I GUESS I LIED???????

Hi again. I guess I lied when I posted 'Tomorrow' yesterday. I got home from dinner a little earlier than I thought and immediately had to have my blogger fix. Had a very nice visit with David and Diana and was a pleasure to meet their boy Kian. He is 22 months old, so I lied about that too. Maybe it was just hopeful thinking. I hate to think that I haven't seem them in almost 2 years, although we have kept in touch. David's business is doing very well, he has a couple of apartment complexes underway and working on a huge shopping center as well as a few other projects. I will link to his site (Foursite). They've acquired a civil engineering/surveying company and are keeping very busy. Kian is a pleasure and I am amazed that they are teaching him to speak Chinese along with American. I wonder how confusing that is to him. Had to have Diana translate although most of what he was speaking was just gibberish.

I'd like to give you a tour of my Arizona and try to let you know why I love it so much. Thom I know you feel the same way, in fact I think it was you who first told me about the desert Southwest.

I'm going to begin with my favorite mountains in the Phoenix area, the Superstitions. Great hiking trails and a botanical garden with specimens of all the plants and vegetation indigenous to this area. Once I got lost hiking with a couple of friends. That was pretty scary, but luckily I had done what most experts instruct and maintained a landmark in order to establish direction.


Then there's beautiful Sedona (North of Phoenix) with its magnificent red rock formations. This is Red Rock Crossing with Court House Rock in the background. I always take my out-of-town visitors on this tour which includes this loop through Sedona, up the Oak Creek Canyon and on to the Grand Canyon. This I call my personalized mini sight seeing tour on a budget.


This is my favorite shot (next to a winter one with snow that I can't seem to locate at this time) of the Canyon. I like it so much because the clouds bring out the shadows and the shading of the rocks. This shot was taken just before a thunderstorm with lots of lightening, which I have never been able to capture on film though I've spent many hours and wet trips trying.


Further North and East of Phoenix is Lake Powell formed when they built the Glenn Canyon Dam. The northern most part of the lake is in Utah. There are over 2,000 miles of shore line and you can rent house boats and party for a week (or a couple of days). The water is so clear you can see the tops of mountains that were buried underwater when the area was flooded by the Dam. Lots of good hiking, petrogliphs (sp?), ruins, and fjords with caves large enough to pull the house boat into. Truly spectacular. This is Cathedral Rock at the beginning of the trip. More pics of our house boating trip in a later blog with more of the breath taking views.

This shot is just south of Globe/Miami (mining towns) and is just north of us about an hours drive. I can never seem to capture the real beauty and depth of the area, but this one turned out pretty good. Shot in the spring with the desert in full bloom. You can barely see the mountains in the background and the road tunnels through a mountain which is pretty cool in itself.

South of Phoenix, just before getting to Tucson is the "Jewel of the Desert", San Xavier Mission. And it truly is a jewel out there in the middle of the desert with nothing around. You can see if from great distances. It is now a tourist stop and is no longer a working mission. They have restored and maintained it very well, although I imagine it was even more spectacular without the road and parking lot.

North and west of Phoenix is Monument Valley. Thom and I spent a wonderful day exploring the valley one summer. We hired a Navajo guide and were able to go off the tourist trails and meet some of the local color, one being Suzi Yazi who must have been about 100 years old and still weaving blankets. This little Navajo girl let us take her picture and it turned out like a postcard.


This is a shot of one of our magnificent sunsets. They are always glorious and almost always religious. Thom and I spent many hours tracking and waiting for the perfect sunset. This is my most favorite time of day when the desert puts on a spectacular light show before closing shop for the day. This shot was taken at the Papago Buttes looking west over the Phoenix skyline which you can barely see below the glare of the setting sun. Thom.. they've closed this area where we used to park and climb up to the butte to photograph the sunsets.

One of our favorite summer past times and a great way to beat the heat was to tube down the Salt River. A case of beer, an inner tube and a few good friends was all you needed, as well as 2 vehicles. We'd park one where we planned to finish, everyone pile into the other and drive up to where we wanted to start. No such thing as designated driver then. When complete we'd have to pile into the vehicle at the end and drive back to pick up the other. It took days to recover from these outings. Now they have buses and you rent tubes....They managed to turn this into an organized money making event as well as some of the other activities that we managed to discover and make ours. Such as Slide Rock, camping in the Superstitions and a few other once free activities.

Well I ought to wrap it up and get to bed. Zoe and Cujo are both sleeping and my eyes are becoming heavy. Thom let me know what day Shirley's B'Day was. I just can't seem to get her off my mind and I know she's been visiting me lately. My how I do miss her. More than I ever thought I would.

More later I'm sure. Peace on...............