Vegas and Death Valley (March 12-15, 2017)

Because all of the girls had spring break at the same time, we decided to take a quick road trip. We rented a condo on the strip in Las Vegas and used that as a base for day trips.

To break up the drive, the first stop was at Grapevine Canyon, near Laughlin. 

We saw lots of petroglyphs, a snake, and Steve and the girls had fun climbing the rocks (I didn't trust my new knees with scrambling over the boulders).

After we checked into our condo, we headed to Fremont

 Street,

We watched a street magician

Checked out the light shows

And the girls were entertained by the other street performers.

Day 2 - Death Valley

Day 2 - (March 13) Death Valley

We took a day trip to Death Valley National Park in California. 

Because it was spring, the temperature was warm, but not unbearable, so we were able to explore the salt flats and go on a few short trails.

Days 3-4 - Las Vegas

Day 3 - (March 14) Valley of Fire State Park

Today, we drove about an hour outside of Las Vegas to visit the Valley of Fire State Park.

We had a fun day hiking and playing on rocks at Valley of Fire State Park, outside of Las Vegas.

Later that night, we wandered around the strip, checking out the different casinos' attractions.

Day 4 - (March 15) Leaving Las Vegas

Today we left Las Vegas and headed home. On the way, we stopped in Henderson to see the cactus garden and visit Ethel M's chocolate factory.

Prescott, AZ

We made another attempt to go north to play in the snow. This time we were more successful at Goldwater Lake.

Crown King, AZ

We went to Crown King to play in the snow but found mostly slush and fog.

New Mexico (Oct 13-16, 2016)

The twins had fall break so we decided to take a quick road trip to New Mexico a few days before my knee replacement surgery. 

On the way there, I made us stop near Dragoon, AZ to visit The Thing, roadside attraction. It provided a great stretch break. We then had a delicious BBQ lunch in an old train dining car in Willcox, AZ.

Once we arrived in New Mexico, I got to see several roadside attractions including 3 "World's Largest...." !

We drove through Las Cruces, where I needed to stop to take a picture with the world's largest chili pepper. 

 

By early evening, we arrived in Cloudcroft, where we rented a cabin (with lots of moths!). 

The next morning, we hiked the Trestle trail.

The next day, we drove to Alamogordo and visited White Sands National Park, which contains the world's largest gypsum dunefield. We rented sauces and  went sledding down the dunes.

While we were in the area, we visited the PistachioLand  farm, where we tried lots of different flavors of pistachios and I was able to pose next to the world's largest pistachio. 

Nashville music

I went to Nashville for a work conference. Last night we had a social event where we were entertained by local country singer/song writers. Some of the songs were very good.