris down almost $4-500 each for the day. We triend Bobby's Burgers for lunch - bacon bleu cheese burgers hit the spot. Slowed the cash bleed at center casinos staying about even and at 6pm grabbed a cab down to Neon Boneyard. The 645 time slot was great as the sun had just set but tix explanation was confusing as they said with Brilliance show it was 90 min (45 for tour, 45 for Brilliance) what they did not however say was that Brilliance took place at 8 so we had about 30 mins to just sit and wait. And the Brilliance show was just sort of meh. They could knock it down to 20-30 mins and do more often like every half hour. But the tour itself was great. Loved seeing all the old signs, particularly Fitzgerald which was my first Vegas hotel stay. And places like Aladdin that Mr Juice had told me about but disappeared before my first visit. Uner back to Paris with a late dinner at 930 at Cafe Americano. Played for another hour or so after dinner before heading to bed just before midnight.

Wednesday- North strip. We Ubered to Resorts World where we played 3 or 4 games ending both up on a Wild Wild Buffalo runs. Moved on to Wynn where Hubs gained $1000 of a mix of Tall Towers Wonder Four and Drangon Link. I had small gains on things like Miss Kitty and Huff n More Puff. Cocktail ser vice from one hard working young lady working the entire floor had me needing breakfast after 3 mimosas by the time we moved on to Venetian. Ate biscuits & gravy for our first ever visit to Grand Luxe Cafe. See why it's recommended by many. It's classically good grub, wide menu and fast, attentive service. Lost $1-200 of our winnings so moved on to say goodbye to Mirage. Ended up even play here thanks to Monopoly cheaters edition after losing $100 on WOZ Munchkinland. Crossed back to Harrahs but only to walk in AC as we were now on the hunt for Mississippi Stud table. Finally landed in Flamingo at (gasp) a $5 table. It was about noon or 1pm. We had heard $5 were no more on strip but we occasionally saw them here, paris & PH. Took a little time to lose my $200 buy in but enjoyed. I believe Mr J didn't lose it all or might have ended up a little ahead as I remember going to cage. Played another MS table later for $5 but that was at PH before 4pm and lost just $100 in an hour before moving on. Where is my traditional progressive 4OAK?

Dinner that night at Amalfi in Ceasars. This was a second visit as well but it was just as fabulous as last time. Seriously- get the focacia and prawns as an appetizer. Use the bread to sop up the sauce on the prawns. So effin good. And get the red pepper pesto for your fish. If there is one thing Flay knows, it's sauces. And our waitress was wonderful. Slotted in Bellagio, saw a fountain show, back to home base. Tired I went up to bed at 11pm with a little of my daily bankroll left leaving hubs down to go on a hot streak, including a $750 winning flush hand at a table. Thursday- Happy Birthday Mr Juice! As he was up later I was up & ready to go before him so I went to casino floor & lost my remaining previous days $140 before 7am. He came down and regaled me with tales of his various wins once I left him. Informed me we didn't need to hit the ATM for todays bankroll just yet as he handed over $700 to me. We played in Cosmo & Bellagio before the afternoon moving on to our double booked room at Delano.

Delano- checked in online, grabbed physical keys and up to the room by 2pm. Eh. It was decent with the extra powder room & living room as a suite but the room itself was unimpressive compared to the basic rooms we've had at Bellagio & Wynn. And it was too hot to us Chicago pale folk to bother with laying out at the pool. We took a quick 10 min stroll thru the pool complex but it all seemed so cramped together compared to sun getaways we've taken to Mexico & Caribbean so we agree - we continue to not be 'pool people' in Vegas. Pool/beach time is for more layed back locales for us. Vegas is for gambling so back at it. We double booked the room as I had a $100RC and $90FP offer. Quickly lost the freeplay. Skybar is closed Thursdays (what?) And RC couldn't be used at Foundation Room. D'oh! We changed for dinner and enjoyed the view of dusk turing to night for dinner up on 63rd floor. Terrace view of strip was great. Food was hubs choice so he enjoyed his bone in ribeye. I just had a salad & crab cakes as I don't like steak. Decent meal, intimate dining room and nice service. Afterward we played a bit more at MB & Luxor but agreed we just don't enjoy south strip (Luxor was WAY too loud and filled with 20 something frat bros...God when did I get old? LOL) so I reminded hubs we didn't have to stay. Packed quickly the backpack we brought after getting out of our fancy dinner clothes and cab back to Paris. Where I proceeded to win $1100 on Autumn Moon in the champagne slots in 30 mins. So glad we came back! Handed back the $700 hubs had given me that morning with my own stash full as well from a good day. Lost $200 on MS table at $10 but went to bed with $800 and last day dreams of going home up money if I could have a repeat of some of those wins. Friday- hubs won a dragon link major (Happy & Prosperous indeed!) before I got downstairs at 7am. We headed over to Bellagio with plans to use my $100RC at Sadell's but played a little first (I had seen online there were no reservations availablefor breakfast but we foolishly thought maybe we could just walk up. We were both up and saw the line for breakfast was HUGE and didn't want to wait as we were not even that hungry. Went back to slots and Mr J won second major of the day! $750 on a Buffalo Chief. But walking back to Paris he pulled the jinx out...talking about what we could do if we came home up. Thus ended our hot streak. We stopped for breakfast sandwiches at Bobby Burgers yum! I love a fried egg on top of almost anything. Went up to the room and packed. Checked out in Diamond room where the host was nice enough to comp off $200 of our charges. Used our rewards points to take off another $250 leaving us with a bill of just over $200. And then proceeded to lose at everything for the next 4 hrs. Didn't matter that we chased it by betting higher. Only win I had in that time was one last run at the tables where I was still in search of my 4th 4OAK ever. Instead I left the table just up $130. But come time to leave for airport at 3pm, we still left with 50% of our entire trips bankroll. So not bad but not the daydreaming we had at 8am walking the shops at Bellagio. I made Diamond and Mr Juice made Diamond Plus for next year. We are thinking we will once again skip a spring trip and instead go to Tahoe/Reno again but bring his parents as it will probably be the last opportunity to take them and the minimal walking is better for them in their late 70s. But we'll be back for the annual October trip as there is no where else Hubs would want to spend his birthday. Everyone with upcoming trips - enjoy how ever you Vegas! And never, jinx when you're up with talk of plans 😆

