Hello all!

Well - the last few days have been a blur! We made it through the end of the trip and enjoyed all of it! I think it all started with a bit of overwhelming views at the Grand Canyon, which me made successfully the morning we left our last place in Utah. It was just a few hours from our last AirBNB, as we drove back through Hurricane and headed to the Grand Canyon North Rim. What surprised me during that drive was all the forest land in the Mountains as we headed in. For some reason I expected more landscape like Utah, but this was much different. Pine trees along with the 8000 foot elevations! Pretty wild.

The North Rim was amazing, but different than I expected. As we pulled in there is the lodge and cabins that are all around, which have a two year waitlist to get in! Pretty awesome. The lodge has a few areas to eat, and a deck for "the view" with chairs and tables. I could get used to this view every day with my coffee. Hard to describe. I would like to see the South Rim too, that will have to be the next one. We did a quick hike for the views, and grabbed sandwiches to continue our day.

Back to the car and we take our last big drive to Vegas. This is the relaxation bit of our trip, and everyone is pretty excited. The temperature kept rising as we headed down the mountains, and right up past 100 as we pulled in. That did not bring our spirits down, as we checked into the Stratosphere and got to our rooms. We ended up hanging at the pool and checking out what's going on. Most of us were so glad to get out of the car, that any change was a good change. WIth a Starbucks in the lobby and a pool on the roof, things were looking good! We did a fun walk over to Circus Circus and played games and watched a quick trapese show.

The next morning was the Hoover Dam, so we did end up getting back in the car. Its only about 40 minutes from the hotel, and we headed in and booked a tour. I think the most fun everyone had was the trick when you try to pour water down the Dam itself out on the walking bridge, and with the air currents provide an "upward draft" and the water will float in front of you and seem to defy gravity. Everyone took videos and gave that a try. Great for social media for the teens.

Back to Vegas and more pool time. We made sure to hit a decent buffet for dinner, and let the kids go bowling before we hit the strip for the final time. Some shopping, and my mandatory request to see the water show at the Fountains of the Bellagio. The show was set to Bruno Mars, so that was pretty cool. Home way past Midnight, Vegas style!

Sadly, it comes to an end. Tuesday morning I had a special request to see the shop for "Counts Kustoms" - a show I watch on the History Channel that builds custom cars. They had a great showroom, of course a place to buy shirts - which I did! Me and the boys made a morning of it, since it was close.

Late checkout on Tuesday, burgers at "In and Out" and a quick visit to the Pinball Hall of Fame, which ended up being really fun! We took $20 in quarters and everyone played games, anywhere from fairly new machines all the way back to games from the 40's! The sounds of the old bells and bumpers really brought me back to playing pinball at the 7-11 when I was my kids age! Great stuff.

Home safe - everyone in one piece, and a great big thanks to the Mom's who did all the planning and the kids who didn't kill each other in the process. Let's do it again!!!!