♥ New Jack City, Bishop and Las Vegas ♥

 

Honestly nothing beats the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

I was reminded just how much California and the Eastern Sierras feel like home these past few weeks. It was helpful that Felix and I were very lucky and spent these past 2 weeks with such great company. First Felix's dad joined us for a night in New Jack City, then we had a week with our favorite Escobar girls, then the day they left our good friends Michelle and Eric joined us in Bishop and the very next day Sarah and Ben joined as well! These were lovely surprises as we changed our plans to Bishop from Red Rocks, NV last minute. As much as Felix and I love each other it has been a full year now without being away from each other for more than hours and a change company is welcomed :). 

New Jack City 

A strange and underrated place in the best way near Barstow, CA. Felix,  Sarah and the girls knew the place well and had been many times but I had never been before and in a good way it was exactly like I pictured. 

In the middle of the desert landscape piles of rocks appear and free, unauthorized campsites are dispersed throughout them. We scored a spot right in the middle, next to some climbs with a fire pit and table. 

Felix's dad joined us for the first night and we had a great time around the fire after we spent the afternoon climbing with Bobs entertaining commentary.  

Felix and I fit in some climbing that required a further approach the morning before the Escobar girls arrived. 

Then the girls joined and brought alllll the energy! 

Activities quickly switched from climbing to running around on rocks, drawing, painting rocks, playing hot n' cold with painted rocks, hangman and an obsession with mixing up the Rubik's cube so Felix and I could solve it. 

Another great van camping set-up. 

Right next to our site there was an easy climb that Sarah decided she was ready to lead, clean the anchor and rappel, which for non-climbers I know sounds confusing but it is basically a very serious part of climbing to remove your gear and get down safely. Sarah did wonderful, her girls were in the van coloring and cheering "GO MOM" the whole time while Felix was at the top making sure she felt okay about it all and I belayed her. There was a rush of emotions as expected coming down, that again I am just so proud to see her working through things and fully feeling everything rather than hiding from them. 

Our climbing day turned into a lounge day (you can spot the crew laying in front of the rock). 

Charlotte LOVED our bed with our magic blanket that is exceptionally warm.  

Andd the Dinosaur park?? Unfortunately the girls favorite part of New Jack City.  

We convinced them to leave to go to the real playground...

Had a dance performance. 

Did some sound listening and meditating, challenged each other to picking up large rocks and Josey and I had some fun scrambling adventures. 

New Jack City was a perfect place to get started on a camping trip with the girls, somewhere familiar, easy to park and plenty for the girls to do. It was really a blast having the girls run from van to van making up new games, giving the adults on and off time to hang and chat with 2 different spaces, just like we were neighbors in our little mobile homes. 

New Jack City did leave us with a gift though. We had a mouse in the van before but only once and we caught it that next night. This mouse was much less afraid of us and when we laid in bed at night we watched it crawl ALL over the van (cleverly around the mouse trap) and taunt us with it's scampering when we turned the lights out. SO the second night Felix took matters into his own hands and made his own mouse trap. The mouse kept returning to this foam spot so he placed a box over the area with a string attached to an object he could pull from the bed to trap him. 

I will admit..I had little hope and couldn't help but laugh at the sight of us sitting up in bed watching this dang mouse for HOURS while Felix kept his string close by, and then BOOM I had given up and was reading instead of watching when I heard Felix pull the string. 

It worked! We slid something under the box and Felix took it outside. What happened next to the mouse will remain between Felix, Sarah and I. 

Alabama Hills 

Alabama Hills is the foothills of Mt. Whitney which is the highest point in CA, tucked in the Sierra Nevadas. It is truly in my opinion the most beautiful place I have been. We arrived just before sunset and took advantage of the lighting and scenery for some photos and scrambling around.  

I mean, come on. 

Charlotte looking like an album cover. 

The next day was Valentine's Day and the girls "surprised us" with a Valentine's Day Spa which included nails, face sparkles, face stickers and hair brushing. It was hilarious and really so fun. 

Charlotte feeling herself. 

Sarah and I were feeling ourselves too with our NAILS. We always laugh at ourselves for how little we know about fashion, hair, make-up, nails and it was ridiculous to try and do absolutely anything with fake nails on except pose like this. 

Dancing to girl power/love songs.

Lots of love and lovely people. 

I told Sarah I would ride with her from Alabama Hills to Bishop, an hour drive so we could jam to some more fun songs with the girls. Our vision of that drive drastically changed quickly haha, there were 25 mph winds, dust storms and a rental truck had been flipped on it side. We were very careful and drove slowly and made it eventually. 

The weather remained grim so we got creative with some indoor activities, we went bowling, spent time at the library and went out for dinner - overall a very unique and fun Valentine's Day. 

The open land on the east side of the Sierras is unbeatable. These were our morning views on free open land. 

