Some details I forgot

Things we don't have photos of but I forgot to put in other posts: 1) At the Grand Canyon we could not have a fire so our expected dinner of sausage turned into an afternoon snack. No fire? No problem with an Eagle Scout by your side. While Lea went in and earned her junior ranger badge at the end of our Grand Canyon visit, Dan wrapped Echrich type sausage in foil and warmed it up on the manifold of the van under the hood. We did not drive with it under the hood, but at the parking lot it got warmed up to make an especially great lunch with Hawaiian rolls from Kaitlin. 2) Before we got to Las Vegas we passed over the Hoover Dam. You no longer automatically drive over though that is the route we took into Vegas. There is a big new bridge and we had to take a side road to get to the dam. We did not pay to park or take the dam tour (though we made a lot of dam jokes and Lea got to tell Grandma JoAnn that we didn't take any dam pictures!). We did drive over the dam, back and forth between Nevada and Arizona.

California here we come

A quick 6 hour trip got us to San Diego. Happy to cross the California border!

Turns out we traveled along historic route 66 more than I expected. Quite a bit near Grand Canyon and all the way into California. "Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino" We hit all of those cities. We missed Flagstaff because we took the more scenic route to Grand Canyon. My friend Micheal gave us a set of music to play on the road so we're traveling in style.

Viva Las Vegas

Vegas baby! I did not put a single quarter in a machine. No gambling for me. Dan went down to the casino when he woke up before us or when we were in the rides (he hung out with us for a bit, but since he doesn't ride it was not necessary for him to follow us around and watch us ride stuff). Dan won about $125 on slots. Circus Circus did not have a poker room, I hoped to get Dan to another casino and even had some money squirreled away for him to play but he was always too tired to travel to a different casino. We really stuck to Circus Circus the majority of the time. Our room was really nice. I did some research on Travelocity and the key was the West Tower. There were lots of bad reviews of Circus Circus peppered with a rave review here and there. I messaged the good reviews and the common denominator was the West Tower. They were right, it was big and nice. I had hoped to take Lea to see the volcano at Mirage, the moving sculptures at Caesars and the fountains at Bellagio, but we were just too tired. So if you're going to take kids to Vegas, Circus Circus is the right choice! Glad we picked it.

We got to Vegas about 5 pm. The line at check in was quite crazy. Turns out we were there the same weekend as some super rave "Electric Daisy Circus" so there were loads of twenty somethings with Daisies stuck to every part of themselves. The drive combined with the crazy daisy people made Dan a little bit crazy. Lea just wanted to go to the pool, but we needed something to eat.

A roving band of Crazy Daisies in their natural habitat. There were crazier! And many were just in panties and flowers!

So we headed across the street to the Peppermill. Looked like a former gentlmen's club (everything was chrome with neon on every surface. The waitresses looked like former employees also, but had cute little dresses for uniforms. It was family friendly with a little added flair for Daddy to enjoy as much as Lea enjoyed the rainbow sugar on the table.

Lea and mommy at the Peppermill. They also had TVs around, but instead of shows they had about 30 seconds of video of different locations from across the globe. Vietnam, Australia, San Fancisco — it made for some good conversation among these people who have spent 24 hours a day together and have nothing new to talk about!

Back to Circus Circus... but their pool closed at 8pm! Who closes a pool at 8pm? Especially a "kid friendly" hotel. Lea was a little heart broken.

The other quarter of the Neal Clan showed up and of course the kids got to jump on the bed, because what else is a hotel good for (dying your hair pink if you're a grown up!)

Lea was a great little caretaker (until we got to the rides and then she lost focus). The kids LOVED being together. And when you're hanging out with 3 kids under 9 where else would to you take them besides the casino?

Cousins and Uncle Dan outside where we had breakfast — Vince Neal's restaurant — a motorcycle photo op outside. Autumn looks so happy here, but as soon as the camera was put away "Can I get down now?!?"

Cousins riding Soul style! On our way to the Container Park.

Lea looking out the top container. The Downtown Container park is a shopping center and play area made from shipping containers. The top container had letters cut out and you could see the courtyard below. The park had a 3 story slide that was closed during the day due to the heat, but we returned around dinner time and the kids got to go on it.

Gabriel in the treehouse of the container park.

The flavor of gourmet Popsicle I had. It was a fruit described as Manderin orange with grapefruit. It was DELICIOUS! So delicious that EVERYONE shared my Popsicle. The park gave small free Popsicle so only I had a full size one and I shared.

See I didn't even get to hold my Popsicle! But don't feel bad for me, I got my fill of my $4 Popsicle.

