We're here!!

Hi everyone,

We made it!  This is no small feat considering that at every moment until the plane takes off I’m contemplating running up and asking to get the heck off.  But I held my tongue, bit the bullet and spent 4+ hours alternating between panic and a nervous resignation that there’s nothing I can do so I’d better suck it up and pretend I’m just fabulous. I think I was mostly believable for the kids. Unfortunately as we’re landing both my son and I were overcome with nausea and wanted to vomit.  This feeling lasted for quite some time.

On the happier side, check out the pictures I snapped from the plane of the kids enjoying the flight.  We kept trying to figure out what we were flying over – once I calmed down enough to look out the window.  We figured the plane took a southerly route since we were treated with an amazing view of the Grand Canyon.  My picture doesn’t do it justice but take a look.  Considering we’ll only be seeing a small section of the canyon when we visit, it was a great opportunity to see almost the whole enchilada.

It’s always stressful when you travel, especially when you’re flying and half your family is nauseous and one of the remaining half is coming down with a migraine.  But we persevered and went to pick up our rental car.  If you remember, I decided to go with a smaller name because the prices were far more reasonable and they weren’t charging me the drop off fee. Now Las Vegas airport has a bus you take to the car rental hub.  All of the car rental places are in this one place.  So you can imagine my panic when we get off the bus, enter the hub and I don’t see a Fox Rental desk.  

 Luckily I have my handy dandy notebook (like in Blues Clues!) and I check my confirmation e-mail.  I read a few paragraphs down and see that there’s yet another bus we have to take to get to Fox’s since they are off site.  My son and I suck it up and all four of us get on the Fox’s shuttle and travel about 2 miles down the road.  Bill, our very nice driver, tells us how the other major rental companies, if you ask them where the Fox counter is, will tell you that Fox’s is about 20 miles away and that they just missed the shuttle which won’t be back for 2 hours, but they (the major company) would be happy to rent you a car.  Meanwhile, because Fox’s is off site, they don’t have to charge you a whole bunch of taxes and fees that these other guys do, running about 30% less than the major guys.  I saved even more. Yes, we did have to take another bus and yes I did have to stand in line, BUT

they were out of my standard SUV and upgraded us for free to the large size with no fuss.

We then looked for some lunch because it was now past 2 o’clock EST and most of us were hungry.  We found an interesting looking “Nevada Style” pub called Steiner’s.  We learned what “Nevada Style” meant when we walked in and they informed us they didn’t serve children.  We weren’t hungry for children but left immediately since we didn’t think it fair to make the kids sit and watch us eat. We were exhausted and hungry and went to the next nearest restaurant, Chili’s. Not exciting but it did the job.

Then we headed for the hotel.  We got to drive down the strip – very cool!  I’ll get pictures for the next post. We saw the Luxor pyramid, the fountains in front of the Bellagio, the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty from the NewYork, NY hotel and lots of people.  Our hotel, Circus, Circus, is just beyond the busiest part of the strip.  Check in moved quickly and we were in our room in no time.  Upon which we promptly fell into bed and took a 2 hour nap.  This was the smartest decision we made all day.  It refreshed us, got rid of the nausea and headaches, and prepared us for staying up late since even 8pm was going to feel like 11pm.

One last note.  We didn’t go to the Hawaiian fusion restaurant.  I did my least amount of research on Vegas and didn’t realize that Roy’s was out of the price range we wanted.  I pulled out the laptop and we found a local Italian restaurant that got very good reviews – Nora’s Cuisine.  It wasn’t fabulous but it was still good.  My daughter’s spaghetti and meatballs were as delicious as advertised and my son’s pizza was also very good as was the really garlicky garlic bread. The cannolis were yummy – we brought those back to the room to eat – we should have ordered only one instead of two because they were large.  My dinner was okay – I had the orange roughy fish which wasn’t bad but they served it with a big glob of angel hair pasta which was inedible.  My husband ordered a pasta dish with chicken, artichokes and capers which he said was good but nothing special. He said he’d return if in Vegas again.  I don’t know if I would.  I would make a reservation next time, though, because that place was packed.  They seated us right away because we were willing to sit in this little area along the kitchen.  Very noisy but we’re with kids so I didn’t care.  Also, this meant no one forgot about us!

More later – Our first full day in Vegas.  Everyone up around 5-6am.  Getting used to the time change!

