All I Ever Wanted

The Wife and I just got back from vacation.  We had talked about a cruise, but she didn't want to leave the dog behind, so road trip it was.  We had a really good time.

High points included: 

--Houston, to hang with the in-laws (many of which drove in from N'awlins as well, but what the hell).  We caught the BodyWorks exhibit (plasticized dead people, expertly dissected).  The dissections alone were interesting, although somewhat frustrating as they removed some structures I was interested in from most of the exhibits, preventing my answering a few anatomy questions.  On an unrelated note, I was introduced to kolaches, which are both tasty and evil.

--San Antonio, home of the Alamo.  Be advised, the Alamo is not pet-friendly.  Unlike Ozzy Ozbourne, I did not pee on it.  We didn't get to look for the bicycle in the basement*.

--Phoenix, where we watched Obama's inauguration with my high school history teacher, which was interesting.  It occurs to me that CNN was showing crawls about how Obama became president at precisely noon, whether or not he took the oath, well before the famous fumble.

--Grand Canyon National Park, which is about a mile and a half above sea level (more altitude than this ocean-dweller's used to).  We stopped to let the dog run around in some deep snow, which led to her sleeping well that night.

--The Grand Canyon itself, which is freaking amazing.  This was my third visit (The Wife's first) and it never stops being cool.  The three of us hiked along the south rim, had dinner at a very nice restaurant on the rim while watching the sunset over the canyon.  I highly recommend it.

--Vegas, where I met Heather's grandfather (the WWII bomber, ex-POW--let me tell you he had some stories).  We also caught "Reve" which is a show by some guys who spun off Cirque du Soleil.  Who knew that you could do interpretive dance without a black turtleneck?

--San Diego, where we saw Legoland (remarkably neat despite sounding really lame), the iron-hulled bark Star of India, the replica ship HMS Surprise, and an ex-Soviet attack sub.  We got to take the dog onto Star and the sub.  Oh, and there was a mock naval battle with cannons and whatnot.  So that was fun.

--Los Angeles, where we did the tourist bit and hung out with Justin and Dawn.

We were running out of time on the trip home, so we drove most of the way across Texas in one day (which is hard to do), fueled mostly by truck-stop coffee and cheap cookies.  So that was fun.  Surprisingly, despite two weeks together in a car, I did not get divorced (The Wife is an amazingly patient person).  A good time was had by all. 

*thanks Woody for the Pee-Wee's Big Adventure reference.