The Grand Canyon

I had another adventure this weekend, and I’ve been dying to share it! Let me preface it by saying that about a month and a half ago, a friend sent me one of those silly forward emails that lists a bunch of items on people’s Bucket List. You check which ones you’ve done and send it on to the next person who is supposed to send it back with theirs checked.

My dear friend the Bibliophile was shocked and perhaps slightly appalled to discover that I’d never seen the Grand Canyon, which she considers to be “practically in my back yard.”

Well, perhaps it is sad, being that it’s just a couple states away from where I grew up. However, when Yellowstone is only four hours away, and the Grand Canyon is more like 15 … it’s not too surprising.

This weekend that all changed while on a fun trip with friends (and one family member).

I was having a lovely vacation in St. George this weekend (most likely a separate post will be coming about that). Our plan was to drive to nearby Zion National Park on Saturday to spend the day enjoying one of Utah’s beautiful national parks.

As we were on our way to connect with the highway that would take us to our destination, we saw both Zion and the Grand Canyon listed .. and the miles to get to the second weren’t that much further than the first. So, on a whim we decided why not try something new? Three of us had never been before, and the one who had never visited the North Rim.

It turned out to be further than the sign said, more like 130 miles as opposed to the 42 listed, but we decided to go for it anyway. It was a llooonnngg drive there and back and we started far later than we would have had we realized what our destination was going to be. However, all four of us were delighted with our experience.

I also learned a cool trick with the operating system on my phone. It has a panorama setting which takes fantastic long pictures. I had no idea!

I had a great time visiting one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, which happens to be another of our national parks. And this was only the North Rim! I was told I still must visit the South Rim, and I’m confident that given time I’ll make it there. Oh, and we were lucky on this trip because I discovered yesterday that the North Rim closes right around Oct. 15 (or when the snow flies, whichever is first), so we made it  just in time.

What a great spontaneous trip! Enjoy a few more pictures. I have many (yes, I know it’s completely shocking), but I’ll just post a few. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to be there. The fall colors on the trees (well, the ones that were turning anyway) were gorgeous. One of the pictures below is my attempt to capture that.

I don’t actually know what the rock is called, but I thought it looked like a dog’s head, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture. Of course we’d need a picture on the bridge.

Okay, I promise I’m done now. As you can see, it was a great little jaunt, if a little exhausting.

A very Disney post

Just yesterday I got back from a fabulous four-day vacation with my sister and her family to Disneyland!!! This was my maiden voyage to Disneyland. I’ve been to Disneyworld once, 10 years ago as part of a school trip and loved it, so it was quite a treat. And the best part was I got to experience it with kids, which was fantastic.

We started out very early on Tuesday morning with a super early flight into Long Beach. That was probably the most brutal part of the trip, and since none of us slept well in the motel room the night before, we started out pretty exhausted. However, that didn’t stop us from spending hours in both California Adventure and Disneyland our first day.

Here’s the Diva and Bumblebee on Bumblebee’s first plane ride ever. She was so kind to tuck Wolfie into her seatbelt so he’d be safe too.

We made the mistake of standing in the ticket line for about 25 minutes the first day not knowing we didn’t need to. However, the ticket lady felt bad and wanted to make us feel better, so she gave us some “First Visit” buttons. I was surprised how many people there, including men, wear these around the park. it was fun!

Fun times in Disney’s California Adventure.

I saw quite a few “famous” people while I was there:

The real reason we went to Disneyland: to see the Diva dance! She did such a great job!

I have so many pictures to share, but I think I’d better wrap it up. Indulge me just a little longer, and I promise it’ll be worth it. Here’s our whole group. Due to an unfortunate sickness, we only have two pictures of all of us.

What Disney trip would be complete without some Disney princesses? I don’t believe they’re a good role model to follow for life, but they represent the idea that dreams can come true, and I love that. So here they are.

For anyone who is thinking of going to Disneyland, I would highly recommend going during the week in the offseason if possible. We had great luck with pretty much walking onto rides until Friday, and the park wasn’t all that crowded really. It is a wonderful place, and I’m looking forward to going again at some point.

DC was great and now I'm back. . .

Hello everyone! It's been awhile since I've posted, but I promise I have good reasons for not writing until now, most of which are because I was on vacation. And anyone waiting in anticipation to find out all about my trip is going to be sadly disappointed. I had a lovely trip to DC (despite the terrible weather we had the entire time we were there) and I got to see a lot. However, I'm still recovering from the breakneck pace we kept whilst we were there to see the maximum amount of DC sites we could in a week, so I'm not feeling up to writing an in depth blog post tonight. Thanks to Kathryn for being such a wonderful hostess and carting us all over the city and beyond! I can honestly say I'm glad I never had to drive there, but I sure did think the Metro was divine. It got us right where we needed to go, and in a reasonable amount of time too. Fabulous!

I promise I will write more in a future post, but here a just a few pictorial highlights I'll post right now. Enjoy!

Here's me in the National Mall with the Washington Monument behind me on the very first day there, the one where it wasn't overcast and rainy, even if it was jacket weather. We had no idea how lucky we were to get such great weather that day!

Open wide. My what dirty teeth you have! How long has it been since you brushed them? (This is in the Natural History Museum in case you were wondering. :)

Here's Yuri and me with Mt. Vernon (the home of George and Martha Washington) behind us. We went on Friday.

Here's Kathryn and Yuri with Old Town Alexandria behind them, our other destination on Friday. I was told it's just like Georgetown but parking's a whole lot cheaper!

Okay, that's all for tonight, but I promise to post more tomorrow. Actually, anyone who is friends with me on Facebook should check there because I will put a full album, but probably not until this weekend because that's when I'll have time.

P.S. Sorry if the spacing is all wonky. It always does that when I post pictures, and it doesn't matter how much I try to fix it, the spacing is still off. Ugh!

Washington, D.C.--here I come!

It's really late right now, and I must go to bed so I can make it up in the morning, but I'm too excited to not share my enthusiasm with somebody! Tomorrow is the day--I'm officially leaving the state to go back East, where I've never been before! Yippee!! Not only do I get to see my very dear Kathryn, whom I haven't seen for about eight months now, but I also get to visit the very fabulous D.C. at the same time! And our good friends are coming out on Saturday, so we'll get to play with them too. Good times, fun people! What more can you ask for?! I am also having a very much-deserved break from work! Wa-hoo on that one!

I'm sure I'll post some photos here once I get back. Stay tuned for more exciting updates! I don't know if I will be able to blog while I'm away, but I'll try. If not, check back next week for more information on my exciting trip!