Our internet access hasn’t been great over the last week, and getting pictures onto this blog is tricky, but here are a few.
Marcuses and Flaxes in Steamboat Springs:
The Marcuses at the Colorado National Monument:
Marina and Izzy at the Grand Canyon:
All of us at the Grand Canyon:
Marina at Zion:
Izzy at sunset at the Grand Canyon:
We spent the morning at the beach/pool at Mandalay Bay. The kids had a blast, but the sun was very strong and Marina got too much even with the sunblock. Emily too. We got lunch at one of the umpteen restaurants inside the giant mall that is the hotel and then came back to rest before hitting Las Vegas Boulevard. We walked over the faux Brooklyn Bridge at New York New York. We took a couple of trams. We watched the choreographed fountains at the Bellagio.
By 6pm, we were at Treasure Island to get our tickets for a 7pm Cirque du Soleil performance, Mystere. The kids loved it, but we were unable to fit in dinner before the show and settled for some ice cream (and cookies for Izzy). When the show was over, we pushed along with the masses of people back down to the Bellagio; Izzy really wanted to see the fountains again, in the dark. Marina got overwhelmed by the enormity of it and remarked that it seemed impossible that Clinton and Las Vegas could be on the same planet.
After our second fountain show (the earlier one was arranged to Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”; the latter was to Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean”) we hopped in a cab back to our hotel. The kids were exhausted and fell into bed and asleep; we all ended up skipping dinner.
It turns out that we have to register the kids for school next year at noon tomorrow. It’s about a five hour drive from here, so we have to be out with the birds. I think we’ll all be grateful to put Vegas behind us and end this trip. It’s been amazing, but it really is time to be done.
The kids want to do a video diary of our year in California. Izzy has been insisting that he wants to be a cinematographer when he grows up, though he pronounces it cinnamon-tographer, which sounds yummy to us. Perhaps you’ll be able to follow us on youtube.
Four years ago, we spent a four days camping at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, a quiet, remote piece of land separating Lake Huron from Georgian Bay. On the last day, we packed up, drove eight hours south, and landed in Niagara Falls, where the crowds and the neon lights overwhelmed us all. Yesterday’s drive (Tuesday) was like that.
We started the day by returning to Zion National Park, where we had a wonderful ranger-led tour of the Canyon. Unlike Bryce and Grand Canyons, which you visit mainly from the top of the canyon, in Zion, you start at the bottom and work your way up. Starting at the bottom entails that there is much less anxiety about kids running around. It also means that you strain your neck looking up at the sheer faces of sandstone above you, some towering 2000 feet. We hiked along the Virgin River, splashing about a bit. Emily, who had remembered Zion as sort of a mini-Yosemite, felt the need to apologize to the Park for not remembering its spectacular beauty. Izzy got his second Junior Ranger badge. Receiving the badges involves a small swearing-in ceremony which makes it really special for him. He’s decided that he’s a senior ranger, now, since the first one was a junior ranger badge and seniors come after juniors.
We had a late lunch about an hour west of Zion, in St. George, Utah, and then crossed a bit of Arizona on our way to Nevada. We drove through Lake Mead National Recreational Area. It was over 100F outside. The scene was desert and the roads were deserted. At the southwest corner of the lake, we found a huge beach with a few people swimming. After we walked down to the water, I decided I had to swim, and the kids joined me. It was wonderfully cooling. The lake has clearly sunk, but it’s still pretty wonderful. Coming out fo the water into the dry desert air, we dried off nearly immediately.
After Lake Mead, we drove to its cause, the enormous Hoover Dam. We’ve kind of had enough tromping around at the edge of tall structures, natural or man-made, so we walked across about half the dam and turned back. It was still 102F at after 6pm.
And after an hour’s further drive, we found ourselves in Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Exhausted and overwhelmed, we asked a concierge to point us to something reasonable to eat, which turned out to be an outpost of one of our favorite Santa Monica restaurants: The Border Grill. We trudged grungily through the casino back to our room and crashed. We’ve had the kids up early the past couple of days and we’ve been pretty active too, so we’re taking it easy today. We’ll hope to see a show tonight, perhaps a Cirque du Soleil (there are six or seven Cirque du Soleil shows), but spend most of the day at the pool.
Tomorrow, we arrive in California. We’ve driven over 3500 miles.