Red Rocks

Welcome back to the latest installment of what's been going on.

In this one it's Thanksgiving. On Tuesday, I joined Lauren, Graeme, and my mom in Charlotte, and then from there we flew out to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.

Flights are so weird. You climb into a tiny cylinder with hundreds of strangers.

Then everyone sits in a chair.

Then the chair goes fast enough to leave the ground.

Then people complain that you have to pay for the wifi as if it's not enough to just be sitting in a chair in the sky.

When you stop moving you're in an entirely different place.

So weird.

Uncle Brian, Aunt Ashley, Savannah, and Austin live in Las Vegas.

And Valley of Fire is really close to Vegas.

We didn't really do any traditional Vegas activities, which is fine by me.

Instead we hiked, played tennis, and hung out.

This is where they fake the Mars rover footage.

It's good to go out into nature.

It reminds you of your insignificance.

It chills you out.

The responsibilities that have been weighing on you are not even close to as heavy as these rocks.

Maybe that's part of the reason why places by the ocean are more relaxed.

They look at the ocean every day and are reminded of their insignificance.

Valley of Fire is a pretty unique landscape.

The red rocks are the result of billions of pounds of force from mountains pushing down over years and years onto red sand.

The mountains eroded away over millions of years to reveal the compressed red sand that is now rock.

It also used to be an ocean around the time of the dinosaurs.

People have been coming here for thousands of years.

Some of them left their mark. The people who made the petroglyphs probably saw the petrified logs and had the same reaction we did.

'Rocks that look like logs, cool.'

Savannah and Austin love to play games. We played a lot of games.

Grandpa Greg also likes to play games. Specifically, perp endicular.

Another beautiful place is Red Rock.

If you're wondering why Graeme is wearing that grey sweatshirt in every picture, it's because he wore that grey sweatshirt every day.

We saw snakes.

And rocks.

And climbers (who really put into perspective how large these cliffs are).

This place had a very diverse landscape. One minute it was desert, and the next it's trees and bushes.

We decided to go off the trail for a bit (because we saw the climbers doing it).

It's still unclear to me whether you get in more trouble staying on the trail or going off the trail.

Although it's bound to come for both.

Regardless, we had to backtrack and climb down some steep drops to get back to the car.

It was a lot of fun.

Okay maybe we did a little bit of Vegas stuff.

We went to look at the flower display at the Bellagio which was very cool.

Can't wait for next time.

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It's once again finals season, which is one of my least favorite seasons.

The only good thing about finals is that it will all be over soon.

Wish me luck!

The apartment has seen two new additions in the past week. The first addition is my BAL drawing.

I'll let you try to guess what that stands for.

And the second is Jordan, our new apartment mate.

Also, brussels sprouts grow like this, not like tiny cabbages.

See you next time.