Hi everyone.
Well - things have been very eventful. We've been on a huge road trip. Drove over 2800 miles. We're all so adept at long car trips - I swear I can drive anywhere now! So from Whistler, we drove back through Canada, across Washington, into Oregon, Idaho and then Utah, where we stayed at Salt Lake City for 5 days. Paul had work there, which was only meant to go for one day, so we stayed at a hotel. Some how it morphed into 5 days, which was a long time staying in a hotel. All up we stayed 2 weeks in hotels, which was kind of a pain in the bum. All the kids were sleeping in the same room, in two double beds, which worked remarkably well. The thing that was the biggest pain was having to live in bedrooms with 4 kids. Especially when Ainsley was having a sleep, which meant there were 5 of us (Paul was working from the hotel) hanging out in the one room. Also the eating out kind of sucked. The first few days were great - I though 'yay - I don't have to cook!'. But it wasn't long before I craved for a home cooked. Not one thats either deep fried or expensive and soaked in butter and crap anyway.
But all in all, the experience was very worth it. At Salt lake city we visited the salt lake, which was pretty interesting. There was all this dying shrimp on the shore that smelt like a fish market at the end of a really hot day, and the water was freezing and a funny murky sort of a colour. Tallis was the only one that braved going in. She said you could really float - I would love to be able to say that I went in - I'd love to know what it felt like in a salt lake, but I couldn't convince myself it was worth. The whole scene was a bit yuck.
After Salt Lake city, we drove down to Bryce Canyon National Park. It was really amazing. There were these canyons (an exotic name for valleys), that had hepas of rock pillars that were formed by the minerals around being washed away. They said that something like 300 days of the year would have above 0 temperatures in the day and below zero temperatures in the night, so the freezing water would expand and crack off the rocks. Heres a photo:
That night we went and stayed in Kanab. It was a really crazy little town, where they make lots of the cowboy and indian movies. There were huge red rock formations all over the place. We stayed at a lovely little hotel that night called Victorian Charm. It had no shower. And then at breakfast the we had to sit at a communal table with outbackish type yanks, and the guy cooking the breakfast kept grunting to himself. I'm not sure I've summed it up very well, but the whole thing was a bit creepy. I couldn't help looking round for the barrels where they hide the bodies.
That day we drove to the grand canyon, which pretty much took all day. It was a really beautiful drive, with the most amazing landscape. Alomg the was we passed through Navajo nation, where the native Indians Rule. There was crazy little sign flapping around on the side of the road that directed us to where there were dinosaur footprints. So we went and had a look. We had to drive a bumpy windy little road, and then there were some shacks set up, a couplf of cars, and some Indains hanging around. Paul was convinced that it was an elaborate plot to rob us everything we had. But no - sure enough, there were Dinosaur footprints. One Indain guy showed us around and really knew what he was talking about. Heres a photo of the prints and what we saw when we drove up:
Also on the ground were heaps of mineral - just bits of jaspar, obsidian and even petrified wood. Heaps of it! We asked the Indians and they said we were more than welcome to collect some, so we did. I'm sure that if this site wasn't run by the indians there would be some huge museum, the footprints would be roped off, or cased in glass - if not gone. The whole thing was pretty weird, but nicely suprising.
Anyway, we finally made it to the Grand Canyon. And it was HUGE! Very amazing. We checked into out hotel, then picked up some take away pizza and watched the sun set over the canyon (along with a couple of hundred other people, but it still felt special).
Essentially the Grand Canyon is just a view, but a very very beautiful view. I was thinking that we would hang around for a couple of days, but there wasn't a lot to do except just look at it. So the next day we headed off again. I would have liked to have done a mule trip down the canyon but theres a ridiculous 13 month waiting list. And I certainly had no clues that I'd be here 13 months ago.So off we went to monument valley. Got caught in a massive dust storm that spanned over 180 miles. Kind of spoiled the views but we got some pretty cool photos that you wouldn't ordinarily see. Included is that really famous view, but visibilty sort of sucks.
That night we stayed in Cortez which is in Colorado and the next day we went to Mesa Verde National Park. This is where Indians from 1000 years ago had built cliff dwellings. We went on a tour of one and it was really amazing. We all learnt heaps about Indians, but the best was just looking at these places they built. I was thinking I would have liked to have lived there with the Indians until the guide told me that their average life span was only 35 years. 
That afternoon and night we drove down to Santa Fe, in New Mexico. It was a very cool town, that was sort of like and artists enclave or something. There were heaps of cool shops, that seemed very genuine, selling Indian wares and art etc. All of the buildings were adobe with ancient bits of timber hanging out. I guess it was kind of like going to mexico with out the bother of actually having to go to Mexico (who wants swine flu?).
After Santa Fe we made the delighful 10 hour drive into Dallas. I was a bit concerned with what Dallas would be like. It is the home of george Bush after all. On the way on the edge of the hwy were heaps of sign saying 'praise the lord', 'God bless america' and 'Support our troops' (as if sending young men of to die at war is somehow supportive, but we won't go into that). But Dallas is very pretty and green, in an almost tropical sort of way, and I haven't seen any cowboys toting guns around (yet).
So alls well, we're in a nice little apartment, set in gardens with a pool and a playground, so I think we'll just have some down time here.
Hope you're all well, thinking of you and missing you all heaps,
Love Nic
