The Fall Trip

Just realized I hadn't updated here in over a year. I guess the biggest trip of the year was a few days at the Olympics in Vancouver in February. My friend C from Chicago came along and we had a great time not only at the Games, but meeting up with our friend P who lives there.

Ski trips this year took me to Utah, where I skied Alta, Solitude and Brighton. That was my first trip to these resorts. The other trip was to Aspen and my cousin L and her hubby J drove over from Denver to ski one day with me. As they're not real experienced, we stuck to Buttermilk, but that's my usual first-day place to ski out there anyway.

Over Memorial Day weekend D and I traveled to Chicago and spent the weekend with C. We took in a Cubs-Cardinals game (Cards won!) and also ventured up to Milwaukee to have a very enjoyable evening with our other friend C who lives there.

We've just returned from a long weekend in Las Vegas. D had been many times, but it was the first trip for C and me. C and I arrived Thursday afternoon (D had a class Thursday night) so on Friday morning we did the Hoover Dam tour. It was fascinating and our tour package included a flat-water float near the bottom of the dam which gave us a unique perspective. We also managed to be there for the second day of rain they'd had all year. Locals called it a downpour, we called it sprinkles. After the tour op dropped us off at the hotel, we popped over and picked up D from the airport. Reunited!

That evening we walked around and hit many of the free attractions: dancing fountains at the Bellagio, animated Caesar & friends at Caesar's Palace, pirate show at Treasure Island. While I'm glad to have seen these things, I feel like I can check Vegas off my list. It might be interesting to go back in 20 years to see how things have changed but it's not something I need to visit repeatedly.

On Saturday we set out for a day trip to the Grand Canyon. It's about a 4-4.5 hour drive from Vegas so it was lunch time before we arrived. In the rain. It not only rained, it poured and there was a thunderstorm with lightning. How do we manage to find rain in the desert?! And oh yeah, then it hailed! It was still lightly raining when we entered the park but after awhile it stopped and while the sun didn't shine on us, we could see it shining in other parts of the Canyon. We only got to spend about four hours here but it was fantastic and we decided we'd like to come back. We'd stay closer and maybe hike down one day & back up the next (there's a lodge on the canyon floor). Maybe we'd combine it with some spa time in Flagstaff or Sedona. It's something to look forward to anyway!