Happenings in Beverly Hills

Cupcakes can be bought from an "ATM," breakfast at a casual deli finds one in the company of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Max Winkler and his mother (Henry's son and wife, though Max is a director in his own right), and an assortment of what we were certain were other industry insiders, and lemonade casually (and inadvertently) purchased from a macrobiotic cafe has not a hint of sugar - this simply must be Beverly Hills.

After a very long drive from Vegas to LA (as nobody warned us BEFOREHAND that you never, never drive back from Vegas on a Sunday afternoon!!) and a surprise dinner at a Roadhouse somewhere on that never ending trip, we finally arrived at the famed Beverly Hilton, home to the Golden Globes each year, as well as some tragic events (we'd barely entered our room before Dana cracked the first tasteless Whitney Huston joke).  Yesterday, Dana's mediation lasted from 8:00 AM - 10:00 PM, so the kids and I were on our own for the day.  We explored Rodeo Drive, shopped for Boston clothes at North Face, had lunch at the hotel but dinner at The Farm on Beverly Street, a spot, we were told, is often buzzing with celebrities (apparently Diane Keaton frequents the restaurant).  While dining inside, I had a very good view of what appeared to be Sofia Coppola dining on the patio.  However, since we were never in the same room at the same time, and I didn't hear her speak, I can't be certain it was her.

This morning's trip to Nate 'N Al, on the other hand, brought certain celebrity sightings.  The waitresses greeted each new customer, all clearly regulars, like long lost friends.  "Welcome back, Ms. Winkler," our waitress said to the older woman joining the recognizable young man who was sitting in the booth right behind us.  Luckily, Daniel hear that warm welcome, so he was quickly able to determine that Max Winkler, Henry's son and an occasional actor (most likely recognized for his role on Arrested Development) was the face we'd been trying to place.  Far easier to place were the sweet and stunning Ashton and Mila, dining about six booths away from us, clearly comfortable and in love.   They finished up, chatted with the industry insider who had stopped Maddie (wearing her Emerson shirt) when we arrived to chat with her about Emerson, where he guest lectures, and then headed out into the streets of Beverly Hills, with nary a paparazzi in sight.  It was heartening.

Emerson's LA building is a thing of beauty.  With approximately 4,000 Emerson graduates living and working in LA, there was apparently a desire to have such a state of the art facility for some time.  With Kevin Bright (of Friends fame) chairing the board of directors, this urban campus provides myriad opportunities for Emerson's seniors who study and intern while they're here.  With industry professionals teaching the classes and helping to place students in meaningful internships (Sunset Gower, Nickelodeon, and Sony studios are all just minutes away).  A few years from now, Maddie hopes to call this building home for a semester.

The famed Hollywood sign in the distance from the LA Emerson building

From there, we went on a lovely personal tour of the LA campus of Emerson and then met Dana's middle school friend, now a sound editor at Sony, for a tour of that studio.  Though not one of the more advertised tours, it was among our favorites.  The Barbra Streisand Sound Stage (possibly named after her to keep her happy during contract negotiations) has hosted every Pixar film, Steven Spielberg and John Williams, Christopher Nolan and Hans Zimmer.  Long ago, a young Judy Garland stood in the center of the room and recorded "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."  In short, that room is the stuff of music legend.  It was an extraordinary place to visit.

Mark and Dana reunite after all these years

Breaking Bad "stuff" is all over, and Bryan Cranston has a designated parking spot (not here! ;)

The last Sony Oscar winner for Best Pic - The Last Emperor! In 1987!

Maddie and Daniel pose in front of the main offices, used for many feature films, such as Peter Parker's high school

Tonight we're heading to a hip restaurant on Melrose, and tomorrow we will go to the Grammy museum and visit Pasadena before heading to the airport for our red-eye flight home.   Of course, we may need to eat breakfast in Nate 'N Al's one more time before we leave LA!  Who knows who might be dining there tomorrow morning?!

