Our family vacation to Arizona

Psalm 63:1 (The Message)
God—you're my God! I can't get enough of you! I've worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts.

I’ll warn you now…this is going to be one long blog post. I don’t really expect my friends to read all of this!

We just got back from possibly the best vacation we’ve ever taken as a family, and I want to tell about it in detail just in case another family can benefit from our experience. I figure that if I pepper my blog entry with phrases like “tips on a family vacation to Arizona” or “what to see in Arizona”, then maybe someone else will stumble upon this in a search and get some good information.

For anyone who doesn’t know us, we are a family of five (three teenage sons) from Northeast Ohio.
We flew from Akron/Canton Airport (CAK) to Las Vegas (LAS) because I found that flying into Las Vegas is cheapest. However, you could also fly into Phoenix, because the prices are comparable, depending on when you search. I just happened to find the lowest rates to Las Vegas. Also, if you are careful, Las Vegas can be a great “jumping-off” point for the vacation because there is so much there to see, even for a family.

We took off on Wednesday, May 30 at 5:30 PM Eastern Time. We flew Delta through Atlanta, so we didn’t arrive in Las Vegas until 9:45 PM Pacific Time. Obviously, our bodies felt like it was 12:45 AM when we landed, so we adjusted very quickly to Pacific Time! By the time we got our luggage, picked up the van (I love being a Hertz Gold member!), and found the hotel, it was 11:00 PM. That’s 2:00 AM by the body clocks, and we were really feelin’ it. We stayed at an Embassy Suites in Las Vegas. It was a gorgeous room that was meant for a high-end business traveler. We had a conference room, a living room with a pull-out sofa, and a bedroom with two double beds. All of that, and I think it was only about $150 per night. What a great way to start the vacation! You got a made-to-order hot breakfast buffet (omelet chef and the whole nine yards) in the morning. For my family, that was probably worth at least $50, so the $150 hotel bill got a lot smaller!

This might be a good time to suggest joining the Hilton Honors program. It’s free, and there are perks. Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn & Suites (as well as a lot of other hotels) are Hilton Hotels.

We spent approximately six hours in Las Vegas on our first day. Even though we are a conservative Christian family, there is still a lot to see in Las Vegas. We told the boys not to pick anything up off the street or take any papers from people. If you haven’t been to Las Vegas, there are people on the street who hand out soft-core porn advertising for brothels. People who take them generally just drop them, so they litter the streets. That, and some of the billboard advertising, is really the biggest negative for a family in Las Vegas.

However, there are a lot of positives about a quick tour of Las Vegas. The architecture is amazing. You just have to take a ride up and down Las Vegas Boulevard to see the hotels. We also took the time to see the glass artwork on the ceiling of The Bellagio, the beautiful indoor gardens at The Bellagio, the river running through The Venetian with the gondola drivers who sing, the inside of The Luxor, which looks like an Egyptian pyramid, the M&M’s store, the Coke store, the outside of New York New York, etc.

Here’s a tip: buy the $5 shuttle pass for everyone. It’s worth it. You can ride the double-decker shuttle all day. Otherwise, it’s $2 per trip. Everything is really spread out in Vegas, so you’ll need the shuttle.

At about 2:30 PM, we left Las Vegas and drove the ½-hour drive to Hoover Dam. This is a must-see, and you should go ahead and spring for the tour. As a family, we talked about it for the entire ride to our next hotel. It was very inspiring to think about the work it took to build, the way that Herbert Hoover must have been able to dream to come up with the vision of that dam, etc., etc. I can’t think of another word but inspiring. I thought it would be a bunch of technical information, but we all found it to be much more than that.

We stayed Thursday night in Kingman, Arizona (about 2 hours from the Hoover Dam) at a Hampton Inn & Suites.

This is a good time for me to sing the praises of Hampton Inn & Suites. Hampton Inn is now my favorite hotel chain by far. The beds are amazing! The rooms are large. The free breakfast is great, and a huge savings for a family. The rooms were generally around $125-$150 per night and worth every penny. Hampton Inn is now my hotel of choice no matter where we go. They actually have their own bed that is consistent at every hotel. It’s a pillow-top mattress. The bedding, including the duvet and pillows, are cleaned for each guest. I’ve never felt so comfortable in a hotel bed before.

The next morning, we got up early and headed out for The Grand Canyon.

