Home at last! (A week of travel in as few words as possible!)

Wow what an exciting week! We traveled to the Southwest to visit with Kelly's family and take in some sights. First we traveled down to Palm Springs, and when we arrived it was 98*! Yes that is right... We left Friday morning and barely made it through the start of Easter Weekend travel through LA. We also passed the beautiful Redlands Temple on the way. When we arrived we checked into the hotel and then went up to ride the Palm Springs Tramway. If you have never done this it really is exciting, you travel from 25 feet above sea level on the dessert floor to over 8000 feet above sea level in beautiful Idyllwyl (Probably spelled it wrong!). While traveling up in the tram it moves 360* around so you can take in the dessert and the mountains! We had a nice dinner there and then traveled down to the heat of the dessert again and the kids took a dip in the pool! The next morning we traveled through Joshua Tree (a really amazing National Park) and onto Phoenix. We then met baby Mike Merrell for the first time! He really is a cutie! and very small... Bridget and Quinn were excited to be with their Oma and Opa, Aunt Julie and Uncle Mont and their cousins, Tea', Caroline and now baby Mike. After coloring eggs with their cousins, we went back to the hotel to fall asleep so the Easter Bunny could find us! We woke up to hidden eggs and lots of candy! The Easter Bunny even found Jeff in California, and he was able to spend the day with his auntie and cousins in California! After eating solid chocolate bunnies! Bridget and Quinn got dressed and ready for church, where baby Mike was blesses by his daddy, Quinn thought it was great that his daddy was about a head above everyone else in the circle. We had a lovely Easter day with family and a great lunch. Bridget, Quinn, Kelly and I decided to venture out in the Phoenix sun that evening and visit a place called Rawhide. We had a rootin tootin good time! And a great dinner too! Neither Kelly or I were brave enough to try the Rattle Snake that was on the menu though! That evening we went back to the hotel and Kelly's parents met us there and the kids enjoyed the pool again! (Yes it was still over 80 at 9:30 pm.) On Monday we got up early and met Kelly's parents and Tea' and Caroline and traveled to the Phoenix zoo. It was getting warm by the time we left so we are glad we ventured out early! The kids touched Manta Rays and rode the train and the carousel, they really enjoyed the day. We then went to Sonic for lunch, Yes our kids love Sonic and since there isn't one too close we have to venture to Sonic when we can with them! After lunch we went to the Arizona Science Center (after getting lost in the not so great part of Phoenix! We now know where the Phoenix Morgue is!). The kids ran around touched things, invented things, saw dinosaurs and got wet in the fountains! It was really fun! We then went to say our goodbyes to the family and go to bed early, since Tuesday would be an early morning. We woke up early and traveled through a lovely town called Prescott and through the Prescott forest (mostly so Kelly could visit a gun store...) After that little detour we traveled up from Williams to the Grand Canyon. We checked into the Red Feather lodge (not a bad place if you are traveling there!) and then went into the Park, that first view was just breathtaking... Grand does not do it justice... It is just overwhelming, the beauty, the grandeur, the vastness. We enjoyed lunch at the park and then Bridget and Quinn enjoyed the Junior Ranger Program. We then took the bus to Hopi Point to enjoy the most beautiful sunset we have ever seen. By the time we got to the car in the parking lot it was the last one there and it was pitch black...A little scary, but we looked up and saw the most beautiful star filled sky ever. We then went back to the park for some last views and to see some of the lodges and Hopi Indian House the next day, it was hard to leave that place of such beauty. We traveled away from there knowing that we had indeed seen something that is just to wonderful to describe. We traveled from there to the Hoover Dam. We decide to make a detour on our way to the West side of the Grand Canyon (this was the worst part of our trip!) On Highway 93 there is the Meadview turnoff, 49 miles to the reservation and the new glass walkway! We decided that we were not going to get a tour of the Hoover dam until Thursday so we would take the drive... We didn't know that about half way there the road turned to a dirt road that you could go about 25-15 miles and hour on! Okay but after 14 miles with 7 to go it turned back to pavement... Yeah! we arrived and payed our 20 dollar parking fee, at what looked like and airport and a lot of security... Which we thought was a little weird! We parked and walked into the "terminal" gift store, and after finally figuring out what to do found the area where you could get walkway tickets! We h ad read they were about 20-25 dollars and I knew that Bridget and I probably wouldn't do it! I have Vertigo way too bad. Anyway the girl at the counter said it was 29.95 for the walkway okay not bad! But to get there you had to take a shuttle and it was 39.95 per person with no discount for children! and you could not take pictures you had to purchase theirs and of coarse no one knew the exact price! Needless to say we decided to walk back to the car and enjoy one last view of the canyon! We were a little ways back but it was still beautiful in a different way then the South Side, less forest and more dessert there! We then drove back out and headed off to the Dam! Lesson Learned! When we got to the dam the sun was going down and we really enjoyed the drive over and stopped for pictures! We decided to drive on to Vegas get a room and eat dinner and venture to the Dam in the morning! Our kids loved the drive down the Vegas strip but the lights that excited them the most were the lights at the 3 McDonald's! We had a nice dinner went to bed and headed out in the "Dam" morning (okay had to get one Dam joke in there!) Before going to the dam we drove up to see the Las Vegas Temple (the third one on this trip! We also saw Redlands and Mesa!). It really is beautiful nestled up on the mountain. We then arrived at the dam, Kelly was like a kid in a candy store looking at this electrical engineering marvel! I think he just loved it! So did Quinn, maybe we have another engineer on our hands! We left Nevada that afternoon and headed out to California, we thought we would only make it as far as Barstow (Yuck!) but we made it all the way to Bakersfield, we have never traveled that route before it was really interesting! And we really enjoyed the drive through the Tehatchapi pass, it is really green and beautiful. We spent the night in Bakersfield and arrived home safe and early the next day, feeling a little tired, glad to be home, missing our adventure a little, and like we had truly seen a wonderful part of the beautiful Southwestern States! But as Dorothy says! "There is no place like Home..."