are we on vacation again?

Today we roamed around part of Sedona. We're such city people... Everyone is getting out of their cars with back packs and bottles of water and walking sticks and hiking boots, and here we are in our sandals with our cameras and one bottle of water to split between us. We made it back again even with our lack of preparation. It really is beautiful out here. It's warm and a little too sunny for me, but beautiful. I found every slice of shade to stand in as we roamed around. There wasn't much, but it was enough. We ate at bodacious burgers. It was great. Bubba had an elk burger and I had fried cactus strips on mine. Yum! After that we went shopping at an arts outdoor shopping center. Incredibly nice stuff, but it all has the prices to match. Needless to say, lots of window shopping! I need a nap!

It took about 7 hours of flying (in middle seats,) then 3 hours of driving to get here, but it is still beautiful. We had lunch at an Amish restaurant yesterday, yes an Amish restaurant in AZ. And it was great. Bubba had shoofly pie for the first time, and for me it brought back memories of the very sticky sweet stuff from many years ago in PA with my family "shoofly pie and apple pandowdy makes your eyes light up and your belly say howdy!" Driving through Phoenix, the cacti were in bloom, it's almost magical seeing all the colors in a desert. Driving further north to Sedona, not that much is blooming yet. It is cooler up here and the terrain is different. We tried to see the sunset through the rocks last night, but as is usual for us we were late, but even better than that, we saw a bob cat just feet away from us! Very cool and we didn't get eaten by it, which is even better! We ended the night at the grocery store... I was exhausted when I finally fell into bed.

Yes, it has been another expensive trip to the glass show. I have no other vices, so I'm not that concerned about it. Right now I am sitting in the lobby of the South Point Casino because it is the only place with free wifi, Bubba is off desperately trying to loose his money... I bet he is doing an excellent job at that! The hotel is nice, lots of locals, but it's relatively cheap and clean so I won't complain. We should have paid the extra $25 and I could be napping right now instead of nodding off in this chair! Oh well, it was $25 more that I could spend on glass. We are looking at a new kiln. Something a little bigger and that has automatic settings. We'll investigate more when we get home. Speaking of which, I have another 3 and 1/2 hours until we go to the airport... Oh well!

Ok, so whenever we go to Orlando, I always comment on the young, pwt, and way too many babies on board, well... The Vegas crowd is a plane full of white haired overly plump people, there must be some good buffets out here to attract all this plumpness! And the day has just begun...

Ok, since it is so very windy, a lot of the blossoms are already gone, but what's left is still beautiful. We walked around the Tidal Basin. This brought us by the Jefferson Memorial, the Roosevelt Memorial, the new Martin Luther King Memorial and finished off where we started at the Washington Monument. This really is a great city to walk around. There's so much to see and so much is free. This day cost us more to park at Logan than the rest of the day. I'll add pictures when I get home... I almost forgot, there was a park that was full of tulips in bloom, that was just an added bonus!

So, I guess we do fun stuff even when we're not on vacation. Today we took a glass blowing class at Luke Adams Glass Studio in Norwood. It was pretty cool, or maybe I should say it was pretty hot! We got hands on and made a paperweight to start, I think that was to get a feel for the glass and the weight of the pole, and probably the heat too. Then we got to pick what we wanted to make. I made a round glass ornament and Bubba made a drinking glass, or what he likes to call a beer glass. We'll see how they come out in a couple of weeks. Like all hot glass, it has to anneal over night to keep it from cracking. We can't go tomorrow because we'll be in DC to see the cherry blossoms, and next week we are going to Vegas for more glass stuff. We'll update that after it happens...

As they say, all good things must come to an end, and that's what is happening way too early tomorrow. Yet another vacation will be done, but there is always the next one. The resort we are in now is dispersed up the side if a very steep hill, and I think it would be more appropriate for mountain goats, but it is nice and has a great view of playa hermossa. There is a shuttle bus around the resort, but we keep saying it is like a Disney ride, it seems to go either straight up, or straight down. There's one that has two bench seats and straps hanging from the roof to hold on to. Thank god for the straps, I just slide freely from one end to the other, it's actually a lot of fun, I just wonder how many people they have lost. Off to the airport again tomorrow and then home to the cold, it is almost spring though even if the groundhog did see it's shadow the other day!!