Mookie's Last Christmas

Christmas time again and I went back to California to be with my family. S had had such a good time the first time, that he very readily accepted the invitation to come over again. This time I got a job at Target. Not a glamorous job, but at least I got a discount and could go back to Australia with some of my own money in the bank. Once again, we had a great Christmas morning opening presents and everything. Nae’s boyfriend came to town and we took Dad to an art exhibit about Yosemite at the Gene Autry Museum. We got to dress up as cowboys and take goofy pictures and it was great. Mom, Nae, S, and I went to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego. We went to Santa Cruz again. I let S drive the rental car for a few blocks and he nearly killed us! He tried to turn left when traffic was coming at us because in Australia their left turns are like our right turns and you can do them on reds or whenever without problem. S and I also took a 3 day road trip through Nevada and Arizona. We had a really fun night out in Vegas. We stayed at Treasure Island and had a sweet room overlooking the Strip and the pirate show down below. We got free drink coups at the Sirens of TI show we went to. We hit up some buffet at the Rio my parents said was the best where there was big cheap drinks. Then we walked through a few different casinos. We won like $35 playing the Wheel of Fortune slot machine, I know that’s not a huge amount but it was fun and it was something. How many people come home saying they’ve won anything there? We hung out at the Venetian til 3 in the morning, just walking around near the “canals” and it was so deceiving because it was lit up like the middle of the day. The next day we drove on towards the Grand Canyon. We stopped at the Hoover Dam for pictures. It took forever to get to the Canyon. We went to dinner and then came back to the hotel and passed out. At about 4am the bedside alarm went off. The people who were in the room before us must have set the alarm to get to the Canyon for sunrise. I got up and peaked out the window and it was snowing. We threw on our jackets and shoes and went out to play in the snow. It was magical. S has video of me, I didn't know he was filming, jumping up and down saying, "Snow, snow, snow" and trying to catch the flakes on my tongue. Later in the morning, we got up and drove out to the Canyon. S was in awe of the place. He couldn’t stop taking pictures and we had to stop at every turn out. It was beautiful covered in snow. As we got farther out from the resorts it started snowing again and it swirled up from inside the Canyon. It was an awesome experience. The next day we woke up and our drinks had exploded all over the inside of the car because it had gotten so cold. There was snow for a few hours driving out of the park. We saw a huge golden eagle’s nest and then the next thing we saw was the two eagles themselves in a dead tree. We stopped at Lake Havasu to see the London Bridge and then we drove home to have dinner with my friends from the surf shop B and K. S went back to Oz and I followed shortly thereafter.