Dance party for good weather! We spent the day bouldering with the girls in Bishop which we didn't get any pictures of, the girls had a great time playing in all the rocks and making different homes and offering sushi from their kitchen. 

The Escobar girls left the next day, Felix and I had one day of bouldering on our own before Michelle and Eric arrived that night. 

Felix always getting the great and not so great pictures of me. 

Same thing the next day but with Michelle and Eric! I met Eric at the same time I met Felix (proclaimed wingman on our first climbing trip together) and I started to get to know Michelle when I moved to Fresno about 4 years ago, we've done a lot together and they are just some of the most fun, easy people to be around. 

The view. 

The crew. 

Our spot for the night! We drove up a little further north to a spot we planned to do some rope climbing in the next morning, Michelle and I ran out to catch the sunset. 

The morning view. 

Climbing in Owens River Gorge!  Felix was climbing right next to me as I was leading a super fun and long 10a pitch. It is so fun to go from loving bouldering and working on just a couple moves over and over to climbing up a 130 foot wall the next day and loving it just as much. 

That afternoon Sarah and Ben joined! They are truly just the best people and wonderful friends, its always a good time to be around such good people. 

Not pictured was a really fun night of pictionary (girls vs. boys - girls dominated) and a new game we play (mainly Sarah vs. Felix) where I pick a 2000's playlist and they compete to see who can guess the artist and song first which just turns into us jamming to the good ole days..

Last day with the whole crew so we fit in some more hanging and climbing. 

Both Eric and Felix sent a problem called Strength in Numbers, a V5 that was very impressive and both had tried for years! 

We ended with a picnic in a park in Bishop then parted ways on towards Las Vegas with a stop through Death Valley. 

We stayed on BLM land (bureau of land management) that night and it was maybe top 5 places we have stayed in the van, the stars were incredibly clear, no one within our sight, a huge joshua tree right next to us. So, I took some photos..

Death Valley 

For it being so close to a place we visit often, we had never made it to Death Valley so we decided to take a little longer route to Las Vegas in order to go. What a place. We mostly drove through it but it was beautiful. I really have a soft spot for wide open vast landscapes and that is exactly what Death Valley is, the kind that really does not capture well in photos therefore making it all the better in person. 

We stopped for a short hike. 

We did not dress appropriately for the heat... 

And felt like city hikers but embraced it. 

We didn't spent too long in Death Valley, we had a hotel booked in Vegas for Felix's birthday and we were both stoked to go get a hot shower and lay in a fresh big bed but we are excited to go back!

Las Vegas

Onto Vegas! Our love for Vegas has nothing to with the strip..but somehow we keep coming back to spend Felix' birthday there haha. Really we just love the cheap hotels during the weekdays and a change from our typical life. 

Birthday boi.

We mostly hung in the hotel and enjoyed the hot tub and extra space for 2 days and went out to eat for dinner while freshly showered which just felt like absolute luxury. 

The next day we went to Meow Wolf/Omega Mart...it was highly recommended by a handful of our friends so we decided to splurge and spend the money on it for Felix's birthday. We did not enjoy it. I don't usually have strong negative opinions but I could not believe how much money it cost ($60 per son + 3 dollars to actually take part in the interactive part) to do something that I just don't understand. I thought it was going to be an interactive visual arts museum..which in a way it was but it had a way too detailed story line that you had to figure out/didn't really and never fully made sense. If you want more on our opinions we could go on and on haha..to our friends, can't wait to get your reasoning behind the suggestion! 

The 2 pictures we did get..

The reason we DO love Vegas is for Red Rocks and the surrounding areas for climbing, biking, hiking and just overall beauty. Unfortunately most of the climbing is sandstone which cannot be climbed on after rain and it rained off and on all week..so no climbing for us, and the surrounding areas were all rain as well so we just filled our days as best we could and even looked at condo's for the future :). 

The sun did eventually come out and we were able to fit in some really nice mountain biking and hiking.

Felix doesn't take pictures of me often, so I started taking them of myself. 

Practicing my up do's for the wedding? Or found him off the streets?

And where we are now! IKEA - the best, with a view of Red Rocks. 

We have talked a lot about living in Vegas since being on the road and it just keeps feeling right, so we were very excited to be here and have the same feeling. The housing market is decent for us, the job field is good for both of us, the climbing access and variety is just incredible, we can keep access to the parts of CA we love and gain access to Utah's beauty, Sarah and her girls are only 4 hours away, a lot of good friends are within easy visiting distance, flights to see family and friends are easy and fairly cheap, the city has everything you could want to offer from a city...it just goes on and on for us. We have even discussed Felix applying for jobs at the end of this summer to get started! Some changes..but just trying to talk through our future and what we really want and what is realistic. We are not ready to give up our freedom and life on the road but willing to talk through some fun other options. 

Onto Utah tomorrow for March!