Hopefully you have recovered from your Thanksgiving festivities by now and are ready for the Christmas season.  We told you that we have been spending a lot of time with Blind Piglets #2 and #3 and their sports.  Last weekend we went to Vegas with Blind Piglet #2’s soccer team.  While there we took part in a little grown up entertainment and sightseeing.  Oh, don’t get confused, we didn’t spend any time in a casino, but we did spend time eating some great food, taking in a great view of the city and checking off an item on Rhonda’s bucket list.

We had dinner reservations at Catch.  The dinner and the service did not disappoint.  If you are spending time in Vegas soon, we highly recommend eating at Catch.  They have an incredible dessert which is a doughnut carousel.  There are 8 doughnut holes served on a wheel of sorts with four different sauces to drizzle over the top. Hmmm… it reminded us of another spectacular dessert we’ve seen somewhere before (Hard Cider Donut Holes.)

We took in yummy cocktails and spectacular views of the Vegas Strip at the top of the Delano Hotel in the Skyfall Lounge.  The service at the Skyfall was incredible, we were seated at a table that overlooked the strip, and enjoyed taking in the view.

View from Skyfall

We visited the Hoover Dam for an afternoon.

It has been a long-time bucket list item for Rhonda to see the Grand Canyon, so since we were so close we added a couple days to our trip to do just that.  We drove the extra 2 hours to the South Rim where we could take in Grand Canyon National Park.  If you have not been to the Grand Canyon, this is a must!

You pay only $35 dollars per car for a day’s visit — a steal!  Once inside the park there is a visitors center with informative presentations to help you get the lay of the land.  We viewed a short documentary about how the canyon was formed which helped us to appreciate our views later in the day.  There is also a Geological Museum, an Art Studio, hotels, restaurants and more inside the park.

Look closely, see anyone you know?

There are shuttle buses that will take you to the main views along the southern rim, but we chose to take the Rim Trail.  If you are able to walk along the Rim Trail, we highly recommend it.  There are so many interesting sights and fun lookouts that you miss if you take the bus from viewpoint to viewpoint.  The walk along the trail gave us time to spread out and enjoy the canyon on our own instead of being shuttled along with a large group of tourists.  As you can see from our many photos, we had so much fun crawling out to different points and taking some fun shots.

Bright Angel trail is a must-do, if even for just a short hike.

We also spent a couple of hours hiking down the Bright Angel trail into the canyon, we did not have the time (which takes a day’s worth of hiking) to hike to the bottom, but we hiked down for about an hour and turned around for a 45 minute hike back up.  We loved being inside the canyon and appreciated the wildlife, which included a tarantula, many birds, and geological markers along the trail.

The wind started to pick up in the afternoon.

We did not stay in the park since we made our plans last minute, and the park hotels are known to book up more than a year in advance.  However, we were able to stay just outside the park in the sweet little town of Grand Canyon, Arizona.  We were treated to the surprise of unpredicted snow the last morning which added to the charm of the little town.

We were surprised with some snow while visiting the canyon.

Although it was a super quick trip, we enjoyed checking this American treasure off of our bucket list.  What sites and adventures are on your bucket list? Tell us. We would love to hear about it.