Star Valley

On Monday, we drove to Star Valley, Wyoming.  We stayed at the Star Valley Ranch RV Resort.

On Tuesday,  we drove to Jackson Hole and went shopping.  We ate lunch at Bubba's BBQ.

On Wednesday,  we drove to Afton and saw the new Temple that hasn't opened yet.  We saw the largest elk horn arch in town.  We had dinner with Dad's work friends/ clients at Agave Mexican Restaurant.  I had a seafood burrito, which had shrimp and crab meat in it.

On Thursday,  We drove through Grand Teton National Park.  We stopped at Colter Bay and Jackson Lake.  We couldn't go any farther up because there was a fire in Yellowstone.  Dad cooked us dutch oven potatoes and blueberry cobbler for dinner.

On Friday,  we drove up to Teton Village and went through their shops, and watched the aerial trams.  We ate lunch at Pizza Hut.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin is a psychological nightmare.  Mara has moved to a new town, but is haunted by her past.  An incident occured in her group of friends and it's driving Mara crazy.  If you like psychological thrillers or need a book to read this Halloween, this is a great book.  There are two other books in the series.  

Mission Viejo

On Monday, we flew to Los Angeles.  We stayed at the Ayres hotel in Mission Viejo.   We got to hold my nephew Coen for the first time.   We ate dinner at El Torito.

On Tuesday, we took my niece to Downtown Disney.  She loved playing with the legos.  Mom bought her a Frozen shirt and bought my nephew a Mickey shirt.  We ate beignets and mint juleps as a snack at the Jazz Kitchen.  We went to Taco Bell for lunch.  We had dinner at Tender Greens at the Irvine Spectrum Center.  I had the Chipotle Barbecue Chicken Salad. My niece loves the park there.  She kept wanting to go up and down the slide.    

The Love That Split The World

The Love That Split The World by Emily Henry is a bout a girl who has an imaginary friend named Grandmother.  Grandmother tells Natalie she needs to save him, not knowing who that is.  She falls for Beau, but there's a problem.  He lives in a parallel version of Earth, where Natalie doesn't exist. 

United States Playlist

• All I Owe Ioway- State Fair
• All My Ex's Live in Texas- George Strait
• Blue Hawaii- Elvis Presley
• California - Phantom Planet
• California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas
• California Girls - The Beach Boys
• California Gurls - Katy Perry
• California Love - 2Pac
• California Sun - Annette Funicello
• California, Here I Come- Al Jonson
• Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Deep In The Heart Of Texas - Perry Como
• Englishman in New York- Sting
• The Eyes of A New York Woman- B.J. Thomas
• Florida Time- Bob Seger & Last Heard
• Floridays- Jimmy Buffett
• Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles
• Georgia Peaches - Lauren Alaina
• Goodbye California- Jana Kramer
• Hawaii- The Beach Boys
• Hawaii Five-O - The Ventures
• Hotel California - Eagles
• I Love New York- Madonna
• It Never Rains in Southern California- Albert Hammond
• King of New York- Newsies
• Leaving California- Maroon 5
• The Little Things in Texas- State Fair
• Massachusetts- Bee Gees
• Meet Virginia - Train
• Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight & the Pips
• Mississippi Cha Cha Slide by D.J. Slide
• More Bounce in California- Soul Kid
• New York Groove- Kiss
• New York State of Mind- Billy Joel
• New York's Not My Home- Jim Croce
• The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
• Ohio- Wonderful Town
• Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
• Oklahoma Sky - Miranda Lambert
• Oklahoma! - Cast of Oklahoma!
• Private Idaho - The B-52's
• Queen of California - John Mayer
• Snow In California - Ariana Grande
• Stars Fell on Alabama- Frank Sinatra
• Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Tennessee Line- Daughtry
• Welcome to New York by Taylor Swift
• Why Georgia - John Mayer

Island Park

On Monday, we drove up to Island Park, Idaho.  We stayed at the Valley View RV Park.  We ate dinner at The Gusher. We went and saw the musical, Singin' in the Rain at the Playmill theatre.

On Tuesday, we drove to West Yellowstone and walked through all the shops.  We enjoyed the sunset over Henry's Lake.

On Wednesday, we drove the lower loop of Yellowstone, stopping at Canyon Village, Yellowstone Lake, and Fishing Bridge.  We had lunch at the general store in Fishing Bridge.  We saw bison and elk.  We cooked dinner for my uncle Don and aunt Viv in our trailer.

On Thursday,  Dad went fishing with the guys.  We went and saw the musical spoof of the movie, Three Amigos at the Mack's Inn theatre.  For dinner, we had prime rib, baked potato, beans, corn, roll, salad, and a ice cream sandwich.

