Vegas Vacation--Day 4

Is is only Day 4? My goodness. We've packed so much in I would have thought we'd have been gone a week! On Sunday, we got up very, very early (about 4:00, Texas time) and began our adventures for the day. We played in the snow and then hopped in the van and made our way to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest, where we saw some really neat sights and enjoyed a picnic lunch. Then, we were back in the van for a few hours, finally arriving at our destination for the day: The Grand Canyon. Just as we entered the park, we encountered a herd of elk--there were about 20 of them that we could see, and they were very close to the road, making it a perfect picture opportunity. From there, we made our way to some of the look-out points of the canyon, and I must say words cannot even begin to describe what we saw. Amazing, just amazing! We checked into our hotel room, which was just a quarter of a mile from the canyon's rim, had some dinner and then went into a nearby town to see an IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon. We promptly fell into bed at 8:30 (local time), exhausted, excited and full of anticipation at what the next day would hold. We hopped up this morning (not quite so early, but certainly early enough), had some breakfast, learned some lessons about spending money wisely, bought some souveniers, and headed for the other end of the canyon from what we saw yesterday. Even more breathtaking, if you can imagine. I was totally blown away! When we had taken in all our eyes could hold and more than our memories could, we made our way to the Hoover Dam, where we stopped for the full tour. Very interesting! That dam is truly a piece of work. It's amazing it was ever built at all, much less that it was built at time when brains cranked out those engineering problems rather than computers! From there, we made the last short leg of our journey, and finally arrived at Jeff's parents place this evening. We are very happy to be here, and we are looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings. I will make every effort to post some pictures tomorrow. Stay tuned...