Spring Break 2024! I'd been planning this trip for the last year, and we were so excited. But unfortunately at the last minute, Matt wasn't able to come -- so the kids and I went without him. We were sad to not have him experience everything with us, but we still had fun and sent him tons of updates and pictures.
Hello, Nevada! We flew into Las Vegas, and the kids were wide-eyed as they took in all the neon billboards and dancing lights. We checked into the Mandalay Bay, and oohed and aahed over the view from our 35th-floor room. CC was brimming with excitement, because we had plans for her to see one of her besties, Aviva, who'd moved to Vegas last summer. Little Man wasn't feeling well, so he stayed in the hotel and watched the NCAA tournament while the girls and I met Aviva, her twin sister Talia, and their mom for dinner.
They recommended a place in the Venetian called Black Tap, because it had ridiculous milkshakes. The kids were on cloud nine! CC got a cinnamon roll milkshake (complete with an entire cinnamon roll sitting on top), and Sweet Pea got a Fruity Pebbles-encrusted shake (with a pop tart and Laffy Taffy sticking out).
We brought Little Man back a cookies and cream milkshake, which he devoured because he was thankfully feeling better by then.
The next morning, I'd planned to head out on our road trip, but the kids really wanted to see a bit of the Strip. So we did a combination of walking and riding the monorail to see some of the casinos and go souvenir shopping. The kids picked cool pillows shaped like poker chips, and CC found a magnet of a royal flush to get for Daddy.
Unfortunately, getting anywhere on the Strip takes a lot longer than I'd thought. So it was after noon by the time we got on the road out of Vegas. CC was not a big fan of the city. "It's ... a lot," she admitted. We were all excited to be on our way. First stop: the Hoover Dam!
There was nonstop giggling from the kids as they talked about taking a dam tour, looking at dam souvenirs, parking in the dam garage, etc. But first we visited the dam bridge: the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. We actually visited it accidentally -- I thought I was pulling into the parking lot for the dam. But once we walked up the trail and saw the bridge, I was so glad we stopped. It was incredibly windy -- blowing us backwards at times! But we walked across from the Nevada side to the Arizona side and got beautiful views of the dam. It was nice to show them the dam before we toured it, because when you're actually on or in the dam, it's hard to understand just how large it is.
The visitors' center was closed for renovations, but we purchased dam tickets for a tour. The tour guide explained how the dam was built, and we walked through some of the original construction tunnels. Then we stood on a platform overlooking one of the huge pipes of water, and we could feel the floor vibrating from all the gallons rushing through. CC was amazed when the guide told us so much water goes through one of those pipes that it can fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in six seconds.
We also got to see the turbines that spin to create hydroelectric power at the dam. There are 17 total turbines, and we saw the 8 that are on the Nevada side.
After the tour, we walked across the top of the dam, and took a picture with the bridge in the background. It's so massive, you can't even see the people walking across! That had been us just an hour earlier.
After grabbing a quick lunch, we headed towards our next big stop: the Grand Canyon. It was definitely our "Sustainable Energy Day," because in addition to witnessing the hydroelectric power generated by the Hoover Dam, we also saw a massive solar farm with panels as far as the eye could see, and drove through a valley full of hundreds of wind turbines.
Goodbye, Nevada, and hello, Arizona! We stopped for dinner on Historic Route 66, and ate at the Roadkill Cafe. We giggled the whole time while reading the menu, which had such delicacies as "The Chicken Who Almost Crossed the Road," "Thumper Hit the Bumper," "Covered With Bugs Bunny," and "Rigor Mortis Tortoise."
Then we drove the rest of the way to the Grand Canyon. Alas, it was dark by the time we arrived, so my plan to spend the afternoon and evening there did not pan out. No worries, I thought. We still have all day Saturday, plus Sunday morning, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment