More About Our Vacation and My Knee Problems.

So, we spent the past week in the Wild West.  Two days in Las Vegas and the next 5 in Sedona, AZ.  Vegas was fun, as it always is, but Sedona and the Grand Canyon were awe inspiring.  I really think I could spend the rest of my life exploring that area and just looking at the mountains and rock formations there.  I think Julie was pleasantly surprised at the area.  She thought it would be more desert and not as varied as it was.  The Grand Canyon was truly one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.  As we took picture after picture, we knew that they would never convey the magnitude and majesty of that natural wonder.

We stayed at L'Auberge de Sedona.  A wonderful hotel/spa just off of Main Street.  Dinner that night was beside a creek and was in the top 3 meals I've ever had.  The service was outstanding, the wine and food were superb and the setting was unbeatable.  We seemed to do very well all week with dining choices (including a trip to In-N-Out Burger one night).  But, we really had a few outstanding meals.  We won't talk about the server at Ken's Creekside that I have a man crush on....

I didn't do a whole lot of running out there.  I managed a couple of decent runs in Vegas (despite pretty much splitting a bottle of Tequila with Julie one day) and one run in Sedona, but the schedule prevented me from doing much more.  And, to be honest, a bit of laziness.  I did get a couple of good hikes in so I figure that made up for some of it.

I think it was on one of those hikes that I hurt my knee.  Nothing specific, but the next morning I woke up with some pain and a bit of swelling.  I'm hoping that a day off tomorrow will help a bit.  If I still have problems after this weekend, I may have to consider taking a bit of time off which is not good timing as the marathon is only 78 days away at this point.

Probably the highlight of the trip was the day we spent white water rafting.  We signed up through a company that transported us from the hotel to Peach Springs, AZ where we boarded an old school bus that took us down to the launch site where we met Shaun, our Hualapai guide that would pilot our pontoon raft down the Colorado River.  We spent the day alternating between calm waters and rapids that ranged from class 2 to class 6 (or maybe 7, Shaun said with a twinkle in his eye).  We got to do a short hike/climb to a hidden waterfall, eat a picnic lunch, watch a storm blow in, have our outboard motor conk out on us and get lashed between two other rafts.  Then, we "enjoyed" a helicopter ride up the side of the Grand Canyon.  And by "enjoyed" I mean "scared shitless".  It would have been fun except for the lightning, rain and wind that threatened to slam us into the wall of the canyon.....good times.  Julie managed to take this picture from the front seat of the helicopter:

And, here's a picture from our cabin at the hotel:

I could go on and on (maybe I already have) about our trip.  It was wonderful and, to some extent, it made both of us long for a new place to live where the landscape is a bit more varied, the seasons a bit more defined and maybe a few less people around.  We'll see.  But, for now, it's back to work and back to training for the marathon.  I'm working on losing some weight that those great meals added on and really starting to build up the mileage - Will do about 45 this week if all goes well.

And, of course, still looking for more donations to my goal.  I'm just over one-third of the way there with about 6 weeks before the fund-raising deadline.  Getting there, but slowly - kind of like my running :-) 

--Scott