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Well, that about concludes our blog. Today we drove from Las Vegas to Bakersfield and stopped for the night. We ate at our favorite - California Pizza Kitchen. We'll head out tomorrow morning and stop in Gilroy to do some shopping before getting home. As fun as it is to be out visiting different cities, it's nice to go home too.

Thanks for following our blog.

Marc, Ellen, & Ethan

Green River to Las Vegas

Today we were headed from Green River to Las Vegas, and it was a very long drive. We broke it up as much as possible, but there really is a lot of open space between the two cities. We made it all the way to Saint George and had lunch at one of our favorite burger restaurants - Red Robin. The food was great, it hit the spot, and we were on our way again...

We made it to Las Vegas by 3:00 since we had a time change as we passed through to Nevada. Actually our route popped us into Arizona for about half an hour, then on to Nevada. We caught the corner of Arizona, but it looked the same as Utah and Nevada!

When we arrived we quickly took to the strip and walked through many of the hotels. We stayed in the Mirage, so we walked first to Caesars Palace which is right next door. The forum shops are always fun to walk through, especially when it's 104 degrees outside!

Once we covered all of the forum shops, we headed next door again and viewed the Bellagio. What a beautiful hotel, both inside and out. We chose their buffet to eat at since it's rated as the best in Vegas. It did not disappoint and we all left so full and so content!

By this time the sun was set and we walked along the strip looking at the sites. The Bellagio water show is excellent, and the Paris's version of the Eiffel Tower is pretty close to Paris :-)

We finished up the night by walking around the Venice hotel, then watching the volcano erupt at the Mirage. It was a VERY tiring night and we all will sleep well.

Hotel: Mirage Hotel - As expected the room is very nice. Check-in was fairly quick. Hotel is sold-out due to a fight. Vegas is packed. Everything about the hotel is fine, but the bathroom could be a little bigger.

Denver to Green River, UT

Today was a very light sightseeing day as we got a late start from Denver. It was so nice to just sit and talk to Debbie since it was her day off of work. We eventually left around 10:45 and headed out for a long driving day (for us). The beginning of the drive takes you up over the mountains with passes of 11,000+ feet. Very high! On the way down we stopped in Vail and had lunch, walked around, and took in the sites.

Vail is really a beautiful little town and I can imagine what it's like in the winter with snow covering the streets and skiers finishing their day of skiing. We lounged for a bit, and then headed on our way. The next stop took us to Grand Junction where we took a quick pitstop mainly for gas (and some chips for the ride). Most of the drive by this time is really nice. The mountains change to plateaus, and the colors are just wonderful.

We made it all the way to Green River, Utah and were a bit concerned about the hotel we booked. There are such limited choices, but it was better than trying to make it all the way to Vegas in one drive (that would be about 11 hours). We arrived around 6:30, checked in, relaxed a bit, then headed out for dinner. No dinner choices to really talk about, but we had a quick sandwich and headed back to relax and talk about our day.

Tomorrow we are headed to Las Vegas and the kids are really excited to see the lights at night! Ethan is looking forward to a good buffet as he's getting quite picky about the restaurants that he chooses :-)

Hotel: Holiday Inn Express - Definitely worth booking. Very nice, new, clean rooms. Good bathrooms. One step down from the Hilton Garden Inn, but the room is really great. Other hotels in the town don't look 1/2 as good.

Denver

After being on the road for so many days, we really needed a day to just relax and get some rest. Denver was perfect for that! We woke up late, lounged around the house, and finally left around noon to head to downtown to see what the city was like. We heard that the aquarium was a nice place to visit, so off we went...

I think that overall we are spoiled when it comes to aquariums since we live so close to the Monterey Bay aquarium, which is one of the best in the world. This one was more targeted to younger kids, and seemed more like a theme park than an aquarium. It was still fun walking around, but I seriously could not figure out the connection between a tiger and an aquarium. Granted I am not a science teacher, but I'm pretty sure that tigers are not part of the aquatic life.

After our stroll through the aquarium, we headed down to the 16th street area which is part of their historic downtown. I must say that Denver has one of the largest "nice" parts of their city. There were so many blocks in each direction, all with great stores, restaurants, and nice people. It was great to walk around such a nice city. We popped in for lunch at the Corner Bakery, which seems to be a chain in this area. We equate it to a Panera's or Le Boulanger, but Ellen claims it's much better! I think she was just hungry.

After lunch we took their free shuttle down a few blocks to 14th street. We had heard that they had a gelato store that was the best in the world. Well, maybe not the world, but really good! We were not disappointed when we tried the samples at Gelazzi, and then chose some of our favorites to eat. It was nice to sit outside, watch people walk by, and enjoy some good gelato.

