Goodbye, Vegas. We will miss you!!!

Our time in Vegas has come to an end!
We were pretty excited to go back to Provo to our cozy apartment and sleep on our super comfortable mattress again...but we must say that we miss Vegas a lot!

After my first time visiting Las Vegas for a day or two right after our wedding, I thought that Las Vegas was a cool city but not more than that. I always thought that Provo is THE place to live. But after having lived in Las Vegas for over 3 months, I have to confess that Vegas is THE place! We really miss living there. Fingers crossed that Anthon gets a job there. He loved working for NS Tec. He had a great boss who was extremely supportive. She was even nice enough to take Anthon to the airport and pick us up when we got back from Germany.
Anthon worked 4x10 hours, which means that he always had a 3-day weekend- AWESOME!!!


Here are some of the many reasons, why we love Vegas:

1. The weather! Look at the following pictures- do you see a single rain cloud somewhere? No! During the 3 months there, it only rained 2x. After about 10 minutes of rain, 50 min of a cloudy sky, the clouds were completely gone. Amazing!
The best summer I've ever had weather-wise.

2. Las Vegas has an awesome location. It's close to California, close to Arizona, close to Southern Utah. And therefore, it's so close to some of the National Parks, Lakes,...

The Hoover Dam is only about 45 minutes away.

The new Memorial Bridge

 The beautiful Lake Mead is only about 30 minutes away.

The water is so clean and always looks so amazingly blue. The contrast between the dry landscape and the blue lake is so beautiful.

 The Petty-cabin is pretty close (near Cedar City, Utah). This summer was my first time ever to go there. We had sooo much fun walking in the woods, going fishing (there are so many lakes in that area where you can go fishing), gutting fish, eating s'mores, watching "Toddlers and Tiaras"...

We also went canoeing (and napping) on Navajo Lake.

3. Another reason why we love Vegas is the strip. We lived just 1.2 miles east of the strip, so we went there soooo many times and never got tired of it. We watched a couple of Bellagio Fountain shows at least once a week. 

 4. For me, Vegas is a photographer's paradise. There are sooo many cool things to take pictures of. I took soooo many pictures while we were there. I love the garden inside the Bellagio and I love the architecture of most hotels. Pretty cool.

 Have you ever seen a curved escalator?!?

 Have you ever seen cakes like that at a wedding in Provo?!? Me neither.

5. We LOVE eating out once in a while and Vegas is full of good and unique restaurants.

 One of our fav restaurants is Max Brenner's Chocolate Restaurant. Their hot chocolates are THE BEST!!! I mean, I'm from Europe and am used to amazing chocolate- but Max Brenner's tops all the hot chocolates I've ever had in my life. And I have had many ;-)

One of my favorite hot chocolates is the Italian thick white chocolate with hazelnut. Max Brenner's white chocolates are made with a hint of roses. Very unique and sooo delicious!

Another favorite of ours is their chocolate and dulce du leche ice-cream with banana pieces and warm peanut butter and dark chocolate sauces. The combination of chocolate, peanut and bananas is sooo addictive!

By the way, you can also eat normal food there. Their cobb salad is amazing, too!

We also went to a Moroccan restaurant, a tapas place with delicious dates filled with blue cheese and an almond and wrapped with bacon. And...not to forget...we went to the best Sushi places we've ever been to. And....many more other great restaurants. 

Ahhhh...I wanna go back- right now!!!! Just to have some good food and a hot chocolate. :-)

No wonder why we haven't managed yet to loose some weight. Food is just too good to only be looked at...

 6. We also loved about Vegas that we could do so many things with your friends. There are so many cool places you can go. Being back in Provo, I don't know what exciting stuff you could show your guests....BORING!!!

  Our neighbors: Victoria and Alex, her boyfriend.

7. Another thing that we like about Las Vegas is that although you're not surrounded by tons of members of the church, there are many wards, there is a Deseret Bookstore, and of course, the Las Vegas temple nearby.

8. Due to the economic crisis, buying a house in Las Vegas is very affordable. This would be one of the only ways that we could afford to buy a house after Anthon graduates.

9. I really liked the variety of people. You go down town and you see many rich people... and just 1 mile away from the strip, people are searching for stuff in your trash.
Seeing these people in front of our apartment really made me realized how well we're doing and how blessed we are to have parents who support us. Living in our little ghetto really opened my eyes.

I was really amazed by these people. I think they are really smart looking for plastic bottles and cans in the trash to get some money out of it.

After we noticed these people (and these are just a few of the many that come to the trash every day), we left our trash bags open when there were some plastic bottles in there. We also sometimes hung clothes on the container wall instead of throwing it in- and of course our clothes were always gone after a couple of hours and somebody else was a little bit happier than before going to the container.

 This black woman made me cry. Just a couple of hours after I took this picture, I saw this lady with a baby wrapped in her arms. I saw her every day. Sometimes several times a day, desperate to find some valuable trash in that smelly container in order to make ends meet. 

When I see people like her, I often wonder what their life is like, in what circumstances they grew up, what happened to them in their life so far, what gives them the push to continue? Were they ever abused? Were they ever rich and then something tragic happened?

Maybe, I will find that out one day.

In summary, Anthon and I really had a great experience in Las Vegas. Hopefully, we'll spend some more time there soon. But for now, bye, bye Vegas!