Donna’s Pilgrimage - on the road to beautiful

Last week at this time I was in a helicopter flying over the Grand Canyon. Hard to believe now, but I have pictures to prove it all. By this time last week I had already walked 1000 miles in dry 103 heat (so it only felt like 102), taken 400 pictures, floated down the Colorado River, watched the sun rise over the Canyon, seen a herd of elk, drunk 10000 glasses of water, been very emotional at the sight of it all, and enjoyed every minute of my time there. This was one of my dreams, and it was so much more beautiful, amazing, extravagant, breath-taking than I imagined. Everybody should see this.
I came back to a back yard of blooming flowers…so many day lilies…193 blooms yesterday to be exact. I know bc most mornings I pull off the spent blossoms so seed pods won’t form, and there’s more energy for blooming. I do this while I talk to all the flowers. This morning I counted as I pulled. (Kinda ocd, but I had to know.)
Last night we sat in the hot tub and remembered the trip. The night was clear, the lightening bugs put on a real show, and the bats enjoyed debugging our pool. A friend calls our back yard “Almost Eden”, and I believe her.
So, if you long to be inundated with vacation pictures, this is the place. We topped out at 800, 7 videos, and one 45 minute helicopter dvd, plus a slide show that runs as our screen saver, and stories…we have so many stories. We’ll even throw in some salsa and chips…I brought home a cookbook with 180 salsa recipes, and a beautiful turquoise ring. Anytime….