What can I say about The Grand Canyon that hasn’t already been said? It’s something everyone should see. Here are a few random thoughts, though:

- While planning our vacation, I considered reserving space to sleep at the bottom of the canyon, and hiking down one day and back out the next. I really don’t think that would have been wise. I’m not sure that someone like me, an office boy who doesn’t do any regular exercise, could hike out of the canyon without some embarrassing moments in front of his family! We hiked 1-1/2 miles down Bright Angel Trail and back up to the top, and I was sucking wind the whole way back up. Remember, the rim of the canyon is at 7,200 feet above sea level. Unless you’re used to that, it’s pretty intense. Hiking up the canyon trail is about the same level of activity as peddling a bicycle up a hill or walking up fairly steep steps. The boys made it out twenty minutes ahead of me, and Julie was about five minutes ahead…only because she had mercy on me and stayed with me for about half the hike.

- One day, I would love to “train” to do the whole hike down and back. However, there are signs everyplace warning NOT to do it in one day. That’s the number one cause of people having to be rescued by the rangers. Someone on the Write About Jesus Discussion Board said that they did that, and didn’t realize what they were getting into. I can’t believe they did it.

- Take plenty of film, disposable cameras, or memory cards. Definitely a lot of photo opportunities.

- Hiking the canyon may not be the best way to see it. We found ourselves doing a “stop and admire” every few minutes while hiking. Otherwise, you really have to keep your eyes on the trail because it is very rough and covered with mule poop.

- There are probably hundreds of guided hikes, rafting tours, helicopter rides and stuff. If you want to spend the money, I have heard that the 2- or 3-day rafting tours are quite spectacular. Pretty much everything is provided, and the guides cook gourmet meals for you. Sounds pretty nice, but it’s tough to do stuff like that with a large family. We don’t have unlimited funds, if you know what I mean.

We stayed just outside the National Park in a Holiday Inn Express. It was good. Again, free breakfast! That’s my one demand with three teenage sons! Lodging at The Grand Canyon is pretty limited. If you want to stay in the park at one of the lodges, I’ve heard you have to schedule a year in advance.

Personally, I think that one day at The Canyon, unless you are doing some kind of guided tour, is enough. Standing at the rim, it all looks pretty much the same. Every family is different, though. We’re not big hikers or campers.

On Saturday morning, we left for Sedona, Arizona. We took the highway West through the Navajo Indian reservation for a different view of Arizona. I’m glad we did that. The desert is very colorful (you are traveling through part of The Painted Desert) and we were able to stop at a Navajo restaurant for authentic Navajo food. By the way, that was a rule. We never ate anywhere that we could eat at home, unless we were in a huge hurry and needed to eat fast food.

When I was planning our trip, I only knew that we were flying into Las Vegas to go to the Hoover Dam and The Grand Canyon. After that, I didn’t know what to do. Many people suggested that we go to Sedona, so I scheduled two nights there. However, other than printing a couple of web pages, I really had no idea what to do in Sedona.

Sedona ended up being the absolute highlight of our trip. What a perfect place! We would really love to go back to Sedona someday and make it our complete destination.

Here are the highlights from Sedona:

- First of all, The Hampton Inn & Suites did not have our room available, so they gave us TWO rooms! We had a King Suite for Julie and me, and an adjoining room with two queen beds for the guys. Wow! What a blessing! Again, The Hampton Inn & Suites is great.

- The desk clerk, BJ, at The Hampton was a great source of information!

- Our first evening, we went to a little State Park at Oak Creek Canyon. It was a beautiful place to get into the water, walk along the rocks, do a little hiking, etc.

- On Sunday morning, we went to Slide Rock State Park. If you have older kids that like to swim, this is a MUST DO. There are natural water slides in the rocks, and lots of places to sit on the rocks and picnic or sunbathe. There are deep places to jump into the water from the rocks. In fact, our eighteen-year-old son, Paul, jumped from rocks about forty feet into the water. I personally think he’s nuts, but it was his favorite part of the trip. Very few people had the guts to do it, and everyone was clapping for him when he came up out of the water. Julie just about had a heart attack, but it was well worth it! What a beautiful place and a great thing to do. We spent about five hours there.


- After Slide Rock, we cleaned up and ate supper and got ready for a Pink Jeep Tour. The Pink Jeep Tour is pretty famous in Sedona, and there are 2-3 copycats. The Pink Jeep Tour has been around for fifty years. They aren’t cheap, but I think this is one splurge that is worth it. I really didn’t want to spend the money (about $70 per person), but I went ahead and took the plunge and I’m glad I did. In fact, at one point we were going down the steepest incline I’ve ever seen in my life (I didn’t think the jeep could do it) and Julie said, “I can’t believe we’re doing this!” One of my sons yelled, “I can’t believe we almost DIDN’T do it!” That made it all worthwhile!