Oh and I forgot, aside from his second major, before the jinx before we left Bellagio we decided to turn our Mlife reward credits into free play. I had $50FP plus a $50 of mine own in a Ghangis khan dragon link. Playing $2.50 a spin/ 10cent denom (what we call Bridgering a hundred) I won just under a handpay at $1149 on the fifth spin of a bonus round. And not on Balls. There were 8 -2x Khan symbols in the middle. Those two wins - one for me, one for him, is what prompted the conversation of 'should we hit the Bahamas again in January?'

2023 Travel Plans

Another year, more dreams of adventure await! We planned in reverse this year. We had talked before about a specific idea but dismissed it as 'maybe when we're retired'. Then in December I said screw it, let's do it this October. So this October we are doing what I've titled our Wild West adventure and it includes yet another bit of movie site travel (see Oregon trip). We will land in Pheonix and day one is for Jeff...he want to stand on a corner in Winslow Arizona. If this doesn't get you singing an Eagles song then move along youngin'. I'm actually laughing because it's even a bit before our time. it's his mom's favorite band. But a good song none the less. We'll also stop to see a meteor creator nearby before we spend the night in Flagstaff. Really this is just a travel day with two stops thrown in. The next two days is the adventure! We are headed the next morning to Monument Valley for 24 hrs. If you're like 'what's that?' Google that shit. Iconic West. Trust me, you have seen images. The issue is that it's far from most everything thus why we need a travel day. We'll stop at Forrest Gump point where he decides he's tired of running before heading into the park itself.

We've reserved a room at The View Hotel which is the only hotel in the Navajo land of the park. All rooms have a balcony facing the buttes for sunrise. If you've read my Grand Canyon or Yosemite posts, you know I find sunrise in beautiful spaces magical! And we're going to book a 3 hr sunset Navajo guided backcountry tour. So excited for this day! Then after Sunrise, we'll head off for Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon X for late morning/early afternoon tours before turing south to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We really enjoyed South Rim in 2018 for sunset & sunrise. We should get to the park about 3pm which *should* give us just enough time to drive to 3 viewpoints and see sunset from the lodge & have dinner there. We hope to stay in the park at a Pioneer cabin but have a room booked 18 miles north in case we can't get one of these coveted spots. Then sunrise and drive to Vegas for annual Birthday trip.

In June, for my girls trip I'm visiting one of my best friends in Georgia. She's been teaching at Georgia Southern for like 15 years and I've never been. (Honestly because she comes up here like twice a year). But I said we have to do 24 hrs in Savannah. I did 5 hrs in Savannah in 2010 and fell in love with the town so I'm excited for a full day. I'm looking at historic Marshall House for a hotel, and possibly doing a sunset river cruise and or carriage ride, cemeteries and squares & parks galore. And the food! Should be so fun.

And finally the first up trip will be just Vegas in April. It has nothing exceptional planned but the story on how it came to be is somewhat comical to me. We originally thought in spring we'd take his parents on a junket to Reno/Tahoe (ages 79 & 76) as it is little walking compared to Vegas for their mobility issues. Jeff got his free flight offer but I didn't so we couldn't do that. We explained to his parents and they joked while it would have been nice getting them a free flight and room, it still saved them thousands by not taking them gambling. We then changing topics to my SIL's upcoming 25th wedding anniversary. I said if I were them I'd want to do a European vacation. Jeff reminded me I said I wanted that for our 10th or 15th. Our 15th will be next year in 2024 and he gets offers from Norwegian Cruise line due to his status with Caesar's. well, we went home, looked at the offers and I was like "OMG it would only cost us $3,000 more than we spend to go to Vegas to do a 7 day cruise from Barcelona to Rome with 6 ports? Gambling at night on the ship while we cruise and day excursions at each port? We need to keep your status up this year so we can do it!" So 2x Vegas this year it is! All so we have a very discounted European Cruise next year. I don't actually like the idea of a cruise because of being stuck on a boat, but this one you're cruising at night and every morning you're at shore at a port from like 7am to 6pm. And how else can you see France, Spain, and Italy in such a short time for such a low price? Very excited to do this if it comes to fruition. So not only is 2023 planned but 2024 is in the works!