USA 2005

Sunday 7th August 2005 (Jack's 11th Birthday Eve!) - Departure from Lake Mead and relocation to Las Vegas

Our night at Lake Mead was like a furnace! We all slept really badly and at about 1:30 a.m. (we were still on Utah time btw), Bekky got out of her tent to sit at the picnic table, too hot to sleep. Martin was awake anyway so got out of his tent to keep her company. To lower temperatures, they even took a short drive in the car to benefit from the car's air conditioning! By 3:00 a.m., Marina and Jack had joined them at the picnic table and we sat there for quite a while star gazing and talking. We saw half a dozen or so shooting stars.

Eventually we all went back into our tents and got what sleep we could. Martin was almost asleep though, when he felt something fairly large crawl across his face! He sat up in a flash, images of those desert tarantulas that *do* inhabit the Mojave in his mind. After switching on the lantern he discovered, to his immense relief, that it was in fact a cricket that must have hopped through the open door as Martin was getting back into the tent. Phew!

We all got up at about 8 a.m. (in fact 7 a.m. Nevada time), very tired. We set off in the direction of Las Vegas, about 25 miles away, stopping for breakfast at Starbucks in Boulder City. After this we drove into Vegas, with no information about our hotel other than its name. Luckily it's pretty easy to tell from the Vegas skyline where all the major hotels are and we found The Mirage no problem at all.

After checking in, we spent a few hours at the huge pool, reading and relaxing. When our room was ready on the 23rd floor, overlooking the "volcano" fountain that the hotel is famous for, we went up to it and relaxed for a while more, watching lots of episodes of Friends on the TV.

We went for a walk in the evening, soaking up the Vegas atmosphere and watched the famous "dancing fountains" at the Bellagio Hotel. After this, we came back to the hotel and ate in our room.

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