Time to go!!

Hi everyone,

Well it’s the night before we leave and I’m running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Gross imagery, sorry.  I’ve been packing all week but somehow we’re all crazed, looking for all those last minute items, and getting yelled at by my husband for forgetting that liquids must go in the checked bags, not the carry-ons. Sheesh, I liked traveling so much better before the terrorists.

I’m watching my husband pack his carry on bags and I’m marveling at the amount of technology he’s smooshing into these things.  We have two laptops, one IPOD, one video camera, a regular camera, GPS, 2 Kindles, 3 cell phones and all of the cords and chargers that go with them.  “It’s all needed,” I just heard my husband explain.  I wonder what the pioneers did when they went on vacation? 

I’m giving a special shout out to the three people who are actually admitting to reading this blog.  Thank you Elaine, Ivette and Betsy for being my three biggest (and only) fans.  I love you guys!!!

So I don’t have time for one of my usual brilliant breakdowns of our next destination so I thought I’d post our itinerary.  Upon looking it over I noticed that it’s incredibly detailed.  You’re all going to think I’m nuts or just incredibly well organized – and nuts.

Here it is:

Shipping containers to Circus Circus

C/o Andrea and Dan Gallant

Arrival date: July 23^rd

2880 Las Vegas Blvd S.

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702-734-0410

Day one – Saturday, July 23 -  Arrive at Las Vegas

Pick up car – Fox’s Rental Car – print off confirmation

Check into Circus Circus Hotel and get sent boxes

Pick up stuff from Wal-Mart

Dinner – Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion – 620 E. Flamingo Road – 702-691-2053 – Reservations recommended

Day two – Sunday July 24 - Full day at Vegas

Breakfast – Use coupons for breakfast

Go to lots of shops and sightsee

Dinner – eat at Gillys Las Vegas in Treasure Island

Show – Cirque du Soleil – Mystere.  Print off confirmation sheet and bring to box office. Show starts at 7:00pm.  Must pick up tickets before 6pm at box office – can pick up any day, any time as long as it’s at least an hour before show.

Day three – Monday, July 25 – Travel from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon – 5hrs

Breakfast  - quick in Vegas

Fire restrictions for Grand Canyon – no wood burning fires.

Drive one hour to Hoover Dam. Stop and Visit.  Follow directions to Dam.

Lunch – Road Kill Café, Seligman, AZ - 502 West Highway 66, Seligman - (928) 422-3554

Get to Mather Campground in GC South Rim and set up camp.

Take bus ride to Hermit road shuttle and take that bus for lots of great views.

Dinner and IMAX in Tusayan

7pm reservation at The Coronado Room - 100 Highway 64 Best Western Grand Canyon Squire Inn. Tusayan - (928) 638-2681

IMAX – ½ hour shows every hour on the half hour until 8:30

Day Four – Tuesday, July 26    

We’re responsible for 3 meals.  Must pack lunch.

Take shuttle to Bright Angel Trail and hike til Three and a half mile marker.  Less if needed.  Eat lunch on the trail.

Chill out for the afternoon.  Visit visitor center.  Buy food for dinner and cook.  Must use stove.

Do either Twilight Zone Family Program –check visitor center for dates and times

            Or

Campfire program – Sage Loop Campfire – in our campground - ??Not sure if will occur due to fire restrictions.

Day Five – Wednesday, July 27    

Drive from Grand Canyon to Zion National Park – Call first thing to reserve “ride with ranger” tour for next day at 9am - 435 772-3256

Stop in Cameron, AZ for breakfast/lunch at Cameron Trading Post – Navaho Tacos or Navaho tacos with egg.  Breakfast til 11am and lunch starts at 11am

466 North Highway 89

Cameron, AZ – 928-679-2231

Lunch in Kanab, UT at Nedra’s Too – Chicken chimichangas w/ white jalapeno sauce; machacas –

Set up camp at Ferber’s Campground in Springdale, Utah

479 Zion Park Blvd. Springdale, UT. 435-772-3237

Go to Park – Visitor Center.  Take tram to last stop and do Riverside Walk (1 ½ Hours).  Then take tram to Weeping rock and do trail (1/2 hour)

The Whiptail Grill for dinner – 445 Zion Lodge, Springdale, UT - (435) 772-0283 ‎

 - Goat cheese chili relleno and spaghetti squash enchalada.

