hi ho everyone, as Kermit the Frog would say!
life is so good right now, speaking from a comfort-oriented point of view. after two intense weeks of "vacation," I am finally getting a chance to relax!
so basically, we started on June 18th; Mitchell and I drove down to Portland early in the morning and spent the day picnicing on the riverfront, exploring (and spending tons of money at) Powell's, and waltzing through the rose garden before heading back up to Vancouver to meet my parents, where Roger and the Hubcaps (three guys from our church plus two guys they met in college) were playing in a local church for a few hours of fun. Since they're usually playing in a location that has a bar (aka 21+ kind of place), I rarely get to see them, so it was a ton of fun. it was also really cool that a bunch of people from our church came all the way down to Vancouver for the fun. we stayed until they played Footloose and then drove down to Portland to stay the night with my aunt and uncle.
next morning we drove to Tillamook and had "breakfast" (aka ice cream) at their creamery, and then went to the Newport aquarium and stayed at a very nice campground, unwittingly breaking the law by climbing on some epic rocks on the beach, and taking very touristy pictures with the giant cutout of a Japanese guy outside the sushi restaurant.
we continued on to the redwood forest with the very big trees, and then spent a couple of days in San Francisco, which was one of my favorite stops - it's so much like Seattle! I really enjoyed it there. went along down the coast to Hearst Castle, which was basically a giant house that William Randolph Hearst built to house his ginormous collection of European art and whatnot. It was really cool....and huge.
from there we moved on to Las Vegas, where we stayed two nights at the MGM Grand. Las Vegas deserves a few words - it also deserves the title Sin City it has been given. We got there in the late afternoon, settled down, and then walked the strip for a little while, inspiring all sorts of wonderful thoughts of Ocean's 11, 12, and 13. I wasn't at all sure what to make of this city that never sleeps, and mostly we just walked around outside gawking at everything. finally we went inside one of the casino/hotels - the Paris, and the gawking really began. inside, the ceiling is painted to look like an afternoon sky, and the entire casino floor looks like a scene from a Parisian street, with French signs everywhere and false cobblestone streets. It was beautiful, and peaceful, and we ate an absolutely delicious seafood crepe with some friends of ours who live in this crazy city. we stayed talking until it got to be late, and walked with them back to their car a little farther down the strip. we crossed the street and walked past the Bellagio, just in time for the fountain show, and then we made our way back to the MGM where I promptly fell asleep.
The next day we spent the whole day exploring the inside of most of the big casino-hotels, starting with the Bellagio, which is home to the Jean-Phillipe's Patisserie, where we ate breakfast. oh my word, some of the best food I have EVER eaten!! my mom had an almond croissant which must have had a full cube of butter in it and was the flakiest thing I've ever seen, full of creamy almond paste and covered in powdered sugar - and I had a berry crepe with incredible whipped cream and warm berries. :D good start to the day. the architecture in Las Vegas is just incredible - everything has its own theme, which is elaborately followed throughout the building, and as every casino is pretty much raking in money, they can afford to be extravagent. Like the Paris, the Palazzo/Venetian is made to look like Venice on the inside, complete with a canal cutting through St. Mark's Square, on which gondola rides are offered. Here we visited a little cafe with at least thirty different flavors of gelato, and I sampled the coconut and guava, which were incredible. I'm very happy that gelato is becoming popular!
In the evening my dad and I ate dinner at the grand buffet in the MGM, which is like Old Country Buffet on steriods, including king crab legs and prime rib, and a marvelous selection of mini desserts, which my dad and I got a small sampler plate of and split.
On our final morning we again ate at Jean-Phillipe's (chocolate croissant, cinnamon roll, and Nutella brioche!) and after checking out spent a couple of hours visiting with our friends at their house. we finally left the desert of Nevada, and though I would go back again for a couple of days, I was glad to go. Las Vegas is in interesting city by day, and a sickening city by night. lots of food for thought - it's like being in a very foreign country. it never sleeps and there is always something to see, something to do....something to eat. :P
and so we drove on to Zion, where it was incredibly hot and, unlike Vegas, there was no air conditioning. anywhere. but there was a river, thank goodness. my parents loved Zion, and though I thought it was pretty cool I admit that the heat greatly detracted from my enjoyment. I was happy we only spent one night there and then moved on to the Grand Canyon - the crowning glory (or at least the southernmost stop) of our trip.
