Day 7 A BIT OF HEAVEN (in St. George)

DAY 7 A BIT OF HEAVEN (in Las Vegas)

Las Vegas temple

Lots of flowers

GREEN grass!!!  so soft, they had to walk barefoot in it

DAY 6 CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME!

Today was planned as a shopping day.  The outlet malls and the grocery stores with promises of Gluten Free foods......   It was a very disappointing day.  The girls had a bit of fun with some of the goofy stuff they found, but wished that at least one store sold cute, modest dresses.  And the gluten free store proved to be an even bigger disappointment.  I had heard that Trader Joe's had an 8 page list of GF products that they carry.... turns out that most of it is made in a factory that also produces wheat products, so they can't guarantee against cross contamination!  Are you kidding me?!?  How does that qualify as GF then??  crazy people.

The best part of the day was when we realized that the outlet mall was one mile from the California border, so we drove one and a quarter miles farther than originally planned so that the girls could say they have been to California, and we can say that we have driven the I-15 from Canada to California, not bad.  (wow, talk about a run on sentence - it's getting late....)

this is the 'Welcome to California' sign

DAY 5 Part 3 - SIN CITY

the wind made us feel like we were in southern alberta - crazy!

loved IN-N-OUT burger, ate there both days we were in Vegas

Happy to see palm trees again

our world tour began in New York

(darn wind kept the roller coaster from running)

first building we entered - face to face with the filth and corruption.   We had to walk thru the casino to get to the roller coaster, which was closed.  Happy to say that none of us were even slightly interested in what goes on in there.  The girls couldn't stand the smoke, and didn't care for the atmosphere either.

atrium flower and bug garden display in the Bellagio.  Sadly, the beautiful fountain show we really wanted to see couldn't run due to the high winds too.  (If you ever go to Vegas, make sure it isn't windy - the best stuff won't be working)

Volcano eruption at the Mirage

couldn't go for a gondola ride either (wind)

M&M World

No trip to Vegas would be complete without an Elvis sighting

the Excalibur

just a little worn out after our 5 mile (or 8 km)  hike up and down 'the strip'.  (they all slept well that night)

We slept at the Holiday Inn Express about a mile or two south west of the strip - we were happy with the choice.

Final opinion of Vegas:  none of us liked it.  It was fine to see once, but I doubt any of us would return without a really good reason - so, what happens in Vegas, can stay in Vegas for all we care.

DAY 5 Part 2 - HOOVER DAM

as seen from the Arizona side

the old water line on the resevoir

the new bypass highway

the tunnel tour

the generators/turbines

looking down

the power plant

looking downstream

info

DAY 5 - Part 1 ROUTE 66

Not much to see...

the inspiration for "Mater"  (from the movie Cars)

We watched "Cars" as preparation for this leg of the trip, and in the special features they show clips from the town of Seligman and talk about doing research for the movie here.  This shop and truck were in Seligman.

Roadkill Cafe... sounds yummy?!

Forgot to mention a humorous story about Arizona.  When we checked into the hotel at the Grand canyon there was some confusion as to what time it was, the clock on the wall didn't match the one on my watch.  Turns out we had switched time zones (I had thought they were in the same zone as us).  I asked the clerk at the desk what time zone they were in (before I figured this out, obviously), and she replied "oh, we don't have a time zone". What?????  "we don't have a time zone" she repeated.  I really had a hard time not cracking up laughing in her face.  Turns out that what she really meant was that they don't observe daylight savings time.  So in the winter, Arizona is in the same time zone as us, but in the summer, they match up with California instead.  Weird, huh?