For Bear’s 13th birthday, I took him away on the most amazing 3-day adventure-packed trip to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. It was awesome and along the way we did and saw so many things. Most of this post is packed with pictures and just a few words from the trip. I’m glad we had the chance to build this memory together!

Day 1 – Flying to Vegas and Touring Around!

On day 1, Bear and I got up early and flew out to Las Vegas on Spirit airlines. Looking out the window you could see the mountains and canyons as we flew over.

When we landed, we made haste to the Bellagio all-you-can buffet. It was fantastic!

Then Bear hung out and played slots on the casino floor (just kiddin’!). We just staged this photo nearby. Bear actually has a pretty good head about him and realizes that slots are just a tricky way of taking your money.

We walked around in the hot desert sun quite a bit. On this day it was about 100 degrees. The last day of our trip Vegas got as got as 111 degrees!

We walked through the inside of Caesar’s palace and caught the tail end of this indoor show.

And then up to Freemont street to see this big slot machine that’s actually a zip-line under the Freemont Street canopy.

Then we stumbled across the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, which I remembered from the show Pawn Stars. They even had a cut-out of Rick, so we had to get our picture together!

Then to kill some time we actually went into this little guitar shop and saw the guitars on the wall. Bear thought Jose would really like this electric acoustic ukulele.

And then our evening was at the Penn & Teller magic show. It was a very cool production, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures during the show, only at the beginning.

This box was out at the beginning of the show. It’s a 45-degree mirror trick box that allows you to “disappear” inside the box. It was surprisingly simple construction and a very effective trick for something that “easy”.

Day 2: Driving to Hoover Dam, The Grand Canyon Skywalk, and Grand Canyon National Park

The next day, Bear and I drove to Grand Canyon via the Hoover Dam. First we took a bunch of pics at Hoover which is a marvel of the modern world.

Sometimes during the year, Nevada and Arizona are not at the exact same time. Because Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings time (or maybe it’s Nevada that doesn’t), right now these clocks were about the same.

You can see how low the water line is from historical levels here. The dam spillway is completely dry. The whole southwest region needs either more rain, or to use less water, or both. Eventually a solution will have to be found.

We thought it would be cool to be in two states at the same time.

Then we headed on to Grand Canyon West and Eagle Point! One spot that was particularly cool was this ultra-quiet spot on the way to Grand Canyon West. You literally couldn’t hear anything when you got out of the car.

And – oh yeah – here’s the sweet Mustang we rented for the entire trip! We thought we’d be putting the top down a lot more than we did; but unfortunately it was so hot it just wasn’t worth it most of the time.

Once we reached Eagle Point (which is on the Hualapai Reservation), we took a huge number of pictures. You aren’t allowed to take your own pictures from the Skywalk (in the background of the one below, but we got plenty of others!)

You can see the Eagle in the background of this picture below. This eagle is a mind boggling two miles away, and the canyon beyond it is like 4-5 miles away. Grand Canyon is just so amazing.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Bear and me.

After we finished up at Eagle Point we drove to to Grand Canyon South (the National Park).

Bear and I were shocked at just how far away you could see on this road. It was so quiet he hopped out of the car to take a picture of Bear just standing in the middle of this in the distance.

On the way we stopped at Delgadillo’s Snow Cap! This is one of the places Kim and I visited before we got married and we loved it. I was super excited to share the experience with Bear!

We spent the rest of the night driving to Grand Canyon National Park, getting checked into our hotel, and then going out and looking at stars together. I wish I had a picture of the stars that night but I don’t. This was one of the few times we used the top-down feature on the Mustang. It was awesome.

Day 3: Hiking Grand Canyon National Park, Driving back to Vegas, and Flying Home

On Day 3, we got up early and headed to Grand Canyon South (National Park).

We got breakfast super-early in the morning at a restaurant in the park that overlooks the canyon. Absolutely stunning view and great breakfast too!

This little fella was sitting right next to the restaurant.

Then we walked along the South Rim Trail. It was simply beautiful – stunning all around.

I had Bear take the picture of me below overlooking the Canyon. This was actually really hard for me to do because it is almost a sheer drop over that ledge I’m sitting on. But I wanted the picture so I braved it!

After we finished walking the South Rim Trail, we drove back to Vegas to catch a red-eye back to Baltimore. We stopped at Mr’s D’z restaurant in Arizona which was awesome.

Then, in Vegas, we got to catch a light show at Freemont street, and then caught the Red Eye back to Baltimore. It was a completely fantastic, but exhausting trip!