I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon. Last year Kiddo mentioned wanting to go to Utah and I pounced. Yeah, I know the GC isn’t in Utah, but it was as close as I’d ever been, so I wasn’t about to miss it. And so the 2022 Fall Break Epic “Out West” Finnspace Family Vacation was born.

Here’s the route we took, more or less.

I thought I’d break down each leg of our Oct. 2022 trip here and share some photos. I started out strong and kept an old school leather travel journal and wrote in it every night until about Day 4 when I was so exhausted that I gave it up. But I’ll share those first entries here and come up with the missing commentary when we get to that part.

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From the journal:

Day 1: 9:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 30, 2022

Sitting in the Nashville airport at Gate D5 waiting on our flight to Vegas. Southwest flight #2729. Kiddo seems grumpy, but I think she’s just tired. She had a game last night – Homecoming, and I got her out of school early today. I just ate a chicken sandwich and fries from that classy establishment, the airport Burger King. Two more hours to wait.

I made a “Flat Julia and Jenn” – like Flat Stanley (why has no one heard of this?). I just took our picture out the window at the gate and this is going to be so funny. Or maybe just to me.

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We made it to Vegas and I burst into tears because we are all very tired and very grumpy. Now to put in ear plugs and try to sleep.

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Day 2: Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022

11,517 steps. I’m exhausted. Vacations are hard. But beautiful. We got a bit of sleep last night and woke up in somewhat better moods. Drove to the Vegas sign, which I’ve seen before, but kiddo hadn’t, and took some pictures. Then headed for Zion National Park.

/end journal entry

The logistics of leaving your dog (thank you, Jeff, for house/dog sitting) and home for several days and prepping for a trip is my least favorite part. We were stressed from the flight, securing the rental car, and navigating Vegas at night to try to find our hotel. Then the hotel said they didn’t have our room reservation, but the guy pecked at his computer for what felt like 20 minutes while I contemplated sleeping on the lobby floor until he finally came up with one. Everyone was irritable at each other and I was questioning the whole thing. It was a dumb moment in time that was much better the next morning after some rest.