Liping's Visit ... and our marriage

We are married! (Why you never say earlier?) Well ... it wasn't planned before hand.

I am beginning to feel bored alone in Minneapolis. Finally, the day to see some old friends arrived. Liping, Munsheng, Weixiong, and Ven Guo Jun were coming for a retreat with Shifu in New York. I was happy to meet them so I got a ticket. Only Liping was coming to stay with me in Minneapolis. Before I went, I bought a ring without her knowing.

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I met Liping, Munsheng,and Weixiong at Chan Meditation Centre. Hee ... I thought we can perhaps ROM in New York. To speed things up, I decided to propose to her while we were still on our way out. Ops ... where was my ring? I dropped it on the road but recovered in eventually! There I proposed at 88th Street - Corona Ave.

It was our wedding day and also the day to leave nyc. Ven Guo Jun was kind enough to come out early with us to wait at City Clerk. Meanwhile, Munsheng and Weixiong left for Singapore. We went through the ceremony with Liping barely understanding what the black lady was asking for. But she nevertheless said "yes." Ven Guo Jun, who was our only witness in the room, clapped very loudly.

Liping and I reached Minneapolis at night. She was surprised it was so clean.

It was Liping's first weekend. We went to Minneapolis Institute of Art in the morning. She missed the Metropolitan Institute of Art in New York and I guesses this was her compensation. It was a really fine museum.

By chance or by purpose, we finished the museum earlier than we expected. Because shopping it next on the list!

We went to Las Vegas, by virtue of a friend's recommendation. It was to be a city so build for entertainment itself. It was so hot in the middle of the desert. When we touched down, we began to bake. We are not melting as in Singapore because there was no moisture in the air. We took a cab to the hotel - Venetian.

Venetian was one of the most extravagrant hotel in Las Vegas. So elaborately designed that I heard it took billions to build. It was a replica of Venetia street that was connected by small canals. As such, there was a canal running through the stretch of shopping mall. (There were shopping malls, restaurants, and casinos in every major hotels) The mall was full of classy shops that were certainly not for us. Nonetheless, the beautiful wall paintings of renaissance age were certainly a joy to watch.

Next morning, we began 'hotel hopping.' It was by large the only but very fun thing you can do in Las Vegas. Almost everything interesting could be found on the 'strip,' which was a street filled with all major hotels and their malls. Walking along the street, you could feel the heat touching your skin. As in Singapore, you were always craving for water and air con. But still, there were always things to distract your mind from the discomfort. Everywhere, buildings, bill board, people, advertisements, were designed to attract your attention. There were monorail, M&M shop, cocacola shops, and hotels of every themes - Venetia, Sahara, Alladin, Piramid, Magic, Rome, Flamingo, Bellagio, New York, Pirates, ... These hotels really MEAN what they claim. Las Vegas 'fakes' were well crafted and abound.

Two days of mall hopping in Las Vegas was strenuous affair. Time was enough, but very tight. As such, we were always on the move, and fast. All things must come to an end and this afternoon, we were leaving for Flagstaff - a small town near Grand Canyon.

We left Las Vegas airport and came to Phoenix airport. From there, we took a very small propeller plane to Flagstaff. While, flagstaff was so small that big planes did not make any sense. But it wasn't bad at all. Forty five minutes was all it took.

We were at Flagstaff. Gosh, it was cold, unlike Vegas. At an elevation of 6000ft (approx 2000m), it felt like Minneapolis. Merely two weeks ago, they said, it was snowing! We found our motel quickly. It was pretty good and we slept in no time.

It was morning. We had to wake up early for the train ride to Grand Canyon. By all the recommendations, taking the old train was said to be the best way to visit Grand Canyon. In our plans, we (1) Take a bus from Flagstaff to Williams - gateway to Grand Canyon, (2) Take the antique train from Williams to Grand Canyon. I was still amazed that all the time fitted well as if we were on a tour!

We reached Amtrak station. There wasn't much people but by proportion, quite a few back packers. Soon, we were on board an small coach to Williams. Looking around, the people were fairly adventurous types. There were also three young Japanese ladies with us. The Americans looked aged and hardy.

We reached Williams, but we were the only two getting off! The rest of the people were going straight to Grand Canyon. Liping was probably puzzled that how did the Monkey thought of this way of getting to the Canyon without anyone ever thought so. I am also puzzled ...

The station was dedicated to the old train. A 1920s antique and restored in the 60s. All in the name of keeping the old stuffs. Relative to Chinese, Americans like old stuffs. How else could there be so many antiques shop in Clark Quay, and why did our government kept tearing down old houses and roads?

We got our tickets fairly quickly and we were waiting for the gun fight! The robbers were lurking in town... There we went! Some hungry robbers were talking beside the train station about where to get breakfast. While not ignoring us tourists, they were taking one of us hostage until the Sheriff came. All cowboy tales came to the same end, the robbers were killed! And it was time to go to the canyon.

It was a steam train. So it began with a 'boo ....booooo.' 'Pop pop pop.....' 'Boo... booo.'

The inside was very authentic with the heavy windows still very heavy and dangerous. There were even a personal servant in our cabin. And there were songs, musical instruments, and jokes.

We reached Grand Canyon near 12 noon. We booked a short 1.5 hours tour to popular spots around the Canyon. Wow!! The canyon in really so much of a big big hole..... It was supposed to be bigger than Singapore. It is...

We also got to shop. And we left in three hours.

We were all tired. The ride back was quiet. We were almost reaching Williams when some masked riders raced against our train! They were trying to .... no invited to board the train. As the servant said, it was the only train that would stopped for robbers to board! Or perhaps their pay was too small to risk jumping onto the train.

The robber hopped from one cabin to another. People started giving them one and two dollars as tips. They even posed for us!

We returned to Flagstaff on the same bus we came. The people with us were the same...except they were all fast asleep...

21st June (Sunday)

We toured Flagstaff. It was a small town built on the attractions nearby - Grand Canyon, ruins, and more canyons.

We were leaving at night. And came a news, our plane was delayed and we were going to miss the transfer to Minneapolis. Nonetheless, they will put us up in Phoenix in a suite!

Due to the flight delay, I had to go to work at 2pm.

This was Liping's last week in Minneapolis, so things ought to be going down hill.

We could have stayed at home for Liping's last weekend. But we went to Lake Superior at Duluth - a small town three hour north of Minneapolis, not far away from Canadian border.

Lake Superior was the largest fresh water lake in the world/or north America. In Minneapolis, the city of ten thousand lakes, it was the biggest. So big, it would look like the sea. At Duluth, we would only be at the southern most end. The actual lake went up into Canada.

I did not have a car, so we tried the Grey Hound, the local nationwide coach service. It was pretty straight forward and not many people were with us. The bus was not as luxurious as the ones we had in Malaysia. In fact, it had a four rows of seats; the coach in Malaysia usually had three only.

Three hours past easily. We reached Duluth at 12n. Lake Superior was a bit like harbour front in Singapore, minus the stinky sea water smell, humidity, and hot weather. Being more north than Minneapolis, it turned colder. In order to maximise our time, we used what we learnt in all previous travels, we head out to the tourist information and gather all the brochures and maps that were interesting. In the end, we took a 45 minutes city sight seeing bus, 1.5 hours cruise, and walked around the shops. Frankly, we did miss some good places, e.g. the aquarium. But it was a relaxing and slow paced and therefore nice place to visit. Our bus was leaving at 5:35pm and we had to catch it.