Saturday, May 17, 2008

Send Us Wedding Pics

Just a reminder to send us whatever wedding pics you have (or give us a link to your photo-sharing site). We'd love to see them!

Home

Home, at last.

I know we didn't post much over the last several days, but you really didn't miss much either. We used our time in Las Vegas to sleep and do laundry. We both had colds (Kurt's is still really bad). About the only thing we did in Vegas was go out to eat a couple of times... once to Hash House a Go Go, once to a Wisconsin-themed brewery, and once to a fantastic sushi place called I Love Sushi. And on the way to sushi, we went to the Pinball Hall of Fame and played some old classics.

We were going to go to Moab on the drive back east, but there were no rooms available in the area, so we had to push on. We'll have to do the Moab stuff on some other trip.

The rest of it was basically just driving home. We had some minor drama on the road today when we arrived at the scene of an accident immediately after it happened. We didn't witness the accident, but we pulled in behind the car to block traffic so that no one would hit the driver or her car. The driver was OK, but her car was pretty wrecked.

That was it.

Now we're back home and we have a day to rest and recharge. All in all, a really wonderful trip. I'll work on getting more pics and links into older posts (and post updates when I do).

-Colette

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Approaching Kansas City. Eastern Kansas is not all that flat. It's actually very pretty.

Goodnight from Junction City, KS

Bedtime. Long drive home tomorrow.

Friday, May 16, 2008

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Passing Vail, Colorado. Snow!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Driving through Utah!

Going to spend a little time in Moab. - Kurt

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Still alive...

We are in Vegas and recovering from this breakfast at Hash House a Go Go. - Kurt

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Kurt at the pinball hall of fame.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Heading Out to Grand Canyon and Vegas

Our time in Sedona is through. This morning, we are heading out to the Grand Canyon and then on to Las Vegas for a few days with the Martellos.

Sedona Updated with Pictures and Video

Sedona post below has been updated with pics and video. You can see more of the video from the Jeep ride over here.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

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This just never gets old.

Sedona

There are hardly words worth writing about a place like this because the place itself exists somewhere beyond what words can convey. Not even pictures are enough (though, we'll put some in here later). You just want to shake your head and say, "Go... Just go." You have to see it for yourself.

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As we wound our way down the canyon to get here, it was nearly impossible to keep from tearing up. This might very well be the most beautiful place on Earth. And after several days on the road, it was like finding an oasis. Here was a place where we could slow down again. We had planned to spend a single evening in Sedona and then move on. Within half an hour of getting here, we had decided to stay three nights.

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The sights are incredible, and even with the tourists and the jeeps and the shuttles and the timeshare hucksters, there's still an unshakable sense of quiet here. It's as if no amount of noise you could possibly make could ever be bigger than the land itself.

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On our first day here, we ate at a cozy little hillside Italian place called The Hideaway. The guy at our hotel said it's a place where locals actually go. We split an enormous salad, and got introduced to Oak Creek Brewery's wares. Oak Creek Brewery is the local brewery, and we've both been very impressed by what we've sampled. While we were eating our salad, we noticed a pizza someone else had ordered and made a note to come back for dinner. And, after wandering town a bit, then making use of the whirlpool at the hotel, we were ready for pizza. It was quite good, and because there was some kind of holdup in the kitchen, the waiter comped our drinks for us. After dinner, we got back in the whirlpool until they kicked us out at pool closing time.

The next day we needed to move hotels, as the our original hotel didn't have vacancies for Saturday. We found one of those timeshare type places that gave us Saturday and Sunday night for $100 total if we would just sit through one of their presentations. For that price in Sedona, we were willing to give up 90 minutes of our time on Sunday morning. Check-in time for the hotel wasn't until 4:00, though, so we decided to go on one of the many, many Jeep tours running around Sedona. We finally settled on one that would take us on a scenic route, high above Sedona, then onto a rough-and-tumble 4-wheeling route just west of town. The views were incredible, but it was actually quite difficult to take pictures. We were bounced around a lot, even on the scenic route. We got jostled so badly that Kurt's knees ached by the end of the tour. It was well worth the time, though. Absolutely fantastic ride.

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Wiped out from our ride, we decided to have an easy night of it. We picked up some take-out Chinese and took it back to our (new) room. We opened a bottle of the wine we had gotten at The Cave Winery in Missouri and had dinner and wine out on our balcony. Below us, in the valley, we listened to the ceremony and festivities of a wedding. Weddings are so nice and calming when you're not in them. We hope they are as happy as we are, and we suspect they regret their decision to hire a cheesy DJ. I know we regret their decision to hire a cheesy DJ!

This morning, we went on our timeshare tour. For a timeshare deal, I have to say, it doesn't seem too awful. I've been on these presentations before, and this one really does seem like a far better deal than any of the others I've seen. Nevertheless, we're not going to buy a timeshare. The woman who was our "hostess" was extremely cool and very, very good at her job, so I felt bad for her, since I know they work on commission, but there was just no way we were going to buy a timeshare.

After the presentation, we toured around Tlaquepaque, which is basically an outdoor art mall. It's a quaint little "village" with shops, and the shops are mostly jewelry, painting, and sculpture of various kinds. Lots of interesting stuff, but it tired us out, so we came back to the room. Currently Kurt is taking a nap, and I'm at the little "food court" type place next to our hotel. I wanted to try the wild prickly pear ice cream to see if it was as good as it sounded.

It is.

- Colette

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(pictures later when I get a chance)

Special Secret Message for Sandy and Diane

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

OK all the rest of you can look now.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Updated pictures and links below

The "Catching Up With the Lindemanns" post below has been updated with photos and links to photos.