Penn and Teller Class Up Vegas

     I have vividly remembered this illusion - Rose Shadow Illusion -- for nearly 30 years.  When my parents lived in Virginia during my college years, they took my brother and me to see several amazing shows that toured there.  Lily Tomlin's Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, John Lithgow starring in M Butterfly.  And Penn and Teller.  I haven't followed their career or watched their television show, but I have never forgotten the impression that show made, especially the rose illusion and the fact that they walked out to the sidewalk after the show was over and stood there patiently signing every audience member's program.  So... when we had the chance to book one extra show here in Vegas, I pitched it to the kids. They knew Penn and Teller from a house they designed for a recent Halloween Horror Nights, and were game to check out their full show based on what they'd seen and my recommendation.

     I guess it's not surprising that with 25+ more years of experience they were even more astounding this time out.  Funny, political, artistic, humane, they somehow don't belong in the Vegas of Criss Angel (who they humorously make fun of early in the show), yet they have been here, in this spectacular theater in the Rio hotel and casino, since 1993!  In an interview I found this morning - interesting interview :) - , Penn explains how they were drawn to the idea of the old Vegas, the Vegas of the Rat Pack era, when people came to see Frank Sinatra sing, not what Vegas became when tacky reigned.  For two hours last night, we were able to transport back to that era, with Mike Jones, a great jazz pianist, setting the mood as the "opening act," playing while the sold out crowd arrived, was invited on stage to check out a couple of props that would be used throughout the show and then settled into their seats.  When Jones introduced Penn and Teller, they took the stage (Teller emerging from the box that had been sitting on the stage the entire time) and took command of our attention. Our seats were in the mezzanine, so Dana had trouble seeing some of the more detailed illusions, but so much of Penn and Teller's show is their storytelling.  My favorite part of the night was seeing how Maddie and Daniel responded to the show.  Daniel, in particular, who had been wowed by Criss Angle just a few nights ago, had that spellbound look on his face that you only get a few times in your life - when something truly BLOWS... YOUR... MIND.  He asked for the metal "security card" (a political bit a tad too long to describe here) as his souvenir, and I suspect we may have a budding irreverent Libertarian on our hands after last night's show.  I can live with that :)

They closed the show by running out into the lobby, while the curtains opened to reveal every bit of the stage behind them, where the stagehands worked to put things back into place.  Before exiting, in a move that especially impressed Maddie, techie extraordinaire, Penn thanked every crew member - lights, sound, director, stage manager - by name.   Their desire to strip back the illusion, to make the audience member think about what and why and how, is what makes their show so extraordinary.  We intended to meet and thank both Penn and Teller after the show, but, alas, Teller had finished with his group by the time we were finished with Penn, so he remains the silent, brilliant clown for us.

Our final day leading up to this special, special show was low key.  We decided to check out the historic Du-Pars for breakfast.  Now located in the Golden Gate Casino, itself a living history of Vegas, they claim to have the best pancakes in the world!!! :)  Not sure about that, but they were mighty tasty.  I loved the sign in their bathroom that reads "What Happens in Vegas... Started HERE."  We then found a nice cool air conditioned theater to see Lucy, a fascinating, flawed, thrilling film with an award worthy performance by Scarlett Johansson, returned to our hotel for a late afternoon swim, and got ready for our final dinner and a show (dinner was wonderful Indian food at a restaurant in the Rio hotel).

Today we will have lunch at Gordon Ramsey's BurGR, before heading off on our 4 hour drive to Los Angeles.  Tomorrow is Dana's mediation, so the kids and I will play in Beverly Hills, before heading to Culver City on Tuesday for a tour of Sony and a visit with one of Dana's high school friends.  Just a few days left of what has been a wonderful vacation.

From New York, New York to the Hoover Dam

Posing across the street from the roller coaster they bravely rode just moments before.

