Day 4

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Got up early today (just Mitchell) 5:30am to view the sunrise on the Canyon. The sky was less hazy then the evening before and the early morning light really highlights the different arms of the Canyon. A few hours later once everyone else was up we left the Grand Canyon with some amazing memories. Suprisingly the trip up until now has been relatively uncrowded and easy driving. For the entire drive out of Grand Canyon NP and almost out of Arizona (close to two hours) we didn't encounter a single vehicle travelling the same direction as us. As we got closer to Zion NP it became a bit more busy. Zion is another scenic drive that culminates with a very dark drive through a mile long tunnel at the top of the Canyon. We didn't stop long except for a quick visit to the museum of human history near the visitor centre.
After leaving Zion I jinxed myself by commenting to Michelle how lucky we had been so far in our travels after getting the closest parking spot to the museum and having very little traffic to deal with. Shortly thereafter I nearly sidewsiped a truck trying to change lanes and then had to deal with an overheated 80 mph downhill drive into Las Vegas with the outside temp. reaching 114. But we arrived safe and sound in a scorching Vegas, checked into the Excalibur and headed to the pool to cool off. We showed the boys some of the sights including the Lions at the MGM Grand and dinner at the RainForest Cafe. I made a quick trip to the Rio Casino to check out the World Series of Poker which wasn't too exciting, just a bunch of guys playing cards. Later in the night Michelle and I had a chance to check out the casino. The nice thing about having a 17 year old along is that it allowed us to slip down to the casino for a bit, however the nice thing about having kids along is that it doesn't allow you to go to the casino for too long $$$$.

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