The definition of family travel has undergone significant changes and alterations over the years.

For those of you who happen to be from my generation, growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, the family road trip in the loaded down car traveling miles upon miles to a destination that was never as exciting as you really wanted it to be. Instead the destination typically involved gathering and spending time with family members you barely knew or had never met and a few you wish you could have avoided as long as possible.

Family traveling on the open road prior to internet devices and cell phones meant that games for distractions consisted of counting license plates, slug bug, making faces at other drivers and picking on any other occupant of your vehicle that you could reach.

As I compose this column, the three of us are sitting in an airport waiting to return home to Bremerton after a very full week of the 2015 version of the family vacation.

It all started last Monday morning when we picked up our rental vehicle in Las Vegas and hit the open road headed for our first night’s stay in Flagstaff, Arizona.  We knew that weather conditions in the area could be dicey this time of year but the 14 inches of snow the two days before and some additional accumulation on the afternoon of our arrival created the opportunity to play with winter just a little bit longer.

The next three days and two nights were spent on what felt like the top of the world near the entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park. Elevation there is around 7,000 feet.

Of all of the national, regional and city parks I have toured in the United States over the years, I must say that the Grand Canyon takes the cake.

The best experience with the use of taxpayer dollars I have had to date.

Easy transportation via a series of color coded shuttle buses that run every 10 to 15 minutes whisk you to all of the great locations within the park. We also took advantage of one of the easier 1.7 mile hiking trails that runs right along the South Rim of the canyon and stayed one night to watch the sunset over the canyon. It was a truly awesome experience and more than a little cold at around 29 degrees by the time the sun actually set.

On Thursday, we headed back into Nevada for a stop at Lake Mead and Hoover Dam before reaching our final destination in Las Vegas.

Then the real fun began. As season ticket holders to the same six seats at Las Vegas Motor Speedway since 2006, we spent most of the day out at the track on Friday for Cup Qualifying and watched Jeff Gordon take one of the final race pole’s of his career. He has just recently announced that he will retire from the full schedule of racing after this season.

On Sunday the conditions were perfect for the race. Clear skies and an easy 76 degrees created the perfect backdrop for a Thunderbird flyover from the squadron based at Nellis AFB all while Rascal Flats sang the national anthem.

During the race we had the opportunity to meet and sit with the winners of the two (seat) tickets we donate to the local Boys and Girls Club every year to be auctioned off. A couple of fun guys and even better they were fellow Kasey Kahne fans.

Overall an entire week of family vacation fun created those wonderful and special opportunities to relax, enjoy and bond over some exciting and common experiences. Except for the daily posts on social media to share our adventures with our friends and family, we really did not miss our electronic devices and most of the time they stayed packed away in our luggage.

Instead we talked, we laughed, we teased and we soaked up the real world experiences through our own eyes in true family vacation fashion.