I haven't posted for the past couple of days, as every time I've had the time to do so, the Internet has been unbearably slow.  Finally, here I am on Saturday morning, our last full day in Vegas, and we have no immediate plans and the web seems to be cooperating, so.... time to play catch up! :)

We've had a very fun few days here in Vegas.  We arrived after our morning trek on the narrows, which I will speak just a bit about.  The highlights: the tram to the bottom of the river leaves the visitor center at 6:00 AM and arrives at the starting point of the hike at about 6:40.  From 6:40 AM until maybe 9:00 or so, we had only two other people (two women who were also hiking it for the first time and who kept their own pace) on the river at the same time as us.  This gave us many, many moments on the river where it seemed as if we were the only four people in the universe.  Since we are not the camping sort, this is not a typical sensation we've experienced, and it is quite powerful.  That's not to say I'm going to invest in camping equipment, but I sure am glad that we took the Zion Outfitter's advice to start the day early, as it made all the difference.  We were able to watch the sunrise as the light caught the tops of the rocks and slowly inched down the cavern walls until it finally just started to touch us as we made our way back to the starting point around 11:00 or so.  We each took turns leading the way, allowing our walking sticks to find the best crevice in the rocks to place our foot, in order to keep mostly dry.  Daniel and I each fell in once, and I sacrificed my new and beloved sunglasses to the Virgin River just as we were about to turn around to make our way back.  Still, it was a perfect hike, and I'm so glad we did it just as we did.  Oh, and we're pretty sure we saw Carly Rae Jepsen making her way up the river just ahead of the mass of people following her, as we were returning to the start.  I've had "Call Me Maybe" in my head ever since :)

So... we cleaned up, packed up, and headed out... with one last delicious brunch in Springdale and a stop to pick up a new pair of sunglasses (which I very much needed for the drive to Vegas)  By 5:00 PM, we were in our Hilton, looking over the Vegas Strip and getting ready to head out for a night on "the town."

We've seen three shows since we've been here, all ostensibly Cirque du Soleil shows, though the Criss Angel magic show "Believe" has no trappings of a typical Cirque show.  We had seen The Incredible Burt Wonderstone before but had no idea just what an uncanny parody Jim Carrey was doing of Criss Angel. Watch this clip to get a sense of the show we saw: Criss Angel parody  The first night we saw the wonderful Michael Jackson "One."  The thing Cirque shows do so amazingly well is to immerse you in sound, so fans of Michael Jackson's music will love this show.  Last night, the kids and I saw "O," while Dana gambled in the Bellagio.  He was disappointed not to see what is probably the most magnificent of the Cirque shows, but he was the one who decided that he would rather gamble than be "some sort of Cirque junkie" :)  Luckily, he didn't lose! :)

Our days - a mix of activities to keep us cool (while Dana spent some time working in the hotel room):  We spent a few hours by the pool (but only a few - at 108 - 110, it's difficult to be out there for too long), dined at Serendipity for lunch and then enjoyed the shopping and amusements in some of the more spectacular hotels on the strip, such as the Coca Cola store in front of MGM and the New York, New York roller coaster (I sat that one out!)

Yesterday, we drove into Boulder City to take a tour of the Colorado River and the Hoover Dam.  While we were a bit concerned that it might be too hot on the river for this excursion, we decided to take the chance and are so glad that we did.  The day was just overcast enough to provide the much needed relief from the sun, and the trip was wonderful.   Brian, our captain and guide, was a wealth of information on the history of the Hoover Dam and all things Colorado River.   The several miles we rafted are among the 12 most pure miles of any river anywhere, as all of the silt for which the Colorado River is somewhat infamous is caught up on the other side of the Dam.  I took what I thought were the most gorgeous photos of all time only to come home last night to discover that my camera had once again "flaked out," overexposing the majority of them.  Still, I have the pictures in my mind, so that will have to be enough.

The dam is behind the kids, not that you can tell :(

It was a beautiful trip, where we spotted a dozen big horn sheep in the rocks on either side (one side being the "Arizona side") of us throughout the journey.  The 55 degree water was refreshing, and Brian often created some "white water" in order to get all aboard wet.  The other families on board were from Holland, Spain and England, which Brian told us is quite common.