Dessert – gift shop of Bumbleberry restaurant for bumbleberry pie. – 97 Bumbleberry lane, Springdale, UT. - (435) 772-3224

Day Six  - Thursday, July 28

Ride with a Ranger Tour – 9-11am – be there by 8:45.  Find out where to meet.

Visit Zion Human history museum or Nature center

Have lunch at Zion Lodge – nothing special but keeps us on site.

Do Grotto Trail/Upper and Lower Emerald Pool/Kayenta Trail loop

Go back to campground for swimming – do Virgin River Tubing – leaves from our campground.

Dinner – Gun Barrel Steak and Game House – St. George – Fav of locals – ONE HOUR AWAY – 1091 N. Bluff St, Ste 1400, St. George – 435-652-0550 – Reservations(?)

Day seven – Friday, July 29^th

Leave for Bryce Canyon – 2 hours

Breakfast at Park House Café – serving breakfast til 12-1.  Lunch and dinner, too. – 1880 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale.

Set up camp – Sunset campground

Take free shuttle around Bryce Amphitheater route – get off at stops to see sites. Go to Visitors Center to get list of Geology Festival events and nighttime events.

Dinner – Foster’s steakhouse in Bryce City – 1150 Hwy 12 – prime rib, garlic chicken and pie

Day eight – Saturday, July 30^th

Breakfast at camp

Hike – Queens/Navajo combo loop with Rim Trail

Lunch – either at Bryce Canyon lodge or pack it.

Take Rainbow Point Shuttle to Rainbow and Yovimpa Points.  Do Bristlecone Loop Trail

Chill and comeback to Sunset Point by 5pm for Ranger-Led Rim walk.

Dinner – either 45 min drive for Café Adobe in Hatch or ask for good local place or cook.

Day nine – Sunday, July 31^st

Drive from Bryce to Capitol Reef – 2 hrs 45 min

Set up camp – SandCreek RV Park – 540 Hwy 24, Torrey, UT – 435-425-3577.

Lunch in Torrey - ?Capitol Reef Inn and Café

Hwy 24 into Capitol Reef – take rt to Panorama and then Sunset Point.  Go back and go to visitors center.  Look for any goings-ons.  Drive and do Hickman Bridge Trail.  Go back to Visitors center and go down Scenic Drive.  Pull onto Grand Wash and hike to Cassidy Arch.  Go to end of Scenic Drive and take Capital Gorge and hike trail to “The Tanks”.

Dinner – Drive to Boulder 45 for Hell’s Backbone Grill or Café Diablo in Torrey (rattlesnake?)

Day 10 – Monday, August 1^st

Drive to Heber and hang with the Shimazaki’s – 4 hours

Breakfast at Mom’s in Salina, UT (1 ½ hours from Capitol Reef) – gotta have the scones.

Continue to Heber.

Day 11 – Tuesday, August 2^nd

Go where Shimazaki’s recommend.

Have lunch at Bruge’s – 336 W. 300 S. (Broadway), SLC – 801-363-4444.

Enjoy Birthday!!!

Day 12 – Wednesday, August 3^rd

Heber to Arches National Park – 4hours

Lunch – Westwinds Truck Stop – Best Country Fried Steak – Green River - Conveniently located on I-70 just off on exit 164

Go to Visitors Center – see what evening programs there are

Drive thru to Devil’s Campground and set up – stop along the way for the sites.

Do Broken Arch and Sand dune Hikes

Delicate Arch (at sunset?)

Dinner – Buck’s Grill House – Moab - 1393 N Highway 191, Moab, UT 84532     TEL: 435-259-5201

Duck, elk, etc.

 Day 13^th – Thursday, August 4^th

Arches to Grand Junction, Colorado

Delicate Arch – if not done previous day

Drive out to Windows Section – The Windows Trail and Double Arch

Lunch – Milt’s Stop and Eat – Moab – burgers and fries and shakes -

356 Mill Creek Drive Moab, UT 84532 (435) 259-7424

Drive 2 hours to Grand Junction.

Arrive Double Tree Hotel

Hang out, swim, etc.

Dinner – Rockslide Brew Pub – unless someone can suggest better.

Day 14^th – Friday, August 5^th

Drive from Grand Junction to Denver – 4 ½ hours.

