There's something to be said for visiting friends in other parts of the country, especially when even under the most normal of conditions that friend has the temperament of the most upbeat tour guide you've ever met.

What did I learn?

I like hiking in mountains, especially in a state where the low humidity allows me to walk uphill for over an hour and never sweat. In the Midwest, my clothes get wet if I take out the garbage.

In the corn belt, big cities grow vertical instead of horizontal, possibly because every building will pave over perfectly useful farmland. In Arizona where a high CSR (corn suitability rating) isn't exactly expected to be in the 80s or 90s, huge cities seem to spread out with very few skyscrapers, and there isn't a sense of claustrophobic overpopulation pressing in on you. Heck, I thought it was neat that there were giant chunks of natural red rock towering over the buildings and jutting up towards the sky in the middle of a major city!

Indoor skydiving at the town of Eloy is definitely not something I had the opportunity to try back home. Imagine going to Sea World and watching dolphins do tricks underwater, except instead of animals there are people. Instead of water, it's air. While I'm waiting my turn and watching professional skydivers practice their routines in the vertical wind tunnel, I still found myself squinting to find wires or harnesses or a magician with a big top hat. Yet, alongside me were adults and a few six-year olds waiting to try it for the first time, too. (Heck, I was just happy to have tried it and not embarrassed myself in the process. LOL)

In the Midwest we have to drive for nearly a day into any adjacent state to notice a change in plant life, terrain, and/or temperature. In Arizona it seems like they only have to drive a couple of hours towards the nearest mountains to get the same effect.

I've never used a handgun before, but I got to try out two different types of semiautomatic pistols at an indoor range. It was fun! I remember once firing a bee-bee gun in 4H and a shotgun in the Youth Conservation Corps as a teenager, but that's about it. It turns out I really enjoy both shooting and manipulating all the sliding mechanical parts on a pistol. Within a few minutes of walking in, handing over my driver's license, getting these big earphones, and listening to a 30 second course on how to load and unload the rented gun, I was firing at a paper target and uttering the words, "God bless America," with a big smile across my face.

Also, the latest Lady Gaga video for "Bad Romance" came out, and my Arizonian friend and I spent most of the vacation catching one another humming the tune. I swear, I can watch that video five times in a row and STILL spot new elements in it each time. If everybody in society were as good at their chosen profession as she is, we'd be using flying cars and rocket belts to get to the grocery store. C'mon, compared to bands whose videos feature nothing more creative than live footage of jumping around stage at a concert, "Bad Romance" has a sinister sci-fi slave auction to a mafia cyborg. IMO, that's what top-notch music videos are supposed to do: tell wordless stories that the audience has to figure out on our own.