Date night in Vegas for Damian's birthday

My fussy husband did not think a gluten-free bison burger from the Yellowstone Canyon lodge cafeteria was flash enough for his birthday dinner. Every year he requests Boeuf bourguignon for his birthday so we pretended it was Bison Burg-in-yon - a very loose interpretation. 

He therefore deferred it for a week so we could have a lovely night out at a real restaurant in Vegas. We had made a booking at a restaurant called "Cut", owned by Wolfgang Puck. His specialty is steak and Damian's specially favourite thing to eat is steak and fries, so he got them. A wonderful night - the restaurant was fabulous, the wait staff almost theatrical in their service and the food was delicious.  The kids went to a burger place with Emily so we'll hear of their adventures in the morning...

Our crazily over the top hotel. The second photo is an indoor shot complete with fake sky!

Sunday 29th June - Viva Las Vegas!

With no where to rush to today, we had a long, lazy sleep in before heading to breakfast and then a day of shopping.

It has to be said that Vegas is such a city of excess.  It amazes me that this place exists in the middle of the desert, and has had so much money thrown at every building and every part of it, that it's ridiculous.  I miss the wildlife we've seen in the past week and now we have a whole new type of wildlife - for all the wrong reasons!!

Here are some of my observations:
- I feel very sober here.
- there are all sorts of obvious enhancements made here to body parts. No such thing as "less is more" here - more is definitely more.
- bikinis, 6 inch heels and nothing else is apparently appropriate attire for every occasion - restaurants, checking into hotels, walking in the main street...
- I cannot understand how anyone thinks.... Let's go to Vegas to get married - what a beautiful place for a wedding!!!

Anyway we headed to the outlet centre north of Las Vegas today and had an excellent time finding bargains. Kids we're keen to get Nikes and at less than half price of Australia everyone was happy!! The centre was outdoors and it was 43 degrees today, so we welcomed the many misting stations where we could cool down - they literally spray a fine mist all day long to help cool you down.

We all did well with our purchases (speaking of excess) and came home tired but happy.

 

A nice idea for a jacket for Finbarr Daddy but not so practical in our weather!!

Helen Judd - this is for you...

I could just see you selling "Guns and Ammo" along with the petrol Helen - this is where we stopped for petrol on the way to Las Vegas. Hilarious!! 

The family all together again. Happy Birthday Emily!!! No longer a teenager.

Saturday 28th June - Last day of the road trip and back together with Emily!!!

Today our road trip came to an end - we farewelled the Grand Canyon and hit the road one last time to head to Las Vegas.  When we got back into mobile range we were able to get a message from Emily telling us she'd landed safely in LA. She was already on the connecting flight to Las Vegas so we drove for the 4+ hours through dry, dry desert and made our way to the hotel.

I have to say, last time I went to Las Vegas when I was 21, I remember thinking that if I never went back to Vegas I would die a happy woman, and here I am again (and yet to be convinced).  I know we will have fun - and I couldn't wait to find Emily (which took a while - this hotel is ridiculously big with over 7900 rooms - seriously?!!), but I'm a bit sad to be leaving the natural scenery behind us.

We found Emily - very tired but happy to be here.  We sang happy birthday and gave her some presents (she got to wear the raccoon birthday hat too), and she had a big long sleep while Damian and I returned the hire car (always a relief to get that back in one piece).

After showers we made our way to Buddy V's for Emily's birthday dinner (for those not in the know, Buddy V has a TV show called Cake Boss and this is his original restaurant). Across the hallway was his cake shop with a queue of about 60-100 people all night, even when we left around 10.30).

A delicious dinner was had by all - Damian is back on deck but sadly Joseph's gone down now after struggling through dinner.  We're all a bit excited we can sleep in tomorrow as we don't have to rush anywhere except maybe to shop!!

Grand Canyon at night

While exploring the lodge when we arrived, we found these curious figures on the veranda area and a sign nearby saying "Star Party - 8pm". Never one to miss a party, I thought the kids and I should go after dinner (Damian still not well enough for dinner).

This was the best star party I'm likely to go to - no celebrities in sight, but a bunch of astronomers and their weird and wonderfully shaped telescopes - some handmade, some very technological and expensive, and most big enough at full extension that we had to climb ladders to look into. Each year astronomers around the country have a "New Moon in June" festival where they head to national parks around the country while the moon is at its lowest so the stars can be seen at their best. Never mind that we could already see a gazillion stars without a telescope, but we had the most amazing education and insight into the world of astronomy. As if we didn't feel small enough already looking at the Grand Canyon today, we felt a whole new sense of perspective after this.  