Autumn's turn at my Popsicle.

Lea FINALLY got to go to the pool. The pool was a bit cold, but the hot tub was nice and warm.  The kids missed out on the show, but there was a woman — we knew her as "Josh's mom" because Gabriel met her son and was playing with them. She seemed quite normal and was playing with the kids well, but then after we'd all gone to the other end of the pool I heard another mom come tell the life guard that someone took their top off. I only saw her back and all our kids missed it entirely. I heard the life gaurd tell Josh's mom that this was not that kind of pool. About 20 minutes later after visiting the rest room with the kids (again the kids were oblivious) I saw Josh's dad holding Josh's mom against the wall because she was OUT COLD. I didn't even see her with a drink, but she must have been slamming them. I went back to the life guard and told them the topless lady was passed out by the lockers. She was on the ground surrounded by people next time I saw her. I have no idea what they did with her. I just felt bad for Josh because I'm sure his swimming was cut short and I doubt Josh's mom was in a good place the next morning! We had fun swimming. Lots of tossing items and Lea going under to get them. Autumn has quite an arm but not a lot of control. I was worried she would hit someone when she tossed the items for Gabriel and Lea to retrieve, but it all worked out. Plus Josh's mom set the bar pretty low as a level of conduct so we were Golden.

Chip snacks at the pool

Cousin Gabriel. At this point Aunt Natalie had to head off to work and Uncle Denton met up with us. He and Dan ran some errands and then we all got ready to head to dinner.

Autumn drumming.

We headed out for dinner with Uncle Denton and the cousins. Down near Freemont Street we had awesome pizza where the kids could write on the walls. Then we headed back to the Container Park to see the lighting of the Mantis. There is a metal sculpture of the a Praying Mantis attached to an old tank. The parks has a drum circle every night at dusk to "wake the mantis."

The Neal boys being boys.

The park had a sculpture with locks and names. We saw something similar on the Amazing race in Russia. 

Dan and Lea drumming before the fire started. We all banged on a drum.

The Mantis has been woken. Gabriel had seen this before and said it was loud and scary so I tried to prepare Lea and instead I scared her so much that she wouldn't drum any more and wanted to go inside a store to be away from the "boom" Fortunately the mantis blew its fire more than once because it was not scary. Dan had Lea come a little closer and a little closer and she was fine with it when she saw it all. She even ran back up to the cut out letters on the top level and looked out.

Lea and Gabriel waiting in line for the 3 story tall slide. Autumn was not tall enough for this slide. Three slides total of different lengths. At 9 pm the park turns 21 and over — all the kids have to leave — and the park becomes an open container park (you can have your drink out in the open) and the grown ups get to play. Three margaritas and a 3 story slide sounds like a good time! — only in Vegas.

This looks like they're hugging and laughing, but Dan just gave Denton a big kiss on the cheek, teasing Denton.

Neal clan at the Container park. Headed out to let the grown ups come play.

Photo number two on our way out of the container park.  By this time Lea was exhausted. We had to walk by the Freemont experience which is a light show/tv display on the ceiling of the walkway over Freemont street where the downtown old school casinos are. I was looking forward to showing Lea some of the Freemont Experience show, but she was so tired she was done with looking at everything! She just wanted to go home. She did deign to go into Walgreens by bartering with me to get a piggy back ride to the card. Why did we have to go into Walgreens? Did I mention Dan went in the hot tub with his phone in his pocket? He thought about trying to dry it out and save it, but for $14 he just got a new phone.

The next day we had some time before the cousins came to meet us so we had brunch of McD's nuggets and icee at the carousel cafe above the Circus Circus floor. Lea didn't have any interest in the circus acts. She kept saying she didn't like clowns — I said "well, you're seriously in the wrong place." She said "Well they're ok if they are big light up clowns!"

We spent about an hour at the midway with carnival games. This is the chicken in the pot game. You had to take a bound stuffed chicken and whack a catapult with a mallet and get the chicken in the pot. 12 chickens each for Lea and I and the only one that went in was the very first chicken I whacked. Lea was looking at these giant prizes that would neither fit in the van nor did we really need. She had seen a Beanie Boo — which is a baby stuffed animal with giant eyes — at the gift store so I told Lea that if we saved some of our game money and played to have fun instead of spending $40 at the break a balloon to win a giant Minion that we could go get the Beanie Boo. This worked well. We did walk way with a bear, a flower and a Kerpopi Frog. But we didn't have any fits.

I don't know why it made me laugh so much that this little chicken had its legs trussed up as we whacked at it.