Overexposed but still gives you a sense of  the start of our rafting trip

A photo from Dana's phone, where you can see the colors as they're meant to be!

This trip through Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon, and yesterday's visit to the Hoover Dam, has once again got me started on my Birthright idea.  If Israel can have a "Birthright" policy that any Jew has the right to visit Israel once in a lifetime, I don't know why we can't create a similar program for every American.  I'm going to have to get in touch with Bill Gates to get this whole thing started :)

So... that's a snapshot of our past few days.  We have one day (today) left in Vegas.  Tonight we see Penn and Teller, and then we're off to Los Angeles tomorrow morning.   We're trying to stay away from some of the more unseemly parts of Vegas, as our one foray onto Fremont Street, to get a glimpse of the "Fremont Street Experience" (complete with ziplines down the middle of the street, I kid you not!) left Maddie despondent for the future of women's rights :)  Nothing like a walk past Vegas showgirls the summer after your college bound daughter has completed a Women and Gender's Studies class to pour a bucket of ice water over the whole sin city vibe ;)  Today, we are escaping the heat in a cold air conditioned movie theater, where we will see Lucy, the new film featuring an empowered Scarlett Johansson as the title character.  That promises to be the antidote she needs :)  Here's hoping Penn and Teller don't tell any sexist jokes tonight! (Well, that Penn doesn't.  Teller isn't likely to offend ;)

From New York, New York to the Hoover Dam

Posing across the street from the roller coaster they bravely rode just moments before.

I haven't posted for the past couple of days, as every time I've had the time to do so, the Internet has been unbearably slow.  Finally, here I am on Saturday morning, our last full day in Vegas, and we have no immediate plans and the web seems to be cooperating, so.... time to play catch up! :)

We've had a very fun few days here in Vegas.  We arrived after our morning trek on the narrows, which I will speak just a bit about.  The highlights: the tram to the bottom of the river leaves the visitor center at 6:00 AM and arrives at the starting point of the hike at about 6:40.  From 6:40 AM until maybe 9:00 or so, we had only two other people (two women who were also hiking it for the first time and who kept their own pace) on the river at the same time as us.  This gave us many, many moments on the river where it seemed as if we were the only four people in the universe.  Since we are not the camping sort, this is not a typical sensation we've experienced, and it is quite powerful.  That's not to say I'm going to invest in camping equipment, but I sure am glad that we took the Zion Outfitter's advice to start the day early, as it made all the difference.  We were able to watch the sunrise as the light caught the tops of the rocks and slowly inched down the cavern walls until it finally just started to touch us as we made our way back to the starting point around 11:00 or so.  We each took turns leading the way, allowing our walking sticks to find the best crevice in the rocks to place our foot, in order to keep mostly dry.  Daniel and I each fell in once, and I sacrificed my new and beloved sunglasses to the Virgin River just as we were about to turn around to make our way back.  Still, it was a perfect hike, and I'm so glad we did it just as we did.  Oh, and we're pretty sure we saw Carly Rae Jepsen making her way up the river just ahead of the mass of people following her, as we were returning to the start.  I've had "Call Me Maybe" in my head ever since :)

So... we cleaned up, packed up, and headed out... with one last delicious brunch in Springdale and a stop to pick up a new pair of sunglasses (which I very much needed for the drive to Vegas)  By 5:00 PM, we were in our Hilton, looking over the Vegas Strip and getting ready to head out for a night on "the town."

