Nature Walk

We woke up on our own just before the 6:30 alarm, put on our gear (purposely no hiking boots today, but we needed shoes because of cold temps), and got in the freezing car. We've probably used the heated seats more on this trip than the rest of the time we've owned the car the combined. It was only a 5 minute drive, maybe less, to the visitor center parking lot. We probably could have walked, which may explain why all the hotels at the north end of Springdale are so pricy - it saves the need to park your car at the park. It being early, we parked in an easy to find place, right under a "6" sign.

There were a good number of people already at Zion, most of them a good deal younger than us. We got in line for the shuttle, and we got on the second shuttle of the day. Today we were going past the Grotto to the end of the canyon at the Temple of Sinawava. Our shuttle driver, Ivan, kept making some deadpan jokes throughout the drive, which was an unexpected benefit at 7am in the morning on a Saturday. When we got off the shuttle, we looked around a bit and read up on the riverside walk, which is basically the Narrows hike before it gets in the water. We contemplated it, but decided to save it for next time, whenever that might be.

So really our only options were to take the shuttle from stop to stop and poke our heads around a bit, or to walk the road from Temple of Sinawava back towards the entrance, stopping whenever we got to a shuttle stop. We decided on the latter, and began slowly walking back towards the direction of the Grotto and the Zion lodge. Almost immediately we saw some wildlife, a bunch of wild turkeys. At least in San Diego, we never see these. Ironically, Justin saw one at our place in Hawaii many years ago, where they're introduced but uncommon.

A lot of people walk parallel to the road, so where there was flat ground not on the shoulder, there were paths between the road and the river, and we were following that. The Virgin River was basically a glorified creek today, and it's fairly amazing that this river cut the whole canyon, but who knows, during ice age times, the river could have been the Mississippi. There was literally no one else around - the only (human) thing besides us in the canyon was a shuttle every couple minutes, driving by. We were at the far end of the canyon, so it's not like people walking in could be down here yet. We eventually did see a bicyclist, and he told us that there was a condor circling not too far from us.

This got our attention, as we'd never seen California condors in the wild. We had seen Andean condors in Peru ten years ago, visiting Colca Canyon. [So we visited Colca Canyon before the Grand Canyon, visited Victoria Falls and Iguazu Falls before Niagara Falls, etc. We always figured we'd be able to see stuff in the US whenever, but now we're leaving, how ironic.] We rounded a corner and could see a pretty good distance down (up?) the canyon, and we peered around until we saw a big black bird circling above the canyon walls, about a mile away. We assumed this was the bird the man was referring to, but it was the only bird we could see, so we had nothing else to go on.

We watched it circle for a bit, but then we lost it. We kept looking in the general vicinity where we'd seen it circling, and couldn't see anything flying, but after a couple minutes we did spot two blobs in a tree on top of a ridge, vaguely in the neighborhood of Scout's Lookout. Justin took out his telephoto lens and zoomed all the way in, then looked at the picture on the screen and zoomed that in all the way, and it looked vaguely like a condor to us - two, actually.

We kept walking in the direction of the birds, and so we kept getting a bit closer horizontally, but vertically they were still 1500 or so feet above us. We wanted to see their faces, so see if they were the characteristic pink/red color, but the birds were sleeping, and seemed to have covered up their heads with their wings - or at least that's what it looked like to us. They had, probably not coincidentally, perched themselves in a tree on the part of the rim that received the first direct sunlight, presumably to warm up as soon as possible. We saw a couple bicyclists, and pointed the birds out to them, just in case they knew for sure. They did not, but liked our photos.

