We left home way too early in the morning, and we got into LAX by lunchtime. Started the day with a Hawaiian plate lunch from one of the many West Coast Hawaiian restaurant chains. Picked up our rental Dodge Challenger and went straight to Mission San Gabriel, a Spanish mission founded in 1771. So far, my favorite of the three California missions we’ve been to. We left San Gabriel just in time to run into rush hour on a holiday Friday at the same time 100,000 people were trying to evacuate Malibu due to the fires. It took us six and a half hours to drive to Las Vegas, which should have taken less than three and a half hours without the apocalyptic traffic. I could barely stay awake to keep the car pointed toward Las Vegas, but once we arrived, we went straight to Aloha Specialties at the California Hotel and Casino for a Hawaiian dinner. We ended up checking into the hotel very late, and they had given our room away… So they upgraded us to a sweet suite for free!
In the morning, I went for a quick run that incorporated the Vegas strip, then we had a buffet breakfast at Le Village in the Paris Casino. Properly fortified, we made our way to the Old Mormon Fort in Las Vegas, reconstructed site of the first European settlement in Nevada, then on to the Valley of Fire State Park. The Fire Wave formation and the surrounding area were spectacular, and the 4000 year old Native American petroglyphs were stunning. It’s amazing how similar they were to 400 year old petroglyphs on Maui. That night, we went to the Bacchanal buffet at Caesar’s. If you’re wondering whether going to two Vegas buffets in one day is a good idea… the answer is no. Don’t do it. After dinner, we ordered a giant frozen drink in a novelty accordion jug and played video blackjack at Circus Circus. I quickly lost $31 and Nikki won $30.80, so Vegas only took us for 20¢.
In the morning, we started heading back toward Los Angeles, with a planned stop in the Mojave National Reserve. We pointed the car at Kelso Station visitor’s center, driving in through dry scrub and a huge forest of Joshua Trees (there are actually more Joshua Trees in the Mojave than there are at Joshua Tree National Park). Kelso Station is a not-quite-ghost town, which used to serve as a watering station in the days of steam locomotives. Unfortunately, we hadn’t planned this part of the day’s activities well enough, and there aren’t any trailheads around Kelso. We looked over maps, and decided that we should backtrack and cut across the desert to Hole in the Wall. It added about a 90 minute drive, and this miscalculation turned out to be one of our favorite adventures of the trip. We took our rented Dodge down 25+ miles of dirt roads, with washouts, deep sand, washboard sections, and roiling clouds of dust following our car. For most of that journey, we were the only humans in sight, though we did see a roadrunner. We came out on the pavement again at Hole in the Wall, which was a brief hike around a hill. The trail comes to a cliff at the rear of the hill, then into a crack in the cliff, and finally hand-over-hand up a slot to the top of the formation. From there, we made the long, scenic drive back to LA (without the evacuation traffic this time), and met Nikki’s stepbrother and his wife for a nice dinner on the Sunset Strip.
Monday morning we ate at the free breakfast buffet in our hotel, which was just a few blocks from Santa Monica Pier. Since we had gotten hooked on the California Missions, we spent the morning driving out to Mission San Fernando. That worked up an appetite, so we found yet another Hawaiian restaurant for lunch, Later, we soaked in the hotel pool, then walked over three miles down Santa Monica beach and the Venice Beach boardwalk. Cubano food for dinner, then another soak in the pool before bed.
On our last morning on the West Coast, I got up and went for a quick run up Palisades Park and then back down Santa Monica Beach. Then we packed up our bags and met Nikki’s brother-in-law at his VR game development studio. We got a nice intro to VR gaming, but before long it was time to return the car at LAX and start making our way home.
Thanks for taking me on your trip. I enjoyed every minute.