Epic Road Trip - Part 3

We decided to drive from Las Vegas to San Francisco in one day. Initially we'd planned to do this in two days, but I stumbled across this place in Vegas, called Tahiti Village Resort and thought it was exactly what we needed for a day of downtime.  I'm not going to lie. The pool and lazy river were major factors in this decision. Because we all know Vegas isn't exactly the kind of place that is super kid friendly...

This was the longest driving leg of the trip. A full day in the car, with limited stops. 

We decided to get an early start [much to the alarm of the kids] we were on the road by 5 am, which was an amazing feat, especially for us. We should have received a reward of some kind.  

And I'm so glad we did... We drove on a 6 lane, one direction freeway for over an hour... By 6 am, the morning rush hour was in full force, by that time, we were finally getting away from the congestion. I'm sure if we'd waited until later to leave, that same drive would have taken us twice as long, crawling along with the morning traffic.  

We watched the temperature climb higher and higher as we got closer to Vegas. I'm not going to lie, I was alarmed... The ole girl [our vehicle] isn't used to temps in the high 40's. Neither is this ole girl for that matter... When you touch the window of the car and nearly burn your fingers.... Well, you know it's hot. There was a light cloud cover, so the temp only got up to 45 degrees Celsius, that's me being sarcastic. I have never been more thankful for cloud cover.  

On paper, the 7 Magic Mountains, wasn't far out of Vegas. But after driving for 8 1/2 hours, in 40+ degree heat, we didn't want to take a chance and stop. Luckily we got a photo on the way by. One photo. Because immediately after I took this picture, a train drove in front of the rocks. 

We arrived in Las Vegas at 2:30. The drive ended up taking less time than we anticipated. It was the only drive that did. All other drives, took longer than expected. We were thrilled to be able to check in early and be greeted with this view out our window.

We wasted no time getting in some well deserved R'nR.

Best margarita ever.

We did end up going down to the strip on our second night.

We woke up our second morning in Vegas to light rain and a thunder storm. We headed east towards the Hoover Dam. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. It was overcast, but it was H O T. 38 degrees Celsius, and super humid. We found a great parking spot, and checked out the dam.  I had done some research regarding dam tours, but we were all so stink'in hot. Our clothes were all sticking to us. We had a look around and headed back to the car air conditioning... No one really interested in hanging around.

We arrived that afternoon in Flagstaff. We found the neatest little pub for dinner. They had games to play while you were waiting for your meal. They also were having a trivia night when we got there. It got busier and busier with people showing up to play. Very cool vibe in Flagstaff. A place I'd definitley like to spend a bit more time in.

The next day was the Grand Canyon tour we'd booked.

It was pretty amazing.

The fact that there are very few places with guard rails, made me extremely nervous. My kids made fun of me a lot because of that. But that's why someone falling over the edge is called an 'accident'. No one goes there with the intent to plunge to their death. Well, mostly no one. Perhaps some do. 

It was beautiful. Photos don't do it justice. It's breathtaking and awesome.