Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

(See Part One here)

When I ended my last blog entry, Steve and I were driving out of Grand Canyon National Park and on our way to Bryce Canyon Park in southern Utah.

We had two options on our drive to Bryce Canyon. One road would take us on a southern route, passing through Jacob Lake and skirting Kaibab National Forest, while the other road would take us on a northern route, through Page and the Glen Canyon Dam area. We opted to take the northern route, so we could stop and visit Glen Canyon Dam. The terrain looked much more interesting on Google Earth, which was another reason we chose this direction.  The trip was nearly 300 miles and took us about 7 hours to drive, with stops to take photos and sightsee. Here’s a map of the route we drove:

Just outside Grand Canyon NP, in the Cameron area, roadside stands pop up where you can purchase Navajo jewelry, pottery, and other wares. In 2002, when we last visited Grand Canyon, Steve and I stopped at one of these stands with a beautiful view of a canyon from a scenic overlook. In order to get to the scenic overlook, you had to ‘run the gauntlet’ - a path that went between two rows of stands, laden with many beautiful things.  As we walked through, Native American artists and crafters enticed us to stop and look. Now, as in 2002, they didn’t have to put too much effort into luring us in; Steve and I love Native American pottery and jewelry, and we already knew we were going to be taking a piece (or two) home with us.

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It is so good to be home! My bed felt so good, and the furkids are so happy we’re home. We had a fabulous time on vacation, but it’s always good to get home.

I took a lot of photos and if I included them in one entry, it would take forever. I’m going to break down our trip into several parts:

Part One: Arrival in Vegas and our time at Grand Canyon
Part Two: Bryce Canyon
Part Three: Zion National Park
Part Four: Valley of Fire State Park and Back to Vegas

This first part is very photo heavy.

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LAS VEGAS

As I wrote in my previous entry, Steve and I arrived in Vegas around dinner time, checked into the Luxor Hotel, and took off walking down the strip in search of a place to eat. There are plenty of places to eat, but we weren’t in the mood for anything fancy or formal (or expensive), and wanted to be in a high-energy sports bar type atmosphere to recharge our batteries.  As we passed the Hard Rock Cafe, Steve told me that he had never eaten at one before. I’ve had meals at various Hard Rocks on the east coast, and I knew it would fit the bill for a burger and a beer - which was what we were craving.

For those who are not familiar, the Hard Rock Cafe is known for it’s impressive display of music memorabilia. The Las Vegas location had clothing from the Beatles, Brittney Spears, the Osmond Brothers, etc., and musical instruments from various bands and performers.  The restaurant/cafe was on level two, and level three - a nightclub that wasn’t being used at the time we were there - was also full of memorabilia.

Steve and I settled in for a couple of beers and burgers, while enjoying the ongoing music videos playing on the many flat screen TVs strategically placed throughout the restaurant.  We seemed to time our visit right, as the music videos were from our younger years (80s and 90s) rather than the more current stuff. It was hard not to bounce around a little in our seats, or sing along with some of the lyrics.

After dinner, we continued our walk up the strip until we reached the Bellagio. By that time our feet were already aching, and we still had to make our way back to the Luxor. That seemed like a never ending walk!  We could have caught a shuttle, but we wanted to stop into some of the shops along the way. I estimate we walked 4 miles that night.

Before going to bed for the night, we took a couple of Motrin - a good idea since our feet and backs and legs were already aching! The next day, we felt like we were 100 years old, hobbling out of bed and trying to pack up for our trip to the Grand Canyon.

Here are some photos I took on our first night in Vegas:

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Steve and I are currently sitting in the Las Vegas airport, waiting for our flight to Seattle and then home to Fairbanks.

It has been a most wonderful birthday getaway, and we had a fabulous time both enjoying the high energy in Las Vegas, and the gorgeous landscapes of northern Arizona and southern Utah. We live in such a beautiful country, and we both feel fortunate to be able to have the opportunity to see these places.

