July 12, 2010

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Part 1

I always look forward to when Megan comes to visit me because I freaking adore my baby sis. I also love her friend Lisa to death so I was very excited for her to come with. What I seem to always forget between visits, is that it is fucking exhausting to spend all of your time entertaining teenagers! I feel like I should check myself into vacation rehab to recover and it isn't even over yet. I mean, I'm back to work now, but they're still here so in a way, I'm still on this vacation.

Anyway, the first big thing we did was head up north to visit the Grand Canyon and Antelope Canyon. The Grand Canyon is pretty and sufficiently awe-inspiring, but it's really just a great big hole in the ground and so, once you've seen it 8 or 9 times, you've pretty much gotten all the "awe" out of it that you're ever going to get. I'm completely "awe-d" out there. But it had been several years since Meg had been and Lisa had never seen it so we went.


I've only seen Antelope Canyon once before and that was at least half a dozen years ago and since it's something a little more interesting than a really big hole, I enjoyed it a bit more.


Meg got some even better pictures that I'll be sure to steel from her before she leaves and put up here.

It was a strange 24 hour road trip that resulted in me getting lost in Flagstaff 4 separate times (and in Page once) because Flagstaff and Google Maps need to communicate better with each other about what the names of streets are and what you have to do to get from one to another. Also, better signs would not hurt. Oh, I also got pulled over by a very friendly, pre-pubescent officer who helped me get un-lost once and who also took pity on my speeding ass (I was going 42 in what I thought was a 40 area but turned out to be a 30 area that was turning into a 40 area in a block and a half. Yes, really) and only gave me a warning instead of a ticket.

We had dinner at a restaurant that's been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives where I ran into a guy a used to work with and then we headed back down to Phoenix to spend the rest of the holiday weekend by the pool. I should have spent the rest of the holiday weekend in bed because I suspect that the sun, the festivities and the lack of good sleep conspired to melt my brain.

I woke up stupid on Tuesday morning. The timing couldn't have been worse since we were driving to California on Tuesday. I neglected to pack at least 4 things that I needed. I forgot to bring the bag that my aunt had given me just the night before. I booked a studio tour for Wednesday when it was supposed to be Thursday. And a mere 20 minutes outside of Phoenix I made a pit-stop then got back on the freeway heading BACK THE WAY I CAME. I didn't realize that mistake until I saw downtown approaching again. I wish I could say that was the last of my stupidity that day but sadly there were many more occurrences before the day came to an end. Fortunately, my mojo returned on Wednesday.

Stay tuned for the California portion of these adventures...

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