Jack and I just home from a visit out West. We enjoyed a dinner with our handsome nephew, Matthew, who is a fireman/paramedic in Las Vegas. Sweet as he is he picked a restaurant with lots of vegan options for his Aunt Susan! We took a day trip out to Hoover Dam and the amazing new bridge over the Colorado!! Took our breath away! And the highlight was surprising our friend Brenda on her special birthday. Her husband, Todd, brought her to Las Vegas from Missouri to celebrate her 50th! She had no idea that “extras” would be there! We gathered around the hotel pool for the reunion and talked about all the fun times we had boating together in the Exumas. Todd and Brenda spent 5 1/2 years on their boat, Life’s Too Short and like us are now back on land. ROY’S restaurant served us a perfect birthday meal! The rest of the group was staying in Vegas for a few days. Jack and I headed North to Utah for a visit to Zion National Park and a few days volunteering at Best Friends, a 3700 acre animal sanctuary. It is an amazing place doing great work with about 1,200-to 1,500 animals at any given time (dogs, cats, birds, horses, pigs, goats and bunnies). They are most famous for taking 25 of the Michael Vick dogs, 18 of which have been adopted!! Jack and I worked with dogs and birds, loving every minute! It was hard not to bring home a friend with so many animals needing homes. We didn’t take a lot of pictures at the sanctuary. Too busy working!
Oh, I forgot! The day before we left a 75 foot hickory fell on our house! We were lucky. No one was hurt and the roof (new, one month ago!!) had only minimal damage.
The Callaghan/Tillman Bridge, an architectural wonder!! It was built to relieve the congestion over the dam.
One side of the bridge is Nevada, the other side, Arizona!
Scary as it was we took the walkway across the bridge!
Hoover Dam from the bridge. It’s hard to tell how big it is unless you are there but you can look and see how small the people are! That’s the Colorado River flowing into Lake Mead.
The bridge!
Spillway
Lake Mead
Gathered around the pool. Todd is taking the picture and that’s Lila and Everett, friends from Missouri who also surprised Brenda!
Dinner at Roy’s.
Happy, happy birthday!!
Lots had changed since we were last in Vegas! The Eifel Tower moved there!!
Fountain at Caesar’s Palace
Glass ceiling in the Bellagio by Chihuly. I would like to have just one piece of his work but a WHOILE ceiling!!
If you have been to the Bellagio you know they have an atrium always decorated for the season. Autumn and Halloween when we were there!
Flower art – all framed!
A view down the strip!
Fountains percolating at the Bellagio!
Choreographed to music!
Dancing to an etude!
Fountains even more beautiful at night!
Heading through the pass to Utah.
Starting to see the formations of Zion National Park
Beautiful Zion!
Autumn colors
View from our hotel
Arriving at the sanctuary
Meet Bella! She is half boxer, half German short-haired pointer and a sweet beauty! We took her on a long hike in the mountains to a cave with a hidden lake and then home with us for the night. They call it a socialization sleep-over. Of course they hope you will fall in love! And we did!
She didn’t need any encouragement to hop up on the bed for a nap!
These are the gates to the pet cemetery.
A peaceful place with over 1,100 wind chimes.
Our neighbors in Ohio volunteer here often and have buried their pets here. We visited the graves of their Dakota, Seymour and Houston.
We will be back, Best Friends!!
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