Best Hotel Breakfast: Holiday Inn Express, Carlsbad

I don't know about you, but I really like to chow down for breakfast. I need my starch (bagels, toast, cereal, oatmeal) as well as protein (eggs, sausage), and I need salty things as well as sweet. Surprise! We got all of this and more in the FREE breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express in Carlsbad, NM.

Kaii hypothesizes that there is a free hot breakfast war going on among the mid-size chain hotels -- like, who can draw in the most customers with the promise of the most amazing hot breakfast ever?? If so, HIE would be just one step ahead. Their signature cinnamon roll may not have smelled great as a lotion, but it sure tasted good.

Best Natural Attraction: Carlsbad Caverns

Another really tough category here. But Carlsbad Caverns was simply out of this world.

Runner-up: Monument Valley.

Day 12: Carlsbad Caverns

We drove through the night (again) to get to Carlsbad, New Mexico, where we spent four hours hiking through Carlsbad Caverns. Seriously amazing! I think Kaii put it best when he described it as a "sci-fi adventure." It was like being on another planet -- except we were 750 feet under the ground.