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July 13, 2012
This year's Blount Adventure trip was squeezed between Grayson's Passport church camp (which ended today) and his cross country camp (which starts the day after we get back!). It is definitely getting more difficult to schedule our family adventures as the kids get older! Jonna retrieved Grayson from camp in Charlotte, NC, a few hours early so they could get back in time to do his laundry and re-pack him before heading to the airport for our trip. All was going swimmingly as we arrived at the airport in plenty of time, but the experience wasn't without headaches -- first had to leave our gate and circle back through security to locate Darby's cherished hat (which she left at the scanner), and then we had an extra long wait at the gate because of weather delays! 2 hours later we took off and arrived in Las Vegas at 10:30 pm Pacific (1:30 am on our body clock). Then we felt like we were in a Seinfeld episode when our reserved rental car was not available, but we finally scored a minivan instead of the less expensive SUV we had reserved. The kids were happy to drive off in the "swagger wagon"! For our first stop, we went to In N Out Burger! Who doesn't need a cheesburger, fries and a chocolate shake at 3 am? We were hungry and beat ... but after a quick bite we were re-energized and we headed to Hilton Grand Vacations Club ... we unpacked and went to bed!
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July 14, 2012
Between swim team and teaching lessons this summer, the kids have had enough poolside fun this summer, so instead of lounging at the hotel today as we had origianlly planned, we headed out to explore the Vegas strip. We each got a $12 day-pass for unlimited rides on the Las Vegas Monorail. Even with this "luxury" we surely walked many, many miles today along the expansive Las Vegas Boulevard. It was a fun, busy (and exhausting) day. We began by stopping at MGM. Next we toured the expansive Mandalay Bay. We then took a tram to Excalibur, then we walked next door to New York New York Hotel, where we loved riding the Coney Island Roller Coaster and eating pizza (although not at NYC prices!). We walked down the Strip from there to visit Paris Hotel. Feet aching, we took the monorail back to our home base to re-group and clean up. It was not long before we ventured back out. We took the monorail to the Venetian, then saw the Cirque du Soleil "Love" show, a tribute to The Beatles. Fantastic! Afterwards, we watched the volcano erupt outside of the Mirage Hotel, then went next door to Treasure Island to watch the 10 pm showing of The Sirens of TI show. By this time everyone was adequately exhausted, and we headed back to the hotel to go to bed. Tomorrow we are off to Hoover Dam.
July 15, 2012
Jet lag has definitely set in and all of us moved slowly this morning! Finally, we were mobilized and headed off toward Hoover Dam after a quick stop at the famous "Fabulous Vegas" sign and a quick smoothie from Tropical Smoothie. We arrived at Hoover Dam in no time and the kids enjoyed seeing in person one of the seven great man-made wonders of the world. The bridge is also complete so it was neat to see that. The traffic sure has improved in that area now. We walked across the bridge into Arizona and then back enjoying the views and marveling at this man-made creation. We had watched a few documentaries on the building of the dam in the past so it was neat for the kids to see it in person. We had a long drive ahead of us to Tulare, California, so we headed out from Hoover in the early afternoon. Much to our chagrin, Sundays are apparently "go home days" and the traffic is a bear from Vegas in the direction of LA on the only road that connects the two cities each week. To add to the fun, there has been flooding and this afternoon we experienced severe thunderstorms. I guess this is new for Californians because they all drove at a complete crawl and the 4.5 hour drive ended up taking us about 8 hours instead. We did stop for a yummy Mexican dinner in Barstow at a place called Cafe Jimenez which broke up the drive. When we arrived in Tulare, we fell into bed exhausted. Tomorrow is a big day as we head to Sequoia National Park....
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