Stop for lunch in Evergreen, CO (4 hours).  Tins Star Café and donuts – BBQ and Apple fritters. -

28025 Colorado 74 Evergreen, CO 80439 (303) 679-1155

Hotel – Courtyard by Marriott – Airport

Find place to ship our stuff.

Dinner – Buckhorn Exchange – reservations recommended – 303-534-9505 –

1000 Osage Str. • Denver, CO 80204

Day 15^th – Saturday, August 6^th - Fly home!

Zion National Park - Yay!

Hi everyone,   

Countdown to vacation – 1 more day!  We’re all packed – I insisted we give each of the kids their own suitcase despite my earlier plan to have them share.  Why, you ask?  Because the only suitcase big enough for them, besides the biggest Dan and I were already using, had all of their clothes squished in together.  There was no way they’d both calmly and nicely go through this thing and gently find what they needed.  All of their things would be flying everywhere, they’d be fighting about whose underpants were touching whose shirts, and my son would be cringing each time he had to see my daughter’s bras.  It just wasn’t worth the $25 savings.

So on to Zion National Park.  We’ll break camp early and head up to Zion.  We’re stopping in Cameron. AZ for breakfast/lunch/brunch at the Cameron Trading Post.  They are known for their Navaho Tacos. 

If we make it before 11am we’ll get the taco with an egg on top.  Otherwise, just the taco.  Apparently Cameron Trading Post used to be a much smaller, homier place called…. Oh, crap, I can’t find the comments that explained about this place.  I believe the people who ran this place lost their lease or something so they opened up a much bigger, touristy spot at this current location.  Well, I’ve been reading that the giant Navaho tacos are TDF, so that’s where breakfast is going to be. BUT, we can’t eat too much because we have to stop a few hours later in Kanab, UT at Nedra’s Too for something called machacas (no clue what this is) and chicken chimichangas with white jalapeno sauce. It’s a day in foodie heaven – Dan will be pleased.

Remember what I said about not staying at any campground that doesn’t take reservations? Well, the campground at Zion National Park doesn’t take ‘em so we’re not staying “on site”.  Instead, we’re staying in the nearby town of Springdale.  Springdale is the big town just outside the park and it’s got plenty of hotels, campgrounds, restaurants, etc.  The Ferber Campground looked very reasonable and the hosts have been very friendly so far.

Once we’re done setting up camp – this is our second time and hopefully will go a bit faster – we’ll take the shuttle to the Visitor Center where I want to register for the Ranger-led tour for the next day. Since I did my homework and visited the National Park’s web site, I know there’s a shuttle that goes right from Springdale into the park.  The shuttle ends near the Visitor’s Center at which point there’s another shuttle system that goes through the park itself, stopping at many different trail heads and views spots.  We’re going to take the shuttle to the farthest spot and do the Riverside Walk for 1 ½ hours, hop the next shuttle and go to the Weeping Rock trail and hike that for ½ hour.  Why those trails? Both are considered easy, first of all. The Riverside Walk will take us to the beginning of the Narrows.  I’d love to do the Narrows but it’s a strenuous hike done nearly all in the water with swift currents - it’s too dangerous for my young son.  The Narrows path takes you through an amazing gorge cut out by the Virgin River.  The sites are supposed to be amazing. With the Riverside Walk, we’ll at least get to see a portion of it. The Weeping Rock Trail was recommended by other travelers.  It’s a short walk but you see these little “falls” of water.  It looks like the rocks are crying – hence the trail name.

We need the walking because I have yet another dining experience planned. Our dinner will be at The Whiptail Grill in Springdale. Nice and easy since we’re staying there. We’ll be sampling the goat cheese chili rellenos and the spaghetti squash enchiladas plus anything else that looks yummy. But wait, there’s more! Dessert! We’ll be rolling out of the Whiptail and heading over to the Bumbleberry Inn for their famous bumbleberry pie.  Bumbleberries are pretty much whatever berries the bakers have available to throw together.  I’ve heard it’s good but not worth the price so we’ll do what one fellow traveler suggested.  We’ll go to the gift shop and buy some there.  If it’s not too far, we’ll walk it back to the campsite and eat it in our tent, all snuggled in our sleeping bags on our cots. Ah, just like home. Okay, not really.  First, I’m not doing anything that might attract any more bugs than necessary.  Second, I hate crumbs in bed.

