Almost all work, but a little play!

After spending the bulk of Saturday sitting in our Best Western hotel room, doing the same thing I've been doing all week, working on final projects (my final, Final, FINAL! projects!!), it was time to get out!

We stopped at the Buffalo Bar & Grill to grab some dinner and watch some of the Nebraska vs. Texas game-we didn't really expect anything special. The first impression was that we had just walked into a biker party-where we had not been invited-but the waitstaff said have a seat, so we did. We had just about the best waiter ever-great suggestions for food (amazing buffalo burger!!), focused on how everything is made from scratch (amazing fries and Keith loved the cowboy beans), unexpectedly good beer selection-but mostly it was how nice the waiter was that made the meal. He shook our hands before we left-when is the last time that happened! If you find yourself in Payson, AZ you should most defiantly stop there! Ugh-now I'm hungry for that burger again!

I decided that I would not do any school work on Sunday-thank goodness!! First we went to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park, which is believed to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world. The bridge stands 183 feet high over a 400-foot long tunnel that measures 150 feet at its widest point.

From Arizona

It had snowed a little bit this morning and it was pretty icy in the entrance of the bridge.

From Arizona

Keith had read about a hot springs that was on the way back to Winslow and after being so cold at the natural bridge, being warm sounded great-if only it was that easy! After a super bumpy 17 mile drive down in to the Verde River Canyon we were met with the below sign. At least with signs like this, you know you're at least in the right place!

From Arizona

What was supposed to just be a mile hike to the hot springs turned out to be a little more. It took us a few tries and maybe a mile or so of wandering around to find the sign that pointed us in the right direction. After scrambling over some boulders and more wandering around Keith bumped into (a surprisingly fully clothed) old man who informed us that we needed to cross the river to get to the hot springs-what!??! It was about 45 degrees outside and Keith thinks the water was also about 45! It was so cold it hurt-and turned my legs red!

From Arizona

As we got across the river, the old man was crossing to leave-so we had the whole hot springs to ourselves! The pools are all that remain of the Verde Hot Springs Hotel that burnt down in 1958.

From Arizona

The pool outside was about 98 degrees and the pool inside (well surrounded by 4 walls but no roof or door) was about 104. The walls surrounding the pool had been painted many times over.

From Arizona

Now I have to get back to business and finish the projects, I just have to get through this week!

The Grand Canyon-Part Deux!

After gorging ourselves on an awesome Thanksgiving, the Grand Canyon was calling! This time we got to go to the South Rim with Kathryn, Derek, Ryan and Cole!

From Grand Canyon

The South Rim was more crowded than the North Rim, but it was still crazy beautiful! All of us had an amazing day there!!

From Grand Canyon

From Grand Canyon

We did almost lose Keith though!!

From Grand Canyon

(kidding!!!)

We were hoping that it would snow a little bit in the Grand Canyon, it would be so pretty! Sadly it did not-but it did snow in Flagstaff!

From Arizona

Just about the most fun Thanksgiving weekend ever!!

The beginning of Thanksgiving weekend!

We almost had our usual Portland Thanksgiving-here in Flagstaff-the only person missing was Christine!! Ryan flew into Flagstaff from Portland and Derek and Keith dressed up to pick him up!

From Arizona

Dinner turned out great-but Kathryn just couldn't wait apparently!! There's nothing like a little pre-Thanksgiving cake!

From Arizona

Finally it was time to eat-delicious!!

From Arizona

Derek and Cole passed out after dinner!!

From Arizona

The next day we had to actually move around a little bit so Keith, Ryan and I checked out the Sunset Crater National Monument. Sunset Crater Volcano was created in a series of eruptions sometime between 1040 and 1100. There are lava flows and cinder fields at the base of Sunset Crater.

From Arizona

Tomorrow-the Grand Canyon!

I think we got our money's worth!

Besides watching the Ohio State game this weekend, we had no idea what we were going to do, which made packing for the weekend kind of hard! Over a breakfast of pancakes and bacon (thanks Kathryn!!) Keith suggested that we dive down to Tuscon (about 4 hours away) to watch the University of Arizona vs the Oregon Ducks football game-sure why not! So after watching the good ole Buckeyes take care of Michigan, off we went.

After talking to a few scalpers (really-ALL you guys have seats on the 50 yard line-I don't think so!) we managed to get two tickets together which were actually kind of close to the 50 yard line and the seats came with something I could have done without-some of the most annoying Ducks fans in the world in front of us-with multiple obnoxious duck calls and all (see their heads below)!!

From Arizona

We were both wondering if it was worth all the money we spent on tickets to go to a game where we really didn't care-well we got our money's worth! Even though the Wildcats lost in double over time it was a really great game and having painfully annoying fans from the other team in front of us made it really easy to root for Arizona.

