With the continued drought in California, our spring break snow trek has once again been re-billed, this time as a trip to the desert (perhaps in preparation for a life to come). First stop, an oasis in the desert, Las Vegas! Phil wasn't super excited about stopping on the side of the highway for this picture, but I am really glad we did, I remember taking state line pictures on road trips when I was a kid.
For our one night stay in Vegas, we got a room at Excalibur. Here is a picture of the kids in front of the beautiful night time turrets!
As we wandered around looking at all of the sights, we came across this model of the Titanic. Alex has been reading about Titanic in his free time and is really intrigued by the story of the unsinkable ship.
Waiting for the tram outside of Luxor.
The Strip at night.
In the morning we tried again for a picture of the kids with the turrets, but now it was too bright. At least you can see them.
Of course we had to go to the M&M store. I think Zachy was trying to get in to hotwire the car.
Once we were stocked up on chocolates to melt in the car, we left Las Vegas behind and headed to our next stop, Lake Meade and Hoover Dam. The drought has wide spread consequences, as seen by the low level of Lake Meade.
The Hoover Dam spires will have to serve as our Arizona state line picture for this trip.
Over looking the dam and the lake from the Arizona side. The lake water is barely visible.
After a brief stop at the dam, we continued into Arizona to rest up for a grand adventure the next day.
That's right, the Grand Canyon! Phil is the only one of us who had visited the Grand Canyon before, so it was very exciting. Well, I was excited, I'm not sure that the kids really appreciated the magnitude of the whole thing. Alex and I did talk about the pioneers and what he thought it would have been like for them to travel so far and find this in their path. Had I been with like minded people, I could have sat and stared for hours. As it was, we walked along the edge trail and the kids worked on their junior ranger books. We attended a ranger talk about the California Condor, but we didn't see any.
Exhausted after a long, hot, windy hike the kids cozied up to a mama mountain lion.
And there is no better way to shake the dust off than a dip in the pool!
This is Mady's idea of swimming. She loves to dip her feet in and kick and splash.
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to go to Meteor Crater. Many times when I would tell people that, they wouldn't know what I was talking about. But the Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater have always been joined as one trip in my mind. Guess where we went today?
The land is so flat and then there is a giant hole. It is really amazing! And windy.
At the bottom of the crater, there is a mannequin (wooden cutout?) of a 6 foot tall man for size reference. Without binoculars, he is completely lost in the vastness of the crater.
The largest remaining chunk of the meteor.
And then we returned to Las Vegas for a couple of nights at the Luxor.
Alex and Zachy really enjoyed riding the tram, especially the view from the front.
We got to the volcano early and had a great front row spot. Mady thought it was too loud and Zachy was worried about getting on fire. Silly kids. We also saw the dancing fountain, but didn't get any pictures.
Proof that I was actually on this trip....my selfie skills need work.
Dinner this evening would up being late. So late that Alex fell asleep at the table and we had a hard time waking him up to walk back to the hotel. Fortunately he did wake up after stumbling along half asleep for a few minutes because we would have been hard pressed to carry him!
The next morning we went to the aquarium and saw lots of sharks.
Alex was surprised to see an octopus.
In the afternoon, we split up and Alex and I went to the Titanic exhibit. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the exhibit but I wish we could have. It was truly amazing to see so many items that have been recovered, many in surprisingly good shape. A crate of au gratin dishes was found on the ocean floor with the box broken open but the dishes all in tact and lined up in the sand. First class passengers paid the equivalent of $103,000 in current dollars and third class paid about $900. Alex is a rusher, but he enjoyed the exhibit.
We dined in the Rainforest for our last night in Vegas.
Still trying for a great picture of the nighttime strip.
Before packing up and heading home in the morning, there was just enough time for a quick swim.
Splashing with her hands this time.
Another border crossing through a filthy window.
A unique way to display the temperature.
