Viva Las Vegas ... Time to go Home

The kids really were not impressed with Las Vegas. Here is what impressed them the most... our hotel had a Pizza Hut.  That made it the BEST HOTEL EVER!

We had lunch at our favorite place in Las Vegas, Casa Don Juan (http://casadonjuanlv.com/). Great food and great service!!  We drove up the strip, showed the kids the Eiffel Tower, the Bellagio fountain, the Statue of Liberty and all the big hotels on the strip.  The kids couldn't care less! So, we headed into the MGM then the M&M and Coca-Cola stores.

Lions at MGM Grand Lion Habitat

Joshua and Red@ M&M World

Alex - what.is.he.doing?

The M&M Car!

NYNY in the background - kids NOT impressed

Which M&Ms do you want?

Joshua doing the "cupid shuffle" with Yellow!

High Five!

Statue of Liberty - again kids NOT impressed

Now it's time to end our trip.  We made a quick stop at Hoover Dam, then headed home.  We encountered some sprinkles.  The desert is beautiful in the middle of a monsoon.

Thanks be to God for the time we had together as a family.  We ended our trip with a beautiful sign, a rainbow ( I tried to take a picture, but you couldn't see it, so this is the best I could do!) . 

God is good, all the time!

Road Trip - Vegas here we come!

Our last leg of the road trip was supposed to be a stop in San Diego and Legoland.  Well, outrageous hotel prices caused us to make a change.  Instead of San Diego, we decided to head to Las Vegas! yes, the Mesquitas took their kids to Vegas.  ha ha

It was a LONG drive from Fremont to Las Vegas.  I learned a few things . . . .

1. I <3 Gilroy! We drove through Gilroy to get to Interstate 5.  It is the garlic capital of the world. I'm ready to sell the house in Goodyear and move to Gilroy to run a garlic farm. =)
2. There is A LOT of farming going on  in northern California.  All along I-5 there were farms, farm, and more farms.  And the way Google maps had us go, even off of I-5 the farms continued.
3. DO NOT STOP in Boron, California! There is NOTHING there! Make sure to use the rest area that is located at off ramp right before Boron.  Long story short, we had to use the restrooms at a public park.  Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.  I'm still traumatized from that place!
4. Make sure that between Barstow and Las Vegas, you are the one who gets to rest. While Anthony drove, I slept, which was a good thing.  Anthony said it was BORING.  Joshua asked... Why do people live here??? hahahahahahaha

We checked in out hotel and called it a night to rest for our day in Las Vegas.

McDonald's in Barstow.

Road Trip - Walt Disney Family Museum

YES, you read the title right, we went to the Walt Disney Family Museum at the Presido.  A couple of weeks later and I'm still wondering why it even exists at this location.  but who's complaining? =)

The museum walks you through the Disney family history from birth to death.  It took about 90 minutes for us to go through all the galleries.  It was very informative, it was pretty cool.  The only thing.. we couldn't take any photos once we were inside the galleries.  Anthony said we couldn't go to Disneyland, but we still found a way to get our Disney fix. =)

Walt's apartment over the Firehouse at Disneyland

 

Oscars and other awards (door on the right is the entry to the galleries)

Alexandra with Walt and Lillian

Road Trip - day 4, I think

We went back into San Francisco to see more of the sites.  We spent the day at California Academy of Sciences (http://www.calacademy.org/).  Now this is what a science museum should be!!  If you are ever in the area, GO!!! You will find ... an aquarium, a planetarium, natural history and even a rain forest!!  It is AWESOME!

Pictures speak louder than words, so here we go! And this is just some of the photos both Alexandra and I took!

Alexandra took the photos in the rain forest.  She's pretty good!

Living Roof

Outside of the rain forest

Road trip continues!

Day 3 - I was up by 7:00/7:30, but the rest of the family slept in until almost 9:00am! I guess they were tired.  We finally were ready and headed out for our drive up north to the city of San Francisco.  The first thing we did was drive over the Golden Gate bridge.  The kids pretended were on the monorail riding over the bridge at California Adventure.  Disney was always on our minds! =)



 We spent the next few hours at Fisherman's Wharf.  We ate at the Boudin Bakery Restaurant and then took a tour of the bay.  It was a fun day!

We finished our night by going out to dinner with Uncle Terry, "baby" Terry and Tina.  Jenny had to work Tuesday night, so we didn't get to see her.  We had a great time with them!