What a week!!

I realize that I've been absent for over a week now and really I don't have a very good excuse....but I'm going to try anyway.  Basically, being out of town the last two weekends in a row + a very busy work week just exhausted me!  

For this reason, this post is a little bit of a iPhone picture dump.

The rest of my weekend in Chicago was awesome.  The weather was BEAUTIFUL, especially on Sunday.  I'm sure you're sick of me saying this...but I was *so* happy to escape the scorching Las Vegas weather.

My very good friend (with whom I stayed) lives less than a block from here!

My trip to Chicago consisted of:

#1 :: Delicious Food

Bailey's French Toast from Sweetwater Tavern & Grille
"bailey's cream cheese stuffed french toast, vanilla ice cream batter, mixed berry compote"
**try to control your salivating**

#2 :: A little bit of dancing and catching up with the most awesome friends:

seriously, everyone should be jealous of me for having such amazing friends.

#3 :: Chicago Pride Parade & Seeing Benny the Bull and Tommy Hawk:

The Pride Parade is always fun and seeing Benny & Tommy was the cherry on top (I'm kind of a Chicago sports nut....except baseball (Cardinals all the way))

#4 :: Having an entire row to myself on the flight back to Vegas!!

Eventually, I ended up sprawled out across all three seats, but I couldn't get a good pic of that.
Don't think that I didn't try, though....I got a lot of perplexed looks....apparently I'm not subtle when taking selfies.

After returning from Chicago, my week was so hectic with work, picking up my dogs from the vet, $1300 in car repairs (ugh).  The highlight of the first part of the week was this lovely package on my doorstep:

Yummy, yummy I got Tropical and Grape Rasberry nuun in my tummy

Fortunately, I had the lovely surprise of one of my dear friends from high school being in Las Vegas for the night on her way to a more tropical destination.

(ugh - hate the reflection caused by my glasses, but, unfortunately, this was the best pic we had)

Not to mention, there was this lovely holiday in the middle of the week to break it up.

Happy (belated) 4th of July!!

We spent our 4th of July hiking to Mack's Peak with Branch Whitney of Hiking Las Vegas for the 8 of Spades.

Yep, that's me all the way down there.

The hike was definitely the shortest hike I've done with Hiking Las Vegas in the Mt. Charleston area.  It took us about 1.5-2 hours to hike the 6 miles up 1,813 feet of elevation gain to the 10,033 feet elevation peak.  

Fortunately, it took less than an hour to get back to the trailhead.

The next day, July 5th, Husband went on one of my favorite hikes, White Rock Hills Peak in Red Rock, while I went to work.  

I let him take the car and I rode my bike the 7 miles to work (with the caveat that he pick me up at work - it is all uphill from work to home and I wasn't in the mood for that in 110 degrees)

All of this talk of hiking is making me more sad about the Carpenter Canyon fire that is consuming much of the woodlands around Mt. Charleston where I hike frequently.  This weekend, the fire was so intense you could see the smoke and the glow of the fire over the ridge of the mountains from down in the valley.

At this point, it is unclear whether the fire has been contained in any way, but I've seen the airplanes flying overhead and I've read the reports of many emergency personnel working to contain the fire.  I'm reasonably certain that there have been no injuries and no property damages.  I really hope it stays that way.

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How did you celebrate the 4th of July?

Favorite breakfast food?

       (I *love* french toast - easily my favorite)

Favorite nuun flavor?

       (grape raspberry is my favorite, but the only other flavor I've tried is lemon-lime)

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