Vegas baby, Vegas!

The first weekend in April we headed to Sin City!  It was Mike's first time there, so it was very exciting!  His friend's girlfriend got us a great deal at Planet Hollywood, so we were right on the strip, with a great view.  We had to stop in Baker (of course!) so I could let Mike see the giant thermometer, but to my great dismay, it's no longer working!

The thermometer with no temperature

Our first night out

Walking down the strip, pausing for a pic with the Eiffel tower!

I found a dolphin in Las Vegas, what are the odds?!

Later that evening, we found Margaritaville - Mike loves them!  We had to get the souvenir glasses too, of course!

My boyfriend was in Vegas!!

The next day we headed out to Hoover Dam, which I haven't seen since I went there with my Dad when I was 15!  There's a cool new visitor's center, parking garage, gift shop, snack bar, and they're building a bypass bridge to reduce traffic crossing the dam.

The big hole!!

USGS marker

Good pic of the new bypass bridge in the background

Later that night, we walked down the strip again, and Mike surprised me with tickets to the Mystere' Cirque du Soleil show at Treasure Island!  I tried to take pictures, but the jerks confiscated my camera, claiming something about copyright, blah, blah, blah.  After the show I did get my camera back, but they made me erase all the pics from the show :(  Lame.  We decided to stick around long enough to catch the Sirens & Pirates show, which was cheesy as always, and not quite as exciting as I remember from when I was 15!  It was funny though, and we enjoyed a huge blended margarita from the margarita stand in a skull mug!

On the way back to our hotel, we tried to catch the water show at the Bellagio, but it was canceled, due to the wind! It was super windy the whole weekend, it was crazy.  Still a great day though!

The only picture I have of Mystere' - our tickets!

Sunset walking down the strip

Waiting for the water show at the Bellagio

Mike's Home!! Adventures in CA

So the first adventure we had in CA after we got back was a great little hike up to Big Falls, and then to Morton Peak.

We drove up to Forest Falls to find Big Falls, the tallest waterfall in southern California.  It was a beautiful warm day, but there was still snow on the ground from the last big storm!  We had to cross the creek, then walked along the creek for about 10 minutes before we found the trail to the falls.  You can't hike all the way up to te top of the falls, but we had a great vantage point from the bottom of the falls.  It was beautiful!

The waterfall starts at the top of the cliff, then winds down around in front of the fence, and down to the creek

Cool decaying tree by the falls

After the easy hike to the falls, we decided to head up to the old fire lookout at Morton Peak. There's not much shade on the trail, and it's all uphill with killer switchbacks for 3 miles to the top. The peak is at 4624 feet and the lookout tower at the top is very cool. Definitely a challenging hike, and not recommended in hot weather.


Some flowers along the way

The view from about halfway up - looking at the creek coming from Forest Falls


















Us at the top

Me by the USGS peak marker
























The last weekend in March was the annual Barrister's Ball for school.  It's sort of like prom, for law students, but not quite as stupid and immature!

Me & Mike at Barrister's

Nice candid shot

The next week we hiked to Zanja Peak.  The peak is 3533 feet high.  We parked at the Oak Glen traileahd in Yucaipa, by the soccer complex.  We headed up the "red" trail - which is the most difficult - about 2 1/2 miles to the top.  The trail is on an incline for awhile, with a few switchbacks, then it heads down and skirts around another hill before it goes straight up to what we thought was the peak.  Once at the top, we saw another little path that goes down, then up to the actual peak.  There's not much at the top, other than the peak marker, but we did catch a great sunset.  We took Nieve on this hike, and she was such a great little hiker, she had no problem with the 5-mile trip.

Looking down at the trail

Me & Nieve at the USGS peak marker

Mike's Home! Adventures in Washington

So many adventures this past month and a half, it will be hard to write about all of them. These next few posts will have to be abbreviated a bit, otherwise I could go on forever!

So the month started out great, Mike finally came home! He flew into Seattle on February 27th.

Our first hug in 6 1/2 months

Out for a nice dinner at the local Irish pub

Mike had to go into work during the week, so I started looking for a house, and explored the local area. I found a great little house in Steilacoom, WA, just 4 blocks from the Puget Sound. It has beautiful wood floors, a nice fireplace, big yard, nice deck, and beautiful view. I have the summer off of school, so I'll get to spend the summer with Mike this year!

The living and dining room before we moved in

The view from our house

After we got the house, I found a great little park nearby, with some great hiking trails, a little lake, and an awesome dog park.

Some pics from my hike at Fort Steilacoom park

Our big weekend after Mike got back started out with a great night in Seattle, with dinner at the Steelhead Diner right by Pike's Place Market, followed by a concert at the Moore Theater, with Joe Bonamassa - a great blues singer and guitarist.

Dinner

The next day we drove up to Leavenworth, a Bavarian-themed village with beautiful mountains in the background. We stayed in a cute little cabin, called the Bunk Haus. It had a super comfy bed, nice little kitchen, and an awesome hot tub. We had an "authentic" German dinner in town, soaked in the hot tub, enjoyed Mimosas, and packed our bags to go snowboarding the next day.

One of the buildings in the village

We went snowboarding in Stevens Pass, which was pretty cool. Nice snow, not many ice spots, and just a great overall day.

On the lift

Some more hiking pics in Washington, by the river