Family Road Trip 2012

Saturday, July 28, 2012

2012-07-28T18:02:00.000-07:00

Today started out happy for everyone. Yesterday the boys and I brought in all the snacks and cereal from the RV and on our way home from the movie yesterday afternoon stopped and got milk. Everyone had their favorite cereal for breakfast this morning and we stayed in our jammies until we went to the pool at 11:00 am. Ahhhhh! Now that’s vacation!
For lunch, all of us took the free shuttle to Harrah’s from our hotel, the Rio, and ate a Chippotle’s. (Actually, we ordered our food from Chippotle’s and then took it upstairs to the McDonald’s because the air conditioning works better up there. We did buy our drinks form Mickey D’s though, just to make it look good…LOL) After lunch, Trenton and I had energy to burn, so we sent Michael and Devin back to the Rio on the shuttle and we set off down the strip.
We stopped and picked up a few souvenirs at our favorite shop: Grand Canyon Souvenirs. It looks like the canyons on the inside, complete with rope bridges to walk around on upstairs. Then we trekked on down to the New York New York and paid a quick visit to the Coney Island Arcade where Trenton and I tried(in vain) to win an Angry Bird from a crane machine. We give up. Vegas wants our money, that’s all! We walked back to Bally’s and got picked up by the shuttle and headed back to the Rio.

Friday, July 27, 2012

2012-07-28T10:42:00.002-07:00

Ok, so this blog thing is harder than I thought to keep up daily, so just bear with me and go with my flow as I try to catch you up!

Friday, July 26, 2012

Dad took off for classes early, so the boys and I walked back over to TGI Friday’s for breakfast. Trenton and I had Belgian waffles and Devin had a $4.00 bowl of Rice Krispies…Vegas baby! After spending some time in the room, I decided it was time to get out. We went and picked up the RV and drove to a cute pedestrian mall called Town Squares and saw” Ice Age 4” and actually the matinee pricing was pretty good!

Dinner was at a restaurant on the 50th floor of the Rio

Trenton, Devin, and Michael DJing on the roof of the Rio.

The pools at the Rio

Can you see our RV? It's in between the white bus and the red trailer.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

2012-07-28T07:24:00.010-07:00

Friday, July 27, 2012

Well, we survived yesterday and it went off without a hitch. I think even Michael’s dad Mel would have been happy about the way I handled our RV on these Las Vegas roads!

We called for bell service yesterday when we were ready to load the RV and requested that the RV be brought out front of the hotel. What a sight to see our little RV pulling in front of the Caesar’s Palace circle drive flanked by limos and taxis! Our bell hop was quite impressed with it. He peeked inside and was just in awe that we could snack, use the restroom, and watch our flat screen TV while traveling down the road. He even called a buddy over to check it out. Then we pulled out onto Las Vegas Blvd. Talk about white knuckling it! Traffic was pretty light since it was before noon, so Devin found an IHOP using his Google Maps, so off we went! Well, about a mile down the highway, Devin suggested we might want to stop and get gas and sho’ nuff; it was empty! We pulled into a Circle K next to the IHOP and promptly filled ‘er up! The IHOP was a mob scene so we settled on a McDonald’s breakfast and by this time we all were so hungry, it tasted great!

Laundry was next on the agenda and I found a nice , little Laundromat not to far from our new digs. I was so proud of myself, I even sat in the turning lane for quite awhile before turning into what looked like a small parking lot. Michael always warns me to make sure I know the way out before pulling in with the RV, because it’s so difficult to turn it around in tight quarters. The lot opened up nice and wide in the back and I backed it into a space, so I wouldn’t get blocked in. Easy-peasy!

After laundry we decided to see if the room was ready and it was. We’re on the 9^th floor and have a wonderful view of the stip and mountains. After a little rest, we donned our swim suits and headed for the pool. There are 3 pools and 3 Jacuzzi’s, somehow sitting in a Jacuzzi when it’s 105 outside just doesn’t appeal to me.

We met up with dad for dinner and walked next door to the Gold Coast Casino and ate a familiar restaurant; TGI Friday’s.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

2012-07-27T11:09:00.002-07:00

Moving day! Today we pack up this hotel room and move to another. I began packing up and organizing things about 7:00am. Michael has to be at meetings by 8am, so I will be doing the packing, picking up the RV, driving it to the new hotel, unloading it, and then parking it. Laundry is also on the agenda for when I am out tooling around in the RV.

The quality of these pictures is pretty poor because they were taken with my cell phone camera and the sun was so bright I couldn't see what I was doing!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

2012-07-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

Michael hurried off to class this morning at 8 am, so that me and the boys on our own today. Hmmmmm….what to do? Let’s start with breakfast! Breakfast of champions! Devin, using Google maps on his phone, promptly found us a Krispy Kreme! So we set off to find it! We wound up inside the Venetian Hotel in a food court at a Italian café that carried the donuts, not the actual shop, but they were still delicious.(I added milk to make the whole meal a little more wholesome…LOL)

We walked back to the hotel to hang out a while and ran into dad grabbing an early lunch. After seeing him off, we decided that in order to go up and down the strip some more, we needed bus passes. I invested in a 24 hour pass for each of us and off we went! First stop, the NewYork NewYork because I had heard about the Coney Island Arcade. After exhausting our supply of quarters, we went a had New York pretzel sticks….yum-o!

