Started the day out by visiting the Grand Canyon. Another quotable moment... Conner asked, "How long are we going to visit the park? 45 minutes?" Hunter scoffed... "No Conner. There's no way we are going to spend 45 minutes looking at a big crack in the ground." It's a little more than an hour in and an hour out of the park. When we got there Whitluck would strike once more. The main viewing area was closed for construction, but there was an alternate area via a walking path detour. We scared Granny one too many times by going close to the edge, so she asked for the keys and headed back to the car early.
What an impressive sight.
Headed back to the interstate to begin the 4 hour drive to Las Vegas. Stopped in Williams for lunch and a pee-break. Back on the road for about another hour. Laura had gone two days without a Starbucks, but that was the limit. Got off I-40 at Kingman, she Googled Starbucks on her Blackberry. Punched the address into the Hertz 'Neverlost' GPS and we located her grande, iced, mocha, no whip. Caffeine crisis averted.
Back on the road towards Las Vegas via the Hoover Dam. Stopped to get some pictures.
Arizona Side of Hoover Dam
Low Tide on Lake Mead??
We crossed into Afghanistan Nevada at 5PM with just over 3000 miles, so far. Temperature was 111F. Rolled on into Vegas, got checked in and the boys hit the pool for a half hour. Then off to New York, New York for the roller coaster! Whitluck struck. All 3 boys are too short for the ride. They needed to be 54" and they fell about 2" short. Ryan said that he kind of expected that and he wasn't all that upset. The other two welled up in tears and long faces. We negotiated dinner with the three of them, ate and then took the city monorail to the Venetian. The monorail took their minds off The Great Roller Coaster Disappointment of 2010. We walked the canals and got some gelato in their scaled down version of Saint Mark's Square. The kids legs started to give out so, we went to the taxi stand to get a cab back to the hotel.
Take a guess what the maximum allowable number of occupants is, in a seven passenger minivan taxi operated within the State of Nevada? Well, that would be five plus a driver, of course. Say that once again, slowly... "Five. It's the law" according to the cab stand guy, 'You'll need to get two cabs.' Hey kids, forget the Treasure Island Volcano, watch this... Granny got her Irish up and wasn't about to be screwed over by the Nevada Legislature, the cabbie lobbiest's and any other tourist shakedown conspirators. She was going to show them!! She'd walk back before she pays for a second cab. (Note to self. Go to the limo stand next time. They'll haul you wherever you want for a flat fee) Hunter and Ryan where pooped and did not want to hoof it back to the Monte Carlo. Laura took a taxi back to the hotel with them. Mom, Conner and I saw lots of things along the mile or so trek back. We took a leisurely, late night, 90+F, stroll back past Cesear's Palace's Fountains, Bellagio's Garden Conservatory exhibit with human sized ants and City Center's amazing architecture. Granny's paced noticably quickened each time we neared one of the business card slapping wanna be pimps of the Vegas Strip. I asked Conner, if he wanted up on my shoulders and he said, "No. He wanted to tell Hunter and Ryan he made it all the way back on his own." Mom said he was a 'resilent little trooper.' That and I think just possibly, he wanted to made sure he got a glance at as many of those discarded business cards as possible. Remember, this is the same little trooper that spotted the two elk on a ridge a mile away at 55mph on day two. We made it back to the room at about 11:30PM and crashed out. The much anticipated, long awaited pool day, is almost here. DW
No comments:
Post a Comment