Back in October I was in Phoenix for work and mom flew out to meet me for a little road trip. We began our drive in Phoenix and ended up in Vegas baby!
Our first stop was Sedona. Here we took a
Pink Jeep Tour of the red rock. This was so fun and we had a great tour guide. There were some awesome photo opps and of course it was much prettier in person. The red rock just has such a pretty color. We had some duds in our jeep that I thought would keep us from having a fun ride but they turned out ok. Thankfully we went over some huge rocks that kept the tour interesting. My friend, Laura, had taken this tour a few months earlier and suggested I sit in the front seat since I had just gotten out of my back brace. I think I had the best seat in the house! We finished the time in Sedona by checking out the little shops and having a fried cactus snack. Then we hit the road for the Grand Canyon.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon very late that night and were starving! There wasn't much in this little town but we did find a Pizza Hut that definitely hit the spot. Our plan was to see the sunrise at the Grand Canyon so we had an early start the next day. Since we were exhausted we had a great night's rest. We got the Grand Canyon National Park and were so surprised that we pretty much just drove right up. I'm not sure what we expected but we were right there all of a sudden. We had a great spot to see the sunrise! It was definitely God's hand at work. As planned, we didn't really spend a lot of time there. It's one of those things, once you see it, you've seen it. We went to El Tovar Resort for breakfast and had a nice view over the canyon while sitting by the fire. Then we took one more stroll by the canyon before heading on our way to Hoover Dam.
Throughout our entire drive, this is pretty much what we saw....flat. brown. desert.
I've heard the road to Hoover Dam used to be a nightmare however, now they have made some great changes so it was a breeze. They've built a bypass so if you want to stop at the Dam, you can. If not, you won't get hung up in all that traffic. So we got there late that afternoon and man it sure was something to see. It was so interesting to see the stats of the building of the bridge. Hard to believe man can build such a thing.
So finally we reached Las Vegas, Sin City, The City of Lights. I've been there many times but it was fun to see it with mom. Again, we arrived starving. We stayed at
Mandalay Bay so we just got something to eat in the hotel. We were planning to hit the ground running to see the city! We bought tickets for the double-decker tour bus, we thought this would help with some of the walking and the guides are usually pretty good about sharing some history and interesting facts that you wouldn't hear if just walking on the streets. We rode all the way down the strip then walked all the way back. Now, if you know Vegas, Mandalay Bay is at the very end, I mean the very end, of the strip so it took a toll on us but we made it. We then ended the day with dinner at
Lavo and then saw
Jersey Boys.
We had such a great girls trip - we should definitely do it more often! Thanks for such an amazing time and making some lasting memories, Mom!
