Home

Just over 4,040 miles later, we are home. We averaged between 7 and 8 mpg. Now we are off to camp at San Elijo until the fourth of July. We are shifting the RV from road trip to beach camping mode. Bikes and surfboard are now on the back and we are getting ready to head out!!

More Vegas

We took care of some laundry and washed the 3000 miles of road grime off the RV in the morning and then met up with Homer, Jo Ellen, and Matthew for some fun in circus circus's AdventureDome.

Then we headed over to their pool at the Palazzo hotel and relaxed there until evening.

Playing a fun game called "swim or die"

Tomorrow morning we head back to San Diego for a weekend at San Elijo state beach. It will be nice to get back to some normal weather and not drive so much.

Vegas!!! (and Zion on the way)

Today we drove from the north rim of the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas. We were meeting Nina's dad, step mom and little brother (who is taller than all of us). Our navigation system sent us right through Zion national park, which is an awesome drive. Plus we get to get out and run around on some fun rocks.

We arrived in Vegas later and spent some time with the family. Good times.

The Grand Canyon

Driving south from Park City, we stopped at a road side cafe at Mt Carmel Junction. They have really good pie.

We were headed to the north rim of the grand canyon. Our campground was about one mile from the visitors center. So we hiked over there.

When we got there we had to find the steepest place to look over

Despite a refreshing ice cream the kids treated the walk back like the Bataan death march... Nina wasn't much help either.

While we were at the information center we signed up for a cowboy cookout and variety show. The food and entertainment were fantastic.

The north rim isn't as impressive as the south rim, so we probably won't be back, but we will return to the grand canyon for the mule ride into the canyon when the kids are old enough.

First and Second Cousins

Short drive from lava hot springs to Park City Utah to visit some of Nina's family. Nina is 8 days younger than her cousin Eva. Eva has 5 kids and we spent the afternoon hanging out with her and her kids at our rv park's pool and Eva's parents house. A good time was had by all.

Second cousins

First cousins

Feeding baby bears and lava powered watersides

In planning this vacation, there were four things that everyone was looking forward to. Two of them are today. Our first stop was at a place called Yellowstone Bear World. It's not actually in Yellowstone, but don't let that throw you off. If you've ever heard of Lion Country Safari, it's just like that only with animals native to this area. You get to drive your car through the exhibits and the animals come right up to you.

Not only did we see the animals, we also signed up to hand feed baby bears. That's right, I said hand feed a baby bear. Once in a lifetime. We all got to feed several bears.

Next stop was Lava Hot Springs Idaho. Just like it sounds, they have hot spring powered by lava. They also have a fantastic water park. I've been telling the kids that they have lava powered water slides. I may oversold it, but it was still a good time.

The other attraction here is a giant hot spring. 112 degrees coming out of the ground. Here is Nina trying to get into the hot pool.

Our RV park is short on amenities but we do have a legit river running about 20 feet under our bumper

Yellowstone!!

We had a short drive into yellowstone today. One thing I have noticed is that most of the big rivers in Wyoming flow north. It's a little disorienting since I expect them to run east or south. The river flowing between yellowstone and Cody flows east, so that was nice. The pass going into yellowstone had snow again. We decided to bust out he boogie board and do some sledding. If you look closely you'll see that most of us are playing California style with flip flops and shorts.

Almost as soon as we entered yellowstone we saw a herd of Buffalos crossing the road. We had been warned by the rangers not to approach them since they tend to run over and/or gore visitors who try to get too close.

Next stop was a beautiful waterfall. Seeing a big waterfall always makes me wish I had a barrel.

Stinky Mud Volcanos!!!!

Finally we made our way to old faithful. Apparently it's faithfulness has decreased over the years. The Ranger told us it was going to go off at 3:30. Here we are at 3:45 still waiting.

After a lengthy wait we were rewarded.

Everyone was a little grumpy about having to wait so long so we made a beeline for ice cream. We decided we had had enough so we headed out. On the way we saw Mt. Haynes.

We are now at the RV park and I couldn't even get us hooked up without being eaten by about 10 mosquitoes. The guy who runs the park told us to keep our kids inside after dark because they have had some bears around recently. I think we are going to take it easy tonight and head out early tomorrow.