This should say 1000 tickets! It was the sea hunt game spear fishing game and Lea got the big squid for 1000 tickets. Dan sat and collected tickets for quite a long time. With those tickets Lea got a Teddy Bear size Hello Kitty doll, a moon shooter gun that shoots glow in the dark ping pong balls, two pixie sticks and a prize for  Gabriel (giant Scooby Doo pen) and Autumn (small make up kit — that they used the day we left and Lea did a good job putting eyeshadow on her cousin).

And some games we played just because they were there — no tickets. Simpson game where Marge whacked things with her vacuum and Lisa whacked things with her jump rope. Lea also played a helicopter flying game that moved and a motorcycle game.

After the midway when the cousins showed up we headed to the Adventuredome in Circus Circus. Its an amusement park with full roller coasters and rides for all ages.

The 4 D movies of Sponge Bob and Dora the Explorer had a 3 D movie and the chairs vibrated and bubbles and a spray of water really came out.

Cotton Candy!

Pirate Ship!

Why are there 4 photos of the Pirate Ship?? Well because we rode this more than anything. "One More Time!" they would yell. Autumn did not fit well in the seat so I had to ride when she did. So I think we rode this 8 times. We even came back to ride it AGAIN!

Autumn loved the boat as much as the bigger kids. Also we see here the necklace that Aunt Natalie got for all the kids. Gabriel got a "G" red heart and Lea got a pink one.

These brave kids rode El Loco! The upside down coaster. They had seen the signs for it and were so excited. They were going to ride together and at the last minute I played the mother card and said we had to ride mom & kid. It was a good thing. Gabriel and Lea DID NOT LIKE IT. I have to admit I was not crazy about it. It hung us upside down for about 10 seconds so it wasn't like gravity was keeping us in our seat — we were hanging there. Gabriel and Lea came up with "El Loco is No No!" We did go on a second roller coast, I don't know the name, we just called it the pink roller coaster and it had two loops and a 180 twist so we were upside down, but it was different because gravity kept us in our seat. But I'm proud of these brave kids. right above where they are standing is where the car on El Loco hung upside down. I couldn't get the photo to capture the car going by.

We ended the evening at Hard Rock. We started for Rain Forest Cafe, but the wait as too long. After some hemming and hawing we found refuge at Hard Rock. The staff was great, the food was good and the drinks were AWESOME! Plus souvenir glasses.

Oh after Hard Rock we did stop next door at the 3 story M&M store. It was fun, but crazy overpriced. We could get custom printed m&m's for like $25 per lb. Regular m&m's (you could pick your own color and special flavors like birthday cake) were $14 per pound. So I promised Lea when we stopped for gas she could get m&m's so for $3 she got a big bag of m&m's in birthday cake flavor so it all worked out.

We headed out on Saturday and headed to San Diego. Before leaving we stopped at Denton and Natalie's house to give hugs and see their cute two story house. Their yard is small, but fenced in and the kids put their mark with chalk on the walls to make it very fun. They live in a nice gated community with a pool.Then we were off. California here we come.

Grand Canyon

Wilson, AZ the town 20 miles outside Grand Canyon. Stopped for lunch.

Junior Ranger program. It got moved inside due to the wind. The ranger showed the kids different items from different time periods of the canyon.

Lea finished her junior ranger program requirement before she even sees the Canyon. The ranger said at the program "did you notice that sometimes the scenery looks painted" and she was right. Without hiking down the canyon side it was hard to get perspective of exactly how grand the Grand Canyon is. There were many views that seemed two dimensional. It was a bit overwhelming to the eyes.

Lea looking at far away rocks (they looked a lot like close up rocks)

Majesty and beauty.

For Lea's junior ranger badge she had to attend a ranger guided program, fill out pages and identify things in the park, a bingo card of animals, plants and other things to spot.

A tree branch fell off very close to where we were going to wait for a bus. Fortunately we weren't hurt. Did I mention how windy it was?!?

We attended a second ranger program on Condors. We learned that condor eat dead things (he said that about 10 times), that their head has no feathers so they don't get dirty eating dead things, that they have a pink spot on their chest that acts as a second stomach and pops out when they gorge themselves because they don't know when the next meal is because they only eat dead things. We learned that at a time there were only 22 condors and now there are over 300, but it is 3 condors forward and two condors back. They are still struggling. One thing that was a surprise to me iis that they are getting lead poisoning from lead buck shot when hunters dress their kill in the woods and leave the guts (Ranger's technical term) and the condors scavenge those remains. Condors are bred in places like the San Diego Zoo (which we will see in another post — though we didn't take pics of the Condors, we did see them and Lea identified them by the pink spot on their chests).