In addition to keeping a keen eye on the possible condors, we were also discussing lunch plans. We had dinner plans all set up in Las Vegas, but hadn't given much (any) thought to lunch. We were just taking a lazy morning in the park, but had wisely done the canyon overlook hike yesterday, so we could leave pretty much whever we wanted today, as our dinner in Las Vegas was not until 6pm, and it was only around 8am as we were discussing plans. Crystal suggested we try to eat at Noodles, a Malaysian restaurant in the Bellagio that we've eaten at several times before. Justin was immediately interested, but also dubious of them being open. We remembered we'd get an hour back, again, so our three hour drive to Las Vegas was more like a two hour drive. We tentatively decided that we'd call Noodles as soon as we were back at the hotel to see if they were open, and if so we'd plan to go there. If they weren't open, the plan was to have a long brunch outdoors at a Mexican restaurant we'd seen in Springdale.

Around Big Bend, we'd actually passed by the big black birds, and were taking photos back up at them from the southeast, so with the most direct lighting. We got some photos, and when Justin zoomed those in, we saw a bright pink face, at least on the bird on the top of the tree. We were pretty excited. Not long thereafter, a couple bicyclists went by, asking to see our condor photos again. A guy's wife had been ahead of the group when we showed the photos earlier, and now we had better photos to show in any event.

We checked out the sign for the weeping rock trail, and it looked interesting, but it was currently closed, so we added it to the amorphous "next time" list that we'd been putting together in our head. Over the years, we've discussed the possibility of ever getting some sort of a small RV or trailer, and just going around from place to place. Neither of us has had more than 50% interest yet, probably more in the 10-30% interest range. But we could have a fairly epic long trip if we did that.

Shortly after leaving the weeping rock trailhead, we saw a male deer right in front of us, maybe 20-25 feet away, right near the road. We got a little closer, then decided it might be a better idea to actually take a couple steps back. He didn't seem to care we were close to him, but he did have a good set of horns on him, and we didn't want to ruin an otherwise fantastic trip by getting gored on the last full day. We let him get on with his breakfast, and then about a minute later, there was another male deer, this time on the other side of the road.

Eventually we got to the Grotto, and we saw a bunch of people on the west rim trail, headed up towards Scout's Lookout and presumably Angel's Landing. We wondered whether they were getting good views of the condors, as the condors' perch seemed (to us, who admittedly had been here less than 24 hours) very close to Scout's Lookout. Since we were hoping to get to Las Vegas by lunch, and we'd already seen wild turkeys, a couple male deer, and hopefully a couple condors, we figured we'd walked far enough, and went to the shuttle stop to head back into town. At the shuttle stop, there were a couple rangers, and Justin went to ask them if we'd seen condors or turkey vultures. Even if the birds were turkey vultures, that would have been pretty cool, but to a much lesser degree.

The ranger started off by saying we probably saw turkey vultures, as they are way more common, and that it would be "really rare" to see condors in Zion. We showed them the photos, however, and they said "oh, nope, that is a condor." Now we were very excited, not only because we'd seen them, but because we had apparently been so lucky to have done so. Back on the bus, we were not surprisingly the only people headed back to the visitor center. It was around 9:30, and everyone was coming in, not leaving. We had a lot of interested parties trying to get our parking spot back at the parking lot, and made sure to back out in such a way that the people who first found us could pull into the spot without someone else taking it.

We were back at the hotel around 10, and got packed pretty quickly, save for Justin checking out the condor photos on the computer as opposed to the tiny camera screen. After leaving the hotel, which we never got to enjoy, despite it seeming pretty nice and having good views, we stopped at that same Sol Food grocery store. We left town right around 11, so 10am Las Vegas time. Within about 10 minutes of leaving the south of Springdale, we were in the middle of nowhere. We listened to an "Imagined Life" podcast that was about Judy Garland. The podcast gives a person's history, but in a non-identifying way, making you wonder almost the whole time who it is. We had absolutely no idea it was Judy Garland until about 3 minutes were left in an hour-long podcast. It sounds like her life wasn't so great, pretty much awful in all of the Hollywood-type ways you can think of. At least she defied the odds to end up living a long and fulfilling life after almost dying when young.

