The last day of our trip required a long haul from Las Cruces to our home in San Diego. We broke up the drive by spending the afternoon in Tombstone, walking around the old western town.
By the time we made it home, we had driven a total of 6,383 miles over 18 days!
During our first day in Vegas, we visited M&M world, which is 4 floors of anything you can imagine you could sell with an M&M logo.
Then we did the International Flavors tasters at Coke World. The “Beverly” from Italy is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted in my life. The “Fanta Sour Plum” from China tasted just like BBQ sauce, which was a unique flavor for a soda.
Today was the first of 3 days on our All-Inclusive Go City Las Vegas passes, which is a great deal if you cram a ton of stuff into your days. We were up for the challenge.
We started the day by visiting the Luxor to reserve our Blue Man Group tickets. Then we did Fly Over Vegas by “flying” through the Wonders of the American West show. We visited the Hunger Games Experience in the MGM next. Gavin enjoyed it because he had at least read the books, but only Ali and I have seen the movies.
Our next stop was across the street to ride the NYNY Big Apple roller coaster, which was a blast. Then we went into the Excalibur to watch a 4D movie about Aquaman.
Our last stop before dinner was the Illuminarium, where we spent 45 minutes immersed in an Africa Safari. Between the floor rumbling and the videos projecting all around you, it really felt like you were chilling in Africa.
After a good dinner at Rollin’ Smoke BBQ, we headed to the Luxor for the Blue Man Group show. The show was amazing, both hilarious and imaginative. The boys were blown away by it. Connor forgot his hat inside the amphitheater, and came back with his hat and two drum heads from the performance! An awesome souvenir.
The day started off at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, where we took photos with the stars. Then we headed to Marvel STATION which had a ton of Iron Man suits and other immersive exhibits from the movies.
After lunch we viewed “Leonardo: The Universal Man”, which was a cool immersive art exhibit all about Leonardo da Vinci.
Our last stop of the day was The Strat, where we had great seats for “Banachek’s Mind Games”. I went in as a skeptic but I have no idea how he pulled off the mind reading and other magic tricks he performed. After the show, we went up to the observation deck at the very top, to take in the view and watch crazy people jump off the edge.
We packed a lot of stops into the last day of our All-Inclusive Go City passes.
The first stop was National Nuclear Testing Museum, where we learned about the development of the nuclear bomb and how they tested it in the Nevada Desert. The information wove in nicely with all we learned at Los Alamos about the development of the first nuclear bombs. We also got to experience a simulated nuclear explosion.
Next we explored the Discovering King Tut museum at the Luxor. The history was told well and Connor especially loved all the artifacts, because he is studying Egyptian history in school.
We moved up the strip and took in the view from the High Roller Observation Wheel, which is the tallest in the Americas. Only the one in Dubai is larger.
Our passes came with $80 to spend at Sweet Sin LV, with the stipulation that you were required to use the complete amount. So we had quite a sugar rush with mountains of gelato and tons of macaroons to bring home.
We headed to Bally’s next for the National Geographic “Rarely Seen” photography exhibit. I loved it. They had so many beautiful photos blown up to cover entire walls, which made you felt like you were inside of them.
The sun went down as we headed to Paris to take in the view from the observation deck in their half-sized replica of the Eiffel Tower. We caught part of the Bellagio water show while up there.
We finished off the night with another show at the Illuminarium, this one immersing us in space. Then we visited a trampoline park down from the strip, which was pretty run down, but since it was free on our pass, it was still worth it.
After the last 3 days of running between different attractions, we were exhausted, so we spent the morning swimming and relaxing. Then we spent the rest of the day wandering the strip, visiting the Venetian shops, the Forum shops, and watching the Bellagio water show.
We ate a delicious deep dish pizza at Gordiano’s, which was our favorite when we visited Chicago. Then we explored some more, visiting the Cosmopolitan and the holiday decorations inside the Bellagio. At that point, it was time to say goodbye to Las Vegas, and drive back to San Diego.
With no big trip this winter break, we instead did a few little ones. We spent the night at Great Wolf Lodge up in Garden Grove. That gave us 2 days to enjoy the indoor water park. The boys even gave boogie boarding a try.
Connor really enjoyed walking though a Roman villa and looking at all the ancient artifacts inside. Gavin enjoyed the tour we took about the architecture of the Getty Center.
We started off our vacation in the Allegheny Mountains, touring Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece. Afterwards, we visited Ohiopyle State Park to view the Ohiopyle and Cucumber falls. On our way back to the outskirts of Pittsburgh, we drove through the corner of Maryland and had dinner in Morgantown, WV.
Today we started off learning about the founding of Pittsburgh at the Fort Pitt Museum. Then we walked through downtown to the Heinz History Center, where we learned about the more recent history of the city and western Pennsylvania.
After all that history, we walked over one of the famous yellow bridges and watched the Pirates face the Cubs. After the game, we got to see a surprise fireworks show, going off nearby for Juneteenth.
On our drive through Ohio, we stopped off at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, where we learned about the Ohio & Erie Canal that ran through the area. Then we took a small hike to see the beautiful Brandywine Falls.
We continued on north to Cleveland, where we had a pizza dinner next to Lake Erie, before finishing our day by watching the Guardians beat the Athletics.
After a drive through a bunch of farmland, we arrived at Comerica Park. We had plenty of time to explore before the game started. I think it was one of the nicest stadiums of our trip.
We had awesome seats, but they were in the blazing sun, so we ended up retreating to the shade of the nosebleeds in the 7th inning. The Tigers ended up beating the Royals.
Once the game was done, we walked around downtown Detroit and their river walk, which seemed to both be in a state of decay and rebirth. We spent the night in Port Huron, visiting Lake Huron, our second Great Lake of the trip.
The Canadians let us into their country without issue, and we were on our way to Niagara Falls. Once we got there, we looked at the falls from the Canadian side, and then crossed over Rainbow Bridge and back into the US, where Niagara Falls is a state park.
Our favorite experience was riding on the Maid of the Mist boat, which basically drove straight into Horseshoe Falls. The power of the water falling around us was unbelievable. We also hiked up to the edge of American Falls, getting drenched again, and walked around the tops of Bridal Veil and Horseshoe Falls.
We drove into Buffalo for dinner, stopping by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House on the way. After dinner, we drove around downtown Buffalo, before entering Canada again and heading to Toronto.
The view from the observation platform:
A video of us going into Horseshoe Falls:
American Falls:
From up on top of the CN Tower, which is currently the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere, the view was pretty impressive. Back on the ground it was raining, so we explored the Toronto PATH, which is over 19 miles of underground passageways with shops and restaurants covering most of downtown.
When the rain stopped, we popped back above ground to check out Yonge–Dundas Square, which is kinda like their Times Square. Then we made our way back among all the buildings to the Rogers Centre, to watch the Blue Jays play. The boys caught one of the practice balls before the game!
I taught the boys about the Jacquard Loom and how it was an inspiration for the first programmable computers. We also learned about the extreme limits of the human body, explored a rainforest and coral reef, and played with a bunch of hands-on science experiments.
Skipping rocks into Lake Ontario to finish our evening: