Reno, NV

The reason for our trip across country, was so that Matt and I could spend our fifth anniversary in the divorce capital of the world: Reno, Nevada. Seems like a weird place for two people who are crazy in love and don't gamble to spend their anniversary? Yeah, we know. Truthfully, it wasn't on my bucket list, but just like I took Matt up to Vermont two years ago to see the places that were special to me as a child, he wanted to take me to Reno.

Matt spent a year living there as a teenager, when his Dad's job transferred his family out west. So the places we went to in Reno weren't the "touristy" places. We didn't even make it downtown. Instead we went to Dry Creek, and Huffaker Hills, walking steps he hadn't walked in ten years. The air is thinner there, so far from sea level, but the mountains are stunning.

We stayed the night in a casino hotel (it was 3.5 stars and $35 a night, sooo), and the first night I woke up to a man banging on our door and jiggling our handle. He was drunk, I suppose; Demanding that we open the door and give him back his phone which we "had borrowed." Security was called, and the police were called, and we lost a lot of sleep that night in the name of not opening the door to the calm, hispanic slur of, "Just open the door. Just let me in. Kelly? Joanna? Are you the father-in-law. I just need my phone. Just open the door."

My overall impression of Reno was a good one though. Mount Rose was snow capped and lovely, Huffaker Hill gave us a great view, and I enjoyed hearing stories as Matt relived the time he had spent there.