Last of the travel pictures

Okay - Here are the last pictures I have to share with you...

The Birthday boy and his wife...



Harland, Teresa and me looking grand before the Cirque De Soleil show. Which was admittedly very cool. We were in the front row!!


Where else can you see Celine Dion and Harley Davidson in one spot??


And then two parting shots taken from the airplane window on our way out of town!!

Hoover Dam & Lake Mead

Hey everyone.... Had a good weekend. Yesterday I was busy - I was getting trained in CPR for infants and adults. So there you go, I can now CPR anyone!

Okay so here we go - Here is a picture of Harland, Teresa and me at the Grand Canyon. It is the last picture to show you before we move on. I'll quit boring you :)


Then here are some pictures at Hoover dam. You can see the lake and how much smaller it is than it used to be better in this picture.



Here is a picture of Harland's Great Uncle, his Great Aunt and his Dad.


Then we went to the Lake Mead and this is the harbor. There were giant carp - the size of ducks.




Tomorrow I'll post that last few pictures of Vegas.
Hope you are all well.

Grand Canyon

Here are a lot of pictures from the Canyon.
At the skywalk they have some buildings of the Native people of the area.


This is a picture of the canyon.


Here is a formation they call the Eagle.


This trail is closed - perhaps for obvious reasons. There were no guardrails or fences. Which was really cool.


You can take cool pictures over the edge.


You can even park your baby on the edge and take pictures. I don't recommend it. These people made me so nervous. Holy Moly... so dumb.


And here is us on the Skywalk, not that you can tell. It is a sad fact you can't take your camera on there. I guess they don't want the people to look down on a camera graveyard. The Skywalk was awesome and if you are not scared of heights you should head on over ASAP!

Vegas Day 2

Actually this title is a little misleading...
Because day 2 we drove away from Vegas to go to Grand Canyon West.

So say "Bye Bye Vegas"...


And Hello to the Desert.


Here is Lake Mead (this it the lake held back by Hoover Dam - Hoover Dam pictures will come in a few days on here, I am saving them for later). We had to go through Lake Mead National Recreation Area to see this. The website is www.nps.gov/lame ...couldn't they have come up with a better abbreviation than LAME? It is anything but. Click here to see for yourself!! My only regret is I didn't make my in-laws stop at the visitor center so I could get a stamp for my National Park Passport book. But we were anxious to get to the canyon... and on the way back it was not open.



See that white ring along the bottom of the picture? No not the line on the road, that is to designate the shoulder of the road... the one at the bottom of the lake. You may have to click on the picture to see it larger. Geez Louise. That is the amount the lake has lost. It is a lot smaller than it used to be. If you can't see the white line... you'll see it in a few days when I post the dam pictures! (by the way it is fun to say "I'm taking another dam picture!" hee hee, I am, maybe 12 years old in my sense of humor).

Then we went through a Joshua Tree forest. I am confused as to what this area is, if it is part of the Joshua Tree Forest that is part in California, or if it is part of the Mojave Desert or just a random Joshua Tree Forest. Anyone knowledgeable about this area? Susan? Anyway it is along the roads to Grand Canyon West and is even on their map (Click Here) so there.





Anyway - I spent so much time on the Joshua Tree debate that I am tired and Harland is hinting it is time to go to bed (by actually going there himself) so I only have time to show you pictures of the Dirt Road before I head to bed.



Good night! See you tomorrow for the next installment.

I'm Back!!

Some of you know that I was heading for all parts west for a long weekend. I got back last evening. I didn't want to advertise on the blog when I was going in case someone wanted to rob us. Of course all they would get would be some fine kitchen gadgets (like my favorite orange spatula) and some yarn. Not even that much yarn. :)

Anyway, we flew out to Los Angeles and then rode to Las Vegas then took a trip to the Skywalk at the Grand Canyon. Now I can add a few more states to the list since I have never been to Nevada or Arizona before.

Okay, so the trip may take a few days by blog so bear with me and know that the next week will be picture laden. Okay - so first stop - LA to see Harland's grandmother (in the middle).


(yes I realize this is a picture of my Chinese side of the family in a Japanese restaurant. Grandma likes sushi, what can I say?)

The next day we drove to Vegas.

Here is a picture of the road on the way. Pretty boring really. And HOT. The hottest it got along the way was 119 degrees. But that is hot enough for me. I actually have alot more pictures of the drive there... but I'll spare you. Just imagine variations on this theme.

Our hotel was the first place you really come to that looks Vegas-like. Off to the left there is Southpoint. It was a pretty good hotel, very clean, has movie theater, bowling alley, equestrian center etc. But it charges for the fitness room. Which I think is stupid. It's the only negative thing I have to say about it. It even has a pool that has chilled water in it, so it is refreshing.


That night we went to Bellagio and saw the fountains:



And inside they have really cool glass sculptures... and long stem roses that are about 5 feet long. Holy cow, I have never seen roses like that.

And this is Paris Hotel that I took out of the car window, right when Harland's Dad started to drive, but I kept the picture because it looks kinda cool.

And here is a picture of the Luxor that I took when we were in a traffic jam. You can see the taillights of a car driving the opposite way... which I thought was a neat touch.


And that is all for tonight folks... Harland has to get up at a ridiculous hour all week this week for some training he has to go to.

10% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There need to be about 50 more !!!'s up there.

So I finally reached the 1st weight watchers goal. The last three weeks have been painful without any change - but this past week I stepped up my exercise (see tomorrow's morning's post) a bit and so I think that is the reason I met (and surpassed) this goal. By losing just 10 percent of your body weight, you can lower your cholesterol and reduce your blood pressure!!

So I just had to tell you all. Now I just need one more 10% and I'll be in the healthy weight range ('cause y'all I was officially obese - according to the BMI charts when I started. Just barely, but I was there - now I'm merely overweight).

2 more pounds and I'll be the lightest I have been in 3 years, friends.

Hope you are all healthy and happy and are sharin' my joy.

Burke Lake Park

We went to Burke Lake this morning. Click here for their website.

It is a nice little park with a huge man made lake. It looks a lot prettier in person than the picture on their website. It has a dirt/gravel path all the way around the lake which is about 5 miles or so. You can bike, run, canoe, kayak, etc. there. There is a playground for kids, and volleyball courts too. Also there is a little fitness trail and a nature trail. It's free for Fairfax County residents.

Almost the whole 5 mile path is in shade. Burke Lake Park is one of the 10 best fitness trails in the nation, According the Hiking Assoc. of America. It was really a nice morning, not too hot outside. There were a lot of a runner there along the path. Harland and I just walked.

I highly recommend it and I bet we'll go again soon.