All said and done

Well the Vegas/Grand Canyon trip is all said and done now. It was great road trip with two other guys, Phil and Andy, from my Protege team. Lots of yelling, high-jinks and craziness. And that was just the car ride. You can checkout some pictures here.

Vegas wasn't on my radar of places to see in the world, but with the need to be cash conscious it lined up as the most realistic opportunity to experience something outside of California. And an experience is what we got. Los Vegas is really a weird place. On one hand you have some amazing hotel complexes that are quite remarkable, yet you get the distinct impression that none of it should be there. It's so out of place and so not real (aka real enough to think its not fake, yet fake enough to know its not real).

We got to see three amazing shows (two for free) while we were there; Ka, Ice, and Mystere. Humanity produces some extraordinary things, stunning creativity and breathtaking expressions of emotion, yet in Vegas this is in amongst a sad reality for some people of addiction and loneliness which for Phil, Andy and myself, was a realisation we could not escape.

The Grand Canyon was surprisingly quite awesome to behold. We went to the Northern Rim and got there in time to catch the sunset and get some great photos. See here. As the case always seems to be, the photos don't do it justice, but it was really cool to see. Our initial plan was to camp just outside of the Grand Canyon National Park, but on a whim, at 10:30pm, we decided to drive back 4 1/2 hours to Los Vegas. As I said, crazy times.

In all, I passed through three States on my trip: Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. At this stage I don't see myself returning to either Vegas or GC, but as I never intended to see them in the first place who knows what will happen.

Other news: I'm in the process of completing the paper work for my Visa extension. My intended return date is October 9th 2009... Just kidding - Oct 9th 2007. So after I pay some ridiculous fees on paperwork, I'll be able stay for the extra time I need.

Talk to you soon.