This is an EXTREMELY long post. With photos. You have been warned.
Last week we drove out to Las Vegas, where my brother Jeff and his beautiful fiance were married in the Shark Tank at Mandalay Bay. It was very intimate and beautiful. Kerry was lovely and Jeff glowed with happiness. It was fabulous to have our whole family gathered together. My dad's sister and her family came out from Arizona. I saw my Klima cousins, who I haven't seen in five to ten years (one of each). It was a fabulous reunion. Since the reception was in LA the next Saturday, we took the days in-between to have a little vacation.
First stop was a tour of Hoover Dam. It was built in the 1930s and I geeked out over all the Art Deco details and took tons of photos. Art Deco is one of my favorite architectural periods. Hoover Dam is amazing. It generates enough energy to pay for itself and an engineering marvel. There are several ingenious methods that were created in order to build the dam. Seriously, amazing.
Next was the Grand Canyon. Neither of us had been there before. It was amazing. The colors at sunset are beautiful. There are some fabulous buildings that were constructed in the 1930s, with the architecture reminiscent of native peoples. Amazing. The canyon did look like it was the painted backdrop of a movie set; it kind of looked fake. It is astonishing what nature can do over millions of years. It was FREEZING cold while we were there. We were camping and the temperature dropped into the teens. Like 16*. I was a frozen popsicle almost the whole time we were there. The bonus of going in the extreme off-season is that we practically had the place to ourselves and could linger as long as we wanted without having to jostle around crowds.
Some bonuses of camping were the wildlife that wandered into our campsite. There was a buck (7-8 years old) that wandered through on our first day (I was only a couple feet from him!) and a herd of elk on our last day (10-15 mothers and babies). I love to see wildlife in their natural habitat. It is always so cool to me.
Next was the trip to LA for the reception. We decided to drive Route 66 through AZ to CA. it was interesting. There are a lot of little blink-and-you-miss-it towns and a VERY curvy road, but it was interesting nonetheless. I want to drive the whole thing someday.
LA was fabulous. I saw all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins at the reception. I was able to spend some time down in Long Beach and hung out with the girls who still live in the area. We went to dinner, I got a pedicure and manicure at my favorite nail salon EVER, and made a trip to Sweet Jills, the best bakery ever. It was a fabulous trip, full of fun and catching up.
Enjoy the random photo montage below.
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