Sunday morning we woke up early to go to Brad’s graduation ceremony. Sam, being the awesome friend that he is to both of us came to the ceremony with me. Every name of every graduate was called, about 1,200 people. Not in alphabetical order – we had to be judicious about bathroom breaks. I was so proud when we heard his name.

After graduation, we had a lunch party for Brad at Buca di Beppo. It was lots of fun, and so good to see everyone! I forgot to take a picture earlier on in the lunch, but here’s the crowd that was there after the first wave left:

Cliff gets the prize for drawing first tear of the day – I originally worked with him in the Hawaii office of the company I just left, and he brought me a gorgous picture of the view from the office window. Cliff also gets the prize for traveling the farthest – he and Garret flew down from San Jose.

Patty and Alex drove down from LA to say good-bye – we had a mini-reunion going on. Here’s a picture of Patty, me, and Miyon.

After Buca di Beppo, we tried to go to Trislers for a sophisticated evening of wine. They were closed, however, so we went to Gordon Biersch to have a less sophisticated afternoon that involved Brad “getting his drink on.” He deserved it after all of his hard work.

Here’s Brad, me, Miyon, Sam, and Peter is lying across the table.

Miyon tried several times to “surprise” me with a kiss in a photo, so here’s her one success:

After Gordon Biersch, we went to the Whistle Stop. Marisa, Miyon and I had a fun time talking – I can’t wait to see them in October. The entire day was a long, staggered good-bye to everyone, and it was really, really rough day. Really good, just really sad.

I didn’t get much sleep, so this morning was pretty rough as well. Luckily, Brad had no intention of me driving today at all, so I napped when it was cool enough to. We couldn’t turn on the air conditioning as high as we wanted as the engine was going to overheat with the extra exertion. Lani was fine – she chose a soft cooler as her perch point, which I’m sure was cool and comfortable. The car (the one I’m leaving in Michigan) had it’s own milestone:

Our only event for the day was Zion National Park. We got there in plenty of time to catch the beautiful scenery in the sun.

Zion is absolutely gorgeous:

Unfortunately, our photography leaves something to be desired. I collect postcards for that very reason.

While in the car having a snack, I found something for all of the knitters:

Each stick had something about each animal, like “whale – largest mammal.”

We’re at Ruby’s Inn in Bryce Canyon, which I highly recommend to anyone coming out here. It’s absolute luxury after four nights in a Motel 6. There’s internet! We can’t see the wireless from our room, so we’re in the lobby, but I’m so excited that I only have to blog two days of stuff from Denver instead of four. I know some people actually take vacations from the internet, but I want to capture the trip for me as well as for everyone else who cares. Anyway, three national parks tomorrow (I know, we’re crazy). One park on Wednesday on the way to Rob’s in Denver, and I’ll update again from there. I miss reading all the blogs!

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