some travel, some fun, all me
With my new dress!
I went shopping yesterday to beat the PMS blues (tmi?) and found the perfect dress I have been looking for to celebrate my birthday in October. Thank God this year is not the BIG number. But, a girl always needs a new outfit for her birthday.
A light pink and grey striped dress with a loose-fit top and tight skirt. From Mango at a steal for 40 Euro. Go get one before they are all gone!
But don’t you dare wear it to my bday party.
Which do you want to hear first? I always want to hear the bad news first.
The bad news is jobless claims rose to their highest level in 9 months. It was the third straight week that first-time jobless claims rose. That ain’t good news, my friends. As I return to the job search (again) and struggle through interviews (again), I know that hundreds of people will also be applying to that one perfect job out there. I won’t truly start complaining yet. I will enjoy a few more weeks of summer in Mallorca before I start that. You’re welcome.
And the good news? Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade heads home. I loved this line for the AP “A line of heavily armored American military vehicles, their headlights twinkling in the pre-dawn desert, lumbered past the barbed wire and metal gates marking the border between Iraq and Kuwait early Thursday and rolled into history.”
Can you envision it? Isn’t it a lovely sight?
While the U.S. presence is far from over, there are still around 52,000 troops to stay for at least another year. But this move of the combat brigade makes me smile. It is time for the Iraqi security forces to defend their people. And with the U.S. support, they can. And will.
It’s hot in Surprise, AZ. Like, blazing hot. 115F to be exact.
A few trips to the community pool with my family was nice. But after kids splashing me, an older lady complaining to me that they closed half of the pool to swim camp and teenagers making out that looked 13 it was nice to make a change. Time for the pool at the W Hotel in Scottsdale.
Lemme tell you. It was nice. No, wait, more than that. It was NICE. Kids and splashes were replaced with lounge chairs and pool side service. And did I mention that we weren’t even staying at the hotel? Well, not that night at least. The first day was a Friday, we had no problem getting into the pool area and immediately ordering shrimp ceviche and Dos Equis. Here is what the pool looked like on Friday.
Aannnnnnddd here is what it looked like on Saturday.
A completely different world! We were hotel guests for that evening, otherwise we would have never made it to this scene. The weekends at the W are happening. Drinks were flowing, the DJ was spinnin’ and the people were crazy, yo! The girlies had an outift for walking to their cabana, then another outfit for lounging in the cabana, and then a bikini for the pool. The hair was piled, the makeup was layered and the game was on. I was none of that and I do believe I heard a collective gasp when I actually went under the water to cool off.
What more could two hot girls want? And I meant hot, in both senses.
I do love the W Hotels. They are always modern with a comfortable feel. A flat screen tv, bath products from Bliss and an excellent Sushi restaurant is what we encountered at this one. We loved it so much we came back to the pool on Monday and enjoyed it one more time. Great time to beat the heat and relax in a hip (but sometimes loud) atmosphere. Go try it out for yourself!
My favorite sign of my travels so far. Decisions, decisions.
Final stop – Arches National Park and Lake Powell. We didn’t do both in one day, but they go hand in hand. Lots of rocks and arches and fun!
Arches National Park in located in Moab, Utah. It contains the world’s largest concentration of natural stone arches. This National Park is a red, arid desert, punctuated with oddly eroded sandstone forms such as fins, pinnacles, spires, balanced rocks, and arches. The 73,000-acre region has over 2,000 of these “miracles of nature.”
We pretty much stayed in the car and drove the loop, it took about 2.5 hours. But there are trails to hike, a campground to stay at, you can easily stay a full day or more. My two favorites were balanced rock and the three gossips.
I heard she went out with Jacob last night. I knew she would cheat on Edward.
Careful now, concentrate, balance. Ooooommmmmm….
Lake Powell is next! Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona (most of it, along with Rainbow Bridge, is in Utah). It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States.
We opted for the Rainbow Bridge Tour. Enjoy cruising past 50 miles of Lake Powell to Rainbow Bridge National Monument. At the monument, the tour boat docks and you will set off a fairly easy mile-plus trail to Rainbow Bridge. The bridge itself extends 290′ into the sky and 275′ across Bridge Canyon. Witness first hand the power of wind and water in their role of sculpting this remarkable landscape.
