Becky and the Parents, Day Four: The Grand Canyon

After our whirlwind trip around southern Utah and northern Arizona, we were back home at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We took Becky on a tour of  Cape Royal and Point Imperial. We stopped on the way up to Cape Royal and took a short hike over to Greenland Lake. The lake was dried up this late in the season, but the hike was still gorgeous!

 

 

Becky on the trail to Greenland Lake

 

That's the lake, all dried up this late.

The next stop was Cape Royal, at Wedding Point. There are Becky and FabGrandpa near the edge. The day was very windy but sunny and nice. 

 

The view from Wedding Point.

 

Looking over the edge--it's a long way down there!

 

Gorgeous, as usual!

 

 

Walhalla Overlook--that light brown crescent near the center of this photo is the Colorado River.

 

  

This is Mount Hayden, at Point Imperial. 

 

Another view from Point Imperial

 

That night we had reservations for dinner at the restaurant at the lodge. The view from there at sunset is awesome!

 

This view is from the veranda at the rear of the lodge, at sunset. Oooooooo, Ahhhhhhh, awesome!

 

That was our last night with Becky. She left the next day around noon, headed for Las Vegas to spend the night before returning to Atlanta.  We all shed tears as we said our good byes. We really enjoyed our visit, and all the sights we saw.   

Out On The Town

The FabGrandpa and I crawled out of the woods last weekend and went down to the big city to spend the night with Becky. This is the view from her balcony:

She lives in a high-rise condo (with no guest room, as noted earlier) right on Peacthree Street in downtown Atlanta. She took us out to dinner at The Vortex, an ecclectic place with posters of biker chicks on the wall and loud rock music blaring from a juke-box.

It says right on the menu that The Vortex is an “Idiot Free Zone” and that they are not politically correct. They had great cheeseburgers (I had mine sans bun). It was a fabulous place to start the evening. Here are Jim and Becky at The Vortex:

After that, we drive over to Blind Willie’s. It is billed as Atlanta’s finest blues bar, and I agree. I love the slogan on their website “It Ain’t Easy Bein’ Sleazy”, but I did not find the place to be sleazy. When we got there, the place was packed, so we had to share a table with some young guys. They were quite friendly, even bought a round of drinks for the whole table. We stayed there through one set, then sashayed down the block to 10 High.

Now, Becky had been telling us about this great karaoke bar she has been going to, and we have been thinking to ourselves that we could not believe she would like karaoke. Jim and Becky pictured here post Jaeger Bombs at 10 High:But let me tell you, this was not your father’s karaoke bar! At 10 High, there is a live heavy metal band, Metal-some. Our niece Emily, Becky, and me at 10 High:The people who sing karaoke are on stage with the band, with back-up singers, and it is dang good! I have never seen anything quite like it. Well, I have seen movies with night club scenes where you had to work your way through a sea of people to get to the bar, but I have never been in a place like that until Saturday night.

So, yeah, after a night of bar hopping, we were up bright and early on Sunday afternoon, going down to Dekalb Farmer’s Market to eat lunch and do some shopping. I stocked up on herbs and spices: I love that place, it is like no other place I have ever been. Part farmer’s market, part grocery store, part cafeteria.

They sell no paper goods, cleaning products, or sodas. But you can get gluten free flours, all kinds of vegetables, and herbs and spices in huge containers cheap. There is a fish market, a butcher shop, a deli, a bakery, and a dairy section. I always spend too much money, but how can you resist the swiss chard, the kohlrabi, the gulf shrimp, the fresh mozzarella cheese, the basil, the—well, the everything! I got out of there for under a hundred bucks, but I got so much stuff.

Now we are back in the woods, but eating such elegant foods you wouldn't know it unless you looked out the window. Last night we had bruschetta, with fresh mozzarella and basil. Tonight it will be sauteed shrimp and swiss chard with gluten free quinoa spaghetti. I can hardly wait.

Almost Finished

Are you a lister? By that, I mean, do you keep a list of things you need to do, should do, must do, either written down on a piece of paper or in your head? I am very obsessive compulsive about MAKING lists of things I need to do. But when it comes to actually DOING those things, well, that is a different story. Sometimes I feel like I will literally die if I don’t have that list in my pocket. But there are some things on that list that have been on it for years!

Now that you know that particular thing about me, maybe knowing it will let you understand how happy I am that I actually accomplished one of those things this week. A major thing.

The item that has been on my list of things to do for the longest was the first thing I accomplished this week. You see, seven years ago I bought the fabric to make a quilt for my stepdaughter, Becky. I can remember the day I showed her the pattern and the fabrics I had picked out. She was excited about it, and happy that I was going to be making it for her. She was going to use it in the guest room of her first house that she had just bought. Five years ago, I actually cut out the pieces for the top and sewed them together. The top has been folded neatly and stored under my bed ever since then. It has traveled with me to Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and back to Georgia. She has moved on to a new home, with no guest room. Hmmm, could that in itself be a hint?

The last time I said anything to Becky about it, she said, “Don’t tell me anything else about that quilt. I am never going to get it, and you know it, so just hush.” It’s not that I didn’t want her to have it. I really love her; she has been in my life for more than 16 years. And while we didn’t see eye to eye when I first became her stepmother, we have become closer and have had some fun together since then.

And, that quilt top lying unfinished has prevented me from starting on a couple of other projects I have to do. How can I finish the quilt I made for Becca, my daughter, when the one for Becky just lies there, accusing me of being the procrastinator I am turning out to be? How can I start on any other thing when I have not completed that one? And now, after all these years, it is a matter of pride, a matter of proving that I do really mean for Becky to have that quilt. So, on Monday, I took it to the quilt shop and dropped it off to be machine quilted. I can hardly wait to get it back so I can put on the binding and sign it:

“To Becky, from your loving stepmother, Karen. May your days be as cheerful as these colors are bright, may your dreams be happy throughout night.”