We saw;

- a cluster of stars

- Saturn - so clearly we could see the rings, the 4 moons and even its colours

- globular clusters of stars - a bunch of stars drawn together by gravity - believed to be the oldest stars known

- another galaxy

- a cluster of galaxies!!

- a nebulus ring - this was amazing - a sun-like star that was not large enough to explode fully, which appears like a donut - a large ring of dust and debris around the central core

- most popular to the kids(and seen without telescopes) the astronomers used lasers to point out stars, objects and moving satellites (showing us that spy satellites go north to south!) 

This party was amazing and it was hard to drag ourselves off to bed - the astronomers were so passionate, patient, and generous with their time. They gave the kids NASA stickers and all declared they want to see our skies in Australia - what a fantastic night!! 

More glorious Grand Canyon shots.

Grand Canyon - nearly a family shot!!

The view from the lodge restaurant - very hard to take. 

Grand Canyon

As I said, this is a place I've always wanted to go, and I have to say, NOTHING about the Grand Canyon disappointed - it was every bit as spectacular, beautiful, colourful and amazing as I'd hoped it would be. The weather was perfect  and visibility was great.  I laughed at the sign on the rangers' office at the entrance to the national park. Entrance fees to all of the national parks have been $25, but at this one was a photo of the canyon covered in cloud and fog and a big sign saying, "No refunds for poor visibility" - people must have asked!!

We found our latest log cabin and unloaded the car again before taking off for a walk around the rim near the lodge - we stayed at the north rim of the canyon - a little more remote than the south apparently, but I'm pleased with our choice - the northern rim is higher than the south and the views are wonderful. It would have been 203 miles to drive from north to south, so north rim perfect!! Damian had a sleep while I took the kids for a walk and a thousand photos. When we got back Damian woke and we drove for about an hour to 3 amazing vantage points, ending at Cape Royal. It was a bit windy there too, but so peaceful and amazing.  They had great nature trail signs explaining the flora and fauna and how the Indians used different plants for medications. Finbarr wanted to pick the sage bushes because the sign told us how the Indians used it for colds, stomach bugs etc - everything we have!! I'll add some photos but it's best to see in person I'm afraid.

(And no, we did not find Bobby and Cindy)...

More Zion Canyon

Friday 27th June and the days just keep getting better! Zion Canyon.

We were out of range yesterday and last night so I have to play catch up.

Firstly we left Bryce Canyon and headed for the Grand Canyon. Quite possibly I can blame the Brady Bunch, but the Grand Canyon is somewhere I've always wanted to go, so it was my one wish-list item for this trip.
However, before we did that, we decided to follow the many recommendations we had while at Bryce, to go to Zion Canyon (another one I hadn't heard of!). It was a 25 mile round trip so we thought we may as well see what everyone was talking about. We're so glad we did.  While at Bryce Canyon we were on the top of the Canyon looking in, this time we were driving down, down, down into and through the canyon, through the most commanding and rugged mountains. It was spectacular, and thankfully the traffic was slow enough for me to see too (Damian's got the lurgy now so is definitely not up to driving - so great how we all share in this family!).  I would definitely recommend this unless you're claustrophobic - there's a narrow tunnel that you drive through for over 2.5 minutes before it opens up to the scenery.  Of course photos don't do it justice, but it gives a good idea.

Bryce Canyon, Utah. Amazing!!

Lunch stop

We stopped for lunch today in Historic Fillmore and we all know why Fillmore is historic...yes, Marcia Brady went to Fillmore Junior High!!!! (Possibly not here!).   Try as we might, we could only find an elementary school and university - very disappointing.

 We also found the most fabulous diner called "Carhop Cafe" where locals drove up and had food brought out to their cars - just like in Happy Days (Mum I think I watched too much TV growing up).  Great place and the first time someone guessed correctly where we were from!

Thursday 26th June - New and interesting road kill...

After leaving Park City today we realised pretty quickly how much the countryside was changing. Mountains, streams and white-water rafting gave way to dry and rocky landscape and while we as adults thought it was still beautiful, the kids were a little less inspired. We also realised how different it is driving here - in January we headed west of Brisbane to St George and lost count of how many dead kangaroos and wild pigs we saw, so today's game was to find the most interesting road kill. In contention were gophers, and raccoons but the outstanding winner of most unusual road kill was a skunk!! We haven't seen a live one yet and I hope it's at a distance if we do, but I quite like the thought of finding a real live Pepe Le Pew.