Believe it or not, by now it was almost 6:00 and we were going to meet Reagan and Debbie for dinner. We chose California Pizza Kitchen as we missed their food. There was one located near Reagan's office, so we headed south out of town and met them all there for a nice dinner. We finished off the night at home, talking until much later than we should have. I know Reagan looked tired, and he had to work the next day! We also had a long drive for us (5 hours), but it was so great to catch up with friends that I had not seen for so long.

Tomorrow we are headed to Green River, Utah. It's a half-way point between here and Vegas. We'll make stops on the way, if there are any!

Casper, WY to Denver, CO

Today was really a light day and we had little planned other than the drive from Casper to Denver. The kids needed a rest, so we all slept late and did not leave until about 10:30. The drive south through Wyoming is uneventful with a lot of empty land used for farming. Seriously, it seems that Wyoming is one big empty state that is used to grow hay. It's beautiful to me, but the kids find it pretty uninteresting!

They were able to keep themselves amused for most of the ride playing hang-man. You can really pass a lot of time with that game.

We arrived in Cheyenne for a late lunch and really had no idea where to eat. Cheyenne is the largest city in the state and houses the capital building. We drove through their downtown area, past their capital building, and stopped in their historic downtown. It seems that most cities around here have historic downtown areas.

We recognized a restaurant that we ate at in another city (a small chain), and went in to use their facilities. None of us were excited about eating there, so we headed out for a walk around the blocks. Across the street was Pizzeria Venti that we walked into last as we thought it was just a pizza place. It turns out that it was an excellent restaurant that could have been in any southern Italy town. They had so many different "pizza" dishes that all looked so great.

When we walked in, an older woman treated us like she was our grandmother and started telling us what each of the different foods were. She really sold us on staying, and we're so glad we did. This was one of the best meals we had on our trip and we encourage you to stop by Cheyenne to eat there!

After lunch we headed south towards Denver. Actually Debbie and Reagan's house is in Parker, not in Denver, and this adds a bit more onto the drive since it's a suburb south of the city. As we drove through Denver we had a sort of culture shock. We've been in small towns for the past week and seeing such a huge city with so much traffic really shocked us. We arrived at their house after stopping for a car wash that was long overdue. It feels good to get all of the bugs off of the front of the car, as we probably had collected 1000's of them along our drive.

Their neighborhood is filled with houses that, quite frankly, we have never seen before in California. When I say large, it really does not represent the size and beauty of these homes. It almost makes you want to move to the area, but it's hard to give up California weather!


Gary and Tammy came over shortly after we arrived and we spent the night chatting about some old times and new times. All of the kids got along great (there were 6 of them total), and they ended up playing until around midnight when Gary and his family left. It was terrific to see everyone after so long.

Oh, one thing that I forgot to mention is that Reagan and Debbie actually have a slide in their house. Can you say unique? It provided hours of fun for the kids.


We don't have any firm plans for tomorrow in Denver yet. We will head to their downtown area, see some of the big sites, and then meet with Reagan and Debbie for dinner as they will be working all day. They've really made us feel at home here in Denver, and we appreciate it very much.

Mt. Rushmore to Casper, WY

This morning we woke up relatively early and headed off North to the town of Deadwood. Ellen chose this town from the list of places that we wanted to see around Mt. Rushmore and it sounded great to all of us. It's a good hour or more from Mt. Rushmore, but since we were staying in Rapid City it was only about a 40 minute drive.

The city is a really charming old town that has been restored very well. Once you arrive, you quickly love the look of it and just want to walk around and look at all of the buildings and the stores that have since taken them over from saloons and banks. Since we did not eat any breakfast at the hotel, we chose the Buffalo SteakHouse Saloon which served up big breakfasts for all of us.

Now that we were all fueled up, we wandered from store to store. There are quite a few casinos here, most of which had some kind of theme or had restored the original buildings so well. It almost felt as if you were walking around in the late 1800's or early 1900's. Very fun!

Looking down the street you can see the old architecture of the buildings, and as you approach each one it displays it's original purpose and when it was built. Granted most are now taken by small shops selling touristy stuff or by restaurants, but it still retains it's charm.

At the end of the block (and over one street), there is a great museum. The Adams Museum has so much stuff from the time when this town was a thriving mining town. Ellen spent so much time in there after Ethan and I already finished the three floors. She was reading everything! She really loves those "Wanted" posters, as they were originals from the 1800's.

The rest of the town is filled with all kinds of funny signs (many of which are real of course). You cannot help but love to wander around and look at everything.

After wandering around for hours, we headed up to the Broken Boot Gold Mine which is only about 5 minutes outside of town. This gold mine was a real gold mine that has long since been closed. They now give tours of it and provide you with some information on the reality of gold mining. The tour is only about 30 minutes which is a great length for us! The only downside was that the mine smells of sulfur, but that only seemed to bother Ethan.

As you can see from the entrance, you actually walk into the original opening of the mine. Granted they fixed it up to look better, but you really are walking in where they entered to do their mining.

