Quick Trip Down South

Last weekend Jonathan had his junior recital at UNLV, so my mom and I decided to take a little weekend trip down to see him and hopefully get some sunshine and relaxation. Well, we saw him, we got a little relaxation, and the sun finally showed up on Sunday morning as we were leaving. It was a nice little trip, but it really made me long for a true vacation, one where I have to get on an airplane and fly somewhere far away and maybe even use the swimsuit I packed. But it seems as though I have no travel buddies left who want to go anywhere with me this year, so either I go by myself (which is rather depressing, but at least I'd have something on the horizon) or I convince somebody to run away somewhere. Anyone? C'mon, I'm a really good travel partner; I don't even snore! Anyone?

Sigh. OK, that line of thinking just gets me depressed. Back to Vegas! We did have a good time. After Jonathan's recital on Friday (which he was excellent in, by the way), we went to the Cirque du Soleil Beatles Love show, which was amazing. Then we posed in front of the theater entrance, because that's what you do when you're tourists.

On Saturday we took a drive out to the desert to visit Death Valley National Park, so I get to check that one off my list. Yes, one of the items on my bucket list is to visit all the national parks in the United States, except I'm pretty sure I won't get to most of the ones in Alaska. Anyway . . .

Check. Call me crazy, but I've always been enthralled by the desert (although I'm also enthralled by forests and mountains and beaches too, so maybe I'm just enthralled by the whole outdoors—yeah, that's probably it). Death Valley has some very cool landscapes. See, here's Zabriskie Point:

Totally cool. And here's the three of us at Zabriskie Point:

And here's a cool fact: Did you know that the cover photo for U2's album The Joshua Tree was taken at Zabriskie Point? Now you know. And now for full disclosure—one of the reasons I wanted to visit Death Valley was to visit the Joshua Tree photo spots. I know, I know, my fan-girl is showing. So what? So we went off in search of the Joshua tree—the one that's on the back cover of the album and has become a U2 icon. The tree itself actually fell over a few years ago, but it's still there, and some fans have put a plaque there. It was a pilgrimage! I was armed with all the tools I needed. I had done my research and bookmarked all the websites that told you exactly how to get there and where you needed to look and the helpful advice that if you start playing "Where the Streets Have No Name" at a certain point on the road, you'll find the tree before Bono starts singing. Yeah, that all would have been really helpful if my phone would have been able to get service in the middle of nowhere. Damn technology. So we headed back to Vegas without completing our search. I'll finish my pilgrimage another day.

Back in Vegas, we did a little shopping, a little wandering on the Strip (very little, because it was freezing), and a little eating. Did you know there's a Serendipity 3 in Vegas now? There is! And that's very exciting, because now I don't need to go all the way to New York to get a frozen hot chocolate—all that deliciousness is only a 6-hour drive away. Sweet!

Sunday morning we got up, had some birthday cupcakes with Jonathan, and started driving home. We stopped for lunch in St. George, where we finally got to enjoy some warmth and sunshine for an hour. Too bad there wasn't a beach or a pool handy. So there it was, my very quick trip. Sure, it wasn't everything I was hoping it would be, but at least I got out of town for a little bit and spent a few days with some of my favorite people. Not bad for a March weekend.