Back to Vegas 
This was our last day so we said goodbye to Laura the night before. We wasted some time in the morning then worked our way to San Bernadino where we were going to meet Sarah. She hadn't been to Vegas yet so said she would drive us up.

We ended up getting to San Bernadino pretty early, so we did a lot of sitting around and waiting, which is not too uncommon for us. Once Sarah arrived we headed up to Vegas. We stayed in a better hotel this time. It was closer to the strip, so we went out for a walk. The only thing I wanted to see in Vegas was the fountain show at the Bellagio. We worked our way there, but we had arrived pretty late. We got to the fountain by 12:10am. The last show was at 12... That was pretty obnoxious.

The next morning we still had some time before we had to be dropped off at the airport so we went to the Hoover Dam. It was neat, but we didn't have a ton of time, so we didn't pay the $15 to go into the visitor center. We just walked around the outside and checked out the dam itself. At one point I looked around and could see five helicopters hanging around the area.

Sarah dropped us off at the airport and we had a relatively uneventful flight back home.

-Miranda


Laura's purty kitty.

Laura's adorable kitten.

Vegas

Hoover Dam


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Chinatown 
Laura had to leave at a crazy hour in the morning to go to work on a movie set. Once we got up we headed down to Little Tokyo. We found a little bakery that had a lot of mochi, which was very good. From there we found a plaza area that had a few restaurants, a bakery/ice cream shop and a few shops. We got lunch at a buffet only because we didn't want a ton of food and this way we could pick and choose what we wanted. Not the best food, but still fine.

After lunch, we stopped at the ice cream shop that had ice cream mochi. It was really good and I'm not one that is normally a huge fan of the ice cream mochi.

After Little Tokyo we walked through the oldest street in LA (it's right by Union Station) and walked over to Chinatown. Here there was a large area filled with little separate shops. It was very reminiscent of some places we saw while in Asia. We found Joe's mom a shirt as well as a kimono for myself. All pretty cheap.

Laura got back home at around 7:30pm. We quickly took her out for yummy dinner at a vegan place nearby and then got her to sleep since she had to get up again at 3:30am or some insane hour.

-Miranda

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Whale Watching  
On Tuesday we left in the morning to go to Ventura for a whale watching trip. Grey Whales migrate through the area. This is around the end of the season, but we hoped to still get to see one or two. Even without Grey Whales, there is the possibilities of seeing other whales, dolphins and sea lions.

The trip went great. We saw a Steller Sea Lion right away and saw quite a few California Sea Lions later on. We were also treated to a large pod of Common Dolphins checking us out. As for whales, we didn't see any Grey Whales, but we did get to see a few Humpback Whales.

Upon getting back to Laura's place, we let her nap a bit before going in to work. We decided to go with her since we hadn't been to the Beverly Hills area and because she only had to work a few hours. We explored the area, including walking down Rodeo Dr. We found some yummy food and frozen yogurt before Laura was done with work.

-Miranda


Steller Sea Lion

Common Dolphin

Humpback Whale tail.

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Checking out Koreatown 
Laura had to work in the morning, so we headed walked around her area some to explore. Afterwards we went off to check out Koreatown. One of Joe's goals for this trip to LA was to go to the different ethnic centers to try different foods and explore. The issue with Koreatown is it is a pretty large area. It's not as dense as Little India. There are random areas that will have restaurants but that was all we could really find.

Once Laura got off work she met us there. We found a restaurant that had Korean pancakes. We were going to have dinner with Chris later so we didn't want to eat too much, but we still wanted to try the pancakes. We ordered two for the three of us and that ended up being way too much food. The kimchi pancake was super good. With the food came a number of small dishes with things in them that were also very good.

Once we were done there we headed back to Laura's place to meet with Chris. We ended up just going for a long walk, stopping to get Boba tea and eventually stopping at a pita joint and getting some really yummy felafel.

-Miranda

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Off to Southern California 
Joe was getting antsy again and wanting to travel a bit again, so we decided to head down to southern California to visit Laura in LA and Sarah in Twentynine Palms. We didn't want to deal with driving down to the Cities so we decided to take the direct flight from Duluth to Las Vegas. The airline that does that flight though is pretty annoying. It nickels and dimes you for everything. The only think "free" is your personal carry-on. The larger carry-on you have to pay for, so Joe and I took just one bag and then we each had a personal carry-on. Also, when we did the online check-in, it showed our seats and we were nowhere near each other, oh but you could buy your seat and be able to sit together then!... Wow... They don't give anything out on the flight either. Not even water. It did leave on time though, so that was good.

Once we arrived in Vegas we rented a car, drove down the strip and found a hotel.

-Miranda

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