The Joys of Retirement Production Company

We have had a stunningly clear,  but crisp 33° day at the south rim of the Grand Canyon today.   We drove the rim road toward the west,  to Hermits Rest,  stopping for spectacular scenery along the way.

The trail leads down to Phantom Ranch.   Emmett has done this trek with George.  The red line on this map,  down to the bottom of the canyon.

Driving west there are 5-6 stops with amazing views that change at every stop

The rim road follows the canyon rim trail, so you can walk / hike this route for the views but we chose the drive!

Every stop,  a different angle,  but just as amazing

We packed a lunch and had our picnic at the end of the road,  at Hermit’s Rest

On our drive back we stopped for a few elk!  We saw 1 deer too

And of course more spectacular views

Early in the morning another animal shadow appeared!

Spectacular day!

We had a busy. beautiful day today.   We stopped at Hoover Dam after leaving Las Vegas

Then on to the Grand Canyon.  We arrived just before sunset to see this amazing view.

Kathy came home with us for a few days of California sun.  Emmett cooked up a great tapas / pinxos dinner,  remembering our Spanish trip this last year

Since Kathy hasn’t visited there, we planned a week road trip to see the sights of Nevada and Arizona

Across the desert

What happens in Vegas,  stays in Vegas!

We even caught a show!  All Motown

We had a couple days after the wedding to visit San Antonio and stayed near Gruene, TX at our timeshare in New Brunsfels

Gruene, pronounced Green,  was a cute little town,  with the oldest music hall in Texas.   We enjoyed dinner here 2 nights,  and a grew minutes on the Gruene Hall enjoying some music

Ty and Ashlee (my cousin Jeff’s daughter) met at a new years Eve party 7 years ago when they were both deployed in Guam with the Navy!   So “tying” the knot on NYE was a natural!  it was a fun wedding,  about 200 family and friends from their lives in Guam,  Utah,  where they go to college,  and homes in Florida and Texas.  People traveled from many states, including Michigan and California!  It was a great NYE party as well as a fun wedding!  

It has been a couple days, so we have recuperated from the hustle bustle!  We’ve had a fun visit with Trey, Kaila and Zuriah! 

This is Zuriah’s pet pig, Darla!

We also had a great visit with Emmett’s daughters!  Kristina was starting with Rebecca and Joel for Christmas!  We had a great dinner at a unique Chinese restaurant, QI,  in Austin together with Joel, the girls, and their mom,  Linda.

We shared 3 of their fabulous desserts!

We are spending Christmas with family in Texas this year! 

Flying into Austin,  there was a very active thunder cell just to the east! 

AMERICAN has had an outage early today and it backed up all the flights all day!  Ours was 3 hours late leaving OC, and even arriving in Austin,  the airport was jammed with incoming flights and some diverted because of the storms.   We are still on the tarmac, waiting for a gate to park and Disembark!  40 minutes so far and no sign of moving yet.  We will make it in time for Santa in the morning but we missed dinner! 

We got to see a show and luck on the old river boat Gen Jackson.   Unfortunately,  it didn’t leave the dock,  but the food and show were good!

A big highlight was our last evening,  a concert at the Grand Ole Opry

Our group

And the performers

The songwriters,  Don Schlitz, who wrote the “Gambler” and a couple other songs

A couple highlights

Our big adventure here in Nashville was to sing at the Schermerhorn symphony hall with Travis Cottrell, Cliff and April Durham,  and the Voices of Lee, an acapella group from Lee University.   They were all fabulous and the concert was a joy!

I will add some more more professional pics of our performance when the official photos are on line.   I may even have a link to some of the music!

The home of the Nashville symphony. Schermerhorn concert hall in downtown Nashville