Christmas vacation

Sunday the 20th ~Idaho Falls to Las Vegas

High ~ Flying rather than driving (as I am a known car sicky).

Going from 20 degree weather to 60 degree weather.

Stuffing seven people's worth of luggage into our rental van! It was a tight fit, but we made it!

Low ~ Stuffing seven people in the rental van with the seven suitcases and seven carry-on bags. Yikes.

Flying on Cheap-o-airline where they charge you for everything. Serious. Seat assignments, checked bags, even the ice...

The complete and total destruction of my carry-on bag. Guess it was it's time to go. I have only had it for ten years.

Monday the 21st ~ Las Vegas

High ~ Seeing Scotland's BFF from KY, Derek (a professional poker player) and his high rise apartment located right on the strip! His neighbors? Toby Keith and Sheryl Crow! How freakin cool! And he treated us to dinner!

Low ~ Missing Fremont street and the shows on the strip due to Derek's inability to cut a story short. He's a real chatterbox.

Shopping complex the size of Idaho Falls. Walked my freakin legs off to find a new carry-on bag. Scotland found an ugly one for me. Ugh. Whatever. And was unable to find a decently priced pair of brown sketchers. :(

Tuesday the 22nd ~ Las Vegas to Indio California

High ~ In Indio we had two condo's. So I didn't have to deal with my brother and his gas problems all night long.

Low ~ The five hour drive it took to get there. Gag, retch, puke.

Wednesday the 23rd ~ Indio Condo with day trip to Universal Studios

High ~ The Universal Studios tour where they show you how they do neat special effects and you get to see really cool movie sets like Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewifes, and specialy cars like the Delorian from the Back To The Future movies.

Low ~ Having to get up early and go to bed late so we could make the 2 hour drive there and back. Have I mentioned how much I hate driving?

Thursday the 24th ~ Indio Condo with day trip to California Adventure

High ~ The Soarin over California ride where it feels like you are hang-gliding over these beautiful scenic places and you can smell the woods and the orange fields as if you were really there.

The Hollywood Tower of Terror, the Pier roller coaster and the 3-D Bart Simpson simulator ride that all made my stomach do that plummeting thing which I love!

The Disney Electric parade which was so adorably cute.

Low ~ See above low for the previous day.

Friday the 25th ~ Indio Condo with day trip to Disneyland

High ~ The Haunted Mansion which was all Christmas-i-fied to look like the Nightmare Before Christmas movie!

The Christmas reindeer round up where they had real deer with huge horns! And even though it smelled like poo, I still really liked them!

The sweet little Disneyland train that we got to ride back to the front of the park at the end of the day when we were all exhausted.

Low ~ Parking in a lot that did not have a shuttle to take you to the park. That should just be illegal because it was like two miles just to get to the park where you have to walk the entire day!

The seriously crowded park. Whoever said it was supposed to be pretty dead on Christmas was yanking my chain!

Getting stuck in the Rodger Rabbit ride, where we had to sit with the lights on and wait for them to escort everyone out of the building until they could fix it.

Saturday the 26th ~ Indio Condo with day trip to Disneyland

High ~ The Indiana Jones ride that we fast-passed to skip out on the 2 hour wait!

The really pretty lights on the Small World building and the Sleeping Beauty Castle.

The tallest Christmas tree I have ever seen right in the middle of Main Street Disney!

Having Cold Stone ice cream after the day was done. I got No Sugar Added, of course, and it was delicious!

Low ~ The space mountian coaster breaking down after we had waited in line for an hour and when we were about to get on it.

The lady that got stuck in the Indiana Jones car we were getting in. It took her about ten minutes to exit the vehicle.

Sunday the 27th ~ Indio to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to Idaho Falls

High ~ Getting to sleep in after days and days of waking up early!

Watching our own inflight movie to make the time pass quicker (X-Men Beginnings if you care to know).

Eating Popeyes Chicken which I haven't had since Portland. Yumm!

Snuggling up with my Scotland in our own warm soft bed at home after a lovely Christmas trip.

Low ~ Five hour drive turned into Seven hours due to stop and go traffic on the interstate!!! Hello! Busiest travel day of the year! I was a smidgen tense (read: on the verge of a panic attack) for that trip.

So that was the trip in a nutshell! What a whirlwind of a vacation!