Las Vegas – William Quý Bùi

Monument Valley Trip

Posted on November 20, 2021January 1, 2022 by MICHELLE N

Due to Covid-19, Japan has closed their border and does not allow any travelers to get in their country, which means our trip to Japan is cancelled. The Stunning Tours company gave us the option to postpone the trip to next year (Nov 2022) or to take the credit; we chose to postpone to next year. This meant that we had a full week of vacation with no where to go so we decided to take the road trip to see the Monument Valley, a place where the famous movie was film: The Forest Gump. This would be our longest road trip ever with the driving of 8.5 hours on the first day to reach to the first destination and the total trip days was 6 days. Before this trip, we only arranged the trip to drive max of 6 hrs a day and 4 days in total. This was also the first time that we missed Thanksgiving dinner with our family.

Saturday 11/20/2021: Drive to Page, stop at Las Vegas for lunch and break. Stay at Home2Suite hotel in Page.

There was traffic after we left Las Vegas that it took us 6 hours to get to Page. By the time we got there, it was so late. Fortunately Hilton hotel allows us to digitally check in so we went straight to our room upon arrival.

Sunday 11/21/2021: explore Page, stay 2nd night at Page.

Horseshoe Bend, Upper Antelope Canyon tour.

Monday 11/22/2021: drive to Monument Valley from Page (2 hrs)

First stop was View Hotel, took a quick drive on the scene drive, then Sunset tour of the back country.
Check in a Goulding Hotel around 5:30 PM.

Tuesday 11/23/2021: Forest Gump Point, Mexican Hat, Valley of the Gods. Drive back to Page.

It was raining and cold this day but we got a good shot at the Forest Gump Point.
Stay at Home2Suite hotel in Page for 1 night.

Wednesday 11/24/2021: Zion National Park, Las Vegas.

On the way back to Las Vegas, we stopped by Zion Park. Did not know it still had beautiful yellow leaves so we stayed here longer than we planned.
Arrive to Las Vegas and check in to Hilton at Resort World, a brand new hotel just opened this year.

Thursday 11/25/2021: Las Vegas.

Spent our Thanksgiving at Las Vegas. Explore the hotel Resort World. William loved to swim at the hotel pool until they closed at 5:00 PM.
Walk to Paris Hotel to see the Effeil tower lit at up night; and Bellagio to watch the dancing water.

Friday 11/26/2021: Go home

Check out the hotel and go home, there was no traffic at all so we got home early around 4:00 PM.

In Search For Yellow Leaves 2020

Posted on October 17, 2020October 23, 2020 by MICHELLE N

Our short trip to Utah in autumn Oct 17,2020 – Oct 20, 2020.

Oct 17: Left house around 8:00 AM, stopped by Las Vegas for lunch at Phở Số 1 and Bellagio for its beautiful garden: it’s Pumpkin time! Then headed to Comfort Inn in Hurricane Utah around 4:00 PM. Our dinner for tonight was Canh Bún.

Oct 18: Took the Cedar / Kolob loop to search for yellow leaves, but we were too late. First stop at Parowan Visitor Center but they closed on Sunday. Then continue on 143 for Yankee Meadows Reservoir; Then hwy 148 for Cedar breaks (but we did not go in) then turn to hwy 14 (cedar canyon) -> Left turn on Right Hand Canyon Rd which will become Kolob Rd. Only the first part of the Kolob Rd. is paved, the rest until it reaches the Kolob Reservoir is unpaved with lots of small gravels and dust! But it’s full of aspens! Too bad we were too late. Once we reach the Kolob Reservoir, the road is paved to hwy 9 (30 miles from here to Hurricane town but it’d take about 1 hr because there’s lots of curves and it goes thru the Kolob canyon and Zion canyon. Our dinner for tonight was Bánh Canh Tôm Cua.

https://goo.gl/maps/qAj7f4R7VXj6NP2g9

Oct 19: Zion Park. We could not get the shuttle tickets so we took 2 hikes on Canyon Junction and Canyon Overlook (right after the tunnel). Canyon Junction with the view of the Watchman mountain in the background is beautiful; we found a little waterfall after crossing 2 bridges. The parking lot for the Canyon Overlook is really small (for about 20 cars) but we were lucky to get one after waiting for about 10 minutes. Otherwise one would have to park along the road and walk back to the trail head which is about 10 minutes walking. It’s easy trail with some parts have hand rails; and it’s beautiful along the way. William & I did not hike to the end because it was hot and he was tired; but we enjoyed the hike regardless.

https://goo.gl/maps/1xsJe4XAX1hpyBTSA

It was still early so we decided to go back to Kolob Reservoir because we saw some yellow leaves on the other side of the reservoir yesterday. To our disappointment, when we got there, we could not go in because it’s “Private property”.

