Road Trip Part 3

Monday dawned a beautiful day in Las Vegas. While we didn't open the store, we were one of the first to the M & M factory. Grace Anne has had a few dollar bills burning a hole in her pocket. She asked me on the drive into the city, “Mom, do you think this place has souvenirs?” “Yes, Grace Anne I think you will find just the right thing here.” ( I love 6 year olds). Let me tell you the M & M factory does not disappoint with its 4 floors of yummy. We all headed to the second floor where we each got our own bag. Each of us stood in front of the 22 colors and marveled. Dawson got a bag of Blue only because as D says “blue my color”. Grace Anne started with aqua, then pink, then some yellow and soon I was catching her trying to sneak in every color she could find. I had to explain price per pound. Luke was over in the old person section...nuts, almonds. I, who love M & Ms wanted 2 colors I've never had before...Hot Pink and Turquoise. Twelve dollars later, we had our M & M's.

The 3^rd floor houses the 3d movie of red and yellow M and their adventures. The 4^th floor has a race car, which Dawson loved. And then after we had viewed all four floors the search for the perfect souvenir commenced. We then perused ALL 4 floors again walking away with a Red, stuffed M that she now calls John. Go figure. We really enjoyed the stop and if you find yourself in Vegas with kids it is a must.

We headed over to New York, New York for a slice of Pizza for lunch and a quick peek at Lady Liberty. 

 Instead of riding the roller coaster, due to our present company, we settled on a tram ride to Mandalay Bay. We were all excited to visit the Shark Reef. It was like entering the Rain Forrest, think Indian Jones movie. I honestly couldn't believe we were really in the middle of the desert.

The animal life was impressive. The pool of manarays and box shell crab was fun for the kids to touch. And then we made it to the shark tank. There was a room full of people all quietly watching the sharks swim by, and then there was D. If you know Dawson at all, you know when he gets excited his voice gets very loud; every time he spotted a shark everyone else got to hear about it too! (I love that about him). 

 The rest of our day on the strip was fun but we were ready for a swim. So glad to see Vegas, so glad to go. 

Claire really loved Vegas

Road Trip Part 2

Sunday morning we woke to a down pour of rain and my man discovered our sewer hose had a hole in it. How do you know if your sewer tube has a hole in it??? It's not that hard to figure out! If you will be staying at the Blackoak Rv park soon, you might want to avoid slot 52. ha!

This was a drive day. Las Vegas here we come. We passed 1000 miles of drive time today. Grace Anne loves to draw with a purpose so I got her a new sketch book for the trip, here is her rendition of us leaving Yosemite:

We headed south on highway 99 through Bakersville, CA where we jumped on highway 58 and started our drive through the Mojave Desert. Like I mentioned it was pouring rain at the start of the day, our windshield wipers were on overtime. We headed over a pass of green lush hills, evergreen trees, and vineyards. My man looked over to me (his queen of the monster truck) and said this is all changing very soon, his prediction was dead on. Half hour later we were seeing fewer trees and more brown dust. The thing we were not expecting were the wind turbines. We saw one huge turbine and marveled at it and then our eyes scanned the ridge beside us and our jaws dropped. These turbines go on for miles. The landscape is dotted with thousands of them in all different sizes. We passed a semi carrying a single blade and it was approximately 100 feet long! The wind was intense (hence why they thought this a good spot for thousands of wind turbines) we stopped at a rest stop, I opened the truck door and I thought it was going to blow away, taking me with it. Luckily, we only lost the wrapper to a chocolate bar I had enjoyed:) I wanted to get a good picture of the turbines but couldn't due to the downpour; Grace Anne sketched it for me.

The train tracks and all the tunnels were a big hit in this car since we are big fans of “Thomas the Train”. And, then the sheer vastness of the desert was a sight I won't soon forget. It felt like it was just us out in the great big, wide world. Then suddenly the landscape didn't change but the traffic did! About 75 miles outside Vegas the cars just started appearing. Thankfully on a Sunday afternoon we were headed towards the city and not away. My advice, never drive out of Vegas on a Sunday, or you'll be joining everyone in California.

And then the brown ended, the tumble weed disappeared, and Las Vegas shown in all its glory ahead. What hotel did we stay in you might ask? The Oasis RV hotel of course. One of Luke's patients recommended this one too and it was a great stop for us. Nice, clean spots and a heated pool to boot. We were just minutes from the strip so we set up camp and headed into the Vegas night. My man was on a mission: good food and lots of it. Some friends told us about the Aria hotel, so we headed there and found The Buffet. It was an all you could eat Lobster, Crab, Shrimp, Steak, Sushi, and all other manner of delicacies. My man about put them out of business with the crab legs. He also enjoyed the tops (yes only the top) of about 10 crème brulee desserts. I loved the crab, shrimp, and the endless trips to the bathroom with my children. Grace Anne loved the crab legs (already cracked for you), her Coke and the rice krispie treats. Dawson loved his very own Sprite and the bread sticks. Gotta love the kids.

We managed to make it to the Belliagio for the water show. I love watching the lights dance and thinking Brad Pitt or George Clooney might appear for another Oceans movie:) Back to the Oasis, we have a big day tomorrow; we're hoping to be the first ones to the M & M factory!