WOW. What a great report. We are doing the same route in 3 weeks time. Even staying at Madonna Inn. It only seems like yesterday that it was 12 months away. We are adding Zion, Page and GC after Vegas and staying a bit longer. When you travel that far you want to make sure you get your dollars worth. I do have 1 query. Where is the ticket booth in Vegas where you get cheaper tickets. Once again thanks for the great report.

Hi Misspp

You can't miss ticket booths - there are about 5. One is outside Fashion Mall, one is next to M+M shop next to MGM. Can't remember the others but you won't struggle to find them. All same company with great big screens showing what is available and price.

Great TR thanks for taking the time to share your trip,glad you and the family had a great time in the USA.

KatyKiwi

Re Rainforest Cafe. i am sure your daughter will love it especially if she has not been before. Food is pretty standard fare - burgers, ribs etc.

In nearly all the free magazines that are everywhere with discount vouchers they all have one for Rainforest which gives you a free starter and 15% off in the adjoining gift shop area.

With the free starter you got choice of any on the menu even though it said chefs choice. The one we had was ample for the 4 of us which bearing in mind that we have a 15 year old son is saying something!

Are you related to Kerouac(sp?)? This travelogue is equally informative, funny, and entertaining as his books are. Having just returned from a tent camping trip from h__l (grandchildren ages 2,3,5,8,9,10,12 all squabbling, fighting, whining for 5 days with their cousins) in the Big Basin Redwoods of CA (beautiful, quiet (sans family), back to nature remote state park), I spent the morning reading this account of 19 days because I wondered how you survived it. Obviously, your children are just enough older that their behavior has mellowed, and was probably more mellowed to begin with. Sounds like a terrific trip - well planned way ahead of time and with enough time to see nearly everything on your agenda. Too bad about the fires here in CA - this is our worst season for them, especially this year with our below-average rainfall over the past year+. Sounds like you and your family do a lot of travelling - I envy you. Is the UK like France that gives a month +/- vacation in the summer as the norm?

I think you would be a wonderful travel planner and/or writer. Thanks again for the "vacation" I shared with you. Somehow I don't feel nearly as tired as I did starting out this morning as I have after returning from the camping trip late Friday.

nanigepatti

You must be grandaparent from heaven to go camping with what seems like a whole nursery school / kindergarten! My patience is tested with two teenagers.

We are just lucky that we get over 30 days holiday a year from work (not very common in US i believe) so can take 3 weeks off at a time. Personally hate laying on beaches so have managed to persuade family that a bit of variety, whilst kids actually want to come with us, is the way forward.

Thanks for your kind words. Just write what comes into my head and hope for the best!

Likewise - I write the same way. The camping trip was my idea because that's what I did with my 3 daughters (and their 3 cousins) when they were little. That's what my parents did with us (me from age 1, sis-5, bros-7 & 9) until I was about 12. Then my older siblings all had summer jobs. Those years of summers were the best in my lifetime, and my sibling(s) and daughters would agree. That's why we are trying to pass that experience on, but somehow it's not quite the same these days when you can't recharge your DS or your Gameboy - too many tech. toys and not enough outdoor activity. Thank God we had racoons to entertain them each night! Next year can I come with you? Doesn't matter where! Just kidding!

nigepatti (sp? I don't have your message on the screen)

Man, you are a masochist.

When my husband and I married and blended our two families, we went for three or four summers on camping trips (all we could afford),

My husband's favorite place was Peavine Creek, a National Forest campgound in Nevada about 50 miles north of Tonopah. My kids had been raised in suburbia, although I had camped with my family in Western Wyoming practically every weekend in the summer until I was 10 and we moved to California (my father was a fly fisherman).

I was really looking forward to introducing my kids to the wonders of camp life and trout fishing. and the beauties of the wilderness.

The first night it rained and my husband warned the kids to stay away from the wall of the tent because if they touched it, the water would come through.

Well, you guessed it.

The second day my husband didn't get to fish at all because he was busy teaching kids how to put together their fishing rods and bait the hooks, and mostly untangling lines.

Toward the end of that day we heard a horrific scream and ran to the creek expecting the worst. My "sophisticated" 15-year-old daughter was yelling "I caught a fish! I caught a fish!" Somehow we landed the fish, and we all survived the trip with the other kids getting to feel a little challenged.

We have a lot of fun and laughs with those memories, and more, camping near the Snake River in Wyoming, now that they are all grown up. So don't despair.

Excellent, honest report and hopefully very useful for our visit in October.