Life Among The Amurrkins

*Fabulous
*Amazing
*Wonderful
*Marvellous
*Lovely
*Gorgeous
*Spectacular
*Magnificent
*Awe-inspiring

And my absolute favourite ...

*Cool !

You can take all of those adjectives and use them to describe The Grand Canyon.  Most of them apply to San Francisco and Las Vegas and we haven't even seen any of New York yet!

San Francisco is a beautiful city with some outstanding scenery; it's well laid-out and is great to walk around.  We were delighted to find that our almost-daily walks at home had more than prepared us for trekking up and down the steep streets of Chinatown, North Beach, the waterfront area and the dreaded Lombard Street.  We covered a lot of ground - nice temperatures for walking even though the clouds didn't make for such great pictures.  We were still mightily relieved when our friend Bill from Berkeley (over on the other side of SF Bay) said he would come and pick us up from our hotel.

So, off to Bill and Don's for a very short, but sweet visit.  I met these two in Italy back in the 80s. We hadn't seen the guys since we were in SF twelve years ago , but we slipped back together as if it had been twelve days. (A few weeks after our visit, these two got married, after 34 years together - loads of love and congratulations!). We enjoyed some local shopping and food tasting at Costco and Trader Joe's (yay, been wanting to go there for EVER!) as well as a wonderful dinner at a middle Eastern eatery - delish!

Off to Oakland airport then for the next leg - Sin City!  Now we were in new territory. After briefly feeling as if we had walked into a wall of heat upon arrival, we both fell madly in love with Vegas - the people, the lights. the hotel, the pool, the food, everything! AND our son Shawn (well, HE thinks he's our son and we haven't the heart to tell him otherwise!) flew down from Canada to spend the time with us and to act as our Las Vegas guide.  We couldn't believe the hotel - totally fabulous!  And so reasonably priced - well done, Hilton chain for making such a wonderful refuge in the midst of all the madness.  We loved the pool and spa area and spent some nice time there before heading out into the lights.  We weren't remotely interested in gambling; seeing the glazed looks and fixed smiles inside the casinos turned us off even more. We had a quick look inside the casino areas of Treasure Island and Caesar's Palace, took a few photos, stroked the walls of the Colosseum (attached to CP) where Celine Dion was singing her heart out and left to wander around open-mouthed at the complete over-the-top-ness of it all! We loved the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel and the Grand Canal at the Venetian.  Some of the other Hotels were just so outrageous that we just shook our heads, laughed and moved on to the next one to do exactly the same! We fell into our emperor-sized bed well after 1 am, which is not that late in Vegas - we met a lot of people just heading out for their entertainment!

Next day, Grand Canyon.  The three of us had booked a Grand Canyon Sunset Tour highly recommended by Trip Advisor and we were not disappointed.  We left Vegas at 9.30 and were soon travelling on Route 66, which was fascinating and passing many miles of desert-y scrub, which was not. We arrived at the Canyon around 5. I am not bad with words, says she modestly, but I can't find the right ones to describe it. I think it was because you are so completely overwhelmed at the first sight of it, you can't actually feel anything at all or understand what you are seeing.  It goes for over 250 miles,  is totally different around every corner and its vastness is incomprehensible. I just know we haven't captured anything like its beauty and magnificence in our photos, but it is unforgettable.

 

 

 

 

Now, on to New York !