A belated vacation recap

This post is going to be monstrously long (like forty photos - you've been warned), and part of me wants to apologize for that, but the other part of me went on an awesome vacation and wants to share some photos! I should have posted these a month ago - you know, when my vacation actually ended. But I'm a procrastinator.

In case you're new here, my husband and I went to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas last month - it was our first vacation together, and it was amazing. (We've been married four years, but we've just never traveled anywhere until this year.) The Grand Canyon had never been on my "to visit" list - it was just a random suggestion that my husband made when we were talking about where to vacation earlier in the year, and the more we thought about it, the more appealing it sounded. It didn't disappoint. I've been to a lot of spectacular locations, but this was one of the best.

We flew into Vegas and drove five hours to get to the south rim of the canyon. There were closer airports - Flagstaff and Phoenix - but they were more expensive. Once there, we stayed at the Yavapai Lodge, which is about half a mile away from the rim. It was a decent place to stay, but I would have preferred one of the lodges directly on the rim. (That was my fault, though, for waiting until a month before our trip to book the hotel - Yavapai Lodge was the only one with any rooms left.)

After a few days on the south rim, we drove to the north rim for an afternoon. While the view from the north was pretty much the same as the south, the landscape of the actual rim itself was much prettier, with lots of tall trees. We stayed a night in Kanab, Utah, and the next day drove through Zion National Park on our way to Vegas. Personally, I wish we had skipped Vegas and stayed a few days in Zion. We didn't realize how amazing it was going to be, and once we got there were disappointed that we only had a few hours to look around.

Vegas was fun, though a bit overwhelming. (I suppose that's the point of Vegas, though!) We stayed at The Mirage, and even though they were late in getting our room ready, they did send us a complimentary bottle of champagne to make up for it, so we decided we liked our experience there!

Josh had never stayed in a hotel before this trip, so when we got to The Mirage and he saw the mini bar, he was super excited about all the free snacks, until I showed him this price list :)

That's right, our hotel had its own volcano.

The mall at Caesar's Palace...

The mall at The Venetian (above and below)...

This photo and the next few are from the conservatory at the Bellagio (the animals are covered in hundreds of flowers)...

The last thing you see at the airport before you board the plane...