Day 4 - Arizona & Nevada

To give you a little insight about our days:

I wake up around 5:30 and Ariel and I go down to breakfast and update our blogs.  I write mine and she adds the pictures that she and Steve took on their phones throughout the day.  After everyone gets up and packed we load the and pray before we head out in the "suv".  We also each have "Buffs" that match what we all wear.  We thought about t-shirts but I didn't know how much we would wear them and that was a little too "matchy - matchy" for us.  The Buffs have been extremely useful for tying hair back, shading eyes for a nap, sweatbands, and decorative neck ware. 

Ariel made Jazmyn, Clarke, and Blake journals with various activities for the trip.  The each have two "fun facts" that relate to the events for the day and they read them to us while we drive.  Ariel updates us on our itinerary and reads information about upcoming sights.  Steve usually drives while I attempt to navigate. We drive a lot each day.  The kids sleep, use their journals, listen to ipods, and tease each other.  The trip is going really well, so far.  We usually get into the hotels late (between 9pm and 2am) and go right to sleep.

Now about day four:  We left Las Vegas after a rushed breakfast.  Our first stop was at the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.  It was as massive as I remember seeing it when I was a kid. It was also extremely hot! We parked in an upper parking lot and walked from one end of the dam to the next and back again.

It's hard to get a picture of the whole thing, it's so big

In the middle of the dam is a marker for the state line of Arizona/Nevada.  Ariel decided to make a video of us dancing and jumping at the state lines.

 After touring the dam, we went to In-n-Out in Kingman, Arizona.  

Eating a quick lunch on the road, we headed to Route 66.  Hackberry was a tourist trap along the road but it had an cool assortment of nostalgic paraphernalia.  We all had fun looking and snapping pictures.  Clarke especially liked the license plates, hub caps, and old posters.

Those chairs were surprisingly comfy

Seligman was another little stop along Route 66.  It was one of the major inspirations for Radiator Springs from the movie "Cars".

In Williams, we looked around in some shops and then had dinner at a classic diner.

The Grand Canyon was our final stop for the day.  We got to see a friend who works there.  She gave us some "inside info" on the canyon.  We took the shuttle along the south rim to find the perfect spot for viewing the sunset.

Piling back into the suv, we traveled to our hotel in Flagstaff arriving at 11pm for a quick rest.