After our visit to the Grand Canyon, Dad, Sarah, Jenny, and I went on a one-hour horseback ride through some woods on some mountain. It was fairly enjoyable for the first 10-15 minutes, but I did not find out until about halfway into the trip that it was supposed to last an hour. We eventually returned back to the stable and got into our car to return to Jeannie and David's house, another two-hour drive. We arrived around 6:30 (Pacific time), and did not do much for the rest of the day.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Tuesday 5/27/08
On Tuesday morning, we woke up a little late, but we eventually got going. Actually, come to think of it, we’ve gotten up late almost every day on this trip. Anyway, Tuesday was our Grand Canyon Day. The Grand Canyon was a two-hour drive from Jeannie and David's house. We were accompanied by Jeannie, her daughter Elaine, and Elaine’s three daughters. We had a great time there, and I took over 100 pictures. The most magnificent thing about the Grand Canyon was its width. It was impossible to see the whole thing in one view. It stretched all the way from one side of my peripheral vision to the other. Our least favorite thing about the Grand Canyon was that the kids all felt restrained, and the parents were scared to death that one of us would jump over the edge.
Monday 5/26/08
On Monday, we got up sluggishly at the La Quinta hotel where we had stayed, and got ready to make our way to Flagstaff, Arizona where we would be staying with my second cousin on my mom’s mom’s side. Don’t be confused though; she has grandchildren; she’s not my age. Anyway, before we got there we had to stop at some places along the way. The first place we stopped was Ethel M’s chocolate factory/store, which was attached to an M&M World and home to a cactus garden, where I got many pictures.
After that, we made our way to the Hoover (Boulder) Dam on the border of Nevada and Arizona. We got a lot of pictures there too. One of the neatest things there was a plaque that had a line beneath it with arrows pointing opposite directions, one labeled Nevada, and one Arizona. We took a picture of Sarah standing in front of the plaque with a foot on either side of the line. Another related thing there was the tower on each side of the line in Lake Mead; one was the Nevada Intake Tower, the other the Arizona Intake Tower. The interesting part was that each had a clock on them, the one with Nevada time and the other with Arizona time. The funny thing was, though, that they were both currently the same time, which I did not realize until after I had excitedly taken pictures of both.
After we finished at the Hoover Dam, we left for Jeannie (my second cousin) and David’s house. We had an enjoyable evening there, and went to bed eager for Tuesday’s excitement.
After that, we made our way to the Hoover (Boulder) Dam on the border of Nevada and Arizona. We got a lot of pictures there too. One of the neatest things there was a plaque that had a line beneath it with arrows pointing opposite directions, one labeled Nevada, and one Arizona. We took a picture of Sarah standing in front of the plaque with a foot on either side of the line. Another related thing there was the tower on each side of the line in Lake Mead; one was the Nevada Intake Tower, the other the Arizona Intake Tower. The interesting part was that each had a clock on them, the one with Nevada time and the other with Arizona time. The funny thing was, though, that they were both currently the same time, which I did not realize until after I had excitedly taken pictures of both.
After we finished at the Hoover Dam, we left for Jeannie (my second cousin) and David’s house. We had an enjoyable evening there, and went to bed eager for Tuesday’s excitement.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
My intro/Sunday 5/25/08
This has been a great trip. I cannot believe that I am just now writing about our vacation on the last day. Technically yesterday was the last day because we are spending today in a car, an airport, an airplane, an airport, an airplane, and a car from 3 A.M. to 8 P.M. Anyway, as you already know from reading my mom’s updates, we had the hardest time finding internet access in the West. In Pensacola, you can get free WiFi practically anywhere, but not in Nevada, Arizona, and California. There is plenty of WiFi, but you have to really search to find a network with free access. On Sunday, after sleeping for precious few hours, we awoke to organize our belongings and head to Liberty Baptist Church in Las Vegas, pastored by Dave Teis.
