Went to visit my friend Emma, who was our exchange student 10 years ago. Now she's a doctor of Pharmacy. Emma is torn between moving back to France, or staying in the USA.

We did quite a bit in the few days I was there. We started our first day with a swim in the beautiful pools at The Westin la Paloma, where Emma's boyfriend was presenting a medical research. This place was beautiful! There was a pool with the biggest curly slide in a resort hotel. I went down, it was scary. The sun was intense.

103 feet tall, 10 feet wide, a titan missle had enough power in it's nuclear warhead to wipe out an entire city or more. In 1962-1982, USA had 54 missles hidden underground, ready to fly at a minute's notice, with it's target (Russia most likely) only 1/2 hour away. Russia had 24 missles aimed at the US. Comforting that this type of defense is no longer in action. The site we visited was the only one left, the rest had been destroyed and the property sold. There is no nuclear warhead in the rocket on display.

We also visited San Xavier Mission, and the Titan II missle site. The mission was very primitive, very beautiful.

We got a little pin from the giftship to pin to the coverlet of San Xavier, mine was a had for my arthritic fingers, and Emma pinned a head for her grandmother's alzheimer's.

They say if you can lift the carved wooden head of San Xavier, who lays prone, you are pure of heart. Emma and I are both pure of heart.

After visiting the church, we walked up a hill and saw cactus flowers blooming, and rain in the distance. Everything was so beautiful.

Flying home, I saw the Grand Canyon from my plane window. My flight took me to Salt Lake City, Utah, where we flew over the Great Salt Lake, and then over Park City (Winter Olympics were held there), lots of mountains, clouds, and then cities we could actually see from above; Dallas, New Orleans, and St. Petersburg/Tampa, before getting home to Orlando.