June 3-7, 2019
This is my, Kris’, first blog post. Steve is the writer, not me:). But he can’t write this blog post because I left him in Pullman!
When we decided to go back to Washington State I not only contacted family members to ensure the timing/dates would work with everyone’s schedule, but our great friends Vicki and Shannan. The dates worked for the family; great! And the dates worked for Vicki and Shannan; great! Except that Vicki was going to Las Vegas for a bowling tournament for a week while we’re back in the state. Hmm… I’ve never been to Las Vegas. Hmm… An opportunity to get a little ‘me’ time. Hmm… Vicki said it was okay for me to tag along and share a room. Hmm… What the hell, I said, sounds like fun! See some sights and relax by the pool, a little mini-me vacation. Use frequent flier miles and boom, I’m going to Las Vegas baby!!! Steve gets to have some male bonding time with Shannan and I get to hang with my bestie.
I had a great time hanging with Vicki and her Pullman bowling friends! And as a bonus got to see Vicki’s brother Darren whom I hadn’t seen for years. Saw a bit of the strip, spent two days at the pool, watched Vicki bowl (until I was froze and went to the pool to warm up:), and had a great night walking and drinking on Freemont Street.
One thing that I was thinking about was wondering if it was possible to get to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas … easily. I figured that, since I was in Las Vegas, I would do some research. Research I did and I found a company that had an amazing trip itinerary. The problem was my guilt over the price. But after much thinking, and talking it over with Vicki, I decided I would go for it. When will I ever be in Las Vegas again and have this opportunity???
WOW!!! After all my traveling in different areas of the world it takes a bit more to ‘wow’ me. Well the Grand Canyon trip did just that! The trip was all day; 6:15am pick up (I may have still been drunk from the previous night…) and didn’t return to the hotel until 8:00pm. Very comfortable double decker bus with narrative and a great driver who added comments here and there. And a helicopter ride!!!! And a short boat ride on the Colorado river!
We stopped at the Hoover Dam first which is just outside of Las Vegas. We weren’t able to go on the dam but on an overlook. And I don’t do well with heights sometimes…this was one of those times. It was really windy on top of it all.
We stopped at a few more places on our way to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. Passed the Joshua Trees which are really amazing part tree, part cactus trees that apparently, according to the driver, don’t do anything! Can’t burn the wood, can’t build with the wood, pretty much worthless but cool.
Then we arrived at the Grand Canyon entrance. Myself and four other people on the bus walked over to the hangar to check into our helicopter flight. Two guys from India and two women from New Zealand (yay! no ugly Americans). Because the of the weight distribution I, being the smallest, got to sit in the front seat with the pilot!!!!! WOW!!!!! Words cannot even describe what it was like…I had a perma-grin plastered on my face the whole time.
The boat ride was nice. Hot as hell at the bottom of the canyon; 110+ degrees. Because it was early in the season the water was brown due to runoff. Apparently later on the water turns aqua blue. That’s okay, I’ve seen a lot of nice water.
The helicopter ride brought us back to the top of the rim. From there we had the option to stop off at 3 other locations via shuttle bus along the West Rim. I was amazed at the rim and the sheer drop offs! And, me not liking heights, I didn’t get too close. I was even more amazed that there are no barriers. Apparently people die all the time doing selfies or getting hit by a gust of wind and falling over the side…after being there I can see stupid people doing that all the time.
Even though it was expensive it was SOOOOOO worth every penny. I justified the cost partly because it was half price…meaning if Steve had been with me it would have been double:) I sure wish he could have been there to experience it with me! WOW!!!!
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