Read about our previous days here:
We woke up in our cabin at the floor of Zion Canyon.
First order of business was breakfast. We did not want attempt to eat at the restaurant after what happened yesterday. We wanted to eat quickly and get out on the trails! Thankfully, there was a grab n’ go cafe that served breakfast. Despite the fact that all we got was 2 turkey sandwiches, two bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits, and 3 drinks, our total was $27. Not exactly the cheapest, but again a total lack of options. We had to eat inside because Zion National Park is pollinator friendly. While Ramon can jump out of airplanes and resuscitate premature infants, he CANNOT deal with bees! And the bees were everywhere around the outdoor food area!
After breakfast, we rode the shuttle to the Riverside Trail. This is a kid friendly, paved trail that Zack and Lucy enjoyed! It follows the Virgin River, so naturally Zack wanted to skip rocks the entire hike. He did take a break to climb a large rock!
The kids also had to play in the sand. Again!
During our hike, we saw several squirrels. We thought nothing of it, to be honest. We see squirrels all the time at home. Others did not feel this way! Nearly everyone felt the need to stop their hikes to take pictures of these “amazing” squirrels. My local park has plenty of squirrels, thank you very much. We continued along our walk to the end.
At the end of the trail is the entrance to The Narrows, the famous hike where you wade through the Virgin River for miles with sheer rock walls on both sides. We did not have time for this, but maybe next time. It is incredibly popular, and there were tons of people attempting the hike.
After we completed Riverside trail, we rode the shuttle to the stop we missed yesterday; The Great White Throne.
Then we took the shuttle to the visitors center. The kids got their National Park Passport stamped, and talked to a ranger who taught them about mountain lions! If you don’t know about the National Park Passport, feel free to read about it on Day 2. Zack and Lucy were amazed at the size of their paws.
We bought lunch from the same little cafe where we had breakfast and found a place that Ramon deemed “bee free” enough to eat. Zack and Lucy found these irrigation system covers that they loved to jump over!!!
This was a bigger highlight than playing in the sand.
As we said goodbye to Zion, we had to stop and take a picture with the impressive views going out of the canyon as the backdrop.
Next stop … VEGAS, baby!
The drive to Las Vegas was beautiful! I say this because not only was the scenery beautiful, but both kids fell asleep! Silence is the most beautiful sound!
We stayed at The Palazzo Hotel on the main strip. This is completely different from everything else we have done this vacation. It’s upscale, fancy, and ironically, the cheapest place we have stayed so far this vacation! Supply and demand, I tell ya!
I must say, that in our travels we have seen some expensive mini bars, but I think this one has to take the cake.
I love peanut M&M’s, but I don’t think I love them at $12.00 a pack .
After we check in and shower, we head out to grab dinner and have fun on the strip. After several nights in a row of having minimal options for food, it was a welcome change of pace to have hundreds of restaurants to choose from. We were starving, however, and stopped at the first kid-friendly restaurant we saw, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria for dinner, and really enjoyed it! The pizza and service were very good, but my favorite part was the dough. When we sat down, our server brought each of the kids a little bit of pizza dough to play with! They absolutely loved it!!
Just in case your feet got hurt too much from eating, the restaurant was also selling $1 Walmart flip-flops for $5 dollars.
About 1/3 of the way though dinner, Zack started complaining of his head hurting, but he was still eating well. By the time we finished dinner, and walked a short bit on the strip he was crying and saying he didn’t feel well. We got a picture in front of our hotel, but that was about it!
We got back to the room and Lucy absolutely crashed at that point too.
We were all in bed by 9:15. Ironically the night we went to bed the earliest was the night we were in Vegas! Tomorrow we have a travel day as our quick trip comes to an end and we fly back home.
Check out what we did the next day here.
The Small World Family 
Enjoyed seeing the beauty in the pictures including the Smallworld Family!
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Such gorgeous photos! Do you use a tripod to get a photo of the 4 of you? The photos are of such good quality. We have seen the red rocks of Sedona but not the rocks in Utah. Looks like we need to make a trip west!!
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Thank you! Only 1/4 of our group picks above did I use a tripod as there was no one there to take a picture, otherwise I just do my best to instruct people on what I want in the picture. Lots of times I will take a test shot and show them how to compose it, however, that only works 50 percent of the time at best.
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