I am recapping the wonderful times that I had with my family here in the States this summer. See all related posts under the category: summer tales.
Today (7/5) we had to get up early, because we were headed from San Diego to Las Vegas by airplane. We checked out of our hotel around 8 am, dropped everyone and the luggage off at the terminal and then my Dad and I returned the rental cars. We took a shuttle back to the terminal and then checked in for our 10:25 am flight.
Since we hadn’t had time to have breakfast, we bought coffee and bagels at the airport.
We touched down in Vegas shortly before noon and picked up two new rental cars – a Jeep Cherokee Latitude and a Nissan Pathfinder – and continued our travels on to the Grand Canyon.
We made it to Tusayan in 4,5 hours. We checked into our hotel, The Red Feather Lodge, and then decided to head into Grand Canyon National Park just in time for the sunset.
Pictures are worth a thousand words.
On our way back, we had to hurry to find a place where we could still get some dinner (yes, yes, we had a pretty busy agenda and everything was planned down to the minute – sort of), but were able to get Pizza and Wings at the “We Cook Pizza and Pasta” Restaurant before heading back to the hotel.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the Canyon Plaza Resort (Tusayan doesn’t offer too much in terms of culinary experiences).
We checked out of our hotel and then headed back into the park. We parked close to the Visitor’s Center and used the shuttle bus to take us closer to the South Rim.
We didn’t have enough time to take any hikes down the canyon (it’s on my bucket list – one of these days!), but we hiked quite a bit along the trail and the kids participated in a “Junior Ranger”-activity where they received an activity book that they had to fill out and at the end were rewarded with a “Junior Ranger badge”. They were so proud.
We had a little bit of a late lunch break and left the park around 3 p.m. to continue on to Page, AZ. The weather was a little crazy… sun and rain and thunder and lightening, we saw it all.
You can read the previous post here.
Tanja
September 30, 2015 at 9:56 amLet me know when you are ready to hike down the Grand Canyon – I am so up for that. A coworker of mine just did a hike to the Havasu Falls (Supai) – her pictures are amazing. She didn’t have to hike back up, she was able to catch a helicopter ride for $ 85.00.
So on my bucket list!!!
Marie
September 30, 2015 at 12:56 pmHow pretty!!! Matt really wants to go see the Grand Canyon but it’s a wee bit costly go there from where we are. Maybe one day.
megabrooke
September 30, 2015 at 4:13 pmBeautiful pictures! Their blond hair! Sounds like a wonderful trip! I’ve always wanted to go to the Grand Canyon.
Steffi
October 1, 2015 at 2:19 amOh, wonderful pictures.
It’s funny, we stayed at the same Hotel back in 2009 and had dinner at the same place you did. :-)
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
October 1, 2015 at 4:59 amWow, those photos are so gorgeous!! Sounds like you guys had a great time! You did such a great job planning this trip as your family got to see and do so much And I can not get over how cute your niece and nephew are!
I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon. My sister and her husband will be leaving Tucson next summer so our plan is to got there in May and *hopefully* hike the rim to rim trail!
Cait
October 7, 2015 at 6:30 pmYour photos are gorgeous. The Grand Canyon is one of those places I forget I want to visit until I see photos/hear someone talk about it.