A couple of weeks ago Chris and I took a road trip to Las Vegas (sans child) to celebrate our anniversary. Originally we had planned to go to San Francisco but being that Vegas is a short 4 hour drive we decided to venture east instead. On our trip there we stopped halfway in the town of Calico. Calico Ghost Town is an old west mining town in California. Containing 500 mines that during the late 1800's produced over $20 million in silver, this was once a bustling place. When silver lost it's value, the miners packed up and moved out and then it became a "ghost town". Today Calico is a popular tourist attraction where you can view restorations of the actual buildings that existed. It is also a campsite, has hiking trails, you can enjoy a mining tour, gold panning and hop aboard the Calico Odessa Railroad, a train similar to those used during mining times. I hear they also offer evening ghost tours. Penelope would absolutely love this place so we plan to take her when the weather cools off a bit.

After this pit top we stopped at Alien Fresh Jerky because I had read that this was another tourist attraction on the drive to Vegas. Indeed it was. There were a ton of people checking out the native aliens. The jerky was actually pretty tasty and I found the Duff energy drink rather amusing.




Did I mention it was hot when we went?


Apparently this is the worlds largest thermometer. Located in Baker, California

Once in Vegas we enjoyed the nice air conditioning that the strip provides, saw The Beatles Love show,

We enjoyed a Wagyu beef flat iron, some lobster hush puppies, bone marrow with butter poached lobster and apple slaw and a delicious grilled romaine salad.


We also visited our favorite, Otto, at the Venetian and of course had some amazing olive oil gelato. We go here every time we visit Vegas, service is always great and the food is always delicious.

On our last night there Chris handed me a $100 bill and told me to put in a machine and play the max. I sat down at a $5 machine and left $400 richer. We had a blast and I can't wait for next year's anniversary trip!