America the Beautiful

Everybody's got a dream. An "If I Ever Won The Lottery I'd..."

You wanna know mine?

I'd buy one of them there RVs and tour the crap out of the good old U S of A. I'd get one of those maps of the country on the back with a sticker for each and every state and finish that map. I'd start with Alaska and end in West Virginia. I'd stop at every local diner and eat their signature dish and learn about the cultures all across America.

[dream sequence ends]

Considering I don't even play the lottery, the chances of winning it are pretty slim. I also have a full-time career, an 18-month old child, and beef with the amount of gas my Ford Explorer already eats up let alone a giant RV. That leaves me right back to where I started which is actually kind of okay considering I'm a glass half full kind of a gal. But "right back to where I started" doesn't necessarily mean that I need to be stuck being so unworldly, does it? As Miss Alessandra would say, NO!

Therefore, I've devised a strategy to nibble away at my dream one shiny morsel at a time. Every other year, Ricardo and I have agreed to take a road trip to one previously unexplored [by us] American territory at at a time. If it just so happens to blend in with a business trip, even better! And so, Destination Playstation 2010 out in Scottsdale, Arizona came just in time to quell the Southwest-thirsty bug in my heart.

Grandma and Grandpa Torres headed out for Ali Patrol:

(Oh boy, they're in for it...)

And mama and daddy headed out to Sky Harbor airport and immediately following, Hertz, to put some mileage on someone else's car. Excellent!

First stop, four hours north to the mind-blowing Grand Canyon. And yes, it's every bit as overwhelming as everyone says.

And yes, we were wearing our winter jackets and gloves. It was 42 degrees in Arizona. What I mean is, it was exactly the same temperature in Arizona as it was in Minnesota. Only Arizona had more snow. Damn you, global warming!

Breathtaking! Oh. And...The mountain range is nice too. :)

Everyone talks about the world in it's original format, unhindered by man's technology and technology's stupid pollutants. I guess it's prudent to be honest and admit that most of the time, "green" comments like these almost strike me as cliche. But as we drove through Navajo country which has remained relatively unchanged since America's inception, and through Canyon country which has remained relatively unchanged since Earth's inception, I realized just how much bigger than us all of this really is. I hope we don't ruin it.

On good word from several of Ricardo's colleagues, once we were done oogling the G.C., we got the heck out of Dodge and headed to our next stop, spiritual Sedona. Good news, we got to shed a layer! Long sleeves were more than enough for Sedona, which was about two hours south of Grand Canyon National Park. We arrived at night and traversed some treacherous hairpin curves to get there. Now, I just got back from Lombard Street in San Francisco a few weeks ago and I must say, the curviest street in the world may have met its match with whatever road we were on. Add an elevation of 6,000 feet, the drop of which mere inches from your passenger door, and that makes for some pretty adrenaline-inducing riding! After an amazing meal and good night's rest, we got back at it again for some hiking.


We hiked (yeah, that's Ricardo way down there)...


And hiked...


And hiked...


And THEEEENNNN I went to work all week while Ricardo laid by the pool. Luckyeee!!!

By the time Thursday came around, we were MORE than excited to get some of this:

We can't believe it's already Easter week around these parts! Hope yours is wonderful and relaxing surrounded by lots of friends, family and peace.

Hugs!

RAD