Adventures in Florida: The Callihans Take Tampa

Hello lovelies,

Welcome to the latest edition of the blog! Since we have a ton of pictures, I will keep my musings brief, but we had a wonderful vacation and I'm excited to share it with you.

We started our adventure in Vegas, which never disappoints. I think I told you all that we got a ridiculous room at the Aria for free - the pics don't really do it justice. It was like 2000 sq feet, had two bathrooms, a bar, and a 12-person conference room.

Living room/bar

Another angle - windows overlook the Aria pool

Glenn liked playing video games in the conference room. :-)

Also, here are a couple pics of the Aria lobby, which is always beautiful and smells like vanilla.

After we dropped off our luggage, we went to Mon Ami Gabi - our favorite restaurant in Vegas - which is at the Paris. It has a lovely porch where we had dinner/lunch (due to the time difference). Right across the street is the Bellagio and we sat down just in time for their fountain show.

The perfect welcome to Vegas.

The next day we walked over to the Bellagio, because their lobby is always spectacular. I know we've shown you their Christmas decor before, but this time it was a spring display that focused on flowers, birds, butterflies and giant music boxes.

That night, we met up with Matty and Julie, who drove out to join us from Phoenix, and Pat and Lori, who live in Vegas, and had a fun meal together at a restaurant called Best Friend in the MGM Park. And of course, we did a good bit of gambling. The next day, we drove to our house in Hurricane, UT (with Matty and Julie in hot pursuit).

A note on our destination. Hurricane is right next to St. George (well, "right next to" out West means like a 25 - 30minute drive) and about 40 minutes outside of Zion. Dad had asked why a place in UT was named Hurricane and so we looked it up and discovered a dumb story. In the 1860s, Mormon leader Erastus Snow was riding through the valley and a great wind came through and blew him off his buggy. When he got up, he said, "Well, that was quite a hurricane!" and that's how the town got its name. Also, the locals pronounce it "Her-ah-kun", which is even dumber.

So anyway, our house rental in Hurricane was in a housing plan, aptly named Copper Rock, on a golf course smack in the middle of nowhere, but it was very nice. Windows and balconies all around.

We were constantly seeing hummingbirds drining from the flowering vine on this balcony.

There was a whole other floor with another kitchen, living room and bedrooms/bathrooms on the lower floor too, which was a perfect set-up for Matty and Julie.

And here are sun (rise? set?) pics that Glenn took - I believe these were all taken generally around our place.

This is one of my favorite pics!

The next day after we arrived, we drove over to Zion, where we first drove around aimlessly and discovered we were taking the wrong road (the one leaving the park). Still, we stopped at some scenic spots and took some pics before we realized that we had gone the wrong way.

When we got back to the entrance we found out that no cars are allowed to drive within the park - you must park and take a shuttle. I think this was a Saturday and parking was a nightmare, but we ended up taking the shuttle up to the last stop - the Temple of Sinawava, which includes a path to the entrance of the Narrows. (More to come on the Narrows)

So we took this little hike along the Virgin River, just to the entrance of the Narrows, which was lovely. I actually found a little cave to sit in when we were almost there and took a break there while my companions continued on (and then turned around and came back).