The next morning we’ll all be lamenting mommy’s wonderful idea to take a 2-hour Ranger led shuttle tour because we have to be at the Visitor Center by 8:45 am. Hopefully we’ll make it.  Our new-fangled cell phones have alarms on them, don’t they?

After our tour we’ll grab a quick lunch in the park – nothing fancy today – and hit a few more trails.  I found a cool combination of easy and moderate trails that form a loop – Grotto trail/Upper and Lower Emerald pool trails/Kayenta loop (see pages 6 & 7 of the park newspaper).  They should add up to a 2 ½ - 3 hour combined hike.

Once we’ve finished those trails, we’ll head back to the campsite and take in some tubing on the Virgin River.  There’s supposed to be a tubing company there whose take-off point into the river is adjacent to our campground.  I didn’t even realize our campground was near the river!  Anyway, it’ll be a nice cool break from the hiking.

I have a great place lined up for dinner but it’s an hour away.  The Gun Barrel Steak and GameHouse is in St. George’s Utah, headed back toward Las Vegas, believe it or not.  I’ve chosen this place because it’s supposed to have great meats and fish, including their mixed grill which offers an Elk chop, Buffalo BBQ rib and a choice of either beef or buffalo prime rib.  My carnivorous mouth is watering just thinking about it. But all of this will depend on how exhausted the driver (my husband) is after an afternoon of hiking in potentially very high heat. If he’s too pooped to party, we’ll ask around about another fine local establishment that serves great meaty fare.

That’s all for Zion.  The next day we’ll be off to Bryce Canyon.

Tomorrow – final farewells before we leave.  I’ll post our full itinerary so you can follow us along on our trip.  I’ll try to post each night so you can hear how it’s going and if we’re surviving without killing each other as my 12 year old insists will happen.

The Grand Canyon - finally

Hi everyone,

Got all our clothes put aside and washing the rest of the ones we need.  Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, sort of. Now my biggest thing to deal with is the nagging fear that always sets in a few days before I have to fly.  I’m a horrible flyer.  I used to be able to hide it from my kids because I don’t want them to learn my fear.  Unfortunately, the last time I flew it was without them.  I saw this as a license to let my fear run wild and they saw mommy in full-blown panic mode. Brilliant.  Now my son is worried, too.  Good mommy.

Anyway, after we get our fill of road kill for lunch (see yesterday’s post) we’re on to the Grand Canyon.  We’re camping at the canyon, in the National Park itself.  There’s the North rim and the South rim, each with campgrounds.  The South rim is far more popular.  It’s on the Arizona side, the Grand Canyon Village is there and lots of hiking trails, etc.  The South rim campground is the Mathercampground.  They take reservations which they strongly recommend you make, especially during the summer tourist season. I will only stay in a campground that takes reservations. I repeat – I will only stay in a campground that takes reservations.  Think about it.  You’re tired, with KIDS, in an area that you’re unfamiliar with. Do you really want to start looking for alternative campsites because you’re too late for your first choice? Not for me, baby.  I made my reservations several months in advance.  Of course I changed my reservations when I changed our route only a few weeks ago and they were still able to accommodate me, but that’s not the point. The point is unless you don’t mind potentially camping by the side of the road, choose a campground where you can reserve your spot and give yourself one less thing to think about.

Another recommendation I can whole-heartedly make is to visit the national park’s web site.  That’s where you can learn about everything you need to plan your visit.  They even have a tab called “Plan Your Visit”. I found the campground that way and booked it on-line through the site. Most of the National parks that I looked at had a park newspaper on their site. That’s where all the best information is, especially for hiking and any touring you want to do.  Usually there’s an overview of the park and a map and list of all the trails, divided up by Easy, Moderate, and Strenuous. It’s so important to know what you’re getting into before you start heading down a trail. And it’s important to remember that not all trails loop. So before you keep going for a few more miles, realize you have to walk those same miles back.  We’re going smack in the middle of summer so we’ll probable melt or spontaneously combust. 

There are Ranger-led programs/hikes.  However, they often occur on specific days and at specific times.  If you don’t happen to be at the Grand Canyon on a Tuesday at 8:00am you’re SOL for that program. So you’re better off planning most stuff on your own.

This is how our days at the Grand Canyon are scheduled – roughly.

We’re going to have about a 5 hour drive with a stop for lunch. (yeah, yeah you know this already)  When we arrive at the campground, we’ll need to set up camp.  I anticipate this first set up will be the longest and most difficult. 

