Arnold Adventures: Desert

I am finally getting around to sharing the last bit of our Christmas vacay and I saved the best for last. We actually went to the Grand Canyon on our first day in the desert. We were picked up at the Mirage at 6:20 in the AM and we returned at 9:00 PM. It was an extremely long day but it was life changing. I now know what people mean when they say that there is no way they can explain something. Explaining the Grand Canyon is like explaining the ocean. It is a truly majestic place and I am so ready to go back and stay at the El Tovar Lodge in the park. We went to Grand Canyon National Park which is about 225 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. After mulling over renting a car or not we decided that we should go on a tour so they could drive for us so we chose Grand Adventures Tours and I would highly recommend them. Instead of us being on a huge bus with a hundred people there were only 9 of us to go on this tour so we got to ask the guide a lot more questions and we got to experience things that other tours could not only because we had such few people. Here are some pictures and details of this amazing experience.

Grand Canyon Train

Grand Canyon Village and Bright Angel Lodge

Our first view of the canyon...Breathtaking

Light snow on the canyon walls

The Colorado River

Me cheesing it up in the El Tovar Lodge

Grand Canyon Hopi House

Incredible Lodge view

I loved this tree on the South Rim trail

I was sitting on a ledge 5000 ft above the river and I felt oddly safe. In that moment I felt so alive.

Husband being silly

Gorgeous sunset view, the colors changed automatically

After the sunset. What an amazing day!

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Our first day roaming around Las Vegas was amazing. We hit up a ton of major spots and hotels and walked until our feet could barely stand it! We started at the Palazzo and worked our way south on the strip until we hit the MGM Grand. Vegas is totally different in daylight than at night and the strip is pretty much dead until noon when all of the club goers and night owls wake up and start their day. But me sleep in on vacation? NO way! We were up at seven at out of the hotel by 8:30 with coffee in hand.

The Mirage Beatles Love Entryway. You can even spot a shadowed husband down there!

Quick photo-op outside of the hotel before we started our day!

Street View of the Encore, Wynn and Venetian

The gorgeous Palazzo hotel which we loved. I would stay there in a heartbeat!

The amazing Venetian. No other hotel in Vegas compared to it.

We were really let down with everything else after seeing it. It totally lived up to the hype.

We enjoyed lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe and enjoyed it immensely. We would recommend it if you're in Vegas and want a cheaper but good meal. It's very similar to the Cheesecake Factory and is open 24/7.

It was an absolutely beautiful day with better weather than we could have asked for!

We ate dinner at Joe's Stone Crab and enjoyed walking around The Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace.

The people watching is excellent in Vegas especially in the shopping malls.

We ended the night by catching the volcano show at the Mirage and wandering around the hotel. I was super excited to discover Kardashian Khaos was inside our own hotel although it was closed for the day.

There you have it for our Vegas day one. I have a lot more to

show on day two with the hotels on the other side of the strip! Stay Tuned.

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The time has come to finally share some of our Christmas vacation! Since we saw and did so much I will be sharing a little bit over a couple of weeks!

We left Georgia on Christmas night to head out west and landed in Las Vegas around 11pm. For our first day I booked us a trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. As we set out on this tour it was the first time we had seen the desert since we had flown in under the cover of night. Lets just say it was amazing and it looked more like Mars there than we could have imagined.

The first location on the tour was a stop off at the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam is located on the state line of Nevada and Arizona. There are actually two clocks flanking the dam showing the times in the different states. Just like everyone told me the dam appeared much smaller than it looks in movies and on television however, it was a sight to see. The rocks surrounding the canyon show the former water level which was so cool as you can clearly see where the water used to be as the rocks are white in color. There is a lot of history to read about the dam and how it was built back in 1933. We also made our way over the huge bypass bridge but you cannot see anything from the bridge because it is surrounded by concrete to shield cars from high winds. The Hoover Dam is a short trip from Vegas and if you're out there I highly recommend you to check it out! I am hoping to return and to take the Dam tour!