Random Thoughts about Vacation

We left at noon on Friday to head to Salt Lake City, where I have family. We stayed overnight, and had a little get-together the next day with my mom, two brothers, and sister at the pool and clubhouse at my mom's apartment complex. It was great fun. The kids swam, and we had pizza and talked and wondered about how my kids look so much like my sister and brother. My kids look more like my siblings than they look like me.

We had gone earlier in the day to visit my paternal grandma, who is in her eighties. We called my dad and invited him to come to her house and see us at the same time, since we had arrived so late that we slept in, and only had a couple hours before the party my mom had scheduled, but he declined, saying he'd been at Grandma's house the day before. Besides, "it IS fifty miles away, after all." Okay, Dad. Happy Father's Day, I guess. I was reminded of the time there was a family reunion (my grandpa was adopted as a child into his aunt's family, and this reunion was for the original family) in Cody, Wyoming, only an hour or so away from where I was at the time, and I never heard of it until afterward.

On Sunday we got up too early and headed for Las Vegas. It was nostalgic driving past Provo. Something about seeing that "Y" painted on the mountainside brought back fleeting memories of people and places I knew when I was there for my one year of college. We stopped there for breakfast, and moved on. I couldn't help thinking during my time in Utah that the person in the next car on the interstate, or that guy taking my order at the restaurant, could be someone who reads my blog. A very surreal feeling.

I don't recall ever traveling south of Provo (maybe I did as a child), but it was interesting to me how the landscape changed as we moved south. Something is killing the pine trees, I noticed. You can see fields and fields of tree skeletons, stark and white against the brown dirt of the hillsides. Strange. I really have a love for trees. Soon the dirt turned red and we were in St. George. Beautiful country, but no way could I live there. We stopped to visit my mom's boyfriend's mom who lives there, and it was great meeting her. She's very sweet. We asked her what the super tall, narrow shrubs (or trees) are that are grown in straight rows, looking like green toothpicks against the red that surrounds them, but she had no idea what we were talking about. They were everywhere. Probably so common she doesn't even notice them anymore.

The drive to Las Vegas was through a desolate area, and at one point, we passed through a rock canyon that was fascinating in its difference to anything I've seen before. We were driving fast, and the road was winding sharply. . .besides, the camera was in the trunk, so I'm sad to have no pictures of that awesome rock to show you. Then suddenly the rock abruptly ended, and we were in open country again, dry, hot desert. An occasional cactus, which we decided resembled something straight out of Dr. Seuss. They grew in tall arms covered in hairy bark-like stuff, and the tops of each arm had a green tuft of pointy leaves that looked like fur from a distance. I'm not sure if they are really cactus, or a form of palm tree/shrub thingies, but they are COOL. After searching the web now for 20 minutes and coming up with nothing, I'm really kicking myself for not having my camera out during this vacation. We took no pictures at all. Sigh. Just gives me a good excuse to go back, eh? EDITED TO ADD: Thanks, Chris, for letting me know these are called JOSHUA TREES! Yesss. I knew someone cool would enlighten me, and I was right!!!


We arrived in Las Vegas, and the buildings of the strip were straight out of CSI: Las Vegas. It was way cool. We found our hotel, about four miles down the strip from Mandalay Bay, and we checked in. The temperature was about 100 degrees Farenheit or so. Not bad.

I'll write about Vegas next.