A Dizzy December

Bob and I started the month of December with a night out at "The Cloud" restaurant located in the top of a building just down the street.  It's one of those elegant dining spots we were told we "had" to experience.  The food was great and the views were nice.  With the city all adorned in Christmas lights, it was a festive and enjoyable evening.

A few days later, Bob caught me out on the balcony playing in the freshly fallen snow.  It was one of those perfect pajama days - just me and my snow pals!  (Don't be fooled into thinking I was the only one having fun . . . Bob quickly supplied me with all the snowman accessories used to create our little family.)

Our itinerary for the rest of the month was pretty crazy, and will be continued in the next two blog posts.  Bob flew into Las Vegas and I to Salt Lake City.  I was privileged to spend several relaxing days with Bobby, Jill, Linley and Max, while flew to Houston for some business.  Then we both flew in to Las Vegas for a couple of days where Stephanie and Paige had arrived to spend a week with her Grandparents.  Shirley was quickly succumbing to the effects of ovarian cancer which had plagued her life for the past 3 years.  Bob's father was also just diagnosed with Leukemia and not expected to live much longer.  We all wanted to spend as much time with them as possible.  

With Stephanie watching over grandpa, Bob and I drove down to Sedona, Arizona for a mini-vacation.  My brother, Jim and his wife, Shauna, joined us there.  After all, we were celebrating our 32nd double wedding anniversary!  On the way down, we drove through Flagstaff which was blanketed in a few feet of freshly fallen snow.  It was gorgeous, although several overturned trucks along the freeway reminded us to drive cautiously.

The drive into Sedona was truly breathtaking as dusk set upon the red-rock monuments that welcomed us into the peaceful little valley.  In the morning, we snaps a few photos of the spectacular view from our balcony at the resort.

Sedona is a unique "spiritual" sanctuary to which people from all over the world come for "enlightenment" as they visit the many "vortexes" around the area, which are places of "spiraling spiritual energy" that interact with your inner self.  Should we have worried about being there so near the dreaded December 21st doomsday predicted with end of the Mayan calendar?  We spent a couple of days exploring the community and hiking through the parks.  It was colder than we'd hoped for, but really quite pleasant.  We felt like we were back in Korea when we saw all the stacked stones at a place called "Buddha's Beach".

We found a nice Mediterranean restaurant for our anniversary dinner, enjoyed wandering around the upscale artisan shops at Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village, and even found a tacky Christmas lights display to walk through.

Our final day in Arizona, before heading back to Vegas, we drove over to Jerome - the largest "Ghost Town" in the world.  Founded in 1876, Jerome is an old copper mining town perched up on the ridge of a mountain.  The old stores are now occupied by souvenir and art vendors, though many of the buildings are just the empty remains or facades of once lively buildings.

This was certainly an enjoyable anniversary which we will never forget!