(W)rite on Cue(Q): July 2012

2 Days to Make It -- HOME!

We were excited to be leaving Las Vegas - mostly because we were more than ready to head back to Iowa. Back HOME!! About 1500 miles to go...

Tuesday: On the way to our hotel in Grand Junction, CO - we made a stop at Arches National Park. If Vegas had a "wow" factor - this place has a "WOW" factor!! I'll just let a few photos speak for themselves...

Wednesday: About 1000 more miles to drive - in one day - to make it to Cedar Falls...!

We have shared an amazing 17 days!! I am SO BLESSED that I GET to be FAMILY with Martha, Josh, Becky, Joel and Lydia...

'Life is a Highway...!"

Balancing Rock.

One of the several hundred natural arches in the Park.

"Another picture, Dad...?" "OK..."

A great woman there on my left...

...that lets me kiss her...!!!

Arches all over the place!

Hiking pics...

The Tunnel Arch

"Hold it up."

My Girls: Even MORE beautiful than the scenery!

We caught the "magic light" on the drive out of the Park.

SO beautiful to see LIVE...!

Hauling it Home...

Gladly sharing the wheel with my Senior in High School

- and some good conversation.

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I am happy to report that we are HOME now

- safe and sound!!

I'll have one more Final Blog in the next few days to wrap up this trip...

This truly has been a Vacation to cherish and remember for a LIFETIME...!

Pawn Stars / Hoover Dam

There were 2 more things we absolutely HAD to do while in the Vegas area: on Monday we visited The Pawn Stars Store and went to Hover Dam!

We had a BLAST visiting both places!

We found the Pawn Stars Store several miles north of the main part of the Strip. Unfortunately, we didn't bump into any of the stars of the show. We were told they hardly ever are at the counters anymore - but we did get to browse around at will inside the store. We saw a few items that we recognized from some episodes on TV. Joel was the most excited to be here! He was relieved when we assured him we weren't going to try to pawn/sell him... Haha!

The Hoover Dam was a must-see! On a brutally hot afternoon (115ºF!), we drove out to catch this amazing structure - single handedly responsible (just about!) for much of the quality of life enjoyed by people on the west coast. Did I mention is was hot?? We walked around on the top of the Dam and got a good glimpse of both sides - Lake Mead above and the Colorado River below. We had a particularly fun time in the store - and the kids wanted to get some "Dam food" in the cafeteria!! Funny...

We can hardly believe that we are on our last two days of this AMAZING vacation...!!

Excited to visit the Pawn Stars Store!

World Famous indeed! Isn't Pawn Stars one of the

highest rated Cable TV shows in history?

Luckily, the wait to get in wasn't too long...

Just like on TV!

Checking out the displays.

A Ring Revolver - I saw this episode!

A real John Wayne cowboy hat. Cool!

Unfortunately, these were just cheap-o guitars.

There weren't any famous ones displayed...

The Old Man Silver Coins - Saw this episode too!

Hood of a car with Rick's pic on it.

Josh asked what was the most expensive item in the store.

It was the top Samurai Sword - built in the late 1400's.

They guy said it was worth $200,000 to priceless...!

Next Stop: The Hoover Dam!

Impressive.

Josh getting a call from his girlfriend, McKenzie!

Walking on the top of the Dam.

Fun in the Dam Gift Shop!

The kids were waiting all day to get some Dam food.

They settled for some Dam fries!

It was a HOT day - 115ºF!!

Sadddleback Church / Las Vegas

Time to start steering the ship towards home...

Our last stop in California was visiting Saddleback Church Sunday morning. Rick Warren, probably mostly known as a prominent Christian author ("The Purpose Driven Life"), is the Senior Pastor of this "Mega-Church" (which he started in his kitchen in 1980). We were fortunate to catch him on Sunday when he was co-preaching with two of his colleagues. We were blessed by our visit here. It was good to hear Warren live and experience his "famous" Church. Mostly, it was good to worship together with my family on a Sunday morning where Christ and the Gospel was proclaimed...

We piled back into the van and went to the next step on our Itinerary: Las Vegas. Talk about a contrast!! As we pulled up to our hotel, The Excalibur, we immediately were taken in by the "wow" factor of this town. After we checked in, we decided to take a stroll down the Vegas Strip. We had fun! No doubt, this town is built on making as big of an impression as possible!

As we walked around, the "wow" things we saw (the dancing fountains at the Bellagio, the fancy lights all over the Strip, the flaming volcano at The Mirage) started to mingle with quite a bit of observable "yuck" (drunk and "overexposed" people, lots of noise, "female escort" flyers). Honestly, I am thankful were were able to walk around and experience some of Vegas WITH our kids. We were able to have some good and frank conversation around what we saw and witnessed. We know we will never be able to completely "shield" our children from "yucky stuff" in this world, but hopefully we can encourage them to make good/better/best decisions when they find themselves in "seedy" situations.

Monday we'll get to do some more things in the Vegas area...!!