I think Tim wanted to show me what a great and wonderful place the US is to live in so we did a little discovery tour.
1st PORT : LAS VEGAS (Tim's adopted home for nearly 10 yrs)
LV is probably not the 1st place one would think of when moving to America ; casinos, strip clubs... sin-city of the world! Well Tim tried to show me another side of it;
a. Great outdoors : Hiking, camping, cycling & running @ Red Rock
Red Rock National Park(We didn't actually do any of those things this time round as it was snowing and we weren't really equipped. The recce however showed great potential!)
b. Ski-ing @ Mt Charlestone. About 45mins away, there is a great little mountain with about 6 runs on it. (Very comparable to ski-ing in Club Med Sahoro). Perfect place to spend a day out!
c. Amazing houses : yep, we went house shopping and there are huge 4 bedroom houses (w/ outdoor and indoor fireplaces, 2 living rooms, place for a yoga studio/therapy room, mum's room when she visits, 3 bay garage......... ) all for USD400K!
d. Yummy Food. Many celebrity chefs have restaurants in vegas so it isn't a bad place to go to on un voyage de gourmandise! We went to Daniel Bouloud's restaurant @ Wynns (I think he has some Michelin stars), but it was expensive and not much to write home about! The Banana Cream Pie @ Emerald's in MGM is to die for though! The really good restaurants are however not on the strip. Jodie (Tim's flatmate) took us to a delicious little bagel deli out of town and we did a couple of really good jap restaurants that locals go to. The most yummy of yummies was undeniably the Krispy Cream Donuts that I am absolutely addicted to!
e. Shows galore : The great thing about being resident in LV is that you get to do the shows at local rates. $49 instead of the $100s it normally cost! We did Barry Manilow (Yes, Tim & I are closet BM fans!) and the sexy Cirque du Soleil Show, Zumanity (Very good, but not something you'd bring the folks or kids to, if you know what I mean!)
So far so good, but it is still SIN-CITY!
2nd PORT OF CALL : SEDONA ARIZONA
Tim always talked about this place and when I discovered that it was filled with Energy vortexes, we decided to pop over and check it out! Sedona is a bit of a New Age Hippie place for Energy healers, psychics and the likes of it. We did a couple of hikes to the Vortexes for meditation and it was very very nice. Sedona is a beautiful place; the color of the sky and mountain really takes the breath away. We stayed here much longer than planned cos it was so nice but I still don't think I would want to live here!
BOYNTON VORTEX : in the pouring rain all decked out in our ski gear and the most inappropriate footwear : Tim in his Prada's and me with my suede boots cos we had no walking shoes!
CATHEDRAL VORTEX
Little cottage we rented @ Oak Creek
Photo on the left by Tim (photoshoped sun!), Photo on the right by Elaine (all natural!)
Tim's brother Todd and his family live in Scottsdale Arizona so we hopped over for the day for a mini family reunion with Tim's parents! All very nice. It seems that there are some very good schools in Arizona and I learnt to my amazement that everything is free (school fees, buses, everything............) Now, that is tempting! If we can put the kids in a good school (one that does not cost an arm & a leg) and prepare for Nic to go to college paying in-state tuition fees, that would be good! Anyway, that is definitely something that I am filing away for future consideration!
Tim w/ niece Gracie. (Emma & her would get along like a house on fire!)LAST STOP : CALIFORNIA
We had planned to ski Big Bear or Mammoth before heading to LA to see my best friend from boarding school, Armgard! But, we ran out of time and had to give ski-ing a miss. There was no way I was coming to Califonia and not see my darling friend Armgard though!
Armgard, Tim & I have quite a history too. When I was studing @ KU in 1987, Armgard came over from London to visit. We decided to do a road trip to Tennesse to visit Tim, got into an awful car accident that lead to my parents flying out to America to pull me out of school and drag me back to England. Yep, I was a very naughty girl! Anyway, Armgard moved over to LA a few yrs ago and now lives in a beautiful & charming historic cottage; biking & hiking and loving it in America! Listening to her talk, I couldn't believe this was the same Armgard that hid with me in the toilets to skive PE all those yrs ago! (Well, I guess the same can probably be said about me; who would have imagined that I actually exercise for fun now!) Well Armgard tells me that I HAVE TO MOVE TO LA; great for the kids, amazing weather, things to do, fun people............
So, Tim & I said we'd think about California. He is thinking about going back into the kitchen to do healthy cooking (yep, video editing wasn't his thing afterall) and I think doing yoga & massage in sunny California, might work for me!
We said we'd THINK about it! Spore is still such a wonderful place though. And the boys like it. And my mum is there. And my nephew and nieces. And my ex-husband would make my life hell if we moved. And And And..... sigh. Guess we need to meditate on this more.
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