2 States Down, 2 To Go

First I have to say I can't wait to get some sleep...................changing time zones is for the birds!

Ok, from where I left off....
We left Arizona after a nice long morning. We took our time and left for Vegas somewhat rested and with full tummys thanks to Holiday Inn Express. The drive was nice. We made it to the Hoover Dam and I was impressed. I kept seeing the scenes from the movie Superman. Kevin had a great idea and we took these really cool pics, however once again the card reader is MIA. There were lots of plaques and tributes to all the hard work, but the coolest one I saw was when we were going back to the car. Apparently the guys working on the dam adopted this random dog that had found them working. The dog became kinda like their mascot. Sadly, the pooch's life ended at the dam and they buried him there in a little tomb. I thought this was weird at first, but they could've sent this dog sailing down the river or something. Anyway, I guess the dog was good company. After the dam we made made the short drive over to Vegas. We also stopped to see Lake Mead. Noah called this lake, Lake Ma. Who knows! We did not get to do our original idea and drive in at night, but hey when the kids are driving the schedule who cares! We went down on the Vegas strip and ate at Paris then walked across the street and watched a show at the Bellagio fountains. I made a little video which I will post later. Then we drove up and down the strip. It was neat. I think I would like to walk through the hotels and the original casino alley during the day when it is less crowded and the vulgarity has lessened. I was really naive going into Vegas and was really shocked at some of the lewdness I saw. Kevin just said "Babe, what did you expect from SIN city?" point taken. So onward we go to California. It was only a 4 hour drive from Vegas to southern Cali. We drove down to Corona Del Mar/Newport Beach to visit Kevin's cousin Sarah. It was an awesome little city. She also has a great place to live. Walking distance to everything; shops, restaurants, beach. The homes were very cute and were built in the late 40's and 50's. We also met Derby, Sarah's little son for the first time. He is so cute and full of life. It was nice having all the boys meet each other. I grew up not knowing my 2nd and 3rd cousins, so this was great. We strolled down to the beach and let the boys play for a while. Our boys needed some beach time. Noah ran all through the water. Yes, I have a video, but have not card reader to post. It will come later, promise. At the end of the video he said "I love Cawifornga!", well with a little coaxing. We drove down to Laguna Beach which was a beautiful drive. After Laguna, we plugged into the GPS to get us North of LA. What it punched out shocked us. We had 250 MILES to get to the base where we were going to stay. That's like almost 4 hours. It was already 5, and we knew we had to stop for dinner. We thought it was going to take like half that! Anyway, we drove it got caught in LA rush hour and made it here at 11pm. So, no we are not driving 2 hours back to LA to do the touristy things we had planned. We will just have to save that for another trip back to LA. So now we are focused on San Fran. We have a jump on the drive since we are a lot further north than we originally anticipated. So, that's it for now. I am sure I am forgetting some things. I have a journal in the car so I can remember all of Noah's anecdotes and our funny moments. Today we are resting and meeting up with Kevin's sponsor family from the Academy for dinner. I think this day of nothingness has been well earned.