Just north of St. George we got back on a major US interstate, the 15, marking the first time since we left the 40 in Winslow. It was actually more frustrating to be on an interstate than the two-lane highways we'd been frequenting. There were a ton of cars just cruising in the left lane, instead of just using it to pass. Two SUVs, one from National City (south of San Diego), and one from Utah, were the worst offenders. We tried, unsuccessfully, to be a good influence, showing them how it was possible to pass, then get back over to the right. They were oblivious. We must have passed over the Virgin River at least a half dozen times during the drive, and wondered why the freeway didn't stay on one side of the river - presumably there was a good reason, but whatever grading would have been needed to do this likely would have cost less than all the bridges.

We drove through three states, starting in Utah, going through Arizona for less than 30 minutes, and then ending up in Nevada. In Arizona we descended through the Virgin Gorge, going down about 3000 feet. When we emerged from the mountains to the flat desert in Nevada, it was way hotter and also way more hazy, as if all the smoke from the California wildfires had blown over here and gotten trapped by the mountains. Along the drive we saw a number of billboards aimed at politics and religion, such as "Preserve the American way of life, vote Republican" (in Utah), and something along the lines of Jesus loving you no matter what (in Nevada). It crossed our mind that, while it is certainly a good "sales pitch" to say you can join a religion no matter what happened in your past, that the same message shouldn't necessarily go forward in time. In other words, telling people that they're going to Heaven no matter what they do, so long as they believe, inadvertently gives people a license to be a dick. We surmised a better message might be that the slate is wiped clean when you get saved, but that thereafter, you really should be attempting to abide by the tenets of your religion, rather than use your religion as license to be an asshole to everyone with a never-ending "get out of jail free" card.

Anyway, Vegas baby, Vegas. We got into town around 12:30, and were happy to get off the freeway, as people were all over the place on the 15. We found our way to the back of Paris, where the self-parking garage was. We thankfully didn't have to park on the roof, and found a spot that should stay in the shade no matter the time of day. Since we didn't know how long check-in would take, we decided to go straight to lunch, then check-in thereafter. We were on the elevator to head down to the casino, and got on at floor 3. Despite there being multiple signs saying only 4 people in the elevator, at least a dozen people tried to get on the elevator at floor 2, leading to Justin yelling at all of them for not reading and being overly selfish and unsafe. We got off the elevator and took the stairs, which we probably should have done in the first place.

Inside Paris, we tried our best to avoid people, but it was basically impossible. We crossed over from Paris to Bellagio across the pedestrian bridge on the north side of the hotels, and walked through Bellagio, trying to get to Noodles by memory. We had a short wait at Noodles, and used it to do our Duolingo lesson. Inside Noodles, the tables were spaced apart a good distance, and the menu was via smartphone only, so we were glad they were taking things seriously, even if the patrons in Vegas perhaps were not. It had been a while since we'd been here, and sadly they no longer had the Scorpion Bowl drink, nor did they have the laksa that Crystal was hoping for. They did have Malaysian fried rice, so Justin got that. Crystal ordered the mapo tofu, and both of us enjoyed our food quite a bit. We hoped we hadn't ruined our appetites for dinner.

We noted we were right near the front entrance for the hotel, so rather than go back the way we came, we walked out the front entrance so that we could spend more time outside than inside. We walked along the rim of the Bellgio fountains, and right around the time we got to the Strip, a fountain show started. Hilariously, it was "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, which is one of our least favorite songs, plus the one that reminds of a ridiculous flight in Borneo where the airplane was blaring the song over the speakers during a flight. The fountains were at least good, even if we weren't fans of the music.

We walked into Paris through its main doors, and checked in. The check-in was set up well in terms of promoting distancing, and they even had kiosks to do the check-in and print the key cards. We went back to the car to get our bags, brought them down the stairs in the parking garage, and then up the elevator in the hotel. The elevators in the hotel seemed to have way fewer people, and people were paying better attention and just saying "we'll catch the next one." Our room was at the end of a hallway, and had windows on multiple sides, facing southwest and southeast. Justin realized he forgot his black walking shoes, so Crystal volunteered to get those. While she did that, Justin looked up outdoor bars where we could hopefully enjoy a not-too-hot afternoon before dinner.

