I was looking forward to today's activity: a visit to Antelope Canyon! We weren't sure if we were on time to see the sunbeam tour . As we walked out of the hotel a tour jeep was making a stop at the hotel . Ed asked the native woman who was very very kind (I forgot her name)  if we could come along on this tour. We hurried to gather our stuff and drove with them. Ed booked a double tour. One sunbeam and the lady said to him that both tours were beautiful showing the canyon in totally different lighting conditions .

After a 10 minute bumpy drive on a sandy road we arrived at the canyon . There were several groups entering the canyon but not all at once. Our group counted 9 people. Wow this was something!!! The colours, the light, everything. Just beautiful. If you ever go to Page, Arizona, make sure to visit and I didn't regret going twice.

The native lady was right, the morning tour and afternoon tour are so different. Last time it rained was last October. It flushed a lot of sand out of the canyon, increasing the depth by at least 50 cm, the wind will slowly refill the canyon with sand. The trunk of a cottonwood tree was stuck in the canyon, it was flushed down the canyon from thirty km away.

We grabbed a bite a the pizzahut in the late afternoon and went for a swim and some sunbathing at the hotel for only about an hour. It was time to purchase a suitcase because we bought too many clothes.
Last night we went to the rim of the lake but it was getting too dark to take much pictures . I only took a few of the lake itself, the other were from a beautiful wavy rock formation . We had planned to take a boat trip on the lake but decided otherwise because there was a stronger wind and weren't able to sit on deck.
In the evening we had dinner at the Dam Bar&Grill .

Somehow I was happy to leave Vegas again. Too crowded, busy and noisy. I think this was the last time ever that I visit Vegas. There was no breakfast included to the suite we had and went to the very crowded Denny's right around the corner of the Venetian. We had to wait about 10 minutes before we were seated. Breakfast was good like always. I already miss it ;-) We stopped at the Mall and bought 2 pairs of Nike running shoes for Ed and headed for Page.

It was going to be a long ride but to break it we drove first through Zion National Park . It's beautiful but to me the nature looks to much like Europe. Somewhat like the alps. I was happy though to have seen some buffaloes . A deer was watching us from behind the bushes. Too cute. The last time we went to Zion in 1983 there was nothing but nature, now you have hotels, cabins, shops. It's a sin they ruin it this way. It's much more crowded now.

Just before sunset we stopped at the Coral Red Sand Dunes State Park in Utah. Not that I hoped to find my bracelet back that I lost many years back, but I thought of it when I was walking barefoot through the very dusty sand. We stayed until the sun was set and drove on to Page. We almost hit a deer that was crossing the streets when we left the Sand Dunes. Thank God Ed wasn't driving fast.
We arrived well in Page at about 10 PM. We'd booked a room for two nights at the renewed Best Western. We we hungry and wanted to eat and tried several restaurants. All were saying "sorry, we are closed" grmbl, back to Denny's again.

After a 10$ all you can eat breakfast we checked out of our room to start the day with a 2 hour gravel road drive to the racetrack playa. But first we stopped at the Ubehebe volcanic crater which means big basket in the rock . Ed and Eef wanted to walk all the way down but then decided to maybe do it after we came back from the racetrack. It was fun driving the gravel road with hundreds of Joshua trees/yuccas around us. Now and then we stopped and watched the scenery or Teakettle junction or to switch places in our car. We did that all the time. Girls can't pee standing, Eef and I had to find a place where nobody could see us. You try that in a desert. We couldn't stop laughing. I bet that cactus I watered is blooming by now ;-)

The race track was to us the most exciting place in Death Valley . It's soooooo so quiet and the light is so strong you can't walk around without sunglasses. The soil is burst from dryness, the sun burns on your skin but it's beautiful, really an awesome place. At first we didn't find the racetrack rocks but we drove a bit further there they were. I could have stayed there for days and hope to get back one day.

When we left the racetrack Eef noticed a small whirl wind, it got bigger and bigger as we were watching it. I've never seen one this close . Oh, I forgot to mention that we also saw a roadrunner and what I didn't see at first even though I was driving, was a coyote walking beside the road . The desert colors camouflaged him . He didn't run away but crossed the street a few times. This was awesome to drive beside him and watch him running .

So were was I? OK, we left the race track and it was too late for Ed and Eef to walk down into the crater. We stopped at Scotty's Castle for a restroom stop. The day went by so quickly, before we left Death Valley we stopped at Bad water and the Devil's golf course , which is also an impressive piece of nature . You hardly can walk on those columns of salt .
If we are ever going back to Death Valley , we will stay a week that's for sure!

It was 10 PM when we arrived in Las Vegas again. THis time we booked a room at The Venetian Hotel on the other side of the strip. If we had known in advance, we hadn't booked a room in Vegas again. The contrast between the quietness of Death Valley and the so loud and busy Vegas was enormous. All I wanted was to get out of Vegas. The Venetian is like all the other glamour and glitter hotels impressive but not as fine as the Mandalay Bay . Our room was a suite(bottom 6 pictures) with a king size bed and in the other room a sofa bed which I didn't expected to find in a suite. There were 4 flatscreen TV's. One each in the bedroom, the kitchenette, the sitting room and in the bathroom.

