I was going to title this post Grand Canyon but then I realised that if I only cover one day in the entry I won’t actually make it to the Grand Canyon. I’m on my second flight of the day, down to Florida and I just purchased internet for the hour which should help with photos and looking at my wise history if needed to help jog my memory. Due to my still out of whack sleep I’m pretty sure I hadn’t had dinner the night before cause I fell asleep early, but I also woke up at about 6.30 and apparently wasn’t going back to sleep, so I got up and went to breakfast at the hotel. I didn’t have a waffle that day but went for yoghurt and a bagel.
I think I figured it was worth getting a fairly early start but after breakfast I might have had a brief nap or something before I packed up and headed out because I’m pretty sure I didn’t leave at 7am! The first port of call was Walmart because I knew there were limited shops at the Grand Canyon and they were sure to be more expensive so I wanted to buy some non-perishable stuff before I left. I knew my room had a microwave and a fridge so I could get some meal stuff but the main things I was after was water, gatorade, protein bars and similar – stuff that I would want when hiking. I also bought a snack for lunch. As usual I think I may have overbought but what can you do. Then it was off toward Seligman, this historical place of Route 66. I stopped there a purchase a few things in the gift shop but I wasn’t there that long.
Then it was off to Williams, with a stop at Macca’s for some food (I feel like Macca’s became a far to convenient regular stop when driving – either that or Starbucks). I realised that I ended up having a fair bit of time (some of the stops didn’t quite pan out) and if I headed straight to my hotel it would be too early to check in. So I looked up something I had seen – Bearizona. It was actually pretty cool, it likes a park that you drive though broken into sections and in different sections you can see different animals. It was a leisurely drive and probably went for about and hour which was pretty good for my timing.
After that I decided it was time and headed directly for the Canyon! I arrived and checked in no problems, the hotel was fairly nice, it had an outdoor pool and hot tub and two indoor hot tubs in a kind of indoor garden and bar that my room looked over. I can’t remember the order, but being tired I thought a swim/tan would be in order and I also wanted to go to the general store to get perishable items (and wine!) The pool was nice but there was a lot of wind, so when I got out of the pool it was pretty cold and I didn’t last that long. I knew the general store would be expensive as it was the only shop but it was really pricey! I decided to break my $100 bill but the guy at the checkout seemed quite put out that I wanted to pay with cash.
Back to the hotel. My memory is I just ate some of the food I had bought and had a relatively early night excited for the Canyon the next day. And that will be the next post.
So I wasn’t wildly successful in finishing off writing about my US Trip. It’s probably too late now, but I did take some notes so maybe I’ll do an abbreviated version of the highlights at some point. At any rate I’m off again on another trip (i’m not counting the two 48 hour or less work trips to Melbourne).
This one is to Singapore, with my friends and their two daughters and it’s purely a holiday. We’re there for 8 days so it should be a great time. I’m not going to make any promises, but I am going to try and blog about it. We’ve just taken off and we have WiFi for the first our of so while we’re still in range of the Satellite that covers Australia.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Singapore. We went for Mom’s 50th when I was 11 but I only have a few memories of that trip. I also spend two days there in 2005 on our way back from the FPS US Trip but we were so shattered after all of that travel that I don’t think we did that much. So I’m excited to experience it again as an adult, it should be good fun.
Qantas Club pays off again – flying international lets you into the Perth International Business Lounge which was a nice place to spend the 2+ hours before our flight. It was a good time to be there too. With no other scheduled international flights this morning the lounge was pretty empty which is always nice when there’s less crowds. Being the international lounge, we even managed a sneaky glass or two of champagne for breakfast. The coffee wasn’t great, but other than that it was a good experience.
Well that’s all for now, stay tuned for Singapore adventures.
Looks can be deceiving. I doubt this phrase will spark much argument (and if it does, then it’s a different discussion!)
Coping does not mean it’s easy is an example of a situation where looks can be deceiving,
The initial response to ‘coping does not mean it’s easy’ may well be ‘well duh’. But if I pointed to somebody on the street who wasn’t bawling in tears, and wasn’t jumping for joy and asked is that person coping or is their life easy at the moment could you tell me?
Obviously this is a slightly broad and unrealistic scenario, but I think it helps to illustrate my point.
My point is, (and for those who currently know my personal circumstances I am not having a go at anybody) if people seem outwardly like they are going OK, yet you know things are going on in their life, don’t assume they are finding it easy.
This is my personal experience, and maybe it’s just me, but I suspect others would tell you the same.
I think there are three broad categories, people aren’t coping (this is usually obvious), people are coping (but you can clearly tell that they are just coping), people are coping (but if you met them in the street and hadn’t seen them for a while you would assume everything is normal).
It is the last category I’m discussing, but it’s not the person in the street who I’m highlighting. Rather it’s the person who knows they are going though a difficult time but assumes, because of there general behaviour it is all good.
I’m not saying it’s easy to tell, but I am saying if you know somebody is going through a rough time, it doesn’t hurt to ask how they’re going.
Thank you to those who have. Those who haven’t, please don’t feel attacked, I imagine I would have (and probably sometimes still do) acted the same had I not had personal experiences that has brought this to my attention.
