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| Fist pumps for taking the MCAT! |
While Garrick was studying for the MCAT I asked what was one thing we wanted to do to celebrate. His response was all you can eat crab legs. Of all the things he could've said, crab legs was all he wanted. Around this same time we had also decided that we would postpone celebrating our anniversary until the MCAT was behind us. So Vegas was our solution to celebrate everything! Since Garrick was busy studying I was in charge of planning this trip. The first thing we did when we got there was sit down at a casino buffet with all you can eat crab legs. We ate until Garrick's tummy was good and full! (We paid quite a bit of money for the buffet and while it was fun to splurge, we definitely didn't think it was worth it.) The next thing I had planned was a list of sites to see on the strip. Garrick had only been to Vegas for brief visits and had never experiences the strip so I was happy to show him the sites!
My all time favorite part of the strip is the Bellagio fountains. Beautiful fountain shows during the day and night were magical. The highlight was when they played a Celine Dion song, I almost cried it was so beautiful!! It was definitely Garrick's favorite part as well, we were both mesmerized and watched several shows. It was fun taking in the whole experience. We did everything on my list except gamble of course ;)
During this time my morning sickness had kicked in and eating at the buffet only made the day harder for me. I had done the strip before so I was confident that being pregnant wouldn't be an issue. But after walking up and down the entire strip things started to go south.Towards the end of the night we ran out of water and no where on the strip can you get water! It was baffling! No water in sight. So I was dehydrated and my body was extremely tired. We had on going to the old Vegas strip right after we had finished the main strip but I couldn't last another minute so we decided call it a night. Heading back to the car, we discovered we had walked in a large circle and didn't know how to get back to the car. It was then that I broke down in tears. Hot, tired, thirsty, and nauseous; I just couldn't handle it anymore.
Garrick being the incredible husband that he is, sat me down and ran to find water. Once I was able to rest and drink water I was able to make it back to our car. I happened to be wearing my fitness tracker that day and discovered that we had walked over 13 miles!! No wonder I was so cranky. He was so sweet and took such good care of me. I felt so guilty for not making it to our final stop of the night but he kept saying how much fun he had, how tired he was (I know that was a lie) and that we would be back to do it another time. He definitely cheered me up.
Well since I had been in charge of planning I figured that getting a hotel wouldn't be worth it since we would be on the strip so late and would be leaving early the next morning. My brilliant solution was to sleep in the car at the closest rest stop. I'm cheap and I know it. Garrick, not complaining once about my sleeping solution, hopped on the interstate and started driving until we found a rest stop. There was just one problem with my plan. There was no rest stops. We had been driving for an hour with no rest stops in sight. Garrick was growing in patient and I was getting emotional again. My plan for the next day was to visit the Hoover Dam which was an hour and a half away. Garrick decided to just drive to the Hoover Dam since we had no other solutions. Just outside of the Dam was one casino/hotel, and across the street from it was a dirt parking lot with semi trucks parked to sleep through the night. This was our only option. So we pulled in to the lot, laid our backseat down and tried to sleep. It was hot, uncomfortable and neither of us slept. It was a pretty awful night. We got up early the next morning, drove across the street to the hotel, and used their lobby bathroom to brush teeth and freshen.
Tired and cranky we headed to the Hoover Dam. To our surprise, it was beautiful! Neither of us had been before so we didn't have any expectations, but we were happily surprised. We spent a couple hours walking around, reading the monuments, and enjoying the view. It was the perfect ending to our semi-disastrous trip.
On the drive back we talked about our highlights from the trip and overall it was pretty great! I had my stress-free husband with me to experience a fun new adventure. What more could I ask for? We can laugh now about that horrible night's sleep as well as my break down on the strip. I am, however, suspended from planning future trips for awhile...
