Day Two: M&M World, Zion, and Jacob Lake

We started the morning in Vegas at Hash House a Go-Go where we had a scrumptious breakfast. The girls wanted to visit M&M World, so Scott dropped us off while he waited on the street; after 20 minutes I sent him a text, “This will be awhile. Park the vehicle.” When shopping at ‘Tourist Traps’ the girls always check the racks of personalized items (e.g., key chains, bracelets) for their names, but they never find ‘Paradis’ or ‘Annelies’. Well, at M&M World that changed when they purchased 12 ounces of M&M’s, for the ridiculous price of $29.99, with their names on each and every one! I have to admit, it was cool.

We said good-bye to Vegas, and drove a couple hours north to Zion National Park, crossing into our 30th state, Arizona.

A few minutes later we drove into our 31^st state, Utah.

We arrived at Zion just in time to stamp our National Park Passport books, buy our pins, and grab a Junior Ranger booklet for Annelies before the Visitor Center closed. The road that drives through Zion is closed from March 24 until October 15 every year, so we were excited we made the cutoff date. It was gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. I know I say this all the time, but the landscape in our country is amazing. I could post 300 pictures of Zion (literally) but I’ll share just a few.

Annelies could have spent a week in the park, as she ran around the trails and collected some soil for our Collection Jars at home. I say this often as well, but there isn't enough time (or money) to do everything we want in this great country of ours.

                                                                                    

The Ranger told us the road from Page, Arizona to the Grand Canyon was washed out, which was critical information because that was the road we were going to drive that afternoon. If we would have drove that way, we would have spent over six hours backtracking around the mountain. So we altered our plans, and ended up at Jacob Lake Inn, just outside the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The North Rim is closed for the winter, and will be until June due to snow, but it is beautiful.

We had started the morning in Vegas at 76 degrees, and ended it in Jacob Lake at 37. Tomorrow we will see the Canyon …

Day Two: 258 miles (286 total); $44.65 on gas ($44.65 total); 3 states (3 total); $84.60 Lodging  ($309.60 total); $202.59 Souvenirs ($246.37 total); $0 Tourist Traps ($75.80 total); $2 Redbox ($2 total); 0 fights (0 total); 0 injuries (0 total)