A Weekend Away

I have something to talk about besides work and school. Yay!

We spent the afternoon at The Valley of Fire outside of Vegas yesterday. If you ever have some time to kill in Vegas, I highly recommend driving the 40ish miles there. It was absolutely beautiful! Ian's brother is getting married there in April so I wanted to go scout out wedding locations. I was getting so excited and Ian was not matching my level of excitement... We took some great pictures.

On the drive in.

Lone Rock was our first stop. I wish they allowed weddings there because it was incredible. The red rock was off set by these beautiful turquoise bushes with little flowers. The colors were so vibrant!

The contrast was absolutely stunning.

I had never seen anything like these little bushes. 

Those little yellow flowers are my favorite.

The place lent itself well to panoramic pictures.

Down the road from Lone Rock is The Cabins. They were built in the 1930s for travelers. We took pictures of them because they weren't much smaller than our first apartment. :)

Desert livin'.

Through the window

At least there's a fireplace...

I climbed up to the top. We decided Alex and Claire should stand up there and we could
watch them from below at their wedding. :)

A panoramic from the top.

Mouse's tank was our next stop. Mouse was a gangster, not a rodent. The story is that it was a hideout for gangsters in the early 20th century. We were told there was a rainwater lake after a short hike.

For the Harwells, it's all about picture spots. I thought this was a great one. 

Another picture location.

There was no shortage of beauty to take in along the way.

Here's the rainwater "lake" that sustained Mouse and his gang.
It was rather underwhelming.

There was a cute little rock formation in the sand.

It was definitely worth the afternoon we spent hiking around there. Alex and Claire's wedding is going to be absolutely beautiful. It fits their outdoorsy personalities so well. I'm so excited!