veiled4allah: back in black

I'm back from my vacation. First, my parents and I visited my sister in California and we stayed through 12/26. While we were there, we took a day trip to San Francisco. Then we and my sister all went on a trip together. After a brief stay in Las Vegas, we visited the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Park, along with visits to Red Rock Canyon and the Valley of Fire.

I was glad for the chance to see San Francisco. We took a short cruise in the bay and got to see the Golden Gate Bridge from right below it! After the cruise, we walked through some older neighborhoods, Chinatown, and then back into the downtown shopping district.

Las Vegas is truly unique. When we landed in McCarran Airport, we saw slot machines practically as soon as we exited the plane, and there were more slot machines in baggage claim. We stayed at the MGM Grand, which is practically like a miniature city in itself with all kinds of shops and restaurants and theaters as well as a casino that you have to pass through in order to go anywhere and the hotel itself. We took a drive down the Strip, where we saw most of the main casinos. There was a small pyramid, a replica of Paris, a replica of part of the NYC skyline, and imitations of various other archictectural styles including Chinese, Middle Eastern, and more. It's not even like a real city, but some kind of bizarre fantasy land.

The Grand Canyon was spectacular. It is truly one of the wonders of Allah SWT's creation. Pictures don't do it justice, you have to actually be there to understand how tremendous it is.

Lake Powell was formerly a smaller version of the Grand Canyon known as Glen Canyon. Then, some decades ago they dammed it and created a lake there - Lake Powell. What's weird is that it still looks like a canyon filled with water, not like a regular lake.

Bryce Canyon has a different look, but is beautiful in its own way. Mashallah! There was a beautiful view of some rock formations with the edges "outlined" by the snow.

Zion National Park contains yet another canyon as well as various other natural features. When we were there it was overcast and either snowing or raining depending on your elevation. We also drove through a mile-long tunnel drilled through the rock. If large trucks are going to be traveling that way, they have to call in advance and then the tunnel is closed to other traffic so the trucks can be led through it.

Red Rock Canyon was actually the first place we visited, it's just out of Las Vegas. It was very pretty. The Valley of Fire is another site with lots of red rocks, which rise up out of a barren landscape of brownish and greyish rocks, so it's very striking. You leave the freeway and drive for nearly twenty miles through an absolutely desolate region and then suddenly as you descend into a valley, there are these vivid orange-red rock formations rising up.

I had a great time on my vacation. We saw some spectacular sites and I had a chance to spend time with my family. I did come down with a cold, however. It was pretty bad the last couple of days of our trip, but I am feeling much better today, al-hamdulillah. I also got the hem of my abaya caught in an escalator at the MGM Grand hotel The security guys had to call an engineer to come and run the escalator backwards so that we could pull the fabric out, lol. The hem was torn and soiled with grease but fortunately the abaya could be salvaged by cutting off a few inches from the hem.