Inside the mine it's quite dark and about 68 degrees. It's refreshing in there in the summertime! You were allowed to take any of the rocks you found inside the cave, but it did not seem like there were any leftover hunks of gold to be found!

After the tour, the kids opted to "pan for gold." They provide you with pans and a bag full of rocks and dirt and teach you the technique to separate the gold from the rock. I think Ethan had better skills since he ended up with about twice as much gold flake as Ellen. Maybe mining is in his future?

By this time it was already mid-afternoon and we wanted to head down to Casper, Wyoming to stay for the night. There's really not much to see on the way, but we had to stop for a very late lunch and we decided on a small restaurant in Gillette, Wyoming. Granny's Kitchen was the lucky restaurant for us, and Granny served up some good soup and chili for me. I don't think we met Granny as our waitress seemed a bit young.

According to our travel book Gillette is the second wealthiest city in Wyoming. This surprised us since the town is tiny and not that nice. It consists of a few blocks of shops, and some industrial areas. We asked Granny (well our waitress at the restaurant) why it was so wealthy. Apparently they have tons of coal and oil! Maybe this really was Granny! Jed and Jethro are somewhere in the back cooking the food :-)

After moving on, we drove for a few hours and saw absolutely nothing other than farmland. Not even tiny houses along the way all the way down to Casper. It's amazing just how much of Wyoming is nothing but farmland that farms hay. Those cows really eat a lot of hay!

After arriving in Casper we checked in and headed downtown to have some dinner at a recommended Italian restaurant. All of us enjoyed our dinners at Botticelli's and would highly recommend it to others.

We wrapped up the night with some rummy and relaxed with t.v. Tomorrow we are headed to Denver via Cheyenne. It's a long drive, but I'm looking forward to seeing Reagan and Gary along with their families. From memory it's been about 14 years since I saw any of them. Wow, how time flies. I'm really getting old!

Hotel: Garden Inn, Casper - Excellent as usual. Feels like home. Seems brand new! Highly recommended.

Sheridan to Mt. Rushmore

Today was a packed day of traveling and sightseeing! We headed out early from Sheridan as we wanted to spend almost the whole day today near Mount Rushmore. We drove without stopping, and it went by quickly as we entered South Dakota for the first time.

We went directly to Mount Rushmore since I really wanted to see it. There is something about seeing in real life what you have seen in pictures many times. Well, it looked exactly like we all expected, but we also agreed that it looked smaller. Now, just as a reference point the nose on a president is about 20 feet, so they are big. However, they don't look as huge as you would imagine when you're standing at the base.

We grabbed lunch there since we wanted to head over to the Crazy Horse Memorial. The first thing that hit us was the cost to get in. I don't consider myself a cheap traveler, but $27 for the three of us? Come on, this is a national park area. Anyway, we're glad we did not turn around. The Crazy Horse Memorial is a work-in-progress and will be the worlds largest sculpture once it is completed (assuming it gets completed). You must click on the picture below to get the zoomed version, and then you will see the face of Crazy Horse to the left of Ellen's head. The final sculpture will have him on his horse and will be huge! It was really incredible to see.

In addition to the sculpture, they had tons of Indian arts and crafts housed in great galleries. They also had a lot of memorabilia from the times of the Indians. It was fun to walk around, talk to the local artists, and glance up at the huge sculpture on the hill.

We then headed off to Jewel Cave National Monument. This was probably one of the highlights of the trip as we will all remember it so well. Jewel Cave is the 2nd largest cave in the United States and has over 140 miles of documented passages inside. The park rangers give tours all through the day, and it pays to make a reservation before coming.

We did not make a reservation in advance, but got very lucky to take a lantern tour about 30 minutes after we arrived. Ranger Laura greeted us and gave us a 1 1/2 hour tour and lecture that was great. We headed into the cave which is pitch dark carrying old oil burning lanterns. For those of you that never used an old oil burning lantern, they don't throw much light at all, however once we were in the cave for a little bit, our eyes adjusted and the amount of light was sufficient. We headed straight down ladders and uneven steps in the dark. It seemed as if we headed a mile straight down, but in reality it was not that far. The total round-trip distance inside the cave was only about 1/2 a mile, but was very cool!

We were able to all turn out our lanterns in a large cavern underground and see what total darkness looks like. We also learned about the formation of the cave, as well as some very interesting stories that Ranger Laura told as we were going through the cave. If you do go, which we highly recommend, make sure you dress warm - it's about 49 degrees in there!

We were exhausted from the day and went to downtown for a dinner at the Firehouse Brewery. A fair meal in a very neat restaurant. Tomorrow we are headed off to Deadwood, a mammoth burial site, and hopefully to a goldmine. Then we will head south towards Denver, stopping somewhere along the way.

Hotel: Grand Gateway Hotel. We rate this hotel a 6 out of 10. There are almost no business hotels in this area and the picking is slim. The hotel is clean, but outdated. Best of the ones to choose from in our opinion, but we didn't see the insides of other hotels in the area.