Our campsite was RIGHT ON THE EDGE of the canyon, and we ate breakfast twice on this large white rock that jutted out about thirty feet into the canyon itself - a place where, if you tripped, you could be dead. but the scenery is unparalleled. though I probably wouldn't go back again (once you've seen it, you've seen it), it's true that it's something every American should see once. I sat there marvelling at our God's creation, at the destruction of the great flood that must have carved that canyon in such a short amount of time, and meditating on the crazy number of people who believe that tiny river and millions of years could "do" what I was looking at.
My friend Bret and I were talking about the canyon before I left. He used to live in Arizona, so he's seen it a few times. I told him that I'd never been, and he described it, saying, "it's like God just drew his finger up the Colorado River." looking at it, I had to admit that it's a very apt description.
after three nights we moved on to our last stop in the southwest: Bryce Canyon. two nights here, and it was a fun stop! on our first night we watched two guys who had obviously never set up a tent before in their lifes attempt that office for the first time, which took at least 45 minutes and afforded us lots of entertainment. we saw the canyon, went horseback riding through the canyon, hung out late at night to see some awesome stars/constellations/planets after the astronomy program, and finally headed out early in the morning for the 14-hour drive to Coeur d'Alene, where I am now in my aunt's kitchen, catching my breath and enjoying a rest after our whirlwind tour of SW America.
I have little to say about our weekend, as I've done very little at all. My parents left yesterday after dinner, and I'm leaving tomorrow with my aunt, who agreed to take me home later. On Saturday night about 8:00, I realized that my worship team was playing at church, *sniffle* without me, as I have now missed my last two rotations, and will miss the next one as all (I'll be boating with my grandparents). So I decided to call them after the service when they were all eating dinner at our normal pizza place in town, and had a lovely half-hour talking to most of the people on my team, mostly about how much we miss each other and how I'm not in Arizona. Bret explained to me why I've felt like I'm dying of allergies for the last two weeks, as apparently there is some plant in the SW that gives respiratory problems to out-of-towners like me. I was glad to learn that I'm not dying, nor am I developing allergies this late in life, which would have ticked me off. Anyway, it was so nice to talk to everyone again, but I almost miss them more now than I did before. I'm looking forward to a weekend in church again.
Yesterday (for being the 4th of July) was extremely uneventful, even more so for me as I didn't go out for the parade or the fireworks, and enjoyed a few peaceful hours with the house to myself (except for the somewhat freaked-out dogs in the house). I stayed up late reading the Pickwick Papers, and this morning slept in till 11:00 for the first time in I don't even know how long, which was incredible. I spent about an hour chatting with Cosi, took an amazing shower (my aunt's shower is extravagently tiled and is the size of a walk-in closet, and as they have two water tanks the hot water is pretty much inexhaustible), and read for quite awhile while most of the house was either at Silverwood or shopping in town.
I've also been planning a lot for my trip to Europe - and have booked my hotel in London! 13 nights next May/June, and a large hole in my bank account. It's weird, for me now, I'm still incredibly excited but it's so much more real, and in that case so much more terrifying - I have a hotel confirmation and it's really happening. It's crazy.
I'm spending a month with Cosi's family in Germany at the beginning of my trip, and she wants to spend 5 days with me in London as well. like I said, exciting - but now that it's becoming so real it's also becoming terrifying. one of these days, soon, I will be leaving home and I'll be in a strange place, on my own, seeing the world and learning both the easy way and the hard way. and who knows what happens after that? some things will never be the same.
Mitchell is also leaving in the spring, on a trip of his own. for a long time, he has wanted to just take off and walk around the U.S. He is kind of crazy - he has a lot of things in his head that just stick there and fester like splinters....religious confusion, political idealogies, all kinds of other idealogies that he hasn't figured out yet and thus drive him crazy. He needs to get out on his own and, I think, prove things to himself, meet people who are different, see every angle and side of the story, and then decide for himself. And so, ditching the college plan (this kid knows so much book-learning stuff already it's probably not even good for him), he's leaving around the same time as me, vagabonding his way who-knows-where. I don't know what to say about it now, as sometimes it scares me to death even though I know he needs to do it. but I just thought I'd throw that out there so you all knew.
ok. this post has become ridiculously long. Kudos to those of you who made it this far (leave a comment for extra brownie points)! I am now going to go, and either read some more or work on planning my trip some more. Toodles!
P.S.
So I'm reading through Dickens' works in the order in which he wrote them - pretty freaking awesome. I'm almost done with Pickwick Papers and am moving on to Oliver Twist! it's very exciting. it's also why my writing is taking on a decidedly Dickensian flair, with bewilderingly long sentances and abnormal words and such.
Fun vacation!
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