We've seen three shows since we've been here, all ostensibly Cirque du Soleil shows, though the Criss Angel magic show "Believe" has no trappings of a typical Cirque show.  We had seen The Incredible Burt Wonderstone before but had no idea just what an uncanny parody Jim Carrey was doing of Criss Angel. Watch this clip to get a sense of the show we saw: Criss Angel parody  The first night we saw the wonderful Michael Jackson "One."  The thing Cirque shows do so amazingly well is to immerse you in sound, so fans of Michael Jackson's music will love this show.  Last night, the kids and I saw "O," while Dana gambled in the Bellagio.  He was disappointed not to see what is probably the most magnificent of the Cirque shows, but he was the one who decided that he would rather gamble than be "some sort of Cirque junkie" :)  Luckily, he didn't lose! :)

Our days - a mix of activities to keep us cool (while Dana spent some time working in the hotel room)/  We spent a few hours by the pool (but only a few - at 108 - 110, it's difficult to be out there for too long), dined at Serendipity for lunch and then enjoyed the shopping and amusements in some of the more spectacular hotels on the strip, such as the Coca Cola store in front of MGM and the New York, New York roller coaster (I sat that one out!)

Yesterday, we drove into Boulder City to take a tour of the Colorado River and the Hoover Dam.  While we were a bit concerned that it might be too hot on the river for this excursion, we decided to take the chance and are so glad that we did.  The day was just overcast enough to provide the much needed relief from the sun, and the trip was wonderful.   Brian, our captain and guide, was a wealth of information on the history of the Hoover Dam and all things Colorado River.   The several miles we rafted are among the 12 most pure miles of any river anywhere, as all of the silt for which the Colorado River is somewhat infamous is caught up on the other side of the Dam.  I took what I thought were the most gorgeous photos of all time only to come home last night to discover that my camera had once again "flaked out," overexposing the majority of them.  Still, I have the pictures in my mind, so that will have to be enough.

The dam is behind the kids, not that you can tell :(

It was a beautiful trip, where we spotted a dozen big horn sheep in the rocks on either side (one side being the "Arizona side") of us throughout the journey.  The 55 degree water was refreshing, and Brian often created some "white water" in order to get all aboard wet.  The other families on board were from Holland, Spain and England, which Brian told us is quite common.

Overexposed but still gives you a sense of  the start of our rafting trip

This trip through Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon, and yesterday's visit to the Hoover Dam, has once again got me started on my Birthright idea.  If Israel can have a "Birthright" policy that any Jew has the right to visit Israel once in a lifetime, I don't know why we can't create a similar program for every American.  I'm going to have to get in touch with Bill Gates to get this whole thing started :)

So... that's a snapshot of our past few days.  We have one day (today) left in Vegas.  Tonight we see Penn and Teller, and then we're off to Los Angeles tomorrow morning.   We're trying to stay away from some of the more unseemly parts of Vegas, as our one foray onto Fremont Street, to get a glimpse of the "Fremont Street Experience" (complete with ziplines down the middle of the street, I kid you not!) left Maddie despondent for the future of women's rights :)  Nothing like a walk past Vegas showgirls the summer after your college bound daughter has completed a Women and Gender's Studies class to pour a bucket of ice water over the whole sin city vibe ;)  Today, we are escaping the heat in a cold air conditioned movie theater, where we will see Lucy, the new film featuring an empowered Scarlett Johansson as the title character.  That promises to be the antidote she needs :)  Here's hoping Penn and Teller don't tell any sexist jokes tonight! (Well, that Penn doesn't.  Teller isn't likely to offend ;)

A Couple of Memorable (and Exhausting!) Days

I am finally updating the blog on Wednesday, as we awoke yesterday at 5:00 AM to "hike the narrows" of Zion and turned in late last night after dinner and a show in Vegas, with, of course, the three hour drive (and a near ran out of gas frightening few miles - thought of you the whole time, Mom!) sandwiched in there for good measure.

After a bit of consternation (code for a very unpleasant fight ;) regarding when and how we should hike the narrows - THE thing to do in Zion National Park - we finally decided to devote Monday to exploring Zion in a tamer fashion - horseback riding, returning to the unofficial hiking spot Daniel had been eager to return to (code for nonstop - albeit rather adorable - pestering) since he and Maddie first climbed the bottom of it a couple of days ago. lunch at the lodge (yup, three lunches in three lodges in three National Parks in three days - Bryce, Grand Canyon and Zion - that's quite a trifecta!), seeing the incredibly cheesy movie about Zion in a much hyped huge movie theater and taking a lovely afternoon dip in the pool, and eating yet another wonderful dinner in yet another charming and delicious restaurant in charming Springdale, Utah (where we started looking at lots for sale on our way out of town :) ).  This would enable us to rent the gear (the appropriate neoprene socks and water boots with requisite ankle support) in advance and give us all an extra day to get a little bit healthier before taking on the "strenuous" hike that is the narrows (especially for those who actually hike the whole darn thing - which takes approximately 11 hours!)  

