Neon, Nature and Nostalgia!
Writer's blog
Well, it all happened awhile ago (five or six weeks?) at the end of May and early June 2006 but I feel like I should document it here just so I have something down about it to read later.
It was a great time, long in the planning. The "Neon" of course is Las Vegas and it was pretty much exactly what I expected; loud, busy, crazy. Turns out I'm not very good at Texas Hold 'em but had a pretty good time playing anyway. However, playing poker with people is not particulary cheery I guess because everyone is actually competing with each other. And some of the people playing at the low limit tables are actually kinda sad somehow. They just look like they should get outside more, if you know what I mean. Karen and I also had a good time playing war at the Venetian (seems bizarre you can actually play that in a casino but I guess any way they can make money) for the few minutes our money held out. (We didn't understand the $15 sign at the table meant EVERY bet had to be that! Real greenhorns are we.) I had to drag her away from the table or we might have had to take out loans to pay for her to keep trying to win our money back. Cathy, Ed, their kids and I took a helicopter ride which is only the second time I've done that, the first being all the way back when I worked for the Baraboo News Republic and covered some manuevers a local Army Reserve whatever was having. The commercials flights are a LOT nicer. Did some slots with them as well although that is really not my thing. Karen and I dressed up in "slutwear" and went to the Parade in the Sky at the Rio which can only be described as bizarre. You ride around on floats attached to the ceiling and they give you a tamborine to play that is attached to the float with a curled telephone cord so you won't use it as a weapon to attack the spectators below. It is an experience I will not soon forget and NEVER want to repeat. Since we were kinda dressed alike in my slutwear which I forced Karen to wear and looking pretty bedraggled after roaming around the Strip all night some guy mistook us for casino employees which caused us to get hysterical giggles.
From Vegas, Karen and I drove to the South Rim of the really Grand Canyon and met the other Karen and Chris who had flown in earlier. We ate at the Arizona Room at the Bright Angel Lodge which was wonderful and basically went to sleep because we had to get up early for our hike. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to hike down to Phantom Ranch because I had basically overtrained and hurt my right Achilles tendon but I got a good ankle brace from my doctor, good shoes with custom made orthotic inserts and just went for it. This is clearly the "Nature" part of the trip and the nature there is simply spectacular. I loved hiking down there, staying at Phantom Ranch and hiking back the next day. The two Karens hiked back up straight through but Chris and I, as we are a BIT older, took a break at Indian Gardens and ended up hiking the last few miles in the dark. That was pretty intense since there was essentially no moon and we didn't have adequate lights. Not much scares me, but boy it is a LONG way down! In any case, I consider it one of the biggest physical accomplishments of my life. We hiked down on Monday, back up on Tuesday and on Wednesday ALL of us had problems walking. The other Karen and Chris flew out and Karen and I drove back to Vegas and really enjoyed soaking our tired muscles in one of the Flamingo's hot tubs. The four of us, with some additions including Karl-Heinz, and maybe Rose and Tiffany, are planning to do some hut to hut hiking in the Austrian alps next summer. Karen and I are also planning to do tandem paragliding down one of the mountains around Garmisch, Germany. We're not sure who else will be crazy enough to go but we're really looking forward to it!
From Vegas, I flew to Chicago for the highly anticipated 40th grade school reunion. It was great for many reasons. I spent eight very formative years with those kids (o.k., now adults) and we were all pretty abused by the nuns so we have a lot of combined memories both good and bad. Also, the people working on putting it together (Jeff, Rich, Pat, Jackie, Sharon, Gary, Cathy, and me too!) really went above and beyond the call of duty and it was a heck of a party if I do say so myself (it was my idea) :-). We did a skit which ended with me basically hitting on Sister Ricarda who was actually Rich dressed up in a pretty hideous nun costume. Jeff ran a trivia contest about the school, religion, etc. There was a recreation of a May crowning. Actually, it was so great that if we have any more, I fear they will be disappointing. And WAY more people turned out than I expected, so much so that I didn't have enough of our custom composed and printed holy cards!
This of course only skims the surface of a really fabulous trip. But better than nothing! I'd love to do it all over again except I feel lucky we managed the rim to river to rim canyon hike unscathed so don't know if I'll be brave enough to try that again especially as I'm not getting any younger ;-).
