Ellen's Blog: 2016

Las Vegas, Lake Mead and Hoover Dam - Nevada Travel Diary!

Hi Guys,

I’m back with the final post relating to my October break trip. Following Zion National Park in Utah and a well-earned sleep in our hotel, we hit the road towards our final destination of the trip, Vegas! The journey from St. George to Vegas involved two lovely pit-stops which made this day all the more exciting. On route, we headed to the beautiful Lake Mead as well as Hoover Dam before driving that extra half hour to Vegas.

Lake Mead

There’s something I absolutely adore about water and all geographic elements of the earth that are associated with water. Beaches, dams, lakes, and rivers are all things I love seeing whenever I visit a new place. This is precisely the reason I loved visiting Lake Mead so much. It was a lovely place to be and we had such a pleasant walk down to the lake which is a very pleasant way to begin your morning. I hope that you find that these photos of Lake Mead do it as much justice as the real place itself.

Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam was very impressive and well worth the visit in my mind so I thought that I might as well share some photos I do have from this pit stop on my blog!

Vegas

After our stop in Hoover Dam, it wasn’t long until we got to Vegas at about 3 o clock in the afternoon. Personally, Vegas didn’t wow me as much as I thought it would and it wasn’t as impressive as other cities I have visited in the states. I kind of got the feeling that all the fuss that is made over Vegas in media or online is very over-rated. It was nice to explore the strip during the night, but other than this I didn’t find that there was a lot to do. In fact, Las Vegas isn’t terribly big to start with. If you’re into clubbing, strippers or gambling this place would have totally been up your street but unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea! I would have preferred to visit another national park or something close by and then explore Vegas later in the night. One of the best things we did was watch a water show to Micheal Jackson music and went for barbecue food in this place that sold beers for a dollar. Unfortunately, I don't like beer too much and ended up having to buy 9 dollar cocktails!

Early the next morning, we departed from Vegas back to Chicago just in time for class the following day. The October break trip was truly unforgettable and I got to see so much in such a short period of time.

Have you ever visited Vegas, Hoover Dam or Lake Mead?

Please let me know in the comments and share your thoughts on it!

Bye for now, I’ll speak to you soon!

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, by Ellen Smith

In Travel,

Zion National Park, Utah - Travel Diary!

Hi Guys!

I am back with another travel related posts! I apologise to those who don’t like them that much but they really are my favourite posts to write because I can look back on these in years to come and I’ll know that I had a lot of fun in my early twenties! Expect these types of posts for a while as I have done a ton of traveling and still have more to do!

Following our adventures in The Grand Canyon, my friends and I drove on to Utah to head to Zion National Park. One of my friends heard that Zion was supposedly more beautiful which I found extremely difficult to believe given that I thought The Grand Canyon was absolutely stunning and that nothing could beat it! I also know a girl from Salt Lake City in Utah who gave me some recommendations of what trails to try!

When we arrived at the national park, upon parking, we were greeted by a bus stop which allowed the visitors to travel to each point where each trail was located as you need a red card to drive around Zion National Park.

Two of the trails we were recommended to do was the “Emerald Pools” walk as well as “Angel’s Landing”. The “Emerald Pools” was the first trail we decided to do. It was a very easy walk to do in my opinion as was described in one of the pamphlets we had at the time we visited the park. There were three different pools, the lower, middle and upper pools (although I don’t believe the upper pool was that much higher than the middle) and it took about 20 or 30 minutes to complete. It was of course absolutely stunning. Following this trail, we decided to do another trail called the grotto walk which was also a very relaxing trail.

Later in the evening, before the departure of the final bus, we managed to do one last trail which was called the riverside walk which led on to a further trail called the narrows. It was very cold so I ended up walking with my friend Adrian at a very fast pace. We were the first of the five of us to reach the end and took some pictures.

To conclude, Zion National Park is a very tranquil and relaxing park with absolutely stunning views. I’d highly recommend a visit for $30 per vehicle.

Have you ever visited Zion National Park?

Let me know what you thought and I’ll talk to you soon!

Bye,

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, by Ellen Smith

In Travel,

The Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona - Travel Diary!

Hey Guys!

Long time, no talk! I am currently on a bus to Chicago for thanksgiving which I am going to spend trying to write some long overdue posts. I’ve really not had as much time to write blogs as I would have liked but that can’t be helped when you’ve assignments, exams, and projects popping up on a very regular basis. Anyways let’s get to the point of this post, it is supposed to be a travel diary after all!

Early in the month of October, we were given a four-day weekend as a break from college. I love all these small little breaks from college as you can make them exciting by planning trips. We don’t have quite so many back home in Ireland. So a few friends and I decided that we’d head on another road trip, but instead of heading to Niagara falls and Canada we would head to the west side of the states.

