Why is it that absolutely nothing at all happens for weeks or even months at a time then, BAM, suddenly everything hits your social calendar (and you didn’t even know you had a social calendar) at the same time?! That’s what’s been going on with me – busy, busy, busy. So anyway… the Grand Canyon is pretty frickin’ “grand” after all. It’s what you’d expect anyway. While I was there I read that to take an aerial photo of the whole thing you’d have to be in outer space. Now, that’s big! Even standing there you can’t really comprehend how enormous it really is. Yet aside from its sheer magnitude, I have to say, it wasn’t that exciting. You know in the movie “Grand Canyon,” they’ve all been thru hell for the whole eternal movie then at the end they go to the Grand Canyon and as soon as they step to the edge and look out over it everything’s okay, all’s well that ends well, and life has new meaning. I got none of that. But I did get my curiosities satisfied, and had a fun trip. Oh, but on the spur of the moment we also went to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. I had never even heard of it but a friend recommended it and oh my god… amazing! Really beautiful and unique beyond explanation, perhaps I’ll post some pictures. So let’s see, what other major tourist attractions have I visited? Just off the top of my heads: Mt .Rushmore (get it? Top of my heads. – sorry.), it’s really gigantic but you lose some of that cause you can’t get anywhere near it; Niagara Falls, like I said pretty much what you’d expect – a lot of water but also not really exciting; all that stuff in D.C. most notably the Lincoln Memorial, Damn that’s a big emancipator! You’d need a really big ladder just to get on top of his shoe. I was stunned and perplexed as to why they thought it necessary for it to be so huge. Also, the Empire State Bldg – nice view but the Chrysler Bldg is much more attractive; of course the Statue of Liberty which seems almost miniscule compared to what I thought it would be like. But I became fascinated with how it got there since it was a gift from the French. Did they ship the whole thing? [As it turns out they assembled it in sections in France then disassembled the sections and sent all the pieces to NY and put it all back together there.] Speaking of the French, that Eifel guy was nuts! I couldn’t get over how gigantic the Eifel Tower is; same with the Arc de Triumph, it is huge, but the Mona Lisa is really quite small. On a less cultural note, the HOLLYWOOD sign is really big and spread out further than you think, but you can’t get up close to it anymore, believe me I tried. But on the small side in Hollywood, are all the celebrities feet prints at Mann’s Chinese Theatre. I think all moviestars are dwarfs – I mean, my feet are way bigger than Tom Cruise’s! But nothing beats Las Vegas for being so much more impressive and exciting and sparkly than I expected. The Bellagio looks like heaven – and I don’t even like to gamble! For my next trip I definitely want to go back there. I hear that International Elvis Week is in August - perfect!