As luck would have it, one of the best-reviewed outdoor bars was Beer Park, which happened to be in Paris. We grabbed a seat pretty far from others, with a view of the fountains across the Strip, through some palm trees. Some of the patrons had clearly been here a while, and were a little belligerent. One guy wearing some Ohio State garb was irked that someone changed the channel from the Kentucky game right about as it was going to go into overtime. On the one hand, he had a point; on the other hand, he wasn't going about it the right way. They did eventually change it back. Our waitress wasn't a fan of the Ohio State guy, as she was convinced that he had jinxed her team, Texas, earlier in the day. Looking around, we saw a microcosm of the entire country, with people from all over and from a bunch of a different backgrounds. Our thought, after giving it a little thought, was "this country is screwed." Everyone was acting and behaving as if it was still 2019, and it was soul-crushing. We're never going to get back to anything approaching "normal" if we act as if nothing has changed. Hopefully we're wrong about that.

Around 5 we went down to our room to get cleaned up for dinner at the Eiffel Tower restaurant. Justin cleaned his shoes, using some of the wet wipes to get rid of all the dust and dirt that had accumulated over the trip. It actually worked pretty well. We got to the restaurant right at 6, where check-in was at the base of an elevator going up to the restaurant. They actually took our temperature before they let anyone up the elevator, so again, at least the hotel was trying to set a good example. Our table was by the window, overlooking the Bellagio fountains. This was our unofficial 20th wedding anniversary dinner, which we never got back in April. For the first time we could remember, we used a sommelier to pick the wine - fancy. We ended up ordering a Royal Punisher Petit Syrah, plus some brut rose to start with.

Crystal ordered lamb chops and Justin ordered a steak. The food and drink were all pretty good, but not great. The reason for the dinner, however, was the view, which was worth it. Every 30 minutes the fountains went off, and we probably saw 3-4 shows while at dinner. We also got our picture taken by one of the people who goes around taking photos - this was the first time we could remember doing this, too. We're good for this every 20 years we figure. We got the professional photo since so many of our photos were not turning out well - there were simply too many reflections, including a bright white one from the Bally's sign that was coming in from the north windows of the restaurant.

One of the bus boys looked Filipino, so we told him good evening in Tagalog, only for him to look at us blankly. We apologized and explained our error, at which point he started laughing. Apparently almost everyone who works in the restaurant first thought he was Filipino, so we were not remotely alone. His family is actually from El Salvador. So we apologized again, and then wished him a good evening, but in Spanish this time. A couple minutes later our waiter came over and told us our interaction had made the rounds in the restaurant, and that everyone was having a good chuckle about it, and that we shouldn't worry about it, it's an inside joke and no one takes any offense. Crystal mentioned that she's a big fan of both Paris and Vienna because "they're fancy", and we discussed spending some time there once we (hopefully) get to Spain. We wondered how long the train ride was, and Justin contemplated a bit, then guessed 14 hours. Turns out it is 13.5 - close enough.

Eventually we left the restaurant, with a pep in our step but a dent in our wallet. We changed shoes to something more comfortable, then went to the Rhum Bar at the Mirage, which we'd been to once several years ago. We knew it was outside, and that it had a lot of rum, so that worked for us. They fortunately did not have any wait, so we got a seat (again, pretty far from others) with a view of the volcano show. We have to say, the volcano show has lost a little luster now that we've seen a real volcano just a few blocks from our house in Hawaii. But that didn't dampen our enjoyment, especially since the temperature was comfortable. We were going to order a "volcano bowl," but our waitress thankfully told us how sweet it was, so instead we got a pitcher of guava daiquiri, which was pretty good. We hung out for quite a while, then walked back to the hotel, getting back a little after 11:30, at which point we crashed. We're old.

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