To catch the boat tours you must go to the Wahweap Marina, near Page, AZ. The cruise lasted about five hours total, you get a headset to hear about Lake Powell plus free lemonade and water! The boat has a seating area upstairs, or if you want some shelter from the sun (or the rain) there is also seating below. My parents and I had a nice time cruising the lake, checking out the sandstone and watching all the houseboats and waverunners pass us by. Here are some of my favs from the tour.
Rainbow Bridge was truly spectacular. Even better, I got to enjoy it with Mom and Dad.
Once the stomping ground of silver kings and railroad giants, Silverton survives today as one of Colorado’s most endearing destinations.
That is Silverton’s main drag. While there is no more mining here, there is still tons of character.
After Mesa Verde Nat’l Park we drove back to Durango and then headed north on 550 through the San Juan National Forest – BEAUTIFUL! With the hour growing late, and the gas tank getting empty we stopped in Silverton for the night. The sweetest lil town ever with a population around 500, and probably about 100 in the winter. We picked the Grand Imperial Hotel to stay at, built in the late 1800s and I believe our 2 double bed room was $90. Much better than our $200 from the Best Western in Durango. And it had much more character! Here is our lovely room, complete with ceiling fan, creaky floors and a window that wouldn’t shut all the way. But completely Silverton, and completely perfect.
Hungry for something, anything, the hotel manager said we needed to hurry because all would soon be closing their kitchens around 9pm. We stumbled upon the Silverton Brewery where mom and I had a brat (pretty good) and dad had the overflowing plate of nachos topped with everything (really good). I bought a long-sleeved t-shirt and we headed back to our room and called it an early night.
The next morning I woke up at the hour of 7am (wahhhhhhhhh) and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I noisily (i didn’t mean it, the floor boards are super creaky!) got dressed, grabbed the camera and went for a crisp morning walk down the five blocks of Silverton. Check it out.
This dude is cool.
No squirrel? Mmmmmm, jerky.
Thank you for snow patched mountains, for spacious skies. Go see Silverton!
My parents have finally settled down in Phoenix, AZ. Finally! They were nomads for a couple of years and it seriously drove me batty. I guess in my old age I am just concerned about them in their old age (kidding mom, you’re not old, only dad). I know Mom was enjoying the nomad life, but not so sure about Dad. But now, with their son, daughter-in-law, grandson in the very same town, everyone can be happy. I think. Every time I am back in the states I seem to end up on a road trip with my parents. Like here or the European one here! And I seriously love trippin’ with Dot and Chuck. Maybe when my nephew and nephew-to-arrive-in-DECEMBER (!!!) are a bit older we can add my brother’s family along. That would require a little larger method of transportation, like the Winnebago my grandparents owned. It was the coolest ride ever.
At first, we were going to head down to Puerto Penasco, Mexico. Even with all the problems between Arizona and Mexico we were still going to go, after all it is only a mere three-hour drive! But then, a few days before we were going to leave a murder occurred in Puerto Penasco and we decided that maybe now is not the best time to go. Change of direction, lets head north-ish. And we were off with no real plans.
From Phoenix we headed up to Flagstaff and then over on 40E to New Mexico. Once we hit Gallup we went north on 491 up to Shiprock, because my dad likes to read the Tony Hillerman books and they are based around Shiprock. After we left Gallup and until a the day we drove back to Phoenix, my cell phone (the cool GO PHONE, everyone should get one. yes, i am being sarcastic) was never too reliable.
We drove up to Colorado and stopped at Durango for the night. Cute town! It was very touristy with lots of stores with souvenirs, jewelry and art. Plus the train is there to take you up to Silverton. In the morning we headed over to Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings.
We bought tickets to see the Cliff Palace but we had a few hours before it was time for our tour so we drove around and stopped at many of the archeological sites to see. First one was the Pithouse.
That’s my cute mom walking around the Pithouse in her favorite Skechers Shape Ups.