Turns out because of the high winds we could not have a campfire or charcoal fire so we headed to the restaurant so we didn't have to fight with cold food and high winds. The food was average. The tortilla soup was very spicy to me, but the chipotle sauce on the chicken was as bland as cream of chicken soup. Very odd. They said they made things mild due to the many cultures that pass through, which I understand, but then why was the tortilla soup very spicy. Not spicy enough for Lea. She added pepper sauce from the "Grand Canyon Sauce" on the table. As for many cultures we tried to count languages and we got (and some are educated guesses) We got to about 7 languages, but all I can remember now are Swedish, Japanese, German, Italian, and Spanish. There was one family yelling at their pre teen kids and I said "I don't know what the words mean, but I know what they are saying!"

Camping! Did I mention it was windy? And it got so cold. I was so worried it was going to be 110 at the Grand Canyon and it got so chilly. I had packed some warm weather gear for Montana, but we broke it out in Arizona. Lea went to bed cold and got well bundled, I thought I'd be fine and woke up freezing. The cots are fairly comfortable (did I mention I broke one of the cots that are older than Dan at Kaitlins?). 

I didn't take the time to rotate this photo. It kind of shows how I felt. I did not sleep great. I was too close to the tent side (there is plenty of room so I should have scooted over, but I would have had to get out and it was very cold so I suffered) — I was close to the wall and the wind would blow just enough that it would thump my arm like someone tapping me to wake me up.

Lea bundled up and ready for bed. Mining helmet ready to guide the way in the dark.

This is how Lea ended up once she fell asleep. I bundled her back up in her sleeping bag to make sure she didn't freeze. But this is a sleeping Lea.

Coffee, coffee and hot chocolate! Hair not brushed, few hours of sleep, chilled to the bone. After egg and pancakes and the sun started shining on the trail life was better. Same restaurant as dinner, Bright Angel Lodge. Breakfast was much better than dinner.

Lea filled out her Junior Ranger guide at breakfast. These are symbols that Lea would leave for other campers. First line: EYE + Beauty = I see beauty. Second Line NO FALLING OVER THE EDGE. Third line: Moon + snowflake = night is cold! (I had some influence over the last one).

We have coffee & hot chocolate in us so we're ready for adventure.

Between the street sign and the seat at the right is an elk. I think you'll have to take my word for it, but that finished Lea's Junior Ranger bingo!

Squirrel! He was not afraid to go take lunch from the Germans next to us.

Canyon Blue Jay

Jay at the canyon

Raven. They are really big! I was surprised.

Neal Family at the end of the Red line bus line. At Hermit's Rest. I got a little crabby at this stop because I didn't sleep well. However we all got past it. We also went half way on the red line the night before to Hopi Point to see the sunset, but I forgot my camera. The sky did not light up, it was a bit hazy so the sun sank with more of a whimper than a bang. Also I just sat and enjoyed myself with my family as the sun sank over the cliffs. Lots of people taking photos VERY near the edge. Lea picked up on what I was saying and would give a little speech to us (not to other travelers fortunately) about how you wouldn't catch her next to the edge, she wouldn't go that close and that was NOT good decisions.

Hermits Rest. I think the telescopes were put in before the trees grew so tall.

Bear Trap. Dan had a convesation with a park ranger about how the bear trap worked and details about it and different kinds used. This has smooth metal bars that trap the animal, where ones with jagged teeth would tear the animal and ruin the pelt or cut through the leg so the animal escaped, but much worse for the experience. Probably soon to become condor snacks. Anyway, I liked that Dan had such an interesting conversation about it so I made him take a picture with it. He did not like the idea and thus the look on his face.

Hermits Rest. Now a gift shop. Designed by Mary Colter who in 1929, mere 10 years after women gain the right to vote. Mary Colter had many buildings at Grand Canyon and designed them to blend with the scenery and look like they belonged. She was commissioned by Fred Harvey — of Harvey house hotels that really settled the Grand Canyon. People would ride the train and they offered 4 day expeditions with women in fancy outfits who had to have college degrees to give guided tours. Then to hotels were built. It was all because of the train. But I found it fascinating and important to share with Lea that women were such a force in making the Grand Canyon a destination.

Neals, as close to the edge as we get!

At the Abyss

What Lea named "Toilet Rock" because — look, it looks like a toilet

Red Line Bus. It was a lot of walking even with the bus service!

Beauty and majesty!

Last thing we did was head back to the Welcome center where we started our Grand Canyon trip. Lea took an oath and became a Junior Ranger.