We made it back to Milwaukee, WI last night. I'm actually very much surprised....
After we left Kingman, AZ we drove to the Grand Canyon. IT. WAS. AWESOME. We actually had to take a gravel road for the last 14 miles to get there. And it was a very good thing that we had a rental car because Ben drove like a crazy cowboy.
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| looking over the edge |
At the Grand Canyon, we opted for a bus tour so that we could hop on the buses at any time and have them whisk us away to the next location.Our first stop was Eagle Point/The Skywalk. Apparently there was the outline of an eagle in the rocks.... but I didn't see it. Anywho, upon arrival, I was very overjoyed to see that you could walk right up to the edge of the canyon. So I did. Ben stayed back a ways and felt nauseous. He hates heights, but he did it all because he thought I needed supervision running around like a kid on candy in my flippy flops. In retrospect, he might have been right.
The Skywalk was a check on my life list. It's a big horseshoe shaped glass bridge extending over the side of the canyon. You couldn't bring your camera, and they made you wear ugly light blue booties.... but nonetheless..... still amazing and gorgeous view.
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| Ben taking in the view |
The next stop was Guano Point... aka bat poop place. It was the location of a bat poop station. Soooo yeah. Bat poop.
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After the Grand Canyon, we headed to Vegas. We stayed at The Golden Nugget downtown for the first couple of nights, and spent our days and nights by the
fish tank pool and playing the Wizard of Oz slot game (favorite!!). The Golden Nugget's pool is actually in the Top 10 Pools in the world... or nation... or ever. I dunno. But it's Top Ten material alright.
We even went down the body slide that goes through the middle of the giant fish tank.
Body slides and ferris wheels are on my $*!+ list, but Ben spent a whole day doing things with heights so it was my turn to be a trooper and go down the slide. Of course I spazzed a bit and busted up my elbows on the way down. Seriously... who bleeds going down a water slide?! This girl.
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A day-trip to
Hoover Dam came midway through the week. Again, something that was on the life list for me. Holy bologna that is a big ol' pile of concrete!!
We even did a dam tour... and ever time they said the word "dam" I got the giggles. Because I am just that mature.
We got to go inside the dam, and see some tunnels and stuff.
It was pretty interesting... and for the most part, I was in full nerdy tourist mode. For the most part.... but when the opportunity to play around in an air tunnel presents itself... well... you would be a fool to not take advantage.
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| Ben doing tricks |
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We stayed down on the strip for the remainder of the week at..... the Excalibur. What a drafty old castle. The pool, on the other hand, is great. But pretty much any pool in the sun and warmth will be amazing. We got slushies with relatively cheap refills and tanned our butts off during the day.
We did a bunch of walking around the Strip.... and a lot of gambling. I am pretty much addicted to the Wizard of Oz game. I think I played it at most of the casinos. BUT it's fine because I ended up winning.
On Sunday, we went to the Bellagio for the lunch buffet with unlimited champagne. Hellooooo mimosas! I ate so much that I thought I would literally pop at the seams.
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& on the way home is when I thought I was going to die. Literally.
We had a full flight leaving Phoenix, AZ at a little after 2 in the afternoon. It was a bigger plane, and it took awhile to get everyone loaded. Ben and I were not sitting next to each other, but he was in the row ahead of me.
Everyone gets loaded. Doors shut. Flight attendants start going through take off procedures. The plane starts backing up. The plane COMPLETELY SHUTS DOWN. All lights go off, air conditioner turns off, engines shut down.... you name it, it was not happening. The flight attendant standing in the aisle doing the whole "exit here, blah blah blah" thing couldn't even pretend not to be surprised. For about 2 minutes, we sat there in darkness. There were a couple chuckles, and I even laughed a little myself. Mostly because I figured we would have to get onto a new plane.
Thought process: Ooh bummer. Hey, I wouldn't mind sticking around in Phoenix for a night. I wonder if Ben would be able to get off. I don't think I work tomorrow? Phoenix is great. Uugh, what if we just have to all get onto a new plane? If they can't get us onto a plane, they may pay for a hotel room right? Dude, I hate the middle seat. The middle seat on a 4 hour flight is going to suck... unless we get onto a new plane. I might get a window seat then. Maybe they will open the emergency exit and we will get to slide down the yellow slide. Dang, that would be fun. I hope they use the slide. What if they don't reschedule our flight? We could rent a car and drive home. I wonder how long it would take to drive.
Now the lights flicker back on. There is a rumble and the engines start up again. I'm still thinking that we will pull back up to the terminal. The flight attendant picks right back up in her speech like nothing happened. What? Did I just imagine this all? Okay, well here we go then.... We taxi over to the strip, and some sort of alarm starts going off. Now we have to be turning around. No? The flight attendant starts taking over the alarm about who knows what. Here goes a rough take off and another alarm... and I pretty sure I need to start making peace with my Maker. Slight panic attack time? I really love flying too.Turbulence reminds me of roller coasters.
Four hour flight later and I'm still under the assumption that the plane will lose electric power at any moment. If it shorted out once on the ground... then what's to say it's not going to happen in the air? How long can we glide? Is there anything around here that I can fashion into a parachute? Come on girl... you're going to make it home. OOOR you're going to make it "home" in the Biblical sense. Time came for us to land and I'm pretty sure the pilot had been day drinking. Rocky landing over, everyone on the plane gave a collective sigh and you could feel the tension break. We taxi over to the terminal, and before the plane parked or whatever it died again. AGAIN. Seriously. Maybe this old bird has had its last flight boys. I was thinking that we would be met on the landing strip by firefighters. Which wouldn't have been all that bad.... The doors finally opened and people got off that metal death rocket like a flash mob.
Home again home again, jiggity jig.
xoxo, b
The week before the second Vegas trip, I surprised Ben with family and friends at our apartment for his 29th birthday. His high school friend/best man Dan stopped by as the official distractor, and took Ben out on a brewery tour and to Potowatomi for lunch while everyone gathered. If you know anything about me, I'm :HORRIBLE at keeping secrets from Ben. I get too excited to share things with him, and when I do keep my mouth shut, he can pick up on my even more awkward attempts at being smooth and nonchalant. The surprise went off without a hitch, and the second surprise-- a pontoon boat for the evening-- went over great as well.
