He wanted to spend this birthday at the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the historic hotel - El Tovar. We had a great dinner the night of his birthday. He had a great hike the following day. I did the easy version which is the rim trail that is paved and easy and allows for multiple great views of the Canyon. It was a great place to turn 60 and for me, to be there with that terrific person who turned 60! He wears it well!
And his requested reward when he hiked out of the Canyon was:
The El Tovar is at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was opened in 1905 as one of a chain of hotels and restaurants owned and operated by the Fred Harvey Company in conjunction with the Santa Fe railway. It is an early example of the style that would evolve into National Park Service Rustic architecture. It was built before the Grand Canyon was a formally protected Federal park. The Grand Canyon National Park was established by Congress in 1916. The El Tovar was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
Uncle Ron from Omaha informed us earlier this year of a veteran's memorial near us in Anthem, AZ. It is a monument dedicated to honoring the service and sacrifice of the United States armed forces. The five marble pillar monument was designed by Anthem resident Renee Palmer-Jones. The pillars represent the five branches of the United States military. They are staggered in size (from 17 ft. to 6 ft.) and ordered in accordance with the Department of Defense prescribed precedence, ranging from the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force and the United States Coast Guard.
Anthem chief engineer, Jim Martin was responsible for aligning the memorial accurately with the sun so that on each Veterans Day, 11/11, at precisely 11:11 a.m., the sun's rays pass through the ellipses of the five Armed Services pillars to form a perfect solar spotlight over a mosaic of The Great Seal of the United States.
Our plan was to visit the memorial on Veterans Day but those plans were foiled. So we visited the memorial on our return from the 60th birthday Grand Canyon trip.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, we traveled to San Diego as guests of sister-in-law Liz and brother Jim at their time share. Liz's sister Marilyn and her husband Mel joined us as well. We haven't visited San Diego since we lived in Yuma - nearly 20 years ago. We enjoyed wine tasting in Temecula and a visit to Coronado Island and the Hotel Del Coronado.
The Saturday following Thanksgiving took us to Tucson for nephew Jimmy's high school football team Division II championship football game. They won!! and we made television!
Early December we hosted a small gathering of our Friday night football group and Jimmy and some of his friends joined us as well. We've now adjusted to having our Friday nights free but certainly miss watching Jimmy football!
The following weekend we joined Jim and Liz as their guests for Jimmy's football banquet. It was a pleasure listening to the coaches talk about these young men and their accomplishments on the football field as well as in the classroom. Jimmy was recognized for his 4.2 GPA, along with several other of the football players with GPAs of 3.0 and above. Jimmy (I might have to really consider starting calling him Jim?) plans to pursue admission to West Point. He graduates May 2016.
Larry is doing well. I'm doing well. Life is good! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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