After the service, which was great, the Pastor and Mrs. Teis took us out for lunch to the buffet in Suncoast, a hotel/casino/restaurant. The only way to get to the buffet was to walk through the casino, both of which were downstairs. It was sad to see so many people addicted to gambling. There were the regular slot machine things with blinking lights and enchanting music as well as live horse races and other sporting events on screens in another section with people squandering their money on the performance of something they cannot control in the least.
Anyway, the buffet was great, with different cultural foods like Italian, Mongolian, Mexican, American, and seafood, plus two huge salad and dessert bars. Their strawberry cheesecake ice cream was amazing. When we left the restaurant, we noticed that almost all of the people that were playing the slot machines were still in the same places two hours later! We went back to church that evening, and afterwards went out to Marie Callender’s with the Teis family. We enjoyed their fellowship and looked forward to seeing them again the next week. They arranged for us to stay at a La Quinta hotel that evening, which was not overbooked this time.
After the service, which was great, the Pastor and Mrs. Teis took us out for lunch to the buffet in Suncoast, a hotel/casino/restaurant. The only way to get to the buffet was to walk through the casino, both of which were downstairs. It was sad to see so many people addicted to gambling. There were the regular slot machine things with blinking lights and enchanting music as well as live horse races and other sporting events on screens in another section with people squandering their money on the performance of something they cannot control in the least.
Anyway, the buffet was great, with different cultural foods like Italian, Mongolian, Mexican, American, and seafood, plus two huge salad and dessert bars. Their strawberry cheesecake ice cream was amazing. When we left the restaurant, we noticed that almost all of the people that were playing the slot machines were still in the same places two hours later! We went back to church that evening, and afterwards went out to Marie Callender’s with the Teis family. We enjoyed their fellowship and looked forward to seeing them again the next week. They arranged for us to stay at a La Quinta hotel that evening, which was not overbooked this time.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Sunday, May 25th
We got to bed so late, but we woke up earlier than expected, mostly because we hadn’t changed our watches and woke up at 8:30a.m. our time, but it was only 6:30a.m. in Las Vegas. Everyone
Saturday, May 24th
We left home about 9:00a.m. Saturday morning and made it to New Orleans after a 5 hour trip, with stops for a traffic jam where we were stopped at the top of a very high bridge over the Pearl River near the MS/LA border. The bridge had apparently been damaged during Katrina, because there was a temporary repair that seemed very unstable while we sat there watching the road heaving. Pretty unsettling, but not to be compared with the heights where we will be standing at the Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, etc. We also stopped to eat a “picnic” lunch, but couldn’t find a suitable picnic area in the damaged city of New Orleans, so we ate in the van.
After we arrived at the airport parking lot and loaded our luggage onto the shuttle bus, we started for the airport. The picture below is of our luggage on the shuttle. We were the only ones on the bus and we had quite the load: 6 checked bags, 9 carry-ons, a car seat and a stroller, not to mention a little one that needed carried or pushed along the way. I realized at the airport that the only person without a coat (for the cold evenings in the desert and by the ocean) was Kathy. I had set hers out, but then it got hung up and left at home.
We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to go through security and get checked in before our flight (in fact we had to wait 1 1/2 hours after we were settled before they boarded). We found they had wireless service, so we were able to check email, but didn’t get our blog page set up adequately to really get it going. We hadn’t thought to do that at home. The girls entertained themselves watching the planes take off and land. About 30 minutes before we boarded, Robyn Kramer walked by with her kids. They were on their way home to Tucson after a visit with her mom. Pastor Kramer was Rob’s youth pastor until last summer. We had a nice visit with them, and we told them we would see them on Thursday evening for church.
