Thanksgiving Break 2019

In 2019, during the Thanksgiving break, we decided to go to Evansville, Indiana to visit my brother in law and family. They had a baby girl that March and we had been waiting to see her. We planned to fly through Las Vegas and visit a couple of national parks on the way.

We left on Saturday evening for Las Vegas. We flew to n Spirit airlines. The ticket is cheaper, but they charge for everything. We flew out of Oakland, CA which is an hour from our place. As usual it was a rush to leave on time and I just don’t do well with that kind of stuff. We reached the airport two hours ahead. We then found out that the weight limit for the checked bags is only 40lbs and not the regular 50 lbs. We had to rearrange some things and we finally managed to get one bag under 40 lbs and paid extra for the other one.

We stayed in Las Vegas on Saturday. After checking in to our hotel, we took a walk in the strip, ate dinner and were ready to sleep.

On Sunday, we drove to Page, AZ to see the Antelope canyon. We went to the lower canyon tour and it was amazing. It was a bit strenuous, but totally worth it. The tour guide was awesome. She told us a ton of information about the canyon’s history and a bunch of interesting facts. She showed us a video of flash floods that occurred in that area in 2013 and I was thankful that there was no chance of rain that day.

She guided us on where to take pictures so that we get some truly awesome ones. It was nice and sunny on that day and we got some nice views. It was colder in the canyon compared to outside, but it wasn’t too bad.

After the lower canyon, we went to see the Horse Shoe Bend. It was about 5 minutes drive from the lower canyon. We parked the car and went on a hike for about half mile. The view was beautiful. It was close to sunset.

We spent some time at the Horse Shoe Bend. The weather was nice. We just walked around and took a bunch of pictures. We then went to the hotel. We were all very tired which was weird considering the fact that we just spent most of the day in the car. We were trying to figure out where to go for dinner and none of the places were appealing. We did not want to go to a sit down restaurant as the kids were tired and wouldn’t be patient enough. We finally decided on ordering pizza for take out. S picked up the pizza and we ate in the room. That was the best decision. We got to relax in the room for a bit.

The next morning, we had the upper canyon tour at 8:30. We couldn’t get any other times. So, we got ready quickly, had breakfast and went for the tour. We got confused by the address and reached in the last minute. If we went a couple of minutes late, we would have missed it. We had to ride in a semi-covered truck to reach the actual canyon. It was super cold that morning and the ride made it worse. It was about 20 min ride, although it felt like a lot more.

The upper canyon was very different from the lower canyon. It was much darker and being cloudy made it even darker. It was colder inside the canyon as well. The views were amazing. The tour guide was awesome here as well and made sure we got some nice pictures. Half way through the tour, Sanjay felt a bit sick and claustrophobic I guess. He wanted to get out of the canyon. So, I took him outside and we waited for about half an hour. We took the same truck back to the parking lot. My hands and face were frozen. It has been a while since I experienced that kind of cold.

After the upper canyon tour, our plan was to drive to Bryce Canyon, but there was a snow storm prediction. We didn’t want to risk it. So, we started driving to Zion National Park. On the way to the park, we took a small detour to see a sand dunes park. There was hardly anyone there at the park. It was super cold and windy. We got out and put on all our winter clothing and started walking in the sand. It was very beautiful, but the wind made it worse. Once we got onto the sand, the sand was blowing onto our face. We could have taken an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) to drive around the place. The ATV was not completely covered and we would have to deal with the wind, sand and the cold even in the ATV. So, we abandoned the plan and started driving back towards Zion.

Once we got to the park, the views were beautiful. At Zion, it was snowing a bit at higher altitude. As we drove through the park, we were going down the mountain. At the bottom, it was raining heavily. We drove slowly through the park and came to Springdale, UT where we stayed for the night.

Originally, we had plans to go the park for a small hike in the evening, since it was pouring down rain, we had to abandon it. We checked into our hotel, watched a movie and had some Mexican food for dinner. We had a very relaxing evening.

The next day, we had breakfast, packed everything into the car and went to Zion National park. There were buses that go to the park and the bus stop was right across the hotel. So, we took that bus. At the park, we had to take another shuttle to go into the park. Those shuttles ran every 15 min. We took the shuttle and went all the way to Temple of Sinawawa. We wanted to go on the Narrows hike. It was a one mile hike to the Narrows from the bus stop. It was paved and easy to walk.

The hike itself was good and views were amazing. We walked along the Virgin river. The only issue was the cold. When the Sun was on us, we were fine, when we had to walk in the shade, it was pretty cold. We didn’t go all the way to the narrows as it started getting cold.

On our way back to the car, we got some souvenirs and once we got back to the hotel, we started driving back to Las Vegas. We had an overnight flight to Nashville. We reached Las Vegas strip and found a free parking spot very easily. We walked around the strip for a while and went into the Coca Cola and the M&M’s stores. The kids bought some M&M’s of different colors and sizes.

We got a little bit of sleep on the flight and by the time we landed in Nashville, we were tired. We still had to drive about 2.5 hours to reach Evansville. Half way through the drive S and I were both very sleepy and it was a relief when we reached Evansville.

The four days we spent in Evansville was very relaxing. My brother in law’s son was 5 years old and the baby was about 8 months. The 5 yr old is very chatty and kept us entertained. The little one was reluctant to play initially, but was all smiles few minutes later. We had a blast. Sarath mastered the art of carrying the little one and just played with her all the time. Sanjay is usually not very comfortable with babies. He played with his 5 yr old cousin. This was the first time they played together very well.

Thanksgiving break is usually not complete until we have gone shopping. S and I usually end up buying some sort of junk every year. This year though, we bought some useful stuff like the 6 quart Instant Pot and Samsung Note 10’s. I had been looking for a new phone for a while and we got a good deal.

On Saturday, we went to the circus. It was a lot of fun. I am always a bit sad to see the tigers, bears etc being used in the circus, but the trapeze artists were wonderful. The way they twisted and turned and performed all the different items was mind blowing. It is sometimes hard to believe that the human body is so flexible.

We took an early morning flight back to Oakland from Nashville, on Sunday. Since the flight was at 7:40 am, we had to leave the house at 3 am to make it in time. Since it was so early, we got to the airport without any traffic. Luckily, for us the snow storm in the mid west that was building up didn’t affect our flight and we got back with out any hassles.

It was an amazing one week. It was hard to come back especially after playing with the little one. Wish we had lived closer.