Day 5 : Goodbye, Vegas!

(See the previous post if you missed it, Facebook was funny with the share permissions.)

First, yea...that was a comfortable bed in Paris. Looking forward to our other hotel night at the (incredibly, more expensive) Best Western in Gardiner, Montana.

Anyway, we started the day with crepes (when in Paris....)

A little more pool time and then lunch spent people watching on the strip (Bellagio fountains in the background here):

Then heading back to Boulder City, we got a couple more passport stamps at the Lake Mead NRA visitor centers. And two more junior ranger pins.

Perhaps this is a good opportunity to explain that...

National Park Service sells passport books with lists of and some information about National Parks, recreation areas, monuments, seashores, etc... At each one there are one or more places you visit (usually visitor centers) that have unique stamps for you to record your visit, with the date, in the passport. Think letter cancellation stamps.

We got our passports last summer in Hawaii Volcanoes NP and for this trip have recorded (so far): 1 for King's Canyon NP, 3 for Sequoia NP, 2 for Lake Mead NRA.

Then it turns out that every one of these places also offers junior ranger activity books. Kids learn about the park, what kinds of animals live there, what you should and shouldn't do there, etc...they then have to complete the activities, bring it back and take a pledge (right hand up!) to be faithful protectors of the park to earn their junior ranger badge.

2 of those down so far....they love it.

We finished today with some amazing Mexican food (it's 103, too hot to cook) and a walk on the (rocky) shore of Lake Mead... collecting seashells.

Also learned that RV fridges don't like 100+ degree heat. Fingers crossed for tomorrow. 

Then it should be a brief stop in Zion NP (more stamps!) on our way to Bryce Canyon NP.