The Canyon of Grand, part deux

Doesn't this first picture make you want to flap your arms and squawk like an eagle?  Okay, maybe I'm the only one...but this rock formation is in fact called Eagle Point; one of the many features of the "Grand Canyon West Rim."  This may look amazing, but be forewarned, it's not all it's cracked out to be.  As I said in my previous Canyon of Grand post, my Mother REALLY wanted to see the Skywalk, but it was over by Las Vegas.  On our way home from Los Angeles this past weekend we made a stop; five hours and $200 later we experienced the Skywalk.  Yes, I'm not joking, $200.  It took us 45 minutes at 7 in the morning to get over the initial shock of the outrageous price.  Since it's run by the Hualapai indian tribe, and it's in the middle of nowhere, and I repeat that it's in the middle of nowhere, the bus ride (5 minutes by the way) cost $43.07 each, and to walk on the skywalk was $29.90 each.  Imagine if we were a family of five?  To try and ease our troubles, my Mother talked with one of the workers, Sergio, for probably 20 minutes.  I counted and he repeated that the reason for the elevated prices are because "it's in the middle of nowhere."  You can repeat it again if you want.  He went on to say that they have to bring water in and everything is powered by generators.  Whoop-di-do.  Then he tried to explain to us that this stop was mainly advertised to Europeans because they can supposedly afford it much more than Americans.  Whatever, go America.  The last $40 was attributed to buying 2 postcards and paying for gas, because the nearest gas station was at least 60 miles.  (Mind you, at least 25 of those miles are a dirt road.)  Luckily the gas only cost $4.10.  SCORE.

These photographs were at a stop called "Guano Point."  As the bus driver explained to us, Guano is, or was quite the hot commodity and is still used in many womens cosmetics, including lipstick.  Yum.  As we were walking to the peninsula of the rock we met a nice young man named Gregor from Slovenia.  Can you believe he came all by himself to the Grand Canyon?  I think he was doing some film workshop in Los Angeles, but still.  I guess Europeans are the ones who can afford this trip.  As for the actual Skywalk, it was quite funny because it took my Mother five minutes to take her first step onto the glass.  Remember the scene in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" where Indi needs to complete the "leap of faith" to cross to the other side?  This is what I imagined it would be like.  It was really funny because she saw the other guy jumping up and down on it and she whispered to me, "I can hear it cracking!"  As you will notice there are no pictures of us on the actual Skywalk, because yet another gimmick, they had a photographer that would charge you for photos.  Prices ranged from $30-$100.  That better be one heckuva picture.

Surprisingly the Hoover Dam was really quite interesting.  We first drove over it in the middle of the night, it reminded me of a cool scene that could be in "Inception."  (Yes, I'm a little obsessed with that film right now.)  I could hear the low drone from the soundtrack in the distance.  Supposedly semi-trucks and larger cars will no longer be able to drive over the actual dam, but on the bridge to the left in the picture.  The worst part was when we were on the Skywalk a corny Dad made a "dam" joke.  It went something like, "we had to drive along the large dam place."  And of course, he chuckled at himself and clarified what he meant.  Funny one.  I'm not sure I'll be visiting the West Rim anytime soon, but the village of Havasupai is next on my list!

Sunday Night Swim

As it was blazing hot today, it was only proper to take Eli for a swim at night!  The action goes as follows:

Eli was finally able to get wet!  He loves getting out of the pool, then jumping back in.  (As much as you can in a plastic pool.)  Then when he's in the pool he likes to throw his head back to get his whole body in the water, but you can tell he's so afraid to get his eyes wet because he squints them really tight then purses his lips.  What a careful kid!

I decided to introduce Eli to the art of running through sprinklers.

He decided to take matters into his own hands.

That's my Mother, neither seen nor heard.

Saybl's been dreading it all week, but yes, it is time to take a bath.

Although she may act like she hates it, she secretly loves it because her tail only pops up like this when she's happy.  It's so cute!

This was one of the best pictures of the night.  I swear she's like lightning.  In the some of the photos only one of her legs or part of her body was in the shot because she's so fast.  Gotta love Sunday nights!

Ariel's Shindig

One of my bestest friends, Ariel Jackson , got married yesterday.  The wedding was so much fun to be a part of and I'm so glad to have been there to witness all the festivities!

This was at her wedding dinner in Park City.  The weather was absolutely perfect and it was so much fun to hear embarrassing stories about Ariel and Steve!  (Although I think I have enough of Ariel to last a lifetime...)

The bridesmaids had so much fun!  It was great to be there to support Ariel on her most important day!

I was expecting Ariel and Steve to do something hilarious when they cut the cake, but to my disappointment it was plain old feed each other cake.  Come on guys!  I was imagining Ariel throwing cake all around the room, then a food fight erupting immediately thereafter.  (Okay...maybe that's not quite her personality...)

And the Bride and Groom are off!

