Viva Las Vegas Part 2

When our Las Vegas trip was in the planning stages, being the tree huggers that we are, Kerry and I decided that we wanted to do something "naturey". This could only mean one thing. We had already been to Red Rock Canyon and Mount Charleston years back so there was only one choice. We had to go to the Grand Canyon.

I looked online at many different tours to the canyon from Las Vegas. I figured that a nice long bus ride there and back would blow off a whole day and keep me away from the tables. That would be a good thing. There were so many different choices it was hard to make a decision.

While searching the web I came across a site called grand-adventures.com. The testimonials for this tour were outstanding. One of the things that appealed to me was that we would be going in a van instead of a big bus. This would allow us to go to places in the canyon that the big buses were not allowed to go. Another thing that I liked was that we would be taking a walking tour and eating a picnic lunch overlooking the canyon and not stuck inside of a restaurant. It turned out to be a fantastic choice.

We were picked up at 6:30am in front of the Mirage hotel. It turned out that our party consisted of only 11 people which included our tour guide Darryl. Our adventure started out at a local McDonalds where we all had breakfast and got ready for the 4 hour ride. Kerry and I were very excited. Being from Florida we don't get to see much mountain scenery so our camera was out and we started taking what turned out to be over 100 pictures of our day trip to the Grand Canyon.

After breakfast we stopped at Hoover Dam. It was a very scenic place right in the middle of the mountains. We ran around taking pictures like a couple of tourists. Oh yeah, we were a couple of tourists. LOL


After Hoover Dam we were in for a long ride. About an hour into the trip we noticed that there was some of this white stuff on the ground. I remembered this from growing up in Long Beach, NY. It was snow. OMG!! Snow!! The closer we got to the canyon the more snow there was on the ground. We were psyched.


When we got there we could not believe our eyes. It looked fake (yes, Laura, you told me so). It looked like a fantastic back drop that someone had put up for us and yes, it was cold. One of the first things that I did was grab some snow and made a snowball that I threw into the canyon. It was the first snow ball I had thrown in 30 plus years.

We walked around in disbelief. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I suspect nothing else that I see in my life will ever come close to this. Darryl told us that millions of years ago the canyon was an ocean. It was amazing to think that something as fantastic as that could be under our oceans.


We ate our veggie sandwiches(which were outstanding) overlooking the Grand Canyon. Yes, it was cold but nobody cared. We were all happy to be outside in nature instead of stuck in a restaurant. This was one of the places that we were able to go because of the smaller vehicle we had come in.


We walked around for hours taking pictures and seeing the sights. Kerry spent her time climbing out on ledges and taking pictures of herself while I freaked out. She had no fear of falling into the canyon. I had enough fear for the both of us. Our cell phones got a workout too. I called Pat and Kerry called Sean (her present boyfriend). We took picture of each other on the phone. LOL

Here is Kerry hanging out over the edge of the world. My stomach turns just looking at the picture.


Me on the phone to Pat.

Kerry on the phone to Sean.
Darryl took us to two other spots that the big tour buses couldn't go and we took more pictures. We even got to see a family of elk. The male was huge and just stood there while we took pictures of him. It was almost as if he was posing for us. The female and baby were a little more skiddish but we got picture of them too.


The ride home was long and we were all very tired but it was a trip that I will never forget. I am sure Kerry will remember it her whole life. Yeah, that was the whole point of going. That and a way to keep mom from gambling away the college fund.

Part 3 still to come