We drove as far as Bryce Canyon, Utah today.  To be honest, I'd never heard of Bryce Canyon before this trip, but apparently 1,000,000 per year have, and it was well worth the trip. Snow, ice and water have created the most amazing canyon, in the middle of a very dry and elevated area, around 8300 feet above sea level (2529m - to put that in perspective, Mt Kosciusko is 2228m!).  It's impossible to describe, so I'll just add photos. It was really windy there today and we were quite happy not to be blown into the canyon while walking on the rim. We were really keen to see the stars tonight - apparently it's the best spot in the USA to see stars, but the sun sets after 9pm, it isn't dark until around 10pm and it's really cloudy tonight - so it's not going to happen!!

 Red canyon. On the drive into Bryce Canyon.

Pretty Park City, Utah

A really pretty little town that bursts at the seams during ski season. I don't wish to carry on about the  Mormon population, but it was my first experience of being in quite a busy restaurant with only one table other than ours having an alcoholic drink!!

A small town we drove through - I wish we were in town for this!!

Changing scenery - snowy mountains have given way to this...

Road trip continues...

Today we drove from Jackson, Wyoming, to Park City, Utah - another ski resort area where many of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games events were held. We started our road trip in Montana - Big Sky Country, and have now gone through Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah.  Montana might have been big sky country but everything here is just big - big sky, big mountains, BIG plates of food, big hats and big pickup trucks.  Some of the utes here have double wheels on each side of the back - I would hate to supply petrol for them!
The road trip is fun - driving is easy (thank goodness for USA hire car companies giving automatic cars - makes the other side of the road so much easier!). We're in very rural areas for the drive, so are instantly recognised as out-of-towers, but everyone is so friendly and helpful, right down to the 8 year old girl in a park today who wore t-shirt, shorts and a lovely pair of decorative cowboy boots complete with spurs!!!! (She has a big future I think!)

We've arrived in Park City - Mormon tabernacles everywhere thanks to the close proximity to Salt Lake City. I could never be a Mormon - forget the no alcohol - they aren't even allowed caffeine as it is considered mind-altering (surely they could do better than that!!)

Big pick-up truck!!

Jackson, Wyoming - ski runs and elk horns.

Cougar print at the water's edge

The Grand Tetons, and Damian adapting to his next new office in Jackson.

No walking today but look at the view!

Yellowstone to Jackson via Grand Teton

Another spectacular day of scenery - we left Yellowstone National Park and the animals turned it on for us again - this time we saw a whole herd of bison with their new calves, and while driving along, a black bear ran across the road!  We also stopped at a beautiful lake to see the view, skimmed some stones and a couple pointed out cougar tracks - scary!! We're so lucky to see what we've seen.

We drove to Jackson via the Grand Tetons - French fur trappers named these mountains - google to see the French meaning of the name!  Absolutely amazing mountains but a little nerve wracking when they say the fault line along the mountains will definitely be experiencing future earthquakes of significant magnitude - let's hope it's after tomorrow when we've moved on!

Unfortunately Alice now has the dreaded tummy bug now that I'm better.  We had planned a couple of walks but managed just a small one before she crumbled for the day. Luckily for us, the main place we had planned on walking around had been closed for the day - it was a flat wetlands where huge herds of elk and moose are found. It was closed because they're all calving and have attracted a large number of grizzly bears. Already there is one confirmed death from a grizzly feeding on the calves.

We made our way to Jackson and its a lovely ski village. I'm looking longingly at the ski runs covered in grass and wishing it was a lot colder right now!  We went to a very popular Mexican place for dinner (just for you Jane Ryan) - a treat to have some very freshly cooked and tasty food. Yellowstone is not known for its gourmet food, so it was basic and there was plenty of it, but it was nice to get to Jackson!

Final part of the Yellowstone Loop

We finished driving around the Yellowstone Loop road today - I did my first USA driving and I was great - just ask Damian. We went to another famous stop - Mammoth Hot Springs to see the amazing thermal pools and calcium deposits. It's a very active area and another reminder that Yellowstone is one big active Volcano!!  

The kids in the Canyon. 

Finbarr getting Ranger Steve to sign his Junior Ranger activity book.

Monday 23rd June - Damian's birthday!

Another wonderful day, especially as today is Damian's birthday.  We went for a hike along the rim of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon - stunning scenery, and 328 steps down to get a great view of the waterfall. We walked along to Artist Point (photo for you Mum), and then through Lilypad Lake and Clear  Lake, bubbling with volcanic activity - amazing to see. The views along the canyon are spectacular (and a little scary). Here's the birthday boy enjoying the waterfall views up the canyon...