I'm baaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've really enjoyed reading the posts since I've been gone. Maybe I should stay away longer...

We had a fantastic, exciting, romantic (and at least as far as food goes) decadent 8th Anniversary/fourth honeymoon trip. On the way back, I had to smile to myself thinking, when people asked us what we did, and I say "We didn't drink, gamble or see any shows." they'd think we were certifiably insane. And yet we filled every moment with exciting experiences (for us.) After just an hour and a half of sleep before we got up at 2 in the morning to get ready to go to the airport, and a fifteen hour trip (counting travelling to the airport, two short layovers and getting to our hotel) we threw our bags in our room and hit the street. We were running on fumes and peanuts by then, but it's our style. We ended up walking down the strip about three miles before we finally headed back, and were able to catch a bus. We wanted to see everything and a little more, and we did. Ruth was in Vegas ten years ago, but hardly recognized it. We went up in the half-scale Eiffel Tower, went on a gondola ride in "Venice" went up in the stratosphere, watch the "volcano" erupt at the Mirage, and
ATE.

I approached our bathroom scale with trepidation this morning. The buffet in the Luxor, where we were staying was bountiful, bordering on the obscene, and we ate like lubmerjacks after a 40 day fast. When I stepped on the scale and cautiously opened my eyes, I was amazed to see that I didn't gain a pound! That says how much we walked.

We had one day at the Grand Canyon, going to the West Rim. It's not the most spectacular viewpoint, but plenty spectacular for me. A couple of beautiful things about it is that, because the Hualapai Indians consider the land sacred, there are no railings along the edge of the canyon. You can walk right up to the edge and look over. In one area, there's a path that winds it's way up a precipice at the end of a prominatory. A prominatory precipice. I like that. In some places, the "trail is only about three feet wide, very uneven and smooth stone. It's a drop over over 3,000 feet straight down, so I paid attention. Ruth passed.

When I planned this trip, my main interest was the Grand Canyon, and Ruth was excited to see it for the first time, too. I thought Las Vegas would be interesting. Gross excess has it's charm. I ended up enjoying it even much more than I expected, and I was looking forward to it, to begin with.

When we wandered through the casinos (which you can't avoid,) I saw endless people slumped over in front of slot machines, their eyes glazed over, looking depressed and trying time after time with no discernible sign of enjoying themselves. We didn't hear a slot machine light up indicating that someone had won in the three and a half days we were there. I have to accept that thos people were having "fun."

To each his zone. And we were definitely in a zone.

Jerry

Good to be back in the kitchen.. Thanks for keeping the pot on. Think I'll help myself, if you don't mind.