154_5494_r1 Family Travel Page

September 24-28, 2003

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Las Vegas/Boulder City Trip

Paris Hotel

Paris Hotel Swimming Pool

The Eiffel Tower Restaurant

Patrick’s Birthday Celebration (Day)

Patrick’s Birthday Celebration (Night)

Death Valley Trip

The Devil’s Hole

Dante’s Peak

Furnace Creek Restaurant

Stovepipe Village

The Sand Dunes

The Ghost town of Ski Doo

Lee Vining/Bodie/June Lake/

Yosemite Trip

The Tufa of Mono lake

Ghost town of Bodie (National Park)

June Lake overnight stay

The June lake Loop

The trip to Yosemite National Park

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A White Tiger

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Real Live Orchids

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The Famous Gondola

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The Eiffel Tower & Restaurant

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Bellagio’s Dancing Water

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The Desert Sun

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The Hoover Dam

Our family decided to go on a trip which lasted 5 days and 4 nights.

Our travel Journal:

Day One Bay Area/Bakersfield/Las Vegas

We started traveling out of the Bay Area. This leg of the trip lasted 4 hours to Bakersfield for a pit stop. Bakersfield is home of the world's tallest thermometer. [It is 134 feet high and its height is symbolic of the highest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. (134°F at Death Valley).] Baker is not much of a town, but it does have plenty of gas, food, and lodging. We ate some burrito at del Taco. We continue our journey and arrived in Las Vegas close to midnight. We don’t have a room reserve for the night so we spent few minutes calling around for some rooms available. By midnight, we checked in at Excalibur Hotel and we’re happy to get a room with a view of the main strip. Right in front of our window is the New York New York Hotel.

Day Two Las Vegas

Patrick’s Birthday!!! (Check out more photos from the menu gallery)

We checked out of Excalibur and proceeded to visit some other places in the strip. We went to Venetian and had a wonderful time touring the place. We then went to Treasure Island to eat a breakfast buffet. Around noon, we decided to go straight to our next hotel, Paris, and checked in. The line was so long and so many people around. It took about 30 minutes before we got our key and settled in our room. Our room is gorgeous! We were situated so we can see the Bellagio water works. Check out our room here. Napping was not at all hard to do. Around 2:30 pm, we wanted to take a refreshing dip in the hotel’s swimming pool and Patrick and me enjoys a drink of Greyhound and a Strawberry Daiquiri.

Dinner at the fancy Eiffel Tower Restaurant by 6:00 pm. Hmm, this is so grand!! Check the menu we chose and we highly recommend them especially the dessert.

As Patrick’s grand finale on his birthday, we stroll on the main strip and checking out all of the interesting scenery each hotel has to offer. The kids got tired and so we went back to our hotel room and call it a night for Mama and the children. Patrick and me went out again and visited the casinos. A Lucky birthday charm must have work, since Patrick won on the roulette. We took our winnings and move on to the next game. I guess the charm works the second time around. We won only to get even what we spent for the casino. It was so much fun and we end the event at the Napoleon’s Lounge (Paris Hotel). Patrick lighted his favorite save Cuban cigar and accompanied it with cognac.

Day Three Las Vegas/Hoover Dam/Death Valley

We woke up a bit late and needs to get ready right away as we are headed to a very long day of activities ahead. As soon as we arrived on the parking lot, we noticed something is missing!!! The car key!!! and also the cell phone. We couldn’t find it anywhere in our bags, so we wasted an hour trying to locate it by going back to our room hoping it will show up there. Frustration is clouding up in our day, luckily, Mama found the keys while we are gone. It was all the time in Patrick’s backpack. I should have known it!! But that was the drama of the day…We left Las Vegas and arrived in Hoover Dam close to 1 pm. We parked on the Arizona side of the dam and walk across. We went inside the Hoover Dam entrance for visitors to tour the facility. The weather is so darn hot but the trip is worth it…takes about 40 minutes to Hoover Dam from Las Vegas.

After Hoover Dam, we were thinking of going to the Grand Canyon but as we estimated the time and all the places we wanted to visit, we decided there’s not enough time to do it. We aborted the Grand Canyon trip and proceeded back to Las Vegas only this time we drive past the fun city and headed North towards the Death Valley Junction. We diverted our trip to go on a back road drive instead of following a nice tourist pave road to visit the Devil’s Hole. We were the only people in the area and the kids were so excited and curious about the mystery of this hole. They have so many questions which are never ending. Going back to the rough road again, our destination is the spectacular Dante’s View.