Parents' trip - Part 1

Hoover Dam

Lake Mead

Nissan Rouge - 2800 cc SUV

Parents and me on the skywalk

Native American performance

Indian settlement

Entrance to the West rim

Joshua trees

My parents came for a visit to the USA end of October, the exact date 28th Oct..so this posting is kinda outdated but nevertheless the few weeks of their presence here were wonderful!  I had the chance to 'own' them for myself :-) and we had a great time spending quality time and traveling around the Southwest area.

Let me begin by picking them up at SFO airport on a bright Tuesday afternoon.  Their flight was delayed by 1 hour, so by the time we arrived at my place, it was already early evening. The 1st comment my dad came to the apartment was, 'Ohh...its bigger than the one u had in Japan.' Well..definitely was...i was staying about 1/2 the size of the studio apartment back in Japan, but the rental was also 1/2...so if you calculate the cost, it comes down to the same amount...

My parents didn't have time to rest and relax just yet caused the very next day we took a flight down to Las Vegas for the beginning of our adventure.  From Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, we rented Rouge, a 2800 cc Nissan SUV for the weeks' trip.  The 1st destination was Hoover Dam, Boulder City.  What is so special about this dam is it is located at the border between Nevada and Arizona.  After that, we drove to a vista point to see Lake Mead...it was beautiful, with the bonus of good weather.  We stayed at Hacienda Hotel & Casino, just 0.4 miles from Hoover Dam, since the next day we had to drive to Grand Canyon West Rim, which was about 3.5 hrs drive.  It was a pretty decent hotel, well maintained and clean.

The next day, we drove to GC West Rim...we passed by Joshua trees along the way, and driving through the 14miles unpaved road...the clean SUV became so dusty after that trip...and thankfully we decided on renting an SUV instead of the normal sedan caused the unpaved road towards the west rim was very bumpy, like riding on a horse...My dad drove most of the unpaved road since he has more experience in manuvering these kind of roads, unlike me who all my life has been living in a city, pampered with paved smooth roads.

We finally reached our destination at the West Rim.  We got our tickets and boarded the shuttle to the skywalk, the main attraction of GC West Rim.  When I 1st stepped on the glass floor of the skywalk, my legs were actually trembling...caused you can see directly below the canyon, about 4000ft above sea level...so its like you are walking on air....and since I paid $30, I told my parents to stay longer there to make the money's worth ;-) so we stayed there for 15mins and the longer I stayed there, the fear eventually subsided....but u can actually see people clinging onto the side bar when they were walking, fearing of actually falling down :)  It was definitely an experience!  

Since the West Rim is privately owned by the tribal tribe there...so it is not considered as a national park.  You can see Indian settlements there as well...and constructions are still going on to improve the quality of the place.

After that, we walked around the West Rim before heading to the next destination, i.e. driving nearly 4.5hours to Grand Canyon South Rim, located in Arizona...the next adventure to be continued......