Utah to Costa Rica Road Trip

Today we spent the day simply relaxing. Greg did some trading and made some money, while the kids played in the "backyard" and then I took them to the hot tub and then the swimming pool.

When Greg was done "working", all the kids were sleeping except for Parker, so he and daddy and Kevin played in the pool while I worked on my tan.

While I was "working" on my tan, I listened to "How to Be a No Limit Person" by Wayne Dyer, an excellent seminar. He asks some interesting questions which I think depicts perfectly our motivation in taking this "crazy" step in our life. He says: "If you suddenly discovered that you had 6 months to live, how would you change your life? What would you do differently? Whatever it is that you would do differently, if you KNEW you only had six months to live, you would do it. My advice to you is take the risk, do it, TRY IT! If you are living out of a sense of obligation instead of choice, you are a slave.

Another question, where would you choose to live? If you look at that big globe, where would you like to be? And then ask, what is it that keeps me from being there? Why not choose where you want to be.

Last question, what would you do if there were no such thing as money? What would you be doing with your life on a daily basis? What would you do with your time? Because anything that you are interested in doing you can also earn a living at, ANYTHING at all. And if what you're doing you are doing because it is earning you a living, or you've got good benefits, or whatever it is, it's not bringing you true happiness. You can do anything, you can make a living at anything. Instead of doing things because you make money at them, you ought to be doing them because they bring you inner peace."

He also says "Progress is impossible if you always do things the way you have always done things."

After a few hours tanning and swimming, we decided to head into town to find a place to eat. After driving around much of Tucson and not finding any restaurants, we finally found a great Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant, (Nam Son on 430 N. Park Ave.) that looked like a total dive but had excellent service and food. We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed a great meal.

We then went to a local park to play. Kyah was amazed at the people who had no home, no car, and slept at the park. It helped her to get over being so upset about wanting dress up clothes though.

The rest of the evening we spent driving around Tucson trying to find a Walmart, then came back to the hotel and watched Discovery Channel's Man vs. Wild.

Livin' the Dream, Baby!

After lunch we headed toward Page, Arizona and stopped off at Lake Powell where we enjoyed the slickrock and blue water, while Greg did some cliff diving into freezing cold water (the outdoor temp was only 61 degrees!) then got back in the car and headed to the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon.

We arrived later than we would have liked, and decided to get a hotel and check it out tomorrow. We stopped at a few lookouts on our way to Tusayan, and took some great pictures, but the temp was 41 degrees and it was cold and windy! I was still awestruck by the beauty and Grand-ness of the Grand Canyon- no wonder it is one of the seven wonders of the world, it was incredible! The pictures were taken along the Kaibab and Village Route.

After arriving in Tusayan, we couldn't find a single vacancy, so after a hurried stop at Wendy's (we attempted a sit down restaurant, but the kids were wired), we headed to Flagstaff where we arrived late and stopped for the night. We probably won't be heading back to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, so unfortunately that will be all we will get to see of it- this time.

There were a few frazzled nerves by the time we got here- it was a long day of driving, more than we would ideally like to do. If we had planned better, I think we would have stopped near Page and then visited the Grand Canyon tomorrow. It's rough on everyone getting in late, and makes the journey not as fun- and our purpose is to be happy and have fun. If we can do that, then we're doing well!

Livin' the Dream, Baby!

(Zoom in on today's posting to see our hotel room)