Since I'm a year late....and always a dollar short, I figured to best way to catch up is to rewind a bit starting with the most recent happenings. I got a phone call from an old friend a few months ago. She is the mom to one of Buddy's best friends from middle school. The boys did everything together for a few years...that is until they lamed out on us and moved back to Florida because of the dad's work. Anyway, I digress, she wanted to talk about their vacation to the Southern Utah/Arizona area that they were planning. She thought since I had been there so many times I could give them some great travel trips.....at least I think she was wanting travel tips. Instead somehow got us tagging along to part of their vacation and I don't regret a second of it!
Buddy and I had taken a train from Seattle to Utah (because, duh, trains) which I'll post about later, then we rented a car to Las Vegas (our meeting point) so I could scratch something off of my bucket list....Antelope Canyon! I got us a tour of the Upper and Lower Canyon since I figured the Budster would want to take a few pictures....
I was right! After we were done with our tours, we headed back into the car and drove the rest of the way to Vegas! That is, after stopping off for a healthy and delicious lunch complements of the King of Burgers!
Anyway, we finally arrived in Vegas and I was so sick of driving in the Vegas traffic that as soon as I got to the hotel I paid for Valet just so I didn't have to drive anymore! (seriously, we got in at 10 pm on a Thursday and it was sooo crazy-there was even a young lady trying to walk in front of our fast moving car while we were on the highway....thankfully, she had ninja reflexes but I do worry about her vision because it was a close one). I got us a room at the Excalibur, because I know my boy....
He's a fan of all things medieval! We even went to the show Tournament of Kings with our friends one night, which was one of the highlights of Buddy's Vegas vacation. Buddy wasn't a huge fan of Vegas, or the casino for that matter. As soon as we walked in, he remarked on the pungent aroma of urine and cigarettes....he wasn't wrong! Then after walking around, he decided that Vegas was, and I quote "was like a big arcade room for sad and lonely people". That didn't stop him for wanting to buy poker chip pillow...
Thankfully, our friends weren't big Vegas fans either (although I'll be honest, I did want to walk around and check out a few adventurous things to do.....Okay, I wanted one of those ridiculously fattening doughnuts from Saint Honore Doughnuts and Beignets! We ended up going to the Valley of Fire State Park instead...
Which was way better....especially since we didn't die!
The boys were sure to ham it up about their height difference since once upon a time, Buddy was the taller one in this duo and Jordan has shot up since the last time we had seen him!
It was pretty and awesome... so, pretty awesome!
The next day we drove off to our next destination, Havasu City to see the London Bridge!
Yes, the London Bridge...in Arizona! The boys hammed up the height difference more, we sweated a ton and then geared up for the next day of adventure and Buddy's absolutely favorite part of our self-invited vacation....
That would be boating on Lake Havasu! Buddy got to drive the boat more than half the time, which I think Jordan's dad was super happy about since Buddy could pull him along so he could enjoy some tubing too!
We all had such a great time on our vacation together that the boys decided that we should do one involving cold weather and snow, so they are currently working on a plan over Christmas break to do some snowboarding....I'll be working on my plan to buy as many blankets and coats that I can afford between now and then!
So all in all a super fantastic, who knew inviting yourself to other people's vacations could be so much fun, day!