After that we’ll be heading off to the Hermit road Shuttle to catch some great views. See map below.

These shuttles are another great thing many of the Southern Utah parks have to offer.  They are continuously running buses that stop at lots of great views and trail heads.  We can only hike a few trails so these shuttles are perfect for getting in those extra awesome sights. The Hermit Road Shuttle will give us the chance to see more of the canyon off to the West moving north. We can get off wherever we choose, see the great views and then take another shuttle to the next stop.

For dinner we’re going into Tuscayan, which is the closest real town to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  There are a fair amount of restaurants in Tuscayan, nearly all of which are considered over-priced and touristy according to the reviews I read. I’ll repeat this several times, but if you’re going to choose a restaurant, see what others have to say about it.  I look at Urban Spoon, Trip Advisor and Chowhound. Note: almost no restaurant has a perfect record.  There’s always someone who doesn’t like a place for whatever reason.  Not to mention, restaurants sometimes have bad nights.  Maybe the chef had a fight with his wife, or the waiter was up all night partying, or the hostess is an idiot but she’s the owner’s niece.  You never know.  I figure as long as 90% of the comments are really good, I can consider it.  After all, 90% and above is an A.

I chose The Coronado Room in Tuscayan for dinner.  This is a much nicer and more expensive restaurant than I would have preferred but my selection was extremely limited.  The reviews for everything else were so bad, I didn’t want to waste my time. Besides, The Coronado Room has elk and buffalo.  This meets my criteria of food we don’t usually see. 

As a treat before or after dinner, we’re heading to the IMAXtheater in Tuscayan for a really cool 47 minute movie about the Grand Canyon.  My husband looked at me quizzically and asked why we were seeing a movie about the Grand Canyon when we’re actually at the Grand Canyon. Because it’s IMAX, baby! A screen six stories high with 12,000 watts of thunderous digital surround sound. Ya gotta see it.  Besides, it’ll be fun and we’re on vacation.

The next day we’re hiking the Bright Angel Trail.  I chose it because it’s popular, there are several places along the trail to get water, and because it’s long enough that you can make it a short, medium or long hike depending on where you decide to turn around. If it’s disgustingly hot and the kids are whiney, we can turn around and start walking back.

We’re cooking at the campsite this night. My husband is an awesome cook and he loves campfire cooking.  Have at it honey!

Hopefully we’ll be able to do either the Twilight ZoneFamily Program or the Campfire Program tonight.

My husband complained that my posts are too long.  So I’m stopping now.

Tomorrow – Zion National Park

Grand Canyon - well not really

Hi everyone,

OMG, we’re leaving in 5 days! So much stuff to do! I’ve got to get my clothes and my husband’s clothes together to see what needs to be washed.  That’s today’s big chore.

To continue where I left off, we’re leaving Las Vegas and traveling to the Grand Canyon.  We’re taking I-93 and stopping off at the Hoover Dam. According to the web site, the highway used to go over the dam itself.  Since 2010, however, the highway was rerouted and takes a southerly route.  If you want to see the Dam, you exit the highway and follow the old road that leads to it.  From the confusing explanations, it looks like you park and then walk over the dam. You and your car get searched – yippee – before they let you through. Then you have to go back the way you came to pick up I-93 in Nevada again.

One cool thing I want to mention. You definitely want to buy the Annual Interagency Pass if you’re going to visit a bunch of the National sites.  It’s only $80 and is good for a whole year.  It’s good for all national parks, national forests, bureau of land management sites, bureau of reclamation sites and fish and wildlife service sites. Ok – I get the national parks and national forests, but bureau of reclamation sites? Really? Well, it just so happens that the Hoover Dam is one of those reclamation sites.  Who knew? Go back and click on the link I made with the Annual Interagency Pass words.  Which reminds me – I hope you’ve all noticed I linked a lot of sites to key places.  I thought they’d be underlined but they’re not.  Make sure you move your cursor over key words (names of parks, hotels, restaurants, etc.) so you can visit their sites.  You wouldn’t want me to have wasted all that time for nothing, would you?

After our stop at Hoover Dam, we’re continuing on to Seligman, AZ for a stop at the Road Kill Café for lunch. Check out the link.  Who could pass up a place that serves Highway Hash, Swirl of Squirrel, and Splatter Platter?