On Friday the 7^th of October, the five of us as well as a separate group of four headed on a plane to Phoenix, Arizona with spirit airlines. We left West Lafayette late in the afternoon and headed to O’ Hare to start our big adventure. When we arrived, it was too late to go exploring, it was practically the following day so we decided to head to our first hotel of the trip in Phoenix.

We woke quite early the following day, however, it didn’t seem to be early enough as it took absolute ages to get to The Grand Canyon! We drove for a good while and reached Flagstaff when we found ourselves being peckish enough for a meal. We stopped in Walmart in Phoenix before driving off to stock up on some much-needed road trip snacks. In Flagstaff, we stopped at this nice restaurant where we all filled our stomachs. I opted for a burger and a side of sweet potato fries of course which was delicious. Soon after, we hit the road again for another hour and a half when we reached The Grand Canyon.

By the time we arrived at The Grand Canyon Village and it was almost Sunset so it really felt like we wasted a day driving around and traveling so we decided that we would wake up early the next day to see Horseshoe bend which is another viewpoint in the Grand Canyon. Luckily enough, the sunset allowed us to take some absolutely stunning photos. We still haven’t managed to look at each other’s photos properly despite the trip taking place almost a month ago!

The following day we saw Horseshoe bend, which admittedly is most definitely my favourite part of the trip. I would have loved to see more viewpoints like Havasu Falls which looks absolutely glorious. But I got to see two of the most famous and most talked about points so I was fairly content with what we did see. Afterward, we decided to head to Utah and visit Zion National Park which is close to St. George, Utah. This will be written about in my next post so keep your eyes peeled!

Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon?

If so, how much of it did you manage to see?

I’d love to know in the comments below!

I’ll talk to you soon,

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, by Ellen Smith

In Travel,

Indianapolis, Indiana!

Going to a college in the state of Indiana for the semester, meant that a trip to Indianapolis (or Indy as they call it here), was definitely on the list of things that I had to do during my exchange here in the States! I went to the Indiana State Fair late in the month of August but I never got that whole vibe I get when I typically visit a new city.

I'd asked a lot of people if they wanted to go this weekend as I'd been spending my previous weekends just lounging around in West Lafayette which I was beginning to get tired of. Only an hour's drive away, Indy is the perfect destination for a quick escape when you're tired of life on campus in Purdue. Unfortunately, it seemed that everyone was busy with other plans and doing other things so I really thought that this trip wasn't going to go ahead. Then I just suddenly decided on Friday evening "screw it, I want to go" and luckily I found two others to keep me company for the day on Saturday!

We had an excellent day on Saturday in Indy. When we first arrived, we began by discussing what we wanted to see and do. I really wanted to go to the Children's Museum which was highly recommended to me by a lot of Americans but unfortunately for $22 per person, it was a little expensive for three students looking for something cheap to keep us busy! It was also a fair distance away from the centre of Indy, where there was so much more potential of things to do and places to see.

We began our day at the Indianapolis observation tower which had a nifty little gift shop which is a place I always make a stop at to update my growing collection of magnets I collect from cities I've visited as well as to buy some postcards I'm planning on sending later on. There was also the option of ascending to the top of the tower to look out to the views of this gem of a city! There was a fee to go up the elevator, but we opted for the free option of climbing 330 steps which honestly had me wrecked by the end.

We did a little more exploration of the centre of the city, we saw the University Memorial Park and managed to spot tons of Museums. (Seriously, if you're a museum enthusiast, Indianapolis is the city for you!) All of this built up an appetite which led us to this lovely burger bar called Bru.

Bru was a great place which offered lots of delicious and satisfying choices for lunch. The boys went for the most meat filled burger they could find on the menu which was called the "Honey Chipotle BBQ Burger ", whereas I went for the complete opposite and decided to try a vegan option which I very much enjoyed!

After filling our tummies up, we headed down to Indy's central canal which was easily my favorite part of the day! It's amazing how much fun I had absorbing the whole atmosphere of the place. It was seriously just a lovely place to walk. If walking isn't your cup of tea, there are paddle boats that can be rented out for an hourly rate of $35. There were also bicycles and kayaks on offer too, I believe!

Near the end of the Canal was the Indiana State Museum as well as letters spelling out Indy which I was delighted to find, mainly because I never got a chance to find the sign when I was in Cleveland, Ohio!

After exploring the canal, we did another bit of exploring around the river, headed for a pleasant drink at a place called Nada and then went home!

Overall, Indy is a very diverse city. There is plenty to see and do and I had a superb day there! No regrets with my plans in going there.

The only thing I would say is that renting a car to go there between a group of 5 or even 7 people would work out a lot cheaper so if you're planning a trip there, definitely do that!

Have you ever been to Indy?
Let me know what you thought in the comments below.