Back from vacation

My first blog in about 15 days huh?

Anyway, from the 11th to late 17th, I was out on vacation in a bus tour to the Rockies, in case you couldn't find me online (AIM, Facebook, Myspace, wherever). The tour visited Salt Lake City, Yellowstone Naional Park, Grand Teton NP, Mount Rushmore Natl Monument, and Devil's Tour Natl Monument, among other places. It was a great six-and-a-half days to escape to rural USA and experience the good earth. The bus driver also provided great entertainment as he sang good songs while on the road...my mom said he has potential to be on NBC's America's Got Talent!!

It was an extremely valuable opportunity to be able to visit Yellowstone, which my parents visited back in the late '80s, with all the hot springs, geysers, forests, and wildlife. I was there Sunday and Monday, staying in a small cabin room in Canyon Village without a television or land-line phone (I'm not kidding). A majority of the other places I stayed overnight were small towns in the "middle of nowhere" America if I wasn't in SLC.

For me it was hard to believe that there actually were Chinese-run Chinese restaurants in Idaho and Wyoming - possibly the chinese population there is due to the Gold Rush and the use of Chinese immigrant workers back in the 19th century to construct the Western railroads. The food there was at least competently made.

If you (at least if you live where I live) want to know what I saw for the majority of my vacation think about the eastern San Jose foothills and imagine if they replaced everything around you.