So... once we figured everything out, Monday was lovely.   For some unknown reason, my camera flaked out during the horseback ride, leaving all of those many photographs "overexposed" (how that happens on a digital camera, I just haven't figured out), but the ride was pleasant enough, with Trigger, Alice, Tiny, and Ringo valiantly taking us on a trek through a particularly dusty part of Zion.   My favorite part of the day was our quest to find THE rock Daniel just had to climb again, and then the hour or so we spent climbing the rock and taking photos (thank goodness, my camera kicked back in at some point while we were on the rock!) during sunset.   Dana and Daniel got quite far, while Maddie and I opted to go about half as far and enjoy the scenery and our conversation instead.

Dana and Daniel about to reenact the opening scene from The Lion King

I would love to share some more of those photos with you right now.  However, a) the Internet in this hotel is awful, and it's not letting me upload any photos at the moment :( and b) it's time for us to head out to the Mirage for tonight's dinner followed by a magic Cirque show (Criss Angel's Believe), so... I will post this now and add more photos tomorrow.

Since most of you have seen the photos on Facebook, you know that we successfully hiked the first (and most popular) portion of the narrows, named for the very narrow space between the canyon walls that occurs at various parts of the hike at the opening of the Virgin River (which took the sacrifice of my brand new sunglasses :( - not to worry, we replaced them in a charming store run by a charming couple who moved to Springdale from Florida after spending a day hiking the narrows in 1999...)

So... until tomorrow!

Arizona - Check! (but where are the faces?)

As huge Parks and Recreation fans, we all had the following scene in our minds as we made our few hour journey to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon yesterday morning.  Since they had driven 24 hours from Indiana to Arizona just to get a glimpse of this item on Andy's bucket list, surely we could handle the few hour drive that would also enable us to check Arizona off our list!!! (After all, we would not only dine in the Grand Canyon lodge, but we would take several scenic drives, a few easy hikes and easily a few hundred photos)
April and Andy at the Grand Canyon

The only slight complication was the late start we got to our day.  Initially thinking we would stay in Zion for the day, we dawdled more than we should have over our Hampton Inn breakfast, Dana got some necessary work done while Daniel found himself inexplicably drawn into Twilight on the hotel television (why is it that we will relish watching something on a hotel tv we wouldn't linger on for more than a second at home?)  By the time we had decided it was best to tackle the Canyon yesterday, it was already 10:30.  Knowing we would arrive late for lunch and eager to explore the North Rim, we opted for a "meal for the day" at the Lodge and once again made our way on the breathtaking Zion - Mount Carmel Highway, complete with two historic tunnels (one which lasts 1.1 miles long and has no lights at all inside - freaky!)  During the most busy times of day (and yesterday was certainly one of those, as they had officially declared "No Parking" within Zion.  We pat ourselves on the back for deciding Sunday was Grand Canyon Day!), they only allow traffic to drive one way through the tunnel.  This adds a bit of time to your overall trip, but is definitely appreciated when you are deep within the 1 mile tunnel, not yet seeing the light at the end and not wanting a shuttle bus or trailer truck to come barreling at you from the other direction.  The only thing stranger then emerging into the full bright sunlight, which we had done several times by yesterday morning, was the return trip I sensibly drove last night, when I could barely tell when the tunnel ended and we were back in just the plain and total darkness of night.  Scary stuff, let me tell you.

