We decided to start the festivities off right and eat Chinese food. That was a good choice on our part. The whole family hung out and a good time, and good spring rolls too.
The original plan was to drive to St George, UT and meet family and friends there for a surprise party. Unfortunately, most of our plans changed due to events outside anyone's control and St George didn't happen. Fortunately, Monica and I were still able to go do the biggest surprise part: I took her to Sedona, AZ for the weekend. As you can see, the weekend started out great!
What you see here is most certainly not a slab of dragon steak (that was a direct Harry Potter reference). It is actually a slab of grilled American cactus. We saw it on the menu and were suddenly all intrigued and thought, "What the hey!" Looks really good right?
Nope, it's totally nasty! At first it kind of tastes like asparagus or broccoli stem. And then it gets slimy. Really slimy! That's when it made me think of what it would be like to eat aloe vera. You squeeze it and all this slimy jelly stuff comes out. Yeah, it was really nasty. Don't ever order grilled American cactus! I've just done you a huge favor!
Sedona is kind of like a cross between Park City and Moab. Cute little shops and art galleries downtown with red rock mountains all around. It sprinkled on us a little bit but it felt really good to feel rain. Yep, you just heard Shawn Jensen say he enjoyed rain folks!
This hike is called Cathedral. If you don't know about Sedona, AZ, you should know that it is the center of the universe, at least according to scores of hippies and spiritualists. There are "vortexes" all over Sedona which apparently draw in the powers of the universe and you can yourself receive these powers if you are close enough to a vortex. At the top of this hike we actually so two ladies in matching fluorescent yellow jumpsuits sitting on the ground holding hands meditating and calling upon the forces of the cosmos to envelope them. We just walked quietly around them so as not to disrupt their Chi.
I thought universe powers would be pretty cool so I tried a little meditation of my own. I can now leap tall buildings in a single bound and see through anything, including lead!
Monica found a fountain and I forced her to sit next to it for a picture. You can see from the huge grin on her face how happy she is that I did that.
It's actually difficult to tell who is more concerned, me or the giant iron elk.
We had a really great time, and even scored a 2-Night getaway at a local resort that's just opened there. So, mission accomplished! We had a great time and Monica, my beautiful, intelligent and amazing wife is 30! Congrats to her and her extreme awesomeness!