On Friday,  we drove to the Canyons in Yellowstone.  We saw elk, bison, and a coyote.  We stopped at Canyon Village and went through the museum and saw a nature film about Yellowstone.   We drove on the windy road to the Virginia Cascades. We stopped at Artist's Point and heard the ranger talk.  We ate lunch in the cafeteria at Canyon Village.  We stopped at Norris and walked through the museum and down to the geysers.  There were several hats that had blown off into the geysers.  We stopped in West Yellowstone and got ice cream at Two Scoops.  We ate dinner and played games at Don's cabin.

On Saturday, we drove home.  We watched the fireworks for Syracuse Heritage Days.

Soundtrack of My Life

I saw Entertainment Weekly had a quiz with Charlie Puth, on the songs he loved growing up.   I modified some of the questions and added new ones.

Soundtrack of My Life:

Favorite song from Birth Year: Arthur's Theme (The Best that You Can Do)

The first song that I loved: Do You Love Me? by the Contours

The first album I bought with my own money: Belinda Carlisle: Runaway Horses.

Favorite Soundtrack: Grease, The Phantom of the Opera, or Dirty Dancing

First Concert: John Mayer with Maroon 5.

The song that reminds me of my first crush: Crush by Jennifer Paige.

Artists I love that would surprise people: Eminem

Song I love that would surprise people: Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio

The song that makes me cry: In My Life by the Beatles.

My go-to karaoke jam: Don't You (Forget about Me) by Simple Minds.

The best song to dance to: (I've Had) The Time of My Life

The song I play too much: Dude Looks Like a Lady by Aerosmith

A Hundred Summers

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams is about love triangle.  A woman reflects on her time with her boyfriend and her best friend on two important summers in her life.  It's what happened between those two summers that make this story compelling.  Reminded me of two novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  A perfect beach read.

Travel Nightmares

Here are the stories that come to mind when ever I hear about someone having a bad time while traveling:

Airports can suck sometimes. I remember this one time, I was supposed to have a no stop flight from Phoenix to Oahu and the plane was having mechanical problems and they made us wait on the plane for 45 minutes without any air conditioning. We were using the barf bags as fans, because it was so hot. Then they flew us to Los Angeles and we had a wait for an hour to get on another plane.

I went on a cruise a couple of years ago and one of the stops was in Playa Del Carmen. I booked a bus tour to Cancun and the driver went to park the bus next to a sidewalk and a tree branch went through the windshield and broke it.

Usually when I go on on a cruise or to Florida, it's during hurricane season, so it's always raining or a hurricane is a couple of days away. I went to Cozumel on a cruise and a week later a hurricane hit it and destroyed the ship dock and the shops on the pier. I remember going to Disney's Hollywood Studios, having to get a yellow poncho because it was just pouring. It poured from the moment we got there till we left at the end of the day.

On a flight back from Hawaii to home, they gave my mom's personal wheelchair to another lady who didn't speak English and then when my mom got off the plane, they had to radio their employee to bring it back to the runway.

Las Vegas

 We drove to Vegas and stayed at the Oasis RV Park.  We ate dinner at Dickey's BBQ.

On Tuesday,  we went to the south premium outlets mall.  We went to Circus Circus to buy show tickets.  We went to Town square mall and ate dinner at Popeye's.

On Wednesday,  we parked at the Paris Hotel.  We walked around the Grand Bazaar shops at Bally's. We got some kettle corn at I Love Popcorn.  We walked over to Bellagio, but the gardens were closed.  We walked around the Miracle Mile at Planet Hollywood and ate lunch at Pink's Hot Dogs.  I had the Brooklyn Pastrami with Swiss cheese.  We went and saw the musical, Jersey Boys, at the Paris Hotel.

On Thursday,  we went to the Fashion Show mall.  We parked at the Linq and walked over to the Venetian.  We ate lunch in their food court.  We had a fruit tart from the Paris Baguette.  We walked around the Palazzo.  We ate dinner at Project Pie in the MGM.  We walked around the Forum shops at Caesar's Palace.  

On Friday,  we went to the Silverton hotel to see the Sister Wive's jewelry line.  We went to Kohl's and Target.  We ate lunch at Firehouse Subs.  We went to the Boulevard mall.  We ate dinner at the Claim Jumper.  

On Saturday, we drove home.  

Big Little Lies

I have pretty much read every book by Liane Moriarty, starting with What Alice Forgot.  She is absolutely fantastic author and I highly recommend this book as well.  She has characters who are likeable but complicated.  She tells relateable and interesting tales, with lots of plot twists. 

Big Little Lies is about a group of mothers at the school.  It's about how they handle a bullying incident, what secrets they are keeping from each other, and how they are connected.