After flying in from Miami, we spent a week at my parent’s house in Novato.  We set-up their Christmas tree and decorated the house.  Between downpours I was able to complete a few projects in the yard.  We also visited several shopping centers to buy gifts and last minute wedding supplies.  One night we had dinner with a neighbor, Doris, who has spent some time working at a hospital near Cindy’s hometown in China.  She invited Cindy back to her home to see her Chinese furnishings which Cindy’s thought remarkable.

On December 22^nd, we packed a car full of gifts and wedding supplies and drove up to Colfax.  Mom and Dad will follow tomorrow with another car full of food for the reception.   We stopped in Auburn to meet with the woman who was baking our wedding cake and gave her some last minute instructions, then continued on to Carolyn’s house where Fred made dinner for everyone including BJ and Halley.

The next day we drove up to Rick’s house where we planned to spend the night.  We met Mom and Dad there and all drove down to Nevada City in Rick’s truck as it was snowing heavily.  We ate at the Blue Moon Café and then drove around Nevada City to look at the Christmas lights.  It continued to snow and we probably got six inches during the night.  Wednesday morning, Rick drove us all back down to the town hall, where Cindy and I were officially married at 9:30 AM, with Rick, MaryAnn, Lauraine, Mom & Dad all present.

On Christmas morning we drove to Halley’s house for Christmas breakfast and gift opening with Ayden.  In the afternoon we went to Lauraine’s house for Christmas dinner.  Thursday we met at the church for a wedding ceremony rehearsal.  I had been worried about the snow all night, but the roads were clear and the rehearsal went fine.  Dinner that night was at Carolyn’s house where Jerome and Nicole had arrived from Paris, and Kay & Matt Patterson had arrived with their two children.

By Saturday, I had finished everything I had to do for the wedding tomorrow and was able to spend the day playing with Ayden.  Cindy had a full day of visiting salons, buying flowers and other last minute details.   At night, the women all went to Halley’s house for a shower for Cindy while the men stayed home and watched the kids.

On the day of our wedding Carolyn took Cindy to have her hair done.  The church has only one room so Fred agreed to take his RV up so Cindy would have a place to wait while the guests arrived.  The wedding itself started on time at 2:28 PM and lasted about a half hour.  We had invited only close local family and almost everyone was present.  We spent some time taking pictures after the ceremony and then returned to Carolyn & Fred’s house for a reception.

Cindy had spent weeks creating a slide show of photographs taken during our six years together, which was played at the reception.  Dad catered the reception dinner, which included a champagne tower and Peking duck.  It was a very successful party all guests seemed to enjoy themselves.  Cindy and I left about 8:00 PM and drove down to Auburn where we planned to stay for the night.

Monday, December 29^th, we left Colfax and drove back to Novato.  We gave Paul a ride back to Petaluma and got a chance to see his house before continuing to Mom & Dad’s house.  Nicole and Jerome spent the night here with us also and the next morning we packed up and left early for a full day of sightseeing in San Francisco.  It was very cloudy in Marin, but the haze started to burn off as we approached the city and we were treated to some wonderful views of the Golden Gate Bridge half-enshrouded in clouds.

We raced through a dozen of San Francisco’s landmarks before leaving the city at 3:30 PM to head to the airport.  Our 6:30 PM flight took us through Los Angeles and did not arrive in Las Vegas until 9:30.  The hotel had sent a car for us so the ride over was very nice, however, the hotel was so busy with people arriving for New Years Eve, that it took several hours for the bellman to deliver our luggage.

I had two tickets to a New Years Eve party at The Venetian, which I gave to Jerome and Nicole.  Cindy and I ate at The Wynn and visited Encore before heading out onto Las Vegas Boulevard, which was closed to traffic for the New Years festivities.  There were tens of thousands of people out on the street.  We walked down to Cesar’s Place before realizing that the main fireworks display was directly across from The Venetian where we had started.  We fought our way back through the crowds, and got back to our room just after 1:00 AM.

Cindy and Nicole went shopping the next day.  I was able to get tickets to see Phantom of the Opera for Thursday night, which Cindy and I saw while Jerome and Nicole left to catch their flight to New York City.  We spent our final day relaxing and reorganizing our plans to include The Grand Canyon, which Jerome and Nicole decided not to see, but I still wanted to show to Cindy.

We checked out of the Venetian on Saturday morning, rented a car and drove to Hoover Dam where we stopped for a couple hours.  We took the tour of the power plant, but the most interesting part of the visit was the close up views of the half-completed arch bridge being constructed over the dam to handle increasing traffic.  The bridge is being simultaneously built from both the Arizona and Nevada sides and will meet in the middle, at what appears to be almost 1000 feet above the water level.

We lost an hour crossing over into Arizona and still had over 200 miles to drive to the Grand Canyon.  As we ascended the mountains, it began to snow heavily and I was glad I had rented a jeep.  We stopped at a Quality Inn just outside the park entrance and ate dinner in a local western steakhouse.

Sunday morning we got up before dawn and drove out to Grand Canyon Village.  The road was very slippery and I discovered that although I had asked for a 4-wheel drive vehicle, I did not have that option installed on my particular vehicle.  On top of that, the car has a Florida license plate so the chances I have snow tires is also small.  We parked and ate breakfast at the El Tovar Hotel on the canyon rim.  There was considerable fog obscuring the view, but by the time we had finished breakfast, the fog had cleared and we had spectacular views.  We walked along the rim, then got back to our car and drove out Route 64 East towards Desert View stopping along the way at several points.

