If winter will not come to us, we will go to winter, kind of. (Part 1 of 2)

Since we don't have enough excuses to get out and see the world, we planned a trip to meet our friends Christian, Valerie, Jacob, and Addison in Sedona, Arizona over the Veterans Day Weekend. If you have ever been to Sedona, you now that it is different than other places we visit. After much searching we decided to stay 25 miles away in Flagstaff. I really like that town. Angela really likes it too because it was cold there (hence us going to winter). I like the ponderosa trees all over town, the high elevation (7000 ft) and small town feel. It is what we thought Anchorage, Alaska would be like. We only have one picture of it looking cold (at the end). The others really are not wintery at all, but we tried...kind of.

This is on the trail between Oak Creek and the Cathedral.

This is on Oak Creek just south of Sedona

Northwest of Sedona on the Devil's Bridge Trail. Looks a lot like Zion, except there are houses and golf courses etc. everywhere.

Here is us on Devil's Bridge, making some of the other visitors nervous.

Slide rock state park in Oak Creek Canyon



Slide Rock State Park Again

The only picture of Semi-Winter we have, the lookout for Oak Creek Canyon, and yes that is Duck Tape at the bottom of the picture, our camera broke and there is only one way to fix it.

We had a great time and look forward to other trips with Christian and Val, For the trip home see the next post....

The Trip Home (Part 2 of If Winter...)

If you haven't read the Sedona post, go there first. I wanted to break our last trip in two because we kind of had two trips, a nice relaxing trip to Flagstaff and Sedona for 2 days and then the epic trip home on Monday. So look at the Sedona trip first and then see the pictures we took on the way home.

I will let the pictures do the talking, these are all from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bright Angel Canyon and then Moving East to Desert View.





Then the Little Colorado Gorge and Lees Ferry




Last but especially not least, our tribute to Cher, she did so good, just as usual. We again spent some quality time together, she deserves this tribute and a great big hug, if we could get our arms around her.

Back to the Mountains

Last week Chris and Allison asked us to take them backpacking, so like good neighbors we decided to take them. After much deliberation on location we finally settled on Pine Valley Mountain, specifically the Whiterocks trail. Friday night we went in 2 miles and camped, then Saturday we hiked up to the Whiterocks Reservoir (pond) and then out. A fun time was had by all and the weather was perfect- (just a little nippy friday night and on our hike). Hope you all had a good weekend too.

What? No Alligators?

Last week we took a much needed vacation and went to Florida to stay with my Family and Friends, Jeremy, Becca and Tally. We didn't take a lot of pictures, but we had a lot of fun, and after staying with Jeremy and Becca and not knowing how close we were to the Everglades and the Florida Keys, we will have to go back sooner than later.

We flew the redeye from Vegas to Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday night and then drove up to Orlando to take a much needed nap. Thursday we went to Epcot and met Jeremy, Becca and Tally there. Although this promo video is a little tacky, the ride Soarin was pretty cool and I only got sick at the very end.
Friday we went to Kennedy Space Center and saw the shuttle that will launch next week. It is crazy to think how much energy is used to get the rockets into space. Friday night and Saturday we went to the Beach and then went down to Miami with Jeremy and Becca. We flew home late Sunday and got just a block from home when we got pulled over by a police man at 2:00 AM. I was a little short with the police officer because I was so tired and we were a block from home, but he let us off with an excuse for why he pulled us over and we ended our trip on a good note. (I guess you can't blame him for being suspicious of Cher at 2:00 AM on a Sunday night) Overall we had a great time with Family and friends, and started missing our vacation on Monday morning at 8:00 when we went back to work. Here is some of the pics.

Where is it 3

You guys are a little too good at this game, so I am not going to give any hints this time. And as for the rule of "if you were on this trip with us you can't guess", if you don't remember wheather you were on this trip or not, go ahead and guess, you will probably be wrong, ha ha ha.

Epic Weekend

Sometimes I think we are a little crazy, and yeah, we might bite off a little more than we can chew every once in a while, well here is a good example of this. We left thursday after work with the intent of driving all the way to Jackson that night. We didn't make it that far, but at 12:30 and almost to Star Valley we stopped and stayed in a campground for the night.

The plan was to get up early and be to Jenny Lake and hiking by 10:00. Well it was a little further to Jenny Lake than we thought and we stopped to get breakfast in Jackson. About 12:00 we got to the trailhead and started hiking. I have not included pictures of this section of the hike as it was something I think that Angela and I would both not be bothered if we forgot. This was one of those lessons in "we need to buy some lighter gear" Anyhow we made it to the Moraine Camping area about 6 miles, 4000 feet of elevation later and around 7:00 PM. Despite the long day, nothing beats chillin at the campsite after you worked so hard to get there. We watched the sunset while we ate dinner and then watched the lightning in the distant Windriver Mountains and were surprised when thousands of moths started flying around us and even hitting us and the tent.

During the night we were woken up at 3,5 and 6 by hikers making their bid for the top. We were a little lazy, and woke up for good around 7. This is where the pictures begin. The first two are the morning view from our tent. The first is up to the saddle and the second is down into the valley where we left Cher, yeah it is a long ways down there.





This next picture is of me about halfway between the lower saddle and the black dike with the Middle Teton Glacier in the background. This is about where we realized we were in trouble because no one else was behind us anymore and we were sucking wind pretty good.


This is a picture looking up at the Grand from the lower saddle.


This is some of the crags on the Idaho side of the Tetons.


This is where we decided we were done for this trip. It was 11:00 we were both pretty tired and we had just made it past the eye of the needle, which I was pretty happy with. If we had another night to stay in the Moraine or didn't have to be back in Jackson by 8 to prevent worrying we may have made it further, but we learned a lot, had a great time and next time we will know more about what we are up against. The upper saddle was just above us another 300 vertical feet and the top was 1000 above us.


Not a whole lot of trees up there.


Look we are still happy! We made it up to where there is a notch and flat spot on the left side of the peak. Not bad for my first try.


The token Buffalo pictures.


Saturday night we stayed with Aunt Joan and Uncle Arnold in their Condo. It sure is a different world from staying on the mountain to get a hot shower and a nice dinner. Here are two pictures from our drive Sunday.



Overall we had a great trip, a little quick and for sure we need a little more time to acclimate and to climb the Grand, but we learned and nextime will be great. Our goodbye to Wyoming was wonderfull, as we were driving down the Snake River Gorge, the Fall colors were some of the brightest I have ever seen. We took some pictures, but you know, it is never the same on the camera. Made it home about 12:30 and went to work monday morning.

It's Official!

Yes friends and family, it is now official. I am a teacher. Yikes, I know. And although my class got out today with no math no spelling and a very confusing science lesson, I feel we will be ok in the end. Who needs math and spelling anyway, right? I just had to post so you would all know that I survived and that I am no longer wondering what I will do with my life. I loved it. But, boy do I have a lot to learn!