The City that Never Sleeps

Yesterday was an adventure! After multiple cities and plane rides, I finally landed in San Diego at 1:15 pm Pacific to an overcast sky. You would think that Sunny California would have sunny skies, but not San Diego in May. San Diegans call them May Grays. Despite the gray day, San Diego is still a beautiful city. While landing, I was treated to hillsides covered in white stucco, spanish tiled houses and colorful sailboats in the harbor. I was starving when I got off the plane, so Catherine took me to San Diego's Little Italy where we ate pizza and admired the city. About an hour after we ate lunch, we hit the road.

I'm still amazed at how different California looks from North Carolina. You notice the difference immediatly and it takes some getting used to. California has rocky, bolder-like mountains covered with short greenish trees. It looks like someone picked up rocks and piled them up to make a mountain. The further west we went, the more sandy everything became. We finally hit the desert about 4 pm pacific and the weather immediatly cleared. The sun came out and it got hotter outside, but not a NC humid heat, a dry heat. The mountains in the desert are beautiful! They look like the wind created them.

We finally hit Nevada at 7 pm and were immediatly greeted with 2 casinos and colored lights. After stopping at the Nevada welcome center, which was closed (who knew anything in Nevada closed before 3 am!), we headed for Las Vegas. You can see Vegas before you get there. I have the feeling that Vegas is one of those places that you can probably see from space. There were lights EVERYWHERE, and not just from the strip. Las Vegas has lights lining every single street, lights from buildings and lights from the casinos lining the strip.

We parked at the Bellagio and walked around the casino a bit. I have to say that I'm not terribly impressed with Las Vegas. After checking into our hotel, Catherine and I hit the strip at 10 pm. For a city that takes pride in their nightlife, there isn't a lot to do if you don't want to gamble. The best part of our time in downtown Vegas were lights and the fountains at the Bellagio.

Today, we are off to Salt Lake City and it's a beautiful day for driving!