It was time for us to try our luck again but we didn't win anything. All we did was get tipsy of the free cocktails. The part where the canal shops are and gondola rides starts is beautiful. Although it was dark outside you had the feeling it was daytime. We didn't take pictures in the Venetian but I found this one .  We called it a night at about midnight and slept for the next 8 hours.

I woke up by sunrise but after the sun was up I went back to bed until 8 AM. We took a shower and I updated my journal. Check-out time was 11AM. We left our luggage at the front desk. We walked to the hotel beach but bummer, since we already checked out of our room we weren't able to see the beach because we didn't have an entry key anymore. A block away from the Mandalay Bay was Denny's where we had breakfast. We all love the grand slam: bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes and hash-browns were my favorites. This for only 6 dollars. which is only 4 euros. Since the Dollar exchange rate is so low, it's very cheap to travel in the US. We bought Levi's Jeans for 30 dollar, in Belgium we'd pay about 90 dollar for a pair of Levi's Jeans. Anyway, we left Vegas not being richer than we arrived and drove to Death Valley a trip of about 3 hours I believe.
The weather was hot but I didn't care, the humidity was 27%, something we only can dream about in Belgium where we mostly have a humidity up from about 65%. The road to Death Valley was almost empty and the desert got more death by the time we arrived. We stopped here and there to take some pictures of the cacti and other flowers that still were blooming. Eef enjoyed feeling the sun on her skin.

Zabriskie point was our first stop, we didn't stay long and drove on to Marble Canyon. We jumped in our hiking gear and walked in to the beautiful marble canyon . I wandered if this was the canyon where they got all the marble from last night's hotel in Vegas. It was a small canyon to walk through with some steep steps . Ed and Eef went all the way up , I stayed behind for the last few yards and just enjoyed sitting and watching this gorgeous little place . We were happy to walk this canyon and left with first real wow feeling since we arrived.

We also visited the Mesquite flat dunes . We stayed about an hour I think. Took some fun pictures and boy the sun felt hot. Eef's smile went bigger and bigger, she should move to another country. Belgium isn't the place for her ;-)

Via the Artist Drive we went to our hotel at Furnace Creek inn and ranch resort which is located right in the park. We had booked this hotel in advance and good for us that we did because there was no vacancy when we arrived. The rooms weren't special but they were expensive. After dinner we went straight to bed, excited about what we were going to see the next day.

I had a bad night's sleep, one of the reasons was that we are not used to have ice in our soft-drinks and that left me with cramps in my tummy. We planned to drive up to Las Vegas today but first we were going to see Kingman. It's a small city with a few route 66 memories . Eef drove for the first time on the US roads with an automatic gearbox and an SUV. She told us that she rather drives a manual shift, automatic was a little boring. I used to say that when I was younger but I'm thinking otherwise. It drives much more relaxed. It was fun to have someone with us that never been in the US before. She told us things we didn't notice because we lived in the US and traveled there a lot. She couldn't believe that you didn't see one small car in Arizona. They were all big, not one small Ford Fiesta like her car. The streets in the US are as big as a highway in Belgium.

We went to a Mr D's for lunch. A 50's Diner with good burgers and huge onion rings which they forget to bring so we had them for desert lol.

There wasn't much to see in Kingman and drove on to Vegas . We stopped at the Hoover Dam . Although we were there before,  I couldn't remember it being so impressive . We took some pictures and stayed for a little while and drove on to Las Vegas. OMG, Vegas has changed over the years! This became an enormous city . I remembered it more as a town. We had made reservations at the Mandalay Bay . It is situated at the beginning of the strip and we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the hotel from miles and miles ahead. I've never seen a hotel as huge as that one. Our room was gorgeous with a view of the strip . I was afraid that we weren't going to sleep well because the airport was right next to the hotel but we didn't hear one single plane land. Now it's a small airport with smaller planes to land as an airbus I think or am I wrong? Well, it doesn't matter, I slept well :)

We drove to an outlet mall to do the rest of the shopping we had planned. Ed bought about 10 T-shirts at the Levis store and 2 jeans. Eef also purchased 2 more shirts. It was dark when we came back and were hungry. We had dinner at the Trattoria Del Lupo . The Italian food was delicious. After dinner we browsed the hotel for a while. I couldn't believe how huge this hotel was. I think it took you about 10 minutes to walk from the one corner to another.

Unfortunately, we didn't get rich in Vegas but don't worry, if you are not going to get rich you sure are going to get drunk for free.
There is a shuttle that brings you to the neighbouring hotels, we did that to finish off the night. Too bad we were too tired to browse the rest of the strip but we planned to stay another night after we came back from Death Valley.