Here are a few photos of some of the places I went to on our road trips as a kid. Some places we went to more than once, such as South Dakota, which needed its own post. Check it out here!

Las Vegas

Las Vegas was a place we went to more than once, but sometimes was just a stop along the way. I haven’t been there since I was a kid in the 90s and it’s not on my list of places to go to, but I did enjoy it as a kid. On our first trip when I was really young, we stayed at Circus Circus. I don’t remember much from that trip. The next two trips after that one we stayed at the Luxor Hotel. Being half-Egyptian, I really enjoyed that one and thought the decor was really cool. On the last trip we took there, we stayed at the Paris Hotel.

As with most of the themed hotels there, they were all decorated beautifully and I thought they were so cool. We had so much fun going into each hotel and seeing how it was designed. Luxor was cool for the Egyptian theme, Paris for the Parisian theme, The Venetian since it looked like Venice, and lots of other cool ones. I remember the buffets being one of the highlights as well, particularly for dessert as we had no restrictions and could get whatever and as much as we wanted! We also really enjoyed the shows (not sure what’s around these days). Back then we really enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean show at Treasure Island, the volcano show at The Mirage, and the water show at Bellagio. That was always our trip to Vegas – buffets, kid shows, and occasionally arcades.

Another place we went to more than once was Yellowstone National Park. We went there at least three times, maybe four. The drive through Wyoming was always quite boring, but the views once we neared Yellowstone and Grand Teton was very beautiful. We enjoyed getting to see bison and other wildlife. We thought the colorful thermal pools and Old Faithful were really cool. However, we did not enjoy the strong sulfur smell that could be smelled throughout the park.

Yellowstone

Other Places Out West

Other states we went to out west were, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, and up into Canada to Vancouver and Victoria. The Grand Canyon was pretty much just a stop, snapping some photos and then continuing on to Las Vegas. We didn’t walk on any trails there. In California, we loved San Francisco, especially walking along the Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street. We had really wanted to tour Alcatraz, but didn’t end up doing that. Yosemite National Park was really beautiful as well. We didn’t do any hiking since we had a lot of places to see and my brother was pretty young, but the views were nice from different pull-offs/overlooks. It’s definitely a place I hope to visit and explore more of one day, along with other parks in California. We also enjoyed Redwood National Park and were in awe of just how tall and wide the trees were there.

Continuing along the coast, the drive through Oregon was nice and one of the beaches in Newport was very beautiful at sunset. We spent a night there before moving on to Washington. Definitely one of my favorite states that I hope to visit again soon. It was so beautiful and the weather, though rainy, felt wonderful and cool in the summer. I loved Seattle and felt there was so much I still wanted to see. We loved getting to go to the top of the Space Needle. My sisters and I had really wanted to do the Seattle underground tour, but we didn’t have time for that. The mountains in Washington were so beautiful as well and we loved walking through a rainforest in Olympic National Park. Definitely so much more to be explored there and other mountains to visit in Washington. From there we drove up to Vancouver, which was a nice city. The highlight there was definitely the Capilano Suspension Bridge. I gave my poor mother a heart attack there by deciding to pick up my little brother while walking across the swaying bridge. I still feel bad about that, especially having kids of my own now lol.

The photos here don’t include every place and aren’t of the best quality, but the trips and sights were enjoyable, even for kids. We sure got to see a lot of cool places as kids and I hope to revisit some of these places with my own kids one day.

Next – South Dakota