We left home on Aug 17th and after a 4 hour delay at the airport finally arrived at our first destination. I felt like I'd traveled around the world after the first 2 days. You can see why from the photos . You can click on them to enlarge.
Did I go to Paris ?
Egypt ? 
New York ? 
Rome ?
Venice ?
Nope. All of these places were found on one long street ! Only in Las Vegas of course :)
Vegas sure is an interesting "Planet" not to mention 43C or 108F degrees hot, yikes. Being in the desert that heat is to be expected :) . There was so much to see, but if you aren't a gambling or party person it leaves a lot to be desired. I can say I've seen it but doubt I'd ever visit again. It was too busy and loud for me.
Fremont Street in Old Vegas was interesting. It has the largest projection screen in the world over the street. Pretty cool watching and listening to the music
!
However, our second destination was a 5 hour drive to Arizona, and that is the place I was waiting to see !!!! On our way we visited the Lowell observatory and looked at the moon and stars through a giant telescope, stopped at an old volcano and lava flow, visited Indian ruins in the painted desert, and finally arrived at The Grand Canyon .I never dreamed I'd ever get to see this wonder of the world . There are no words to describe the beauty of this place. It is the most gorgeous place I have ever seen ! It seems surreal standing on the edge looking at the vastness. It certainly made me feel weak in the knees looking down that one mile drop behind me.
Can you see the 2 people at the base of the orange cliff ? They look so tiny.
It even rained long enough for 2 beautiful rainbows to appear right in front of us. This literally made me teary because I love rainbows. Here I was standing at my dream spot with rainbows. All was right with the world at that moment :)
We then traveled to a town called Sedona which had amazing Red Rock formations. A storm rolled in later that night off in the distance and made for beautiful coloration on the rocks.
I was so excited to be here because I had arranged to meet some other bear artists for lunch. What a great time I had getting to know these ladies: From left to right - Joanne Livingston ( Desert Mountain Bears), Me (standing) , Janice Woodard ( Booh Bears), Alison McKee(eTeddys).
Now I am back to reality and feel beyond blessed to have had this wonderful vacation with my husband and kids. It was our best vacation ever.
