My husband and I are
hanging out in Henderson, Nevada, because we wanted to see Death Valley to
culminate our six-week trip. That white triangle in the distance is Death Valley...it's really tough to 'show' the valley in a picture. Go there. It's magnificent.
For our last stop, we’re
staying in a VRBO condo in Lake Las Vegas, a resort community built around an
artificial lake. The place is hopping
eight months out of the year; presently, with temperatures in the 100’s, it’s
quiet. In fact, Luna Rossa, an Italian
restaurant, our pick for last night’s meal, had very few patrons. The waiter
explained the restaurant’s owner had just opened a $355 bottle of wine and was
anxious to share it at $25 a glass…for the fun of it! Oh my!
Delicious. As was the meal.
So our intricate
trip is over: Anacortes and Seattle, Washington; Portland and Bend, Oregon,
Incline Village and Henderson, Nevada. To
connect with friends and family was one goal; to see some new sights (Crater
Lake, Tahoe, Death Valley) was another.
Our new Acura MDX performed well; everyone we wanted to visit with
showed up! (Below, my brothers and sister in front of our favorite Portland restaurant)
Get this. We visited with 19 groups of people, a total
of 69 friends or relatives in face-to-facers.
I can’t believe it! Amazing examples: I met up with one relative whom I
hadn’t seen in 50 years; for the family reunion portion in Portland, 14 of us
showed up from all across the country.
Yup! The crowning
rendezvous was my time with our own, delightful, Jannine Gallant. (Jannine tells me I’m the first R of P
blogger she’s met in person!) When I posted a picture of Tahoe on FB, Jannine
reminded me she lived there, and we arranged a meet-up. Here we’re drinking wine together in a pizza
place with a gorgeous view of Tahoe (King’s Beach) whose owner Jannine knows. I got to meet one of Jannine’s daughters, who
happens to work at the pizza place, and heard all about her older daughter’s
experiences in college. Of course we
shared stories about writing and marketing.
I also learned about her gorgeous Tahoe, seeing for myself in a drive
around the lake what a wonder of nature it is. (Here's a pic of the two of us, Tahoe in the background, as well as a pic of Tahoe's Hyatt, where my husband and I stayed)
Four more nights in
Henderson and we’re home. Can’t wait to
get there; so glad we had a successful trip.
What’s your most successful, surprising, or interesting
trip, lately? And/or, who among our R of P bloggers have you met in person?
Speaking of an interesting trip. Here’s my story about tourist whose plans go
wrong, very wrong…in Aix-en-Provence France: CÉZANNE’S GHOST http://a.co/bQdl7jp
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