Just in case I sounded negative about driving & having a car in the title of my last post I thought I’d follow it with something undoubtedly positive today.

We went to Mt Charleston on a whim yesterday afternoon. It’s only a short drive (if you don’t miss the turn-off like we did) from here in Vegas & hard to believe that such varying landscape & climate is only an hour or so away.

Vegas, if you haven’t been, is hot & dry & flat. We drove up the mountain, up to about 8000 ft altitude & stepped out of the car. The cool air hit us hard, it was crisp & the silence was deafening.. apart from a woodpecker going hard on the tree above us. Yes, trees! We were surrounded by beautiful lush pine trees! And green grass! It was amazing. The temperature was like 20 degrees cooler up there. Perfect.

From there we kept heading up the mountain, winding around picturesque villages of log cabins in the canyons & then further up towards Snow Mountain. It was getting pretty late at this stage & the sun started to drop. So did the temperature. I was actually cold for the first time since arriving in the US. As the name suggests the mountain is covered in snow & ski-fields in the winter, but since it was 90-something degrees in Vegas I wasn’t expecting the temperature to be so cold only a short drive away, on the last day of summer mind you. Stupid unprepared me, left home in only a t-shirt, but like I said, “on a whim” & we didn’t know our destination when we set out for our drive.

My fingers are getting a little numb from the cold at this stage (I’m thoroughly enjoying the sensation however since I was sweating just a little earlier).. & the sun sets as we look over the desert we came from..

Let me zoom in to give you a little perspective. It was like being on top of the world up there, looking down on the scorching desert.

..And we drive back towards Vegas town with a soundtrack from iTunes genius, get a vegedog on a stick, pick up some beer & head home for the night.

The beer of the week was suggested by Diggnation. We cracked open some Michelob Amberbrock in sync with Kevin & Alex while watching the weekly podcast.

The Amberbock wasn’t too shabby. I’m not usually a huge fan of dark lagers but this was pretty light, light enough to drink 3 pretty fast. Nice & caramelly, not much bitterness. Woke up with one hell of a headache though..

Oh & you’ve probably noticed the new look here! That is thanks to my wonderful husband Nikolas & his great coding talents. I really like the new design & all the new features that keep popping up & hope that it’s easier for guests to navigate now. Thanks again sweetie for building my little refuge here in the internet jungle.