Summer Vacation 2014 - Red Rocks, Bright Lights, and Beverly Hills Bound

This year, we opted to plan our summer vacation to coincide with a mediation Dana has in LA at the end of July.  Knowing that we would be preparing to send Maddie off to college somewhere (Boston, we now know), it seemed a logical choice.  While we have been to California, Utah and Nevada with the kids before, we knew we'd find new areas to explore and adventures to have.

Little did we know when we started planning this trip that I would be on my third week of fighting the shingles virus or that Maddie (and, now it seems, Daniel) would come down with a nasty cold right as we set off.  So... all in all, it was probably a very good choice we opted for a less ambitious summer 2014 vacation plan.  Initially, I wasn't planning to blog at all, figuring we would be covering familiar ground, but Daniel's passionate plea that I simply MUST document the family vacation has led me to my compromise - I will, indeed, blog from Utah, Vegas and LA, but I might skip a day here and there.  We'll see :)

I write this morning's blog entry from a Hampton Inn in Springdale, Utah, the "Gateway to Zion."  After waking at 5 AM yesterday morning, we embarked on our journey west.  The flight was uneventful but for the fact that we were on Southwest in zone C, which meant we not only did not get four seats remotely close to one another, but poor Daniel wound up in a middle seat next to an off-balanced individual who thought it would be amusing to show him an inappropriate gif.  Daniel told us this after we were in the rental car bound for lunch, or Dana and I likely would have tracked down the individual in question to give a lesson in airplane manners when you're sitting next to a 13 year old kid!  That unfortunate episode behind us, we drove down the Vegas strip to check it out and have brunch (it was only 10:00ish California time, but our stomachs told us it was 1:00 and time to eat) before we started the drive to Utah.  The look on Daniel's face was wonderful, as he seems to have no memory whatsoever of our last trip to these parts (we figured he was about 5 1/2, and this was the year or two PB - pre-blog - thus reinforcing Daniel's insistence that if the blog doesn't happen, the vacation might as well not have ;)  He marveled at all of the buildings and their various trappings (there's a roller coaster INSIDE and outside the New York, New York hotel?!?!), and I can only imagine what he'll think when he sees the place at NIGHT when we return next week.

We opted for brunch in Roxy's Diner in the Stratosphere, at the far end of the strip (figuring that was the last time we'd probably make it that far down), checked out the casino and the shop area, and then hit the road to Utah.  Good thing we opted for an early lunch before we left, as the next few hours looked like this:

Very stark and beautiful but nary a Cracker Barrel in sight   Little did I realize we'd be driving through (for a whopping 20 minutes or so) Arizona, or I certainly would have planned for a detour in order to check that state off of our list.  There's always the return drive on Tuesday! :)

We made our way to charming Springdale, where our unassuming Hampton Inn has a spectacular view of the surrounding national park.

We relaxed, the boys enjoyed a last afternoon swim in the pool, and then we made our way to dinner at one of the best restaurants I've been to in years - something I decidedly did NOT expect to find in Springdale, Utah.  If you're ever in these parts, do not miss Bit and Spur (http://www.bitandspur.com) - trust me!  As we finished paying the bill, our waitress encouraged us to walk around the patio to see the three deer casually munching while diners ate on the outside patio.  We had gained an hour back coming into Utah, so we finished up dinner, just as the sun was beginning to set.

We walked back across the street (literally, the restaurant is exactly across the street from our hotel, making the fine dining experience we enjoyed all the more shocking), took one more photo and then settled in for the night.  Each of our day trips (Bryce Canyon and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon) is a 2 - 3 hour drive from here, so we've opted for Bryce today, Zion tomorrow (when we're hoping the kids are feeling a bit better for the hike in "the Narrows" - details to come) and Grand Canyon on Monday before we head back to Vegas Tuesday afternoon.

In our somewhat sorry states, I doubt we'll be hiking any of the famed "slots" in Bryce, but Dana and I have watched 127 hours just in case (joking, Mom.... JOKING! ;)   Off to Bryce we go.