Las Vegas - Flagstaff

On day five we got up early and took in the view of daytime Vegas from our 23rd floor windows. It looked bright and hot and somehow too real. Gosia went down to swim in the pool, and I discovered that the hotel Internet does not block porn. Alas, we were not provided dressing gowns, so my Destiny moment was incomplete.

After checking out, we did some research and determined that our best buffet option is the Golden Nugget in Old Vegas. Driving there took us about an hour, because 6-lane highways are very unsurprisingly confusing, but it was more or less worth it. We paid around 14 bucks each, and ate two freight trains worth of everything. Hot plates, cold plates, desserts... anything from crab salad to teriyaki chicken. It wasn't exactly fine dining, but none of the stuff we picked tasted bad (and we picked about 15 different dishes each), and some of it was quite tasty.

And so, we left Las Vegas on a high note and headed to Flagstaff. The drive offered us another tiny cultural shock - Nevada was scorching hot, but in Arizona we actually saw patches of snow. It might have something to do with elevation - Flagstaff is about 3000m above sea level, I think - but still, it took us by surprise.

Flagstaff is a really cool little city. The closest comparison I can think of is the town from Northern Exposure - except more populous, and with an overabundance of really cool bars and cafes. It's surrounded by fir forests (I've no idea if those are actually firs, but just go with the image), and there's a single snowy peak on the horizon, called Snowball, from what I recall.

We checked into our hotel - the Hotel Monte Vista, with every room named after a different Old Hollywood star - and hit the town, eventually ending up at some brewery/eatery, where I sort of amazed myself by flirting with our waiter for a bit, and then immediately disgusted myself when it came up that he isn't even old enough to drink yet. We drank for a while, ate chicken wings, wrote some postcards, and finished the evening at our hotel bar. And then set our alarm clocks to 5 a.m. or so, because we decided to see the sunrise over the red rocks in Sedona. I'm still not quite sure what possessed me to agree to (and possibly even propose, it's all a haze now) this plan. It was probably the "might not get another chance" Jedi mind trick, and I'm never falling for it again.