Mature Appetite

     I've been pondering lately about what I eat.  I'm a simple eater, I enjoy most simple meals that can be easily purchased from your local grocery store.  Nothing too fancy, please.  However, I started to notice a trend when I came home for the summer back in May.  Being with my nephew a lot has made me more aware of what he eats, and inevitably what I eat.  One night I brought home some "Cap'n Crunch Berries" because I always look forward to a scrumptious breakfast.  When I woke up I found my nephew chewing on a lovely bowl of this beloved cereal.  I thought to myself, "cool!  I've spread the magic!"  From then on my sister started buying "Cap'n Crunch Berries" for my nephew.  For lunch I like to make myself a grilled cheese sandwich, and of course right after I started grilling I heard my sister say, "why don't you make Eli one of those?"  Later Pop-Tarts started showing up in the pantry.  YES!  It felt like Christmas.  What better breakfast than a cold Pop-Tart?  Inevitably, I saw crumbs of Pop-Tarts all over the living room realizing that my nephew has now added this to his diet.  Fine, it's a coincidence.  The last straw was when Goldfish were on sale at Smith's.  Since I work there I bought a bag to snack on while at work.  I didn't finish it of course, so I brought it home.  A few hours later I realized that my nephew had a bowl of the Goldfish I had purchased earlier that day.  That's it.
     I get the feeling that I need to "mature" my diet to a more adult level.  What does that mean?  Do I have to add more vegetables...even tomatoes to my diet?!  This morning I watched a Top Chef D.C. episode where they cooked for a middle school lunch break, and every meal I thought I would like were the most popular dishes.  (However the winner was this pork carnita taco, but it had onions on it.  What kid wants an onion on a perfectly good taco?!)  Who knows, maybe with this new found epiphany I may start adding gnocchi, pita bread, soufflé, or even tomatoes to my diet.  Suggestions are more than welcome.

The Canyon of Grand

The entire time my mother and I were driving near the Grand Canyon the theme somg from "National Lampoon's Family Vacation" was stuck in my head.  The lyrics "Holiday Rooo-oooo-ooo-oooad" repeated incessantly in my head.  That constant nuisance was worth our entire visit to the national park.  When we stopped at the first view point my Mom stepped out of the car and literally gasped out loud.  She tried to share her excitement with the visitors next to her, but they weren't quite as enthused, giving her a gratuitous nod.  But there ain't no denying, it was a spectacular view and quite unbelievable that something like that was created on the earth.

While we were driving from the South Rim to the North Rim there was a stop to see the "Navajo Bridge" that had an amazing view over the Colorado River.  Actually when you first looked over the edge the height was creepily high, hence my reaction above.  (Okay, it may have been staged.)  It sort of reminded me of the scene from "The Rescuers Down Under" with the river that has all the alligators (or crocodiles).  However, there were no alligators in this river...at least I don't think so.  On the right I'm exhibiting my useful gift of sight.  They were at this place with a huge tower that was supposed to give you the best view of the canyon.  Truthfully, it was hot, crowded, small, lame, and there was Native American type pictography, but it was completely fake because the building was erected in 1930.  What a complete waste of space.

Sitting on this rock was so scary because literally on the other side was this huge drop-off.  But hey, anything for a classy picture, right?

As Mom and I were almost to the North Rim I looked on the map to see where what my mom called "the glass staircase" was.  I'm looking, I'm looking, I find it!...only problem...it's on the complete opposite side of the canyon.  Not even in the South Rim.  I try to gently break this to my mom, but her heart is broken, that's all she wanted to see the entire trip.  I had to show her the map over and over again to explain to her that it would take forever to get there.  We finally decided that on one of trips to Los Angeles we would just make a pit stop outside of Vegas and go see it.  It's just funny that we basically based our entire trip off seeing this one monument, and nope, nada, no visit.  I was still very pleased with the park as it was on the North and South Rim, minus the extremely corny music they play in the visitor centers.  They can do without.  Overall --> a very successful trip.

Hook 'em Horns

Our yearly family trip to Texas occurred this past week.  We visited our good friends who live in Round Rock which is a little north of the great city of Austin, Texas.  I never really thought I would like Texas, but I have thus been proven otherwise, many a time.  This year we got to eat at Mighty Fine, an amazing theater called the Alamo Drafthouse, and Texas Land & Cattle.  Texas sure knows how to produce great eats!  On Thursday we went to an exhibit of Matisse and Picasso at the art museum on the UT campus, and although I shuddered at the sight of the Longhorns I pulled through because of my deep-rooted Trojan pride.  Above is a picture of the capitol building right next to the UT campus.

Most definitely one of the highlights of the trip was visiting the stadium from the TV show "Friday Night Lights."  I've grown to practically worship this show and to see some of it in real life was absolutely amazing.  Although I didn't see a Tim Riggins or Coach Taylor, seeing the word "Panthers" plastered everywhere made my day.  Go Dillon Panthers!!!  (Or East Dillon Lions...depending on the season!)