Thankful...

I am thankful for many people in my life.  One of them is Christina, my friend from Denmark.  We became friends when she was a foreign exchange student and have remained good friends for 30 years.  She has come to visit me four times and my husband and I were her guests in Denmark.  This year she came out with her sister and we went on an adventure to Las Vegas.

We didn't just stay in Las Vegas we rented a car and went to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.  We wanted to see everything we could while on our trip.  

 The Hoover Dam was on our agenda.  We almost crashed while driving over the dam.  We had seen the movie "Fools Rush In," so we made a wish and threw coins over the edge while crossing the dam.  Then we realized there was actually a walking path on the other side. We are very hopeful we didn't hit any tourists.  I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

 There is a running joke in my family about what cows are more content, South Dakota cows or Wyoming cows.  I am here to tell you Arizona cows are not content.  I have no idea what those poor creatures eat.  We never saw them eating, just trying to stay in the shade on a 117 degree day.

 The Grand Canyon was certainly Grand.  In many places you could not see to the bottom.   Pictures will never do it justice.  

 We also visited the Joshua Tree National Forest.  We were astounded at the harshness of the land around us.  The temperatures were well above 100 degrees and the only water source we saw was the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  It has to be a difficult place to live.  Luckily there was water at the hotel pool.

We enjoyed the trip to the desert and Las Vegas, but I was happy to be back in familiar territory when we returned to Deadwood. We traded in dry desert for lush forest.   I did make a promise to myself that I would never complain about how dry it is in the hills.   The average rainfall in Las Vegas is 4.17 inches a year.  According to Google our average rainfall is 28.4 a year.  I'll take that any day.  We still had several days of their visit left and it was my turn to play tour guide.   I took them down Spearfish Canyon and then to Devil's Tower.  In all of Christina's visits she had yet to see the tower.  It seems like there is always somewhere new to take guests when they visit.  The next two photos are from Spearfish Canyon and Devil's Tower needs no introduction.  It was the perfect day for a trip as it was a nice comfortable 85 degrees.

Mornings at our cabin were spent on the porch and we enjoyed an evening of pool.  We also toured Deadwood and on the way to the airport we squeezed in a trip to Mount Rushmore.  I don't have any photos of that because I was driving.  We saw it for a few minutes, before a rainy fog covered the faces from sight.  

I am forever grateful that fate sent Christina to our hometown when she came to America.  It has forged a friendship that has lasted years and extended to her family and mine.   It was a great visit and life is grand.  Do you have a friendship that has lasted a long time?