Well, it all happened awhile ago (five or six weeks?) at the end of May and early June 2006 but I feel like I should document it here just so I have something down about it to read later.
It was a great time, long in the planning. The "Neon" of course is Las Vegas and it was pretty much exactly what I expected; loud, busy, crazy. Turns out I'm not very good at Texas Hold 'em but had a pretty good time playing anyway. However, playing poker with people is not particulary cheery I guess because everyone is actually competing with each other. And some of the people playing at the low limit tables are actually kinda sad somehow. They just look like they should get outside more, if you know what I mean. Karen and I also had a good time playing war at the Venetian (seems bizarre you can actually play that in a casino but I guess any way they can make money) for the few minutes our money held out. (We didn't understand the $15 sign at the table meant EVERY bet had to be that! Real greenhorns are we.) I had to drag her away from the table or we might have had to take out loans to pay for her to keep trying to win our money back. Cathy, Ed, their kids and I took a helicopter ride which is only the second time I've done that, the first being all the way back when I worked for the Baraboo News Republic and covered some manuevers a local Army Reserve whatever was having. The commercials flights are a LOT nicer. Did some slots with them as well although that is really not my thing. Karen and I dressed up in "slutwear" and went to the Parade in the Sky at the Rio which can only be described as bizarre. You ride around on floats attached to the ceiling and they give you a tamborine to play that is attached to the float with a curled telephone cord so you won't use it as a weapon to attack the spectators below. It is an experience I will not soon forget and NEVER want to repeat. Since we were kinda dressed alike in my slutwear which I forced Karen to wear and looking pretty bedraggled after roaming around the Strip all night some guy mistook us for casino employees which caused us to get hysterical giggles.
From Vegas, Karen and I drove to the South Rim of the really Grand Canyon and met the other Karen and Chris who had flown in earlier. We ate at the Arizona Room at the Bright Angel Lodge which was wonderful and basically went to sleep because we had to get up early for our hike. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to hike down to Phantom Ranch because I had basically overtrained and hurt my right Achilles tendon but I got a good ankle brace from my doctor, good shoes with custom made orthotic inserts and just went for it. This is clearly the "Nature" part of the trip and the nature there is simply spectacular. I loved hiking down there, staying at Phantom Ranch and hiking back the next day. The two Karens hiked back up straight through but Chris and I, as we are a BIT older, took a break at Indian Gardens and ended up hiking the last few miles in the dark. That was pretty intense since there was essentially no moon and we didn't have adequate lights. Not much scares me, but boy it is a LONG way down! In any case, I consider it one of the biggest physical accomplishments of my life. We hiked down on Monday, back up on Tuesday and on Wednesday ALL of us had problems walking. The other Karen and Chris flew out and Karen and I drove back to Vegas and really enjoyed soaking our tired muscles in one of the Flamingo's hot tubs. The four of us, with some additions including Karl-Heinz, and maybe Rose and Tiffany, are planning to do some hut to hut hiking in the Austrian alps next summer. Karen and I are also planning to do tandem paragliding down one of the mountains around Garmisch, Germany. We're not sure who else will be crazy enough to go but we're really looking forward to it!
From Vegas, I flew to Chicago for the highly anticipated 40th grade school reunion. It was great for many reasons. I spent eight very formative years with those kids (o.k., now adults) and we were all pretty abused by the nuns so we have a lot of combined memories both good and bad. Also, the people working on putting it together (Jeff, Rich, Pat, Jackie, Sharon, Gary, Cathy, and me too!) really went above and beyond the call of duty and it was a heck of a party if I do say so myself (it was my idea) :-). We did a skit which ended with me basically hitting on Sister Ricarda who was actually Rich dressed up in a pretty hideous nun costume. Jeff ran a trivia contest about the school, religion, etc. There was a recreation of a May crowning. Actually, it was so great that if we have any more, I fear they will be disappointing. And WAY more people turned out than I expected, so much so that I didn't have enough of our custom composed and printed holy cards!
This of course only skims the surface of a really fabulous trip. But better than nothing! I'd love to do it all over again except I feel lucky we managed the rim to river to rim canyon hike unscathed so don't know if I'll be brave enough to try that again especially as I'm not getting any younger ;-).
posted by Terry at 6:53 PM
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