Our flight from Fairbanks to Seattle, early on Wednesday morning, started off a bit hectic. There were several canceled flights out of Fairbanks due to problems with de-icing, and we worried that we would find our flight bumped too. Fortunately, we took off as scheduled.

Then, just before landing in Seattle, a male passenger on board got sick and an announcement was made for medical personnel on board to assist. The tower gave us permission to land first due to the emergency. EMTs boarded the aircraft as soon as we got to the gate, but then told us all to deplane before tending to the man. This seemed odd to me, and when I passed the gentleman in his seat, he was unconscious. At least I hope he was only unconscious.  This emergency got us into Seattle well ahead of schedule, and we had several hours before our flight to Las Vegas.

We landed in Vegas at dinner time and by the time we collected our baggage and were shuttled to the car rental place it was after 6pm. We made our way to the Luxor Hotel, where we spent the night before making the drive to Grand Canyon.

The Luxor was fairly inexpensive (less than $50/night), and that’s about all the room was worth (in our opinion). The bed was uncomfortable, the room was fairly worn, and we were disappointed in their ‘no photography’ policy (the only hotel that we ran into this at).

We dropped our bags, put on our walking shoes, and walked the strip looking for a place to grab a quick bite to eat. We decided on the Hard Rock Cafe, as Steve had never been to one before. We enjoyed looking at all the music memorabilia in the restaurant, and watching the music videos playing all over the restaurant/bar. It was so nice to just sit down, have a couple of beers and enjoy a burger.  We were pretty tired from traveling all day and were looking forward to getting to Grand Canyon the next day.

We walked all the way to the Bellagio hotel, before turning around and walking  back to the Luxor. It was breezy and chilly in Vegas - about mid 40s - and we were amazed by the crowds of people. It’s obvious that we’ve been in small-town Fairbanks for too long!  I found myself getting *antsy* with all the people and having to dodge folks on the sidewalks, and in the casinos. I’m definitely not a big city gal anymore.

Steve and I are not gamblers, and the only reason we flew into Vegas was because it’s an Alaska Airlines destination and we were able to get our tickets for free using Frequent Flier mileage.  Vegas is also in close proximity to the places we really wanted to go (Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion).  Several hours later, and with aching feet, we went back to the hotel and fell asleep. We’re such party animals! *grin*

The next morning, we opted to have breakfast at the Luxor buffet ($14.95/each), which was horrible in our opinion. The eggs were cold, the bread was stale, and the food tasted like it was a week old. I would not recommend this restaurant (More Buffet)  to anyone!

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Las Vegas to Grand Canyon

After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and began the 300+ mile drive to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Along the way, we stopped to see Hoover Dam, and took a short walking tour of the dam area.  From there we  made our way to Williams AZ, where we ran into a problem while trying to purchase champagne at a Safeway.

Neither of our credit cards (VISA) would work. After paying for our purchase with another card, we called Bank of America to find out what was going on. It turns out they flagged our account for fraudulent use, because they saw all kinds of charges from Las Vegas and Arizona showing up on a card that belongs to people in Alaska.  While this was embarrassing, we’re also quite grateful that they were looking out for our best interests. The flag was lifted and we were able to continue on our way.

As we passed through the park entrance at Grand Canyon, we were just in time to watch the sun set over the canyon. The skies turned pink and pale orange, and turned the rocks a gorgeous shade of pastel color. I took a bunch of photos before we continued on our way to the hotel.

We stayed at El Tovar on the rim of the canyon and arrived at 5:30pm. It’s a good thing we got there when we did, because we had made a reservation for dinner at the El Tovar Restaurant for 7pm when we booked the room a month earlier.  (I forgot about the reservation!) We changed clothes, and had a glass of champagne in the upstairs lounge at the hotel.

(We’re going to be boarding our flight soon, so I’m going to end this here. After we get home, and I sort through and resize photos, I’ll finish writing about our trip and share a bunch of photos!)

To be continued….