This is a couple of weeks late, but who's counting? Also, I apologize in advance for the lengthy-ness of this blog. If you feel the need to take an intermission, please feel free... I certainly took quite a few while writing it.
So here's a quick recap of our two weeks out west:
Day One: Fly into Vegas around 8pm. Get a shuttle to the Excalibur Hotel. They were out of the 'standard' room that I had reserved, so we got a free $30 upgrade to a nicer room and better view. Then we walked around for a bit and explored the surrounding area of our hotel, which was on the strip. We went into NEW YORK, NEW YORK and JH and I rode the roller coaster that surrounds the casino. Then the two older men retired to the room while I hit up our casino for a bit more fun.
Day Two: Woke up and went to pick up the rental car, a Mitsubishi Endeavor. Picked up a few supplies from Wal-Mart then drove out to see the Hoover Dam. Took a lot of dam pictures, rode the dam escalator, saw other dam tourist, and opted not to take the dam tour. Visited the Las Vegas sign where my blog a few below occurred. Then we proceeded back to our hotel where we spent a few hours at the pool and gambled a little bit more that evening.
A voucher for 25 Cents. BIG MONEY!
Day Three: Checked out with a new destination in mind: Sequoia National Forest, CA. Drove a ways, made a pit stop at Calico ghost town and spent about an hour checking that out. Proceeded on and got turned around a few times driving, drove some more, and then drove some more. Ended up crashing at the Vagabond Inn.
Day Four: Woke up and proceeded to drive some more. Got right outside Sequoia and set up camp right across from the Trail of 100 Giants, which is a walking trail where you could view a lot of big trees. Campsite was named Camp Raven Feather, after a feather JH had found. Each camp ground from then on was given a special camp name by us depending on something that had either occurred, or was found at that site.
Day Five: Got to the actual Sequoia National Park. Took the path down to the General Sherman tree. It just so happens to be the largest tree in the world! Then we drove a little bit more in the park until coming up to our next campground where we stopped and set up camp. This particular camp site was called camp trident, after the trident-looking instrument I found while gathering firewood.
Day Six: Finished driving through the park and stopped at an overview of King's Canyon. May I just quickly get off subject and add how beautiful God's creations are. Ok, continuing on, after we left this park, we were on to our next destination: Mono Lake. And in order to get there, the fastest way was to drive through Yosemite National Park. That's where we spent a week at last year, and we loved it. So driving two hours through the park again this year didn't bother us at all. We stopped and took a few more pictures and even had a snow ball fight. The elevation in Yosemite is over 10,000. By the time we drove through Yosemite and got to Mono Lake, it was already late afternoon, so we just got a hotel in the tiny town that mono lake occupied. We got dinner and went to the lake for sunset.
Day Seven: Explored the morning at a different part of Mono Lake. I added a link in 'Day Six' for you to check out if you want, but Mono Lake is a pretty neat place and as I understood it, it's made mostly from glacier run-off and is saltier than the ocean. It's one of the oldest lakes in North America. After a couple of hours here and lots of pictures, we ventured to a crater/volcano thing right beside it. JH and I got the bright idea to hike around the rim. Just a tip for those of you who decide to hike in a sandy/rocky terrain: Don't wear any type of sandal to do so, it will prove difficult and rocks WILL get in your sandals and pierce the bottom of your feet. After this hike, our next destination was Death Valley. Again, another link you can check out if you want. Needless to say, it was HOT here, opening the car door felt like opening the door to an oven. The thermometer read 115 degrees! And, unlike the day before, Death Valley is at/or below sea level. I'm not sure how the wagon trains made it through this place alive. There were some neat sand dunes we got to check out as well as some more neat scenery, but come sun down, we decided we didn't really want to camp here, and it helped that the campgrounds were closed anyways. So we just kept driving towards our next stop:The Grand Canyon. We tried to stop in Vegas for the night, but were told it would be $400 for a room IF they even had one available. So we just kept driving towards Arizona to stay at a dive for WAYY less than Vegas.
Day Eight: Got up and headed towards the Grand Canyon.Got there and checked out the incredible view from the top. Talked to a few park rangers to try and determine our hiking plan for the next day. Pops wanted to hike down into the valley, but we found out that that was probably not going to be a manageable day hike like we were expecting. Then we went and set up camp at our next camp ground, Camp Coyote.
Day Nine: Woke up and hiked down into the canyon. At 11:00, 1.5 miles down into the canyon, we were advised not to hike any further. Do you think we listened? Of course not, Barbre's never do. So at the three mile mark we stopped and rested and ate lunch and refilled waters. We also played with some native creatures who were hoping and praying that we might just drop some lunch for them. Then after our 1.5 hour break, we trudged forward, back towards the top. It ended up taking us longer to walk down than it did up."Please sir, I want some more."
I survived!
Day Ten: Checked out a little bit more of the canyon and headed towards the North Rim, which was a few hours away. Drove through the painted desert on our way there, and once we got to the North Rim, we just set up camp. This time at camp Rebel.
Day Eleven: Saw the North side. Not too much different than the South. Then we headed to Zion National Park in Utah. Someone had described it as "Like the Grand Canyon, except you're looking up into it instead of down." Which was pretty much how it looked. It was pretty. We set up camp (Camp Tumbleweed) and then chilled out at the river for a little bit.
Day Twelve: Hiked up in the park for what seemed like forever. And since pops and JH have no fear of heights and ledges like I do, I got dragged up these steep rock sides to explore more of the park than I particularly wanted. But it was worth it. Then we headed towards the place where the Mountain Meadows Massacre took place. Click here if you want to find out what that was. Then we set up camp (Camp Beauty).
Mountain Meadow Massacre Memorial
Day Thirteen: Woke up and explored a trail that was nearby. Which, again, being with the two males that I was with, we had to veer off the path and ended up rock climbing. When all that was finally over, we got in the car and headed towards Vegas again. Stayed at a dive hotel just outside of Vegas.
Day Fourteen: POOL DAY! A day of relaxing and getting tan at the Excalibur hotel! My kind of day. Then we went and checked out the Stratosphere hotel and rode the roller coasters that were on top of it. It was a very fun filled day!
Day Fifteen: More pool time, more gambling, and then headed to the air port for our flight home. Oh! I almost forgot! JH and I got married in Vegas too. (Not really. It's a running joke with the three of us, but we did go to the chapel and take a few photos.) Now here's a tip for any of you who travel: Make sure you check your dates on the tickets, otherwise you'll be a day late for your flight like we were. OOOOPS! But thanks to a WONDERFUL Delta Lady at the counter, we were blessed to get another flight home that night, for a very reasonable price. In the event that you ever come across my blog: Thanks Delta Lady! You saved the day, and we are ever so grateful for your kindness. 
So that was our fun filled, exciting, and slammed packed, two week vacation out west.
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