 As I mentioned in my very first posting (which I know you all read – you’ve been loyally reading everything I write, I just know it), my husband was only on board with this trip if I delivered plenty of awesome road food. He’s a definite foodie.  While he likes really good food, he’d rather eat interesting food such as the aforementioned Swirl of Squirrel. So a large part of my research has been finding great local places with dishes we can’t get in our native state of Virginia. All I can say is that southern Utah, where we’re spending the bulk of our time, is practically devoid of anything interesting.  This is not to say that cool, local places don’t exist, there just aren’t many of them and they’re not always that close to where we’re staying.

Finding restaurants is an art form in and of itself. I went to the ever-popular roadfood.com.  It’s an interesting web site with tons of road-food listings and a forum to pick up even more suggestions. When I looked here, there were very few places for southern Utah.  In fact everywhere I looked there was very little positive regard for restaurants around the canyon sites.  But do I give up – never! But mostly because I was desperately trying to avoid hearing the complaints of my husband and children who I’m quite sure would turn on me and make me their next road food meal.

I’ll be happy to mention all of the places we’ll be going and then reviewing them for you once we’re actually there so we can see if all the hype about each place was earned.  Again, I looked for places with good local cuisine that was family friendly and not too expensive.  We’re camping and with the kids.  The last thing I want is some hoidy-toidy white linen restaurant that I have to look clean for.

It’s later than I thought right now so I’ll write more about the Grand Canyon tomorrow and about Zion, too.  I’m seeing that it may be time to actually go on this crazy vacation before I get to tell you all about it. So I’ll step it up and get moving.

Tomorrow – The Grand Canyon (yes, really, this time) and Zion National Park

Getting nervous....

Hi everyone,

Less than a week until vacation time and I’m starting to panic.  I’ve Xeroxed everything I can think of and put it all in an organized binder.  I have our itinerary, all of our campsite reservation confirmations, our car rental confirmation, our airline confirmation, copies of the Google maps to every location, maps of the national parks and directions to some of the restaurants we’re going to. All of this in one binder and I probably won’t need half of it.  But we’re going far from home and I just feel more secure having it all with me.  Especially because, dammit, I put so much time and effort into planning this trip – I don’t want to forget anything.  I know I’m starting to sound crazy and yes, even a tad hysterical, but I just had a fight with my 12 year old daughter over the clothes she can pack.  I swear I don’t think that girl has one pair of matching socks anywhere in her clothing repertoire.  And now she tells me none of her bras fit except for one.  I just bought her three more about a month ago.  WTF? Okay, focus , focus.  Oh wait, before I calm down I actually overheard my husband saying to same daughter that she needs to get her stuff in order because he’s getting really worried we won’t be ready on time for this vacation.  WHAT?  Maybe if he’d actually lift a finger to help he could relieve his deep concerns. We may never get on this trip because I may kill them all before next Saturday.

Okay, I promised to talk a bit about Las Vegas.  There’s only a bit to tell. I was told there are all these great deals for hotels if you don’t stay on the strip.  This hasn’t been my experience at all and I used all those advertised budget travel sites – Expedia, Travelocity, etc.  After not seeing the rates I wanted – and I wanted something under $79 per night for all 4 of us – I decided to check out the rates at Circus Circus hotel and casino.  I remembered going there when I was on my whirlwind teen tour I mentioned in my first entry. They had a lot of carnival-style games for kids and they’re just about on the strip. I was pleasantly surprised when I put in my dates and came up with a total of $119.25 for the 2 nights with breakfast included.  Yeehaw.  Booked it!

So after we land in Las Vegas, pick up our car and get our stuff from Wal-mart, what should we do?  This is the only stop I left unplanned.  I know we’ll go to the strip with the giant mall.  We’ll make our way through the giant casinos and see the awesome water display in front of the Belaggio.  I did want to go to a show, though.  Hmm, what to see when you’re in Vegas and with your kids?  I decided on Cirque de Soleil.  They have a family show called Mystere

 which they perform in the Treasure Island casino/hotel. It looked really cool from the web site so I booked it.  I’ll let you all know what we thought afterwards.  Note, you have to pick up your tickets no less than an hour before the show so I thought we’d get to Treasure Island, pick up the tickets and then have dinner there.  We’re going to Gillys BBQ or the pizza place – we’ll see what we’re in the mood for. No buffets - we're just not buffet people.  Ok, we did check out the buffets in Amish country but that'll be another trip blog.

