Back to Sacramento Via Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles

November 29, 2011 - With heavy hearts, leaving our son and daughter-in-law after a wonderful visit, it was time to travel west.  We left Vermont after several hours of delay due to high winds at O'Hare in Chicago.  When we finally arrived in Chicago, we missed our connection and our flight was rescheduled 24 hours later.  So we were stranded without luggage (hats, gloves, jackets, pajamas, toothbrushes, etc.) in the windy city.  Through the airline, we were able to get reasonably priced accommodations for the night.

Serendipity

The following day, we made good use of our time. It was a crisp clear day in Chicago, and we enjoyed a day of sight seeing and a lunch with my cousin Mike who works in the city.  This was an unexpected and welcome pleasure.  

We departed Chicago in a small jet and headed for Las Vegas late in the day.  Now the winds were in Las Vegas!  When we touched down after being buffeted about in howling 50 miles an hour winds, the passengers broke into a relieved spontaneous applause and bolted from the plane.   Miraculously, we were reunited with our luggage, secured our rental car,  and navigated our way with our iPad to Abby and Neal's home.  We love our new iPad!

Las Vegas - November 30-December 7

What a delight to be reunited with our daughter, son-in-law, and grand pet Noodles. Abby and Neal both had to work the Thursday after we arrived, so we were on our own to rest up and do some touring.  We went to the Atomic museum and learned about the the nuclear testing in Nevada.  It was well done and very interesting.

Spring Preserve Museum

On Friday, Abby had the day off.  Mother and daughter luxuriated with a a pedicure and manicure.  Later in the day, Russ, Abby, and I toured the Spring Preserve in Las Vegas.  When Neal came home, we had some light snacks, and headed of to see Cirque de Soleil, Ka!  This was our Christmas present from the kids.  It was an incredible show.  We were left scratching our heads and marveling at the engineering of the sets and incredible flexibility of the humans.  We capped the evening off with dinner at the MGM Grand.

Saturday was a ski day for Neal, Russ, and Abby.  Neal is on the National Ski Patrol at Mt Charleston about 40 minutes from their home.  Elevation is about 8500 feet and there was fresh snow.  So it was a great day for all of them.  

Sunday, the five of us, including Noodles, set off for the Valley of Fire, and some short hikes through the sandstone formations.  Noodles with her scarf and hiking boots, looked very cute prancing through the sand and climbing up the rocks.  This was a first for Abby and Neal too, so it was especially fun discovering something new together.

Monday was back to work for Abby and Neal.  Russ and I caught up on laundry, reading, and working our photos.  Originally, we had planned on taking a flight tour of the Grand Canyon, but because of weather the Monday flights had been cancelled.

Grand Canyon - December 6
Tuesday morning, we boarded a touring Cessna to fly to the Grand Canyon.  The scenery from the air was gorgeous. The wind sock hung limply, the sky was blue, and the desert looked as if it had been lightly dusted with confectioner's sugar.   It took us about an hour and half to get to the south rim.  From there, Russ and I boarded a helicopter, to get an even closer look of the Canyon. 

The Canyon was dusted with snow, accentuating the many exposed layers of sandstone and eroded gullies.  The contrast of whites, pinks, beiges, and reds was spectacular.  We had plenty of time to visit some the famous look outs for for photos.

A bird's eye view sure beats a road trip!  We had a great day.

Hello Los Angeles - December 7 - 8

We arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, and awoke early Thursday morning to spend 14 hours at the Happiest Place in the World.....Disneyland of course!  It's been years since we have been to Disneyland, and we've never been at Christmas so we enjoyed the festive decorations and the changes to the park.  We also enjoyed meeting up with fellow cruiser, Lori Newell, from SV Trim.

Pirates of the Caribbean is now more reflective of the movies than visa versa.  The Haunted House was decorated as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Swiss Family Robinson House is now Tarzan's Tree House, It's a Small World was lavishly decorated for the holidays, the submarine ride now incorporated finding Nemo, Tomorrowland's Inoventions is reflective of our high tech world, and best of all was the Star Tours ride now in 3D.   That was fabulous. 

Woodland Hills - December 9

We slept in on Friday morning after our long day at Disneyland and took a leisurely drive north along the coast and over the mountains through Topanga Canyon to Woodland Hills where we spent the afternoon and evening with Teresa and Conor the Irish Setter.  Our nephew Mike was on an overseas junket with Peter Greenberg http://www.petergreenberg.com/, travel expert.  Mike frequently works as Peter's radio engineer on these trips.  He has had some amazing experiences.

We missed seeing Mike, but enjoyed being with Teresa and seeing the progress that Mike is making on his sailboat project.  Between the boat and other home projects, both Mike and Teresa are busy.  The boat is looking beautiful.  It will be too pretty to put in the water.

Long Beach - December 10

We departed late morning and made our way south once again, this time to Seal Beach.  After checking into our hotel, I spent the afternoon with Aneta Murphy.  We enjoyed visiting.  Russ and I introduced Aneta to geocaching.  We found a cache just a few feet from the hotel.  Early in the evening, we enjoyed wine and hors d'ouerves with Aneta and Peter, then dinner with Irv Howard at the Long Beach Yacht Club.  What a joy to see them and to catch up.  There have been many changes to middle grades education at the state level, some good, some not so good.  When this trio retires from the California League of Schools, I sure hope there are some great people with big feet to fill their shoes!  They do a terrific job for California's teachers and students.

Sunday, December 11-18 It's Party Time!
We arrived back home in Colfax late December 11, spent 1 night in our own bed, and headed back down to the Bay Area for some visiting.  We spent time with friend Carlene Abbors, Russ's brothers and sisters-in-law Ted and Marian, and Don and Diane, Roz's Aunt Laura, friends Wayne and Carol Martin, and new acquaintances and Nauticat Boat owners Barb and Dave Tishler.  We returned back to Colfax to have breakfast on Saturday with Roz's former colleague from California Department of Education Marsha Robinson and her friend Bill.  Saturday afternoon was spent at Wendy Stevens home in Carmichael with our former Fleet I group.  We had a great, fun-filled reunion with several friends.  Sunday, it's dinner with the McElhaney's and friends......phew!