USA Summer 2017 Part 2 of 5: Arizona

After a couple of days in Vegas we left to spend a few days in Arizona split between hanging out with dear friends in Phoenix and seeing some of the grand sights of nature up north.  We spent three fun-filled days with the Stewarts at their house in Phoenix.  They are some of our favourite people and time with them is anything but dull.  We had such a great weekend filled with games, late night desserts, seeing Lizzie rock Ariel in a local production of the Little Mermaid, swimming, astronomy and lots of laughs!  After we bade farewell to the Stewarts we head up north to see the Grand Canyon for a couple of days.  En route we stopped in beautiful Sedona, Arizona which we'd never visited before.  Such beautiful scenery in Sedona!  We carried on to the Grand Canyon that afternoon.  We hadn't been there since Dallin was a toddler, and what vacation is more classically American than a trip to the Grand Canyon?  It was incredible, and it was so fun to see the amazement on the kids' faces.  After our visit there we head up to Page, Arizona to see the white-knuckle, but stunning vista over Horseshoe Bend and take a tour of the fabled Antelope Canyon.  So hot and so dry up there, but just an amazing part of the country!

So much fun with the Stewarts!

The Stewtons!

Sedona, Arizona . . .

Grand Canyon . . .

Horseshoe Bend  . . .

Antelope Canyon . . .

USA Summer 2017 Part 1 of 5: Vegas Baby

Last year we decided we were overdue a good, long visit to the USA.  We actually haven't really ever gone "home" for the summer as many expats do.  This wasn't exactly that either, because we don't really have a home in the US anymore, but we wanted real time to see family and friends and to explore places we haven't visited in a long time so the kids could see more of their own country.  So we created a six-week grand USA tour that would take us from coast to coast in a crazy aviation dot-to-dot.  It was honestly a huge task planning this trip from a logistical point of view, and also a record keeping point of view.  The stack of bookings and tickets I had to print out to bring along to keep everything organised and running smoothly was enormous!

Wanting to spend sometime in the southwest and southern Utah we settled on Las Vegas as our entry point.  With good, direct flights from London and a fun, easy start to our vacation Vegas ticked the boxes for the perfect jet-lag recovery landing spot.  We only stayed in Vegas two nights, just enough time to have a look at the glitz of the Las Vegas strip, eat some good food and relax before hitting the road!  Landing to near 50-degree temperatures it was like arriving to an inferno.  The heat in this region of the US is assaulting!  I guess when in the cold, damp of the UK be careful what you ask for in this way!

On our way down to Phoenix we made a stop to see the Hoover Dam, which straddles Nevada and Arizona.  It was pretty amazing to see, but the heat was incredibly oppressive out there!