Adventures in Hiking

Day Three:  Leaving Las Vegas

We spent Dave and Jes' first full day on holiday taking a hike.  We drove about 45 minutes from the strip to conquer "Turtle's Head Peak", a hike described as the most challenging and vigorous of the trails in the area.  I did not know that factoid starting out and, for the record, I made several mistakes before we even began.  First, I did not eat a big enough breakfast.  Second--and probably worst--I wore my running skirt, perfect for a jog, quite immodest for a hike with winds that blew it every which way and definitely UP.  And third, I should have read about what to expect.  In general, I like to be surprised by life and new places but there were several points on this climb where I thought I might slide to my death.  About half way from the top, after rounding a corner and slip-sliding on the gravel, I declared myself done with anything remotely perilous.  I felt pretty out of shape compared to my compadres and was thinking that I am probably too important to my dames at home to risk my life for something as silly as a view.
Yes, I tend to the melodramatic.  Had I researched the climb, I would have known that it wound around to the backside of the peak (rather than going straight up) and got quite easy--though it still left us breathing hard.
After much panting....

here we are at the top

We rock.  Five miles round trip and we look this good :) HA.

We met a few fellow hikers on our journey.  First were the frat boys, descending before reaching the top because it was just too hard.  Hmmm... Then there were whiny girl and her boyfriend.  She was wearing about half the normally acceptable amount of clothing and complaining loudly about a wide variety of subjects.  She and Romeo refused our offer of water (they had not brought any) and we worried about them the whole way down.  A pair of women friends took our picture and told us about "The Valley of Fire" which Chris and I checked out our last day.  One woman we met was doing the hike as a workout, trying to beat a previous time.  As she passed me going up, she said, "Don't stop.  It just makes it harder."  She really brought it and beat her best time to the top by twenty minutes.

Speaking of the top:

Me and C

A big thank you to Jes for this picture.  She took quite a few and I love this one.

More pics of our hike:

at the start

that's the peak behind us

can you spot the rock climber in this one?

trail marker

is she hiking or modeling?

ups and downs

Dave, taking a panoramic picture on his iphone

he did this a lot

see that gravel?  that is what we walked on!

you can't really see it but the strip is behind them

another one of the four of us

on the way down

poser

beauty

I didn't take any more photos after the hike but we stopped at a nearby casino and ate an early dinner at their buffet.  At the end of it, I still hadn't done more than play a little roulette and a slot machine or two.  But the week was still young....

Back to Vegas (For Jes)

 Day Two in Sin City:

The first thing Chris and I did Monday morning was run.  Separately because he's faster than I am.  I ran past an old man sleeping on the bench at the bus stop, the high rises and Vegas glitz rising all around him.  I have a feeling Mother Teresa would not have just kept going.  I felt like the guys in the parable of the good samaritan but, what to do?  I thought about him for the rest of the day.
After that, we went out to buy me shoes.  I brought some very pretty but very impractical shoes for walking the strip (this was not deliberate).  On the way to buy shoes, I tripped twice prompting Chris to say, "Come on--I already said we could buy you shoes"--which was not very nice but I forgave him.
Jes and Dave landed around 1:30 so we got the rental car and headed back to the airport where Chris accidentally got in the taxi lane and had to drive across a median to get where we needed to go.  We felt like the Dukes of Hazard, pulling away just as the security guard came running over.
I really wished we had made a sign.  I was so excited to see Dave and Jes.  I did yell rather loudly "Welcome to Vegas, Kreitzers!" when I caught sight of them.  It was the first Dave and Jes sighting since last August and I had missed them a lot!
We dropped off the luggage and the car and went to the strip to walk around.  I didn't take nearly enough photos of all of that but in my defense, it was pretty overwhelming.  Shops and sights and people, people, people everywhere.  Of course, we ended up in a casino.  The first of several over the course of the trip.  After that, dinner at a restaurant across from the Belagio.  No pictures of that dinner.  (I am seriously slipping.)  It was great fun and great food though.  And we saw the fountains in front of the Belagio.  The water shot higher than the roof.  Amazing.  No pictures.  (shucky darns)

I'm opening a clever caption contest for this photo.  Doesn't Jes look svelte?  It's all that tennis.

gathering for the indoor storm

I thought this was very cool

Craps was the first table to get our money.  All of these photos are out of focus because I was using a point and shoot camera without the flash but I really like them anyway.  This one in particular.  Notice:  Chris is rolling and his face is the only part of the picture  in focus.

Dave, so serious.  Chris got scolded for not hitting the far wall with the dice.
He rolled them over the edge at least once trying to compensate.  Beginner's foibles.

I think craps is a really cool game and I can never remember how to play it.  So I watched.

Chris roll again

Jes' roll

Teaching moment by Dave

That's all for now.  Peace Y'all.

Hofbraus Night #1

Seashells

It's been awhile since my last post and I know you are waiting with bated breath to hear what happened next on our Vegas trip but today, I just want to record a conversation I had with Sophie over the weekend.  More and more, the kids are saying things that I want to hold onto and remember forever.  Most of the time, the moment passes and I do forget whatever had struck me as so special.  I need to start carrying a notebook around.  In the future, I imagine these small moments being like so many seashells collected on the journey, pointing both forward to the women they will become and back to the precious time God gave us together as a family.

Conversation with Sophie at Sonic.

I ordered our drinks and the speaker voice gave me my total....

Sophie:  Stores just want money.

Me:  Well, yes, they're not going to give things away for free.

Sophie:  Not me.

Me:  You're going to open a store and give things away for free?

Sophie:  Yes--'cause I don't want money so much.

Me:  What do you want?

Sophie:  I just want to be happy.

Me:  How do you become happy?

Sophie:  Just giving other people what they want.

So, I don't know how many Zig Ziglar fans there are out there but Sophie's line of thinking goes right along with his, "To get everything you want, you have to help enough other people get--what they want"--a truth that I think applies to everything from friendship to business to marriage.

Obviously Sophie's philosophy of happiness needs fleshing out.  Still, I think she's wise beyond her years and has a heart that is truly special.  What a job, to be her parent, entrusted to shepherd that heart into adulthood.  This is no small work we do.