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By the time we finished the Fontanel mansion tour, we were too hungry. We had herd about this aquarium restaurant and thought to give it a try.

The restaurant is inside a mall. We were amazed once we enter the restaurant. Thousands of colorful sea fish were swimming around. It was a totally a beautiful aquarium. Probably more beautiful than some aquariums :)

The food was good too. It is bit priced but not too much, and it totally makes sense to charge a bit more in order to maintain this splendid aquarium.
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We went a weekend trip to Nashville, TN in March 2015. On Saturday morning, we visited the Fontanel Mansion which is a former house of Barbara Mandrell. They offer several tours per day.

The mansion is built with logs and is pretty big. It includes an indoor swimming pool too. The guide explains almost everything about the mansion and Barbara's family life too.

I think it was worth seeing and we enjoyed the tour.
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This was our 2nd visit to Grand canyon on our way back, because it was snowing heavily during our 1st visit.

So we had our breakfast at the hotel we stayed, and drove off to the visitor center. From there, we took a green shuttle hoping to catch a red shuttle which rides the Hermits rest rout while stopping at view points. We got down from several view points including Powell point and Mohave point. The views were splendid and breathtaking.

 

Then we took another green shuttle back to the visitor center, took our car and went for lunch. After lunch, starting from Martha point near visitor center, we started walking along the rim trail.

I have no words to describe the beauty I experienced along the rim trail. Every scene was different and beautiful. We walked and walked but didn't know it's getting late. We were supposed to return to my friend's home in Chandler that evening. So we had to stop in the middle and head back.

Next day we returned the rental car at Phoenix airport and flew back home.

This is one of the trips I loved the most. Arizona became my 2nd favorite place in US and of course,  Colorado holds the 1st place as always.
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Hoover dam is located on the state line of  Nevada and Arizona. We stopped a bit and started off to
Grand canyon as it was bit late.

 

 

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Next morning we parked our car in hotel Bellagio and went for it's breakfast buffet. It was more like a brunch for us. The buffet was really good. I'd give five stars for that.

Then we visited hotel Venetian, The Luxor and few more.

We were bit exhausted by mid day and took the monorail ride back. We took the car from Bellagio parking garage and drove off to Grand canyon hoping to revisit the canyon next day.

We visited Hoover dam on the way.

It was really late when we arrive in Grand canyon village.
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Fremont Street is located in old town, about 15 mins away from the strip. It's like a street with a magical canopy. You can enjoy light shows on the canopy.

We arrived right in time for the mid night show which is the last show for the day.

After the show, we went to our hotel nearby and called it a day.
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We stopped at Bellagio water fountain while walking along the Vegas strip. It was night and the whole strip was illuminating with magical neon lights.

The musical water fountain show was amazingly beautiful. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the water show. We didn't want to disturb our eyes with cameras.

Then we walked to our car hoping to visit Fremont street.
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We spent the previous night in a hotel near Lake Powell.

We got up in the morning hoping to visit the Horseshoe bend in Page, AZ. It was bit rainy but fortunately it didn't bother our horseshoe bend visit much. It was around 9 am when we visit horseshoe bend. We had to do little bit hiking to reach the view point from the vehicle park. The hike was scenic too.

We arrived at the view point and saw that there's no railing or anything to hold on. I believe it is not a very safe place for kids, specially toddlers. Down there, was Colorado river taking a bend in a shape of a horseshoe. That is one of the beautiful scenery I've ever experienced.

We had to leave the place soon as it started raining a bit heavily. The rain followed by a snow storm ruined our Day 4 of the trip. We had hoped to visit antelope canyon and Zion national park in Utah as well. Due to the snow storm, we decided to skip those and directly drive to Las Vegas, Nevada.

On the way to Vegas, the wipers of our SUV stopped working amidst of the snow storm. What a tragedy. We called budget and the only option they could offer was to switch another vehicle at their nearest branch. What they didn't offer is a way to get to the nearest branch. If they send a vehicle to pick us up, they'd charge for it. At this point we were totally disappointed on Budget rental as they own old, malfunctioning vehicles and the cold customer service.

However, we managed to drive a bit by bit at times the rain pauses. Switched vehicle for the 2nd time and drove to Las Vegas. Thank god, it was sunny there.

That night, walked a little along the strip, visited Bellagio water fountain and Fremont street.
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After switching the rented car from budget rental in Flagstaff (they replaced our big SUV with a standard one. One minus point for budget), we arrived in Grand Canyon national park, South rim. It was snowing a little bit at the time. Since it was late evening we arrived there, we just drove along the Dessert view drive to stop at few view points and arrived at our lodge in grand canyon village. 

We had reserved whole next day for the canyon visit. We were so excited but when we get up next day, what we saw is, heavy snow fall :( We took the breakfast and waited a bit thinking that the snow fall would stop and the visibility would improve. That didn't happen though. Then we decided to enter the park and try whatever possible despite the heavy snow.

So keeping our hopes up, we drove up to visitor center and hiked to Martha point which is close to visitor center. It was still snowing and the visibility down there was Zero :(

That's when we realized "this is not our day". No point in waiting anymore. We came back to Grand canyon village and had lunch. Then our friends headed back home.

Our plan was to reenter the park and take dessert view drive to Page, AZ. So again, we drove along the snowy roads of the park amidst the heavy snowfall.

I must say the park was really beautiful in snow. It looked like a fairy land to me. However, that's not what we wanted to see. It's the GRAND CANYON !!

So we arrived in Page by evening, had dinner from a Thai restaurant and went to bed.

P. S. - We didn't give up. We visited the canyon again on our way back from Vegas. Wait for it :)
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Next day, we started our mini trip to Grand canyon. I call it a mini trip because my friend's family too joined us up to Grand canyon only. From there, we continued to Utah and Nevada but they had to turn back to return to work on Monday.

On the way to Grand canyon, we stopped in the small town Sedona which looks like a rock city. We stopped by few places to take pictures. Everywhere, there was a splendid background for pictures, made with beautiful red rocks.

The town was small but nice.

At this point, we had noticed a small crack on the wind screen growing continuously. We called budget rental and they offered a vehicle switch at their branch near Flagstaff, AZ. So we had to leave to do the switch before they close.
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We visited Utah, Nevada and mainly Arizona in early March, 2015. It was the end of a hard winter in Bloomington, IN but we still had snow. We really wanted to go somewhere warmer and sunny.

I have a school friend in Chandler, AZ and we thought it's a good idea to visit her too. So we arrived in Phoenix airport in the morning and rented a car from Budget rental. Then arrived at my friend's place for breakfast.

In the afternoon we went to see the water fountain in Fountain hills, AZ. It is said to be the 4th tallest fountain in the world. It performs every 15 mins and it was really a huge fountain :)

Then we payed a brief visit to Scottsdale, AZ and went home for the dinner. 
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We were coming back home via St. Louise after having a great time in South Dakota and Nebraska. We found this Lone elk park in St. Louise. It's a small park but it has many elks. We payed a quick visit and saw elks while driving around the park.

They say there are Bisons too but I don't think we saw any. However we enjoyed seeing elks.

World bird sanctuary is close to this park. That's also an interesting place to visit if you love birds. There are some big birds that you wont see everyday.

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