We saw the Mississippi on the way out of New Orleans. Rob took pictures along the way beginning in New Orleans. I hope to include some along with the journal as we go along. We arrived in Chicago at 7:00p.m. and we let nearly everyone deplane before us, since we would take so much time to collect our bags. We had nearly 2 hours in the Chicago airport before reboarding. We ran into one of my nursing students, rising senior, Brandy Conway. She lives in Chicago and was flying to Las Vegas to attend a wedding in Phoenix on Friday. She was going to spend time with friends during the week. We had a good visit, but then we separated. She was taking the same flight, so we saw her again later. The flight agent in Chicago was able to block a seat for Kathy, since the plane didn’t have as many passengers as were originally booked. That was great. We had another good flight and arrived in Las Vegas (home of the neon lights) about 11:30p.m. local time (it was 1:30a.m.) by our internal clocks.
By the time we picked up the rental van and made it to the hotel where we were to stay, it was nearly 2:00a.m. We found out when we arrived that the hotel was overbooked so we had to turn around and go 40 miles back to the southwest to Boulder City to stay (for free) in the only available hotel in the valley. We found out after we were headed there that this hotel was Hacienda Hotel & CASINO... During Sunday, we learned that people in Las Vegas have to deal with Casinos just about everywhere they go, so they do use the hotels and restaurants of the casino resorts. It was just another thing to deal with at 2:00a.m. We finally got checked in and had everyone in bed by 3:30a.m.
After we arrived at the airport parking lot and loaded our luggage onto the shuttle bus, we started for the airport. The picture below is of our luggage on the shuttle. We were the only ones on the bus and we had quite the load: 6 checked bags, 9 carry-ons, a car seat and a stroller, not to mention a little one that needed carried or pushed along the way. I realized at the airport that the only person without a coat (for the cold evenings in the desert and by the ocean) was Kathy. I had set hers out, but then it got hung up and left at home.
We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to go through security and get checked in before our flight (in fact we had to wait 1 1/2 hours after we were settled before they boarded). We found they had wireless service, so we were able to check email, but didn’t get our blog page set up adequately to really get it going. We hadn’t thought to do that at home. The girls entertained themselves watching the planes take off and land. About 30 minutes before we boarded, Robyn Kramer walked by with her kids. They were on their way home to Tucson after a visit with her mom. Pastor Kramer was Rob’s youth pastor until last summer. We had a nice visit with them, and we told them we would see them on Thursday evening for church. 
We saw the Mississippi on the way out of New Orleans. Rob took pictures along the way beginning in New Orleans. I hope to include some along with the journal as we go along. We arrived in Chicago at 7:00p.m. and we let nearly everyone deplane before us, since we would take so much time to collect our bags. We had nearly 2 hours in the Chicago airport before reboarding. We ran into one of my nursing students, rising senior, Brandy Conway. She lives in Chicago and was flying to Las Vegas to attend a wedding in Phoenix on Friday. She was going to spend time with friends during the week. We had a good visit, but then we separated. She was taking the same flight, so we saw her again later. The flight agent in Chicago was able to block a seat for Kathy, since the plane didn’t have as many passengers as were originally booked. That was great. We had another good flight and arrived in Las Vegas (home of the neon lights) about 11:30p.m. local time (it was 1:30a.m.) by our internal clocks.
By the time we picked up the rental van and made it to the hotel where we were to stay, it was nearly 2:00a.m. We found out when we arrived that the hotel was overbooked so we had to turn around and go 40 miles back to the southwest to Boulder City to stay (for free) in the only available hotel in the valley. We found out after we were headed there that this hotel was Hacienda Hotel & CASINO... During Sunday, we learned that people in Las Vegas have to deal with Casinos just about everywhere they go, so they do use the hotels and restaurants of the casino resorts. It was just another thing to deal with at 2:00a.m. We finally got checked in and had everyone in bed by 3:30a.m.Sunday, June 1, 2008
Finally online
Well, as anyone who’s checked can see, we have been offline all week. We got about 10 minutes of internet access on Friday night and downloaded our emails, but we haven’t been able to be on long enough to do anything else. We are having a great time and have been incredibly busy. We will “dump” some of our entries onto the blog later today or tomorrow. What a wonderful trip we are having. Wish everyone could experience this.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)