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1. We get up in high spirits, have a delicious breakfast and an enlivening conversation with a super nice waitress, who turns out to be Romanian and living here for 3 years now. Elena gives us some tips about nearby sights.
2. We send out some postcards and by a weird coincidence I take mine from the stand and post them (the miniature post office is part of the souvenir store) without paying for them (just for the stamps), which I realize later on. Ha! See if they arrive...
3. We drive to the Bryce Canyon, a mere 2 miles down the road, check all the viewpoints and are a little underwhelmed. It's very nice, with snow and all, especially the last (first - because we do it backwards, the way they recommend it) panoramic overlook, but with all that hype from friends and online sources we kinda expected more.
4. We drive out, stop at a middle-of-nowhere outpost called Panguitch to get surprisingly good pumpkin flavored latte from a machine at a gas station and weirdly lose our way a little going to Vegas.
5. As a result of that on the way to Vegas we drive through a local state park Red Canyon and a nearby national park Zion, which we both find beautiful, though probably not worth a detour in the winter if you're going there specifically for them. Luckily we have our annual national park pass so we get everything for free.
6. We drive through amazingly desolate mountainscapes and deserts to finally arrive in Vegas, which spring up from the ground in the middle of a lot of emptiness - a manic ocean of lights, strobes, music and clinking sounds of casino chips falling on the table :)
7. We check into our hotel - the Luxor pyramid - and find ourselves upgraded to the hotel's tower on 20th floor. The room hasn't been renovated for a while but at EUR70 it's still a good deal.
8. We find our new quarters imposing - the reception itself has about 30 stations, then there's a couple restaurants, two Starbucks, hundreds of penny machines (which amazingly work only with bills!), souvenir shops, blackjack, craps and roulette tables, ATMs, a nightclub - and that's just the lobby!
9. We go for a walk and observe amazing dancing fountains at the Bellagio, something every couple should witness at least once. So romantic you even ignore the cold (and the evening was chilly).
9. We win and/or lose a couple of bucks on the slot machines and enjoy the free drinks we get served in the process ("As long as you're gambling, drinks are free." "Oh yeah? Neat!"). Then we head for the nightclub where drinks unfortunately are no longer free so we reemerge and try the blackjack table for pure fun, with mixed results.
10. We crash pretty late that night....It was fun.
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