Written A Week Ago

I was in Vegas the last five days! (Okay, again more like a week ago...I'm a slacker). We went as a family, which was an interesting choice of locations for a family trip. We gambled, shopped, saw a few shows, and wandered. A LOT. I left about $100 dollars up, thanks to the $3 blackjack tables at Slots-A-Fun (aka: the sketchiest casino on the Vegas strip). But who can beat $3 blackjack! It takes forever to make any money, but it takes awhile to lose it too! While we were there we went to the Wynn to see Overtone. They are a pretty cool a cappella group that's managed by Dina Eastwood. We randomly ran into them on our Austin trip last March and they serenaded us on a dock by the river. They happened to be in Vegas performing so we stopped by the see them and say hello. They remembered us! Which was pretty cool. Check them out! (www.overtoneband.com) They are a little boy band-ish, but who doesn't like a good boy band?? Plus, their voices do some pretty amazing things.

While out west we also ventured to Death Valley, CA for a day. While this wasn't on my top list of places to visit in CA (I actually didn't even know about it) it did check a new state off the list for me! While I plan on returning, California is now one more state down on my quest to visit all fifty! For those of you like me, Death Valley is the lowest point in the country. It is actually the lowest point on North America. ACTUALLY, it is the lowest point in the entire Western hemisphere! Badwater, where there is literally a pool of really gross water surrounded by fields of salt, is 282 feet below sea level! Death Valley National Park is a lot of nothing. There's mountains and rock formations and a ghost town, but mostly its got a lot of hiking trails which we skipped. And camp grounds. The scenery was pretty cool though. I took a bunch of pictures, but lets be realistic, I'll probably never get around to posting them here. So, if you're in the California/Nevada area you should check it out.