The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in the North American Continent. Sometime during the late 1190s, after primarily living on the mesa top for 600 years, many Ancestral Puebloans began living in pueblos they built beneath the overhanging cliffs. The structures ranged in size from one-room storage units to villages of more than 150 rooms. While still farming the mesa tops, they continued to reside in the alcoves, repairing, remodeling, and constructing new rooms for nearly a century. By the late 1270s, the population began migrating south into present-day New Mexico and Arizona. By 1300, the Ancestral Puebloan occupation of Mesa Verde ended.
Check out some of these cliff dwellings that the Ancestral Puebloans would climb down to with specially marked footholds. Truly amazing.
How in the world did they climb DOWN to that?
Here is a lovely pic of my Dad eating an apple….
Hehe. Okay, seriously. It was time for the Cliff Palace tour! There are three tours you can go on; The Cliff Palace, The Balcony House and The Long House. The latter two are the most strenuous with tall ladders to climb and small holes to crawl through. As I mentioned earlier, my apple eating Dad is old (love you dad! now go take your medication) so the Cliff Palace was the only one he could really do.
But he wasn’t tooooo terribly old to do this one. Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in the park. A Cliff Palace tour descends approximately 100 feet into the canyon on a steep trail that includes 120 uneven stone steps. During the tour, visitors climb five, eight-foot ladders.
Recent studies reveal that Cliff Palace contained 150 rooms and 23 kivas and had a population of approximately 100 people. Out of the nearly 600 cliff dwellings concentrated within the boundaries of the park, 75% contain only 1-5 rooms each, and many are single room storage units. If you visit Cliff Palace you will enter an exceptionally large dwelling which may have had special significance to the original occupants. It is thought that Cliff Palace was a social, administrative site with high ceremonial usage. Here it is …..
Pretty cool my friends. But come back soon, this is just the first part of trippin’ with the rents. So much more to come. See you soon!
Before leaving New York I had to see Jeannie!
We went out to Cabana in Forest Hills, a “nuevo latino” restaurant that we have tried to go a few times before but there was always a long wait. This time, no wait and a table outside so we could do a little people watching.
We shared the Churrasco, which is a latin american style skirt steak marinated in garlic and fresh herbs accompanied by chimichurri and cebollitas. For a not too bad price of $24. Plus some tasty frozen margaritas to wash all the garlic down. After dinner, it was time to party! Okay, maybe not too much since Jeannie is an over-worked, mother of two stinkin’ cute lil girls, but let’s see what the girl can do.
At first, Jeannie said “We have to stop at every bar we pass and have a drink.” I gave her a look like she has lost her mind but nodded. Bar one, a beer for each. Plus this is where the garlic – chimichurri – cebollitas burps started happening. Oh man, you did NOT want to be near us when those things came out of our cute bodies. When we burped the first time, I was like “DUDE! Was that your burp? Whew! Gaaaaarlic!” (Of course, it was Jeannie burping first, never me!) But we continued to burp and by now, we let each other know. “Careful, garlic on its way.” It was awesome.
The next bar we stopped at was the Irish pub. It wasn’t that crowded and it needed some music. So we dropped a few quarters in the juke box and played some Boston, some Lily Allen, whatever randomness we could find. We ordered a beer, burped some more, and then a guy started up some quiz game asking questions to all of the 10 patrons. Jeannie answered some quietly to me but I never could figure out why nobody was answering the questions. Were they dumb? Did NOBODY know any of the answers? I mean someone had to take a chance at “What is the first word Neil Armstrong said when he stepped onto the moon’s surface?” Hello, it’s THAT’S. As in, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” What is WRONG with these people?
The next question came up. ” What album of Michael Jacksons had the most number one Hot 100 singles from any one album?” I thought it was Thriller but Jeannie said it was Bad. And she is one smart cookie. I couldn’t stand the silence any more and I screamed out “BAD!” The dude who was asking the questions turned and looked at me like I was growing a third head. He said “We are WRITING the answers down on paper. Please do not yell out the answers.”
Ooooooooooohhhh, that is why they were so quiet. As I was somewhat (but not totally) embarrassed, Jeannie and I ducked into the restaurant area and had a few uncontrollable giggles over it with a few more chimichurri burps just to spice it up some more. haha. Okay, bad joke.
And that, my friends, was my last night out in New York. And yes, the correct answer, was Bad.
GOING NINETY MILES 