Mexico-Las Vegas-Utah-Arizona

As you can see from the past few blogs, I had limited access to the internet while I was on vacation. I'm now back home and can finally catch up with everything including all that reality TV--the finale of Work of Art and all of the new Project Runway. I had only seen the first episode and I need to see the next five to bring myself up to date, not to mention the final two episodes of Doctor Who. I'll tackle all of that in separate blogs.

The trip was fun and unusual, slightly marred by my headaches caused by my getting used to new glasses (I'm still having problems, but a recent visit to the opthamologist may finally resolve the situation.)

We flew to Mexico City to visit friends who live there and then drove with them to Malenalco where they have a second home. We stayed there for a few days during which we drove to Taxco, a beautiful town specializing in silver. Very hilly, like a European resort. It was really pretty. We had a mini-Carmen Miranda festival, watching DVDs of two of her movies. Interesting that she was never the star, always the comic relief with one or two big numbers featured all that fruit on her head. Ironically in "Doll Face," the best number was "She Was Always True to the Navy" which was cut from the film--featuring Carmen with a lighthouse on her head.

The we flew to Las Vegas. We had been there once before, staying at a sleazy motel. but now we decided to splurge and stay at Caesar's Palace. We lucked out and got a suite with an amazing view of the strip, right across from the Flamingo where Donnie and Marie were playing. We swam in the luxurious pool, used the jacuzzi in the room, ordered cocktails from room service (They didn't send the order of nuts, but the waiter told us it would ahve been $25). While walking on the strip I saw several bridal parties and three people getting arrested.

From the center of man-made splendor, we drove to natural wonders in Utah (passing several billboards advertising the services of lawyers). Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon were breathtaking. We finished the trip in Arizona visiting Jerry's sister and her partner who had a summer home in a resort area called Lakeside.

The vacation came to a mixed ending when our rental car went over a big rock in the Salt River Canyon. It caused a bad oil leak and luckily we found an open garage in Globe, AZ. (It was Sunday morning.) We had to get a cab to the Phoenix airport and we just made our flight back. But we had a great time.