Devin and Trenton along side the Brooklyn Bridge outside of the New York New York

The M & M NASCAR at the store

I talked the guys into going with me to the 4 story M & M story across the street. I read they had a free 3-D movie about the candies being lost in Vegas. We all agreed it was cute and the 3-D was really well done.

Day 4- July 24, 2012-Tuesday

2012-07-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

First full day in Las Vegas!!!! So what to do? What to do? We set off on foot from our room in Caesar’s Palace and headed south on the strip. We stopped for a McDonald’s breakfast and by the time we finished , it was already a toasty 98 degrees. We window shopped and perused some touristy gift shops. One cool shop we stopped at was the Coca-Cola Store. 2 full floors of cola-fabulousness. (Diet Coke too!) Trenton, Austen and I all got cute tee shirts. Next we came across the Hard Rock Café-Las Vegas, here too; lots of cuteness. Taylor gets a shirt here from here!

The New York New York Hotel/Casino was next on the strip. Michael dared to put in $2 and actually won $8. Woot! Woot! We’re making money in this town. LOL! Further down the strip, we stopped at the Luxor(the black pyramid) While Devin and I rested our feet, Michael and Trenton went off exploring and in a few minutes, they were peeking down at us from 15 floors up. Devin grabbed a snack, then we all proceeded to begin the trek back to Caesar’s.

The gang at the Eiffel Tower in front of the Paris Hotel:

The Chrysler building at the New York New York Hotel:

Lady Liberty @ NewYork NewYork

Dinner tonight consisted of another adventure: The boys’ first taxi ride. We wanted to go clear to the other end of the strip to see the Stratosphere. When we got there we decided to go and eat dinner at the restaurant that turns slowly and gives you a great panoramic view of Las Vegas. I think we hit it at an especially good time because when we started eating the sun was shining brightly and we could pick out all the landmarks easily and then as we finished our meal dusk was falling and the city gradually lit up. Spectacular!

In front of the Luxor:

Trenton with a "statue" street performer:

.......me in a shoe at the Cosmopolitan Hotel

Looking down next to our dinner table at the stratosphere:

Fountain show at the Bellagio

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

2012-07-26T08:20:00.001-07:00

Day 3

2012-07-25T10:33:00.006-07:00

Michael drove until we were about 35 miles outside of Flagstaff, AZ. He found a good rest stop with plenty of other RVers and truckers, so her climbed into the back with us and conked out.

We had breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in Flagstaff, fueled up and set off.

We entered Las Vegas around 1:00pm. Ever tried to check into a casino/hotel/resort in an RV? You should see the panicked looks of all the bell hops and valet drivers...Hee, hee! Anyway, not too much of a hassle and we're all settled in at the Caesar's Palace. First item on the list was to get lunch. Since we were all ready deep inside the Ceasar's, we walked around gawking at all the fancy shops and decided on Planet Hollywood for food.

Next, we ventured outside a bit and actually the temp wasn't too bad...upper 90's and hey, it was better than Kansas' triple digits any day.

The canals at the Venetian:

Everyone's new favorite spot to eat... something for everyone!

Taking a trip on the monorail!

Day 2

2012-07-25T10:33:00.004-07:00

We actually slept until 7:30ish, grabbed breakfast at Mickey D’s(except for Devin, who of course, politely refused and had cereal from the pantry of the RV) We crossed into Texas before 10:00 am, ate lunch in Amarillo, and crossed into New Mexico around 2:00pm, but then promptly gained an hour, make that 1:00pm.

Dinner was at a picturesque Outback Steakhouse in Albuquerque, NM. The red mountains peeked down at us through the maze of buildings and trees. We knew we needed to press onward, so we drove into the night, following I-40 West (which now seems like our only familiar landmark, having been on this same highway since the “turn” in Oklahoma City.)We made our beds down about 150 miles west of Albuquerque at a truck stop just west of the continental divide. Michael and I grabbed a refreshing shower in the RV. Man, for it’s size, it has great hot water. It felt soooo good. The boys and I strapped ourselves in(we have special harnesses so we can sleep while Michael is driving.) turned on a DVD, and Michael drove off into the night with Flagstaff as our destination for a stopping point for the night.

Day 1

2012-07-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

My good friend CW got married tonight and we attended her wedding at 5 then the dinner and reception followed. So we actually did not start out on our adventure until after 9:00pm tonight. Michael assumed all driving responsibilities. We headed down 1-35 until just outside of Oklahoma City ( maybe 1:00am) and bunked for night in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn Express .