On the way back to the hotel, we got some Domino’s pizza and some wings for dinner.

Oct 20: Checked out the hotel around 8:30 AM. Stopped Palazzo and Venetian and then Phở Số 1 for lunch then headed home. It was 5:00 PM.

Las Vegas After Thanksgiving 2019

Posted on November 29, 2019October 29, 2021 by MICHELLE N

After Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to Las Vegas with the main goal is to visit Grand Canyon West which is about 2 hours from Las Vegas.

We left for Las Vegas on Black Friday; never seen so much snow along the freeway like this. We took a quick exit on 395, stopped by the gas station for William to play with the snow; he totally loved it. Luckily we brought the slide. Then we stopped by Fashion Outlets next to Primm Casino for lunch, this outlet is dying: halves of the stores are closed. Grandpa went to the Primm casino while we went to have lunch at the Outlet (Grandma did not go with us this time). Note that the Mc Donald here is always crowded, the line was so long!

We arrived at the Luxor hotel around 1:30 PM; our room was ready because we checked in on-line as soon as they sent us the email providing the instructions to email; which I received around 1 AM in the morning. As always, William’s favorite part is to jump up and down on the hotel bed! Too bad it was cold, the pool was closed so William did not get to swim but he seemed to be ok with it.

After waiting for our sisters and brothers to get their room, we went to Pho So 1 for dinner. Then we went to Bellagio to watch the Water Fountain. It was so crowded so we took a detour to park at the other hotel and walked to Bellagio. After a long walk we finally got to the Water Fountain but William refused to go out to watch: he covered his ears. The music was so nice but he found it noisy. So he ran around the Bellagio hotel, I ran after him, and we ended up at the Garden, where we meet the rest of our family. The garden was so beautiful but William refused to stroll around the garden so we had to leave early. It was a long walk in a cold night but William was ok; he kept complaining that “I walk too much” but that’s about it: no crying or kicking!

We left Bellagio around 10:30 PM but when we got to our hotel room, it was 12:00 AM! I totally hate Luxor hotel for not having enough parking for its guest! (see below comment about the parking).

This time we did not explore Las Vegas much because the next day we went to Grand Canyon West, then we left Las Vegas the next day.

About Luxor: The lights are very dim in this hotel which I don’t really like; and it smells! lots of smoke that I could not stand in the lobby for too long; we could smell smoke even inside the room (and the room is non-smoking!). Worse part is the parking: its parking lot is so small: one day the parking attendant re-directed us to the Mandalay Bay hotel parking because this parking was full! We are not familiar with the area so we had so much trouble first to find the Mandalay parking entrance; second is to find the entrance to the Madalay Bay hotel from the parking structure: the parking was so huge! and then to walk from Mandalay Bay hotel to our hotel is quite a bit, especially it’s late at night and the casino is crowded! we arrived at the Luxor’s parking lot around 11 PM; and by the time we could park the car at Mandalay Bay and found our way around to get back to the Luxor hotel, it’s 12:00 AM. Unbelievable! I don’t think I’d stay here again.

William’s First Camping Trip

Posted on May 24, 2018January 10, 2020 by MICHELLE N

Memorial Holiday weekend, we went camping with a group of friends (VCF – Vietnamese Cyber Friends) at Zion Park. We left our house on Thursday and drove to Las Vegas, stayed at MGM Grand for 1 night, then drove to Zion Park (3 hours drive) and camped at Watchman campground for 1 night. The plan was to camp 2 nights but the weather was too hot and William had an accident at the daycare right before we left so we only camped 1 night then headed home on Saturday. We got home around midnight on Sunday.

The whole trip, the only time William was happy is to ride the shuttle bus and to play with the water in the river. The weather was too hot (85 degree and above) to make it impossible to sit in the tent during noon, so William had to sit on the chair outside. I know he was tired and just wanted to lie down but every time I told him to get in the tent, he’d get in for 1 minute and then ran out even when we turned on the fan inside the tent.