We’re staying in Vegas from Saturday until Monday morning when we leave for the Grand Canyon.  More about that stop tomorrow!

Las Vegas - Part one

Hello everyone,

So today I promised to write about Las Vegas and I will but in the context of “what the hell was I thinking?”  You know how some things sound really great in theory but when put into practice, well, not so much?  I’m realizing that camping across Utah is presenting far more logistical issues than I anticipated.  As you know from reading my first few entries, we’re flying into Las Vegas and renting an SUV to carry all our camping gear.  Ah, but how to get the camping gear to Las Vegas and the SUV.  We can’t exactly bring it all on the plane. Especially since the airlines now charge a stupid $25 per bag.  Sheesh, highway – or rather airway – robbery.  The company I work for ships items everyday and has a working warehouse and shipping department. I figured I’ll just ship everything from there.  Well, what does “everything” entail? Right here came the first problem.  I can’t tell you how many days it took me to pin down my husband, and not in the fun way, to make a list of what we need to bring.  We decided we’d buy some things in Las Vegas. This is how I discovered that Wal-Mart exists in the desert. My husband insisted on buying lightweight sleeping bags for summer camping despite my insistence that nighttime is actually very cold in these National parks with temperatures dipping down into the 40’s.  But don’t listen to the wife who does the research and can pull up the facts and figures. And who cares that the wife and kids are usually cold at night even when we do camp in the middle of hot and muggy summers? No, we are buying the Coleman Clear Lake 50-degree sleeping bag for warm weather camping all because the man is terrified of sweating at night.  Actually he’s terrified of sweating at night and having to throw back the sleeping bag, thus making him vunerable to snakes and scorpions.  Which brings me to our next purchase – sleeping cots. I’m actually happy about this purchase because I, too, am not fond of the idea of snakes, scorpions and other creepy-crawlies that exist in the desert.  We’re not buying a new tent, though – we’ve decided to use our current one since it’s served us well – so I’m hoping the cots will actually fit in the tent.  My husband was supposed to set it up, get the measurements of the cots and then see if there’s enough room for all four of us.  However, he never got around to it, preferring instead to “wing it”.  If there’s not enough room for all four cots, he’s the first one on the floor!

So the stuff I actually shipped included the tent and all its parts like the fly and the tarp below.  If you tent camp and you don’t put a tarp down first, you’re asking for leaks.  I also shipped the one polar fleece sleeping bag lining we have, our lantern, cooking gear like knives, a percolator, two pans, spatulas, and some other stuff I can’t remember at the moment.  I also packed our very important tent fan/light. You hang it up in the tent and you get light and air!

What we’re buying besides the aforementioned cots and sleeping bags are camp chairs, a camping stove, pillows, a funky cool Pack-away camp kitchen and some coolers.  We own most of these things already but it’s too expensive to ship them and we needed some new stuff.  Like pillows, for example.  They were cheaper to buy at $10 for a set of two then ship our own.  We needed a new camp stove and I liked the Pack-away kitchen.  That darling folds into it’s own case so we can ship that back home easily.  Food and incidentals we’ll buy when we go to the Wal-mart to pick up the stuff I ordered.  While I truly try to avoid Wal-mart at all costs, there are times when it’s unavoidable.  They have this awesome Site to Store shipping option where they’ll send whatever you order to whatever Wal-mart you choose. Cool, huh?

Okay, so by now you’re thinking I’m pretty organized, what could I possibly be bitching about?  Well, because I ordered over $500 worth of stuff at Wal-mart which I’m eventually going to have to ship home, along with the original stuff I shipped out today. And, I don’t have my amazing co-workers from our shipping department to help me out, just my husband.  He’s a great packer and all but packing a suitcase and packing boxes for shipping are 2 different things.  Now he calls me today to see about donating some of the stuff in Denver so we don’t have to ship it home.  Really? He doesn’t want to take the camp chairs or cots home!!  Okay, camp chairs are like $10 a pop but we could really use a few more.  And cots are useful for more than just camping – and they cost a lot more than $10. Whatever…….  At this point, with only a week and two days until we leave, I’ll be happy if all our stuff arrives on time and in one piece!

Okay, tomorrow I’ll write about Las Vegas and the fascinating things I have planned :)