Not everybody likes the same thing

Not everybody likes the same thing. We are all different.

This may be (painfully) obvious to you -- especially to my joyously unique brothers & sisters -- but here's the tricky bit: IT'S OK. That's how it's supposed to be. Just because you prefer, say, stretching your shoulders paddling a canoe to the instant gratification of noisy gas guzzling power boats, or prefer standing for minutes gazing into a canyon instead of standing in a big crowd, or even crocheting to knitting, doesn't mean you're not A Team Player.

And it turns out that a family vacation is a wonderful chance to practice accepting this. For me, I'm a homebody. I'd have preferred visiting my charming relatives and skipping the whole sightseeing thing, but I was voted off the island.

Vince's favorite thing was this




Where as Cassie preferred

Las Vegas. She loved that everyone was trying to catch her attention (and was willing to do just about anything to get it). She loved that even the Motel 6 sign was glitzy. That "it's all about ME" attitude drew her like a bee to nectar.

It was a genuine strain for Cassie to even fake interest in the Dam Tours. (Ok. She didn't strain herself. She Was. Not. Interested. In a way that only a 15 year old girl can be Not Interested.) Believe me, I understand that not everyone is as interested as I am that Glen Canyon Dam produces almost as much electricity with 8 generators as Hoover Dam produces with 17. The fact that instead of running tubes full of coolant through the concrete as they did at Hoover so it wouldn't take 128 years to cure, they used shaved ice in the mix at Glen Canyon does not make for scintillating party conversation. As a matter of fact, Cassie took this photo at Hoover Dam because it pretty much expresses her feelings about it

Although the engineering in dams fascinates me & I still fondly remember my first Dam tour on a family vacation as a kid (Hungry Horse), they also make me feel sad, especially at Glen Canyon. I can imagine the incredible beauty that was so cavalierly drowned for what seems to me a shallow (pun intended. It's over 700 feet tall), short sighted gain. Glen Canyon Dam's primary mission is water control. Recreation comes second. Clean power comes at the bottom of the list.

But my favorite part of the trip was

Is that the coolest name for a cool yarn shop, or what? I think it's a sign (of what I'm not sure but a sign nonetheless). I even got to meet Gail and she is wonderful and friendly, as were her Saturday crowd of devotees. They show up, hang out and knit. She seems to knit effortlessly, without struggle; like breathing. She has a binder packed full of sweater patterns she's designed. I like that she models most of them in the book and if you buy the yarn from her she shares them generously. Her yarn selection fits her location -- very chic and yummy (sorry I have no photos of it, I was just so smitten with the sign) -- but she had basics, too and I managed to find something to buy without any trouble at all.