May 12 - Hold on!

We were up pretty early this morning to head to Red Rock Canyon to beat the heat. Highs of 100 the last two days were behind us, but with the forecast high of 91, we still wanted to get out early to hike. We left our resort around 7:30 and arrived at the visitor's center at 8:00. We heard it would be windy, and the drive there was challenging in the wind. Winds were at 35, gusting to 55 mph.

The visitor's center was nice and large, especially considering this is just a Conservation Area (not a monument or park). 

They had desert tortoises at the visitor's center, and we were lucky to be there on feeding day.

We spent about 40 minutes there and picked out a few hikes. On the first hike we chose, we abandoned it because it was poorly marked. The second one we selected was a 2.3 mile moderate hike. The highlights on this hike were:

- Flowers, most we have seen on a hike.

- Cactus, lots, and a few different varieties.

- People - we saw none on the entire hike!

When we got back to the car, the wind was so strong we did not want to open both car doors at the same time to keep our stuff from blowing away.

From there we headed to Sushi Love near our place. We tried the recommended Bluefin Belly nigiri which was fantastic. The two other rolls we had were great, too. From there we went back to our place for a rest and to begin organizing our stuff for our flight home the next day. We had leftovers for dinner and then went out for dessert - Cinnabon! It was gu-udd. After a bit of shopping, we headed to the Pinball Hall of Fame. Leon found a number of machines from his youth but tore up a new machine to the tune of 8 free games on one play. 

We settled in for the rest of the evening and did a bit of packing to get ready for our flight home.