On Monday morning, we hit a couple of the shops downtown and then left for Phoenix. We were meeting up with friends from Write About Jesus there for supper, but I think that a family vacation to Arizona must include a trip to Phoenix. Here’s why…Arizona is made up of at least three different types of climate. Upstate, by the Grand Canyon, it’s very cool. In fact, it got downright cold at night. There are a lot of deciduous trees and it’s just a lot less like the desert. Sedona, Flagstaff and Prescott (in the center of the State) are considered “high desert.” It’s relatively warm (about 90 degrees in June) and dry. On the other hand, Phoenix (which is consider "low desert") is just a kind of hot that I’ve never experienced before. When I stepped out of the van, it felt like someone was holding a blow dryer to my face. The wind was actually hot. If you’ve ever stood over a hot engine and felt the fan blow the hot air at you, that’s what if felt like. It was over 100 degrees, and there was no relief from the heat except inside air conditioning. Shade didn’t help, because the wind was still just as hot. I think everyone should experience that. (My apologies to Phoenicians, but I really can't understand why people live there.)

Also, there’s the cactus issue. When we were upstate, there were no Saguaro cactus. Those are the kind that most people associate with cactus. You know, the one’s with the tall “trunk” and the arms sticking out. However, as soon as we crossed a certain mountain range going South, the Saguaro cactus were everywhere. It was really neat. (I joked with Julie that I felt like I was getting "flipped off" everywhere I looked.)

We visited with Kristie and Matthew from the Write About Jesus Discussion Board for supper. Thanks, you guys! Our boys really enjoyed playing with their little girls, and Kristie made us a great homemade dinner. When we asked our guys about what they liked best on vacation, one of them said they enjoyed playing with Kristie and Matthew’s little girls the best.

Another night, another Hampton Inn & Suites. This time in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix.

My Mother-in-law lived in Arizona from the time she was four until she was six, and she had given us addresses to look for and photograph. When we left, she said, “When you go to Phoenix, see if you can find these addresses and take pictures for me.” Well, when we got to Phoenix and looked at the addresses, we found out that two of the three addresses were in Prescott, not Phoenix. (We had planned to take our time and drive back to Las Vegas the next day.)

Hey, what’s vacation for, right?!? We decided to go ahead and get the pictures in Phoenix, then drive to Prescott (about an hour out of the way in both directions) and get the photos there. Prescott is a really beautiful town. Many movies, including “Back to the Future”, were filmed in Prescott. It really reminded me of a small Midwest town. It was very high in the mountains, so the climate was much cooler and dry. It was 84 degrees, but it felt like the mid-seventies. There’s a burger and ice cream place near the square that was a great place for lunch. We got our photos, and got back on the road to Las Vegas for our last night in a hotel.


There are two Embassy Suites in Las Vegas, and this time we stayed in the OTHER one. Both of them are equally nice, and the rooms are very spacious. The breakfast (hot, made-to-order buffet with omelets, pancakes, eggs, etc.) was delicious. Again, the price was only $139 plus tax. What a deal!

By the way, here is a photo of the Hyundai Entourage we rented for the week. Our youngest son dubbed it "The Flashy Gold Vegas Van."

On Wednesday at 1:30 PM, we took off to fly home. The flight to Atlanta was uneventful, but things got interesting after that. Our flight back to Akron/Canton got cancelled due to a mechanical problem, so we got to stay an extra night in Atlanta. Delta was good to us, and gave us THREE hotel rooms and two meal vouchers per person. Paul took an early flight home on Thursday because he had training for his summer job. He got into Akron/Canton at about 9:00, and made it to training by 10:30 AM. (He was supposed to be there at 9:00, but they were very understanding.) We left Atlanta around 1:00 PM and got back to Akron/Canton at about 2:30 PM. I’m so thankful that my job is flexible.

If this wasn’t our best vacation, it was definitely number one or two. We also enjoyed our trip (I think it was in 2003) to Seattle and The Cascade Loop. That one came awfully close to this one in terms of a great vacation!

I hope this helps anyone who might be planning a trip to Arizona. It’s a beautiful State with a lot to see. We would like to return and spend more time in Sedona.