So... the Grand Canyon.  After leaving Zion, the rest of the drive was far less spectacular (and a good hour longer) than the previous day's trip to Bryce, which led Maddie to wonder some more just what was so darn special about this Grand Canyon.  Why, she had started pondering the day before as we learned about and photographed the Hoodoos are people not always oohing and aahing about Bryce Canyon instead?!  This led to our reminiscing about the very sweet and funny Parks and Rec scene (if you haven't watched it yet, go watch it!) and discussing the relative merits of the South and North Rim of the Canyon (though it seems a universal truth that the North Rim is considered superior for all the reasons you would expect, not the least being it receives a million and a half fewer visitors each year).  Our first glimpse of the Canyon from the parking lot of the visitor center and lodge (where we stopped for a bathroom break and to make our 5:00 reservation) had the kids impressed but not overly.

yup - that's the view from the parking lot! :)

Of course, a glimpse from a parking lot is nothing compared to some of the vantage points we would get throughout the next four hours, as we reached Inspiration Point, the highest elevation in the Canyon (the North owns this; another point it earns) and hiked around Cape Royal, where we had some of the most serene and secluded moments of our day.

lots of "I'm king of the world" moments like this one :)

Of course, once again, photographs can only convey so much, but those of you who have been there will recognize the majesty and the rest of you can take our word for it that it's worth the trip! :)  As we made our way past a herd of bison right inside the park entrance, Maddie noticed that the time on her phone was not  matching the time indicated on the car's dashboard.  

At this point, I remembered that I had read that Arizona does not observe daylight savings time.  While this gave us an "extra" hour to explore the Canyon, it also meant that we would most definitely be doing the return drive mostly in the dark.  This was something I had initially wanted to avoid, but once we were in the moment, there wasn't much to be done, so onward we marched.  When we rolled back into Zion just before 10:00 PM (after pulling off the side of the road to get a once in a lifetime view of the starry night sky), we were pleased to see Springdale's ice cream shop was still open.  To celebrate handling that drive through the pitch black Zion National Park, I happily enjoyed an ice cream cone, while we sat on the quaint little benches lining the street, a couple of local amateur musicians playing guitar and serenading a group of tourists and locals who had gathered to enjoy.  We have concluded that Springdale is THE place to stay if you have any interest in exploring these parts.  Dana did a masterful job in selecting it.

Today, we honor Springdale and remain right here.  We will drive only to Zion's visitor center, where we will hop on the shuttle (which is the only allowed transportation on the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive - where all the hikes originate - during the summer months) to finally explore the park we have been driving through these past few days.  We're very excited to enjoy the last of our nature days right here at our home away from home before we head off to all the glitter of Vegas tomorrow.  One more shot of the Grand Canyon before I sign off...

Fun Among the Hoodoos

This photo sums up many of our Bryce moments, with Dana and Daniel often wandering too close to the side of a cliff for comfort, while Maddie and I enjoyed the same spectacular views from a just slightly safer vantage point. :)

The day was filled with spectacular views, as the drive to Bryce National Park started with a drive THROUGH Zion National Park, which, Dana and I have determined, may be the most magnificent of many magnificent drives we have taken.

Once we got to Bryce, we dined in the lodge, which, like all lodges in National Parks, uses only locally and organically produced foods in order to reduce its carbon footprint.  We've eaten in a few of these lodges over the years and always find them to be delightful.  Then we were off on our 15 mile scenic drive through Bryce, and our various stops along the way for short hikes and viewpoints.  Here are a few of the highlights:

Who knew?  Hoodoos :)

These photos, of course, can't begin to do justice to the spectacle of standing there next to these majestic rock formations.  Still, it was fun to try to capture different angles, the light and the shadows.

On our way back, we stopped in Zion to let the kids walk up a particularly tempting rock wall.  It was already 8:30 and we were eager to get a late dinner (at the equally awesome Oscars) and retire for the night, so we had to promise Daniel that he could return today to finish the climb.

With that, I'll wrap up today's mini-post, so we can get started on our day.

Maddie and Daniel trek up one of the red rocks on our way back through Zion National Park