We passed through Page, Arizona and continued north to Kanab where we stopped for lunch.  In the afternoon, we drove up to Bryce Canyon National Park.  We took a room at Ruby’s Inn for the night and planned to visit the park in the morning.

The temperature got down to 15 below zero during the night.  I have been fighting a cold which is now raging in full force.  We ate and checked out of Ruby’s and then drove into the national park and up to the rim.  We spent about a half hour walking along the rim and taking photos, but decided that the warmth of the car was a better place.

We left Bryce Canyon about 10:30 AM and drove out to Route 89 north.  I had originally planned to drive all the way to Salt Lake City on Route 89 which is a scenic highway, but snow started falling and I decided to cut over on Route 20 and get on the major Route 15.  Route 20 goes over an 8000-foot pass and visibility was very poor, but we finally reached 15 and drove to just south of Salt Lake City where we took a room at a Comfort Inn for the night.

Tuesday morning we drove into Salt Lake City to see Temple Square.  I wanted to spend a couple hours tracing lost ancestors at the Family History Center while Cindy toured some of the Mormon Church buildings.  I was not able to find what I was looking for at the Mormon Library so we left Salt Lake City before noon and continued driving north.  It was snowing lightly, but there was considerable wind, which made the visibility poor.  WE finally arrived at West Yellowstone at 5:00 PM, located the house Carolyn had rented, and got settled for the next five days.

The house has six bedrooms and plenty of room for our group of nine adults and four children.  We are located in the center of town, but it is very cold outside with over a foot of snow so there is great temptation to stay indoors.  We did venture out late in the day to see an IMAX movie, but then came home to prepare for Santa’s visit later that night.

We celebrated Christmas on Thursday by unwrapping gifts Santa had left the night before.  Festivities started at 6:00 AM and were complete by 7:30 AM.  Eric, Christina, BJ, Russ and Halley left to rent snowmobiles while Fred, Carolyn, Cindy and I stayed with the kids.

Friday it was our turn to take the snowmobiles out on the trails.  Cindy and I rode together while Eric, Russ, BJ, Halley and Christina each had their own sleds.  The sun was out and we had enough clothing to insulate us against the cold.  We rode for a couple hours up into the backcountry and had spectacular views of the mountains.  The sleds could get up to 60-70 mph on flat open fields, but we needed to keep them to half that speed on the trails.  Cindy crashed our sled into a small stand of trees and it took all six of us fifteen minutes to get it back onto the trail.  Fortunately neither of us was hurt and the sled seemed to be fine.  BJ was not so lucky and had to pay $500 in damages he caused while riding.

Saturday Eric, BJ, Halley and Russ went snowboarding again, while the rest of us rented a snow van and went into Yellowstone National Park for the day.  The driver picked us up at 8:30 AM and we headed off into the park.  The only access to Yellowstone in winter is with a guide, so we did not see too many people all day.   We were able to see elk, bison, coyotes and waterfowl during the day.  We watched a couple buffalo fighting for ten minutes before moving on to Old Faithful.  A park ranger gave a short talk about the geyser before it erupted as promised.  The day was overcast so it was difficult to see the fountain against the cloudy sky, but we took pictures anyway.  On the way back to the house, we stopped at a couple waterfalls and took a walk at an area rich in seismic features where we saw hot pools and mud pots.

Halley, Ayden, BJ and Russ left Saturday night for the fourteen-hour drive back to California.  The rest of us packed up and left Sunday morning.  I had bought snow cables for my car, which came in handy during the first 20 miles down Route 20, but the road cleared and I took them off after the first hour.  Cindy and I had breakfast at Denny’s in Idaho Falls where we met Carolyn and Fred and passed off the snow cables.  Cindy and I continued driving almost eight hours Sunday and finally pulled over in Filmore, Utah where we checked into a Best Western for the night.

Monday we drove to Zion National Park where we spent a couple hours driving through the park.  The trails were still covered with snow so we did not hike, but the scenery was spectacular and the weather was very good.  We left the park in the early afternoon and drove to Mesquite, Nevada where we took a $24.99 room at The Virgin River Hotel Casino.  We gambled a little and bowled two games in the arcade before going to sleep.

Tuesday morning we left Mesquite and drove down to Las Vegas.  We returned our car and took a taxi over to The Venetian where we checked back in for another three nights.

I entered a slot tournament, which took place Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Aside from gambling, we spent time at Canyon Ranch and Cindy seemed to find lots of time for shopping.  Tuesday we ate dinner at Carnevino Italian Steakhouse in The Palazzo.  Wednesday we went to Tao and had Asian food. 

Thursday we went to see Jersey Boys, which turned out to be spectacular.  I also found out I had come in twelfth place in the slot tournament, winning $250 in slot credits.

Friday morning after spending an hour in the gym, we had breakfast at Bouchon, a French eatery located in the Venezia.  I had never been in this wing and discovered it is very beautiful and quiet. The whole resort is decorated for Chinese New Year.  Cindy went shopping after breakfast and I went to the casino for a final few hours of play before leaving.  After loosing at Let-It-Ride, I went to the promotions center to claim my $250 slot credits from the tournament.  I returned to the video poker machines where I had had some luck in previous days and incredibly was able to turn my slot credits into a five-figure win in ten minutes.  I took my final of three jackpots in check form and decided to quit while I was ahead.  I spent the final two hours in the room on the Internet and packing.  My host had arranged a limo for 2:00 PM so we headed for the airport.

We flew to Ft. Lauderdale on Southwest because it was the least expensive fare.  Arriving at 12:30 AM, we took a taxi down to Miami Beach and got back into our apartment by 2:00 AM.  Tomorrow I will get back into a more healthful lifestyle.

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