From Arizona

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny and warm day in Tuscon so we decided to check out Saguaro National Park-named for the thousands of Saguaro (pronounced Sa - WAH - ro) cacti in the area.

From Arizona

Keith clearly doesn't get that when you are being attacked by a giant cactus you're not supposed to smile!

From Arizona

Saguaros cacti have a relatively long life span and some live for more than 150 years. They take up to 75 years to develop a side arm-amazing!! Walking amongst these giant cacti and the many other kinds of cacti in the area, it was like being dropped into a Dr. Seuss book or walking around an abstract art gallery-each one is different and so absurdly shaped it's hard to believe that they were created by nature.

From Arizona

From Arizona

Oh! And there were petroglyphs too!

From Arizona

Well, for having no plans this weekend, I guess we were kind of busy!

A family visit

This weekend Keith's mom was in town for a very short visit, which meant we had to make the most our the weekend and as always that meant getting out of Winslow!

We made it to Flagstaff just in time to catch the Ohio State-Iowa game at the Beaver Street Brewery (may I recommend the Railhead Red and the Beaver Street pizza if you ever find yourself there!). The Buckeyes pulled out a win in overtime-yay!! By the time the game was over we could check into our hotel-the Hotel Monte Vista whose famous guests have included everyone from Clark Gable, John Wayne and Air Supply. We stayed in the Bob Hope Suite.

From Arizona

Sunday morning was frigid so we had to find something to do inside-that something was the Museum of Northern Arizona that has exhibits relating to the Museum's four main disciplines: anthropology, biology, geology, and fine art. My favorite part was the geology of the Grand Canyon-it is just amazing how many millions of years of geologic history was just walk right by!

Since it was finally above freezing when we left the museum we decided to check out the cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon National Monument

From Arizona

The cliff dwellings were occupied from about 1100 to 1250, by the prehistoric culture Sinagua, from the old Spanish name for the region, Sierra de Sin Agua, or “mountains without water.” I think I only expected a few cliff dwellings scattered here and there, but seemed like every time I turned around there were more dwellings!

From Arizona

From Arizona

The only good thing about Winslow-its proximity to some amazing stuff!

Being tourists!

So, we're kind of stuck in Winslow today since Keith's mom is coming to visit this weekend (aren't you all jealous that you don't get to experience Winslow first hand??), we decided to take advantage of the day by checking out the local touristy stuff that we haven't done because of our dedication to getting out of the Winslow area as fast as possible!

First stop was the Homolovi Ruins State Park. If you Google map it it looks like we could just walk to it from the double wide-but nope! We have to get on the interstate to get to it-ugh Arizona. There are a number of excavated archaeological sites there. Our first stop was the Homolovi I Site that looked like it had been filled back in with sand. The only evidence that we were on a site were all the ceramic shards and obsidian flakes all over the place.

From Arizona

The Homolovi II Site was quite a bit more interesting! It has a group of five rooms in the West Plaza and a kiva in the Central Plaza have been excavated and stabilized to show the original floor plans.

From Arizona

So, then the plan was to go the the Meteor Crater, but the dropping temps, crazy strong winds and seriously ominous looking clouds convinced us otherwise!!

From Arizona

So of course that meant we had to go shopping!

From Arizona

We have driven by this tourist trap so many times that today seemed like a great time to stop and while it was just kind of junky I loved the kitschy mural!

From Arizona

Wine and chicken mole poblano waiting for me-gotta go!!

My tiny little world

At the request of my fans-and by fans I mean my mom-here is a view into my world in Winslow-it is very small!

During the roughly 22 hours a day I spend in the double-wide, I spend most of that time right here:

From Arizona

It is so weird to spend so much time inside, in this one place!! I try to be diligent about homework and working ahead so I don't feel guilty about not doing any work at all on the weekend and the SUPER slow internet here makes it really hard to slack off....all work and no play makes jack a dull boy, all work and no play makes jack a dull boy, all work and no play makes jack a dull boy, all work and no play makes jack a dull boy, all work and no play makes jack a dull boy-whoa snap out of it!

Here is our living room (nope, I didn't clean to take these pics!). Can you find the dog in this picture? If not-look for the socks on the floor and you'll be really close!

From Arizona

Yes, Mom-we have a real stove.

From Arizona

Here is a view of our closest neighbors and a look at the luxurious Five Mountain Estates-which I guess is kind of a up-scale trailer park where you can have horses (which I did not know existed)

From Arizona

From Arizona

37 days and counting-visiting the Midwest in the winter never looked so good!

A little different kind of adventure!

This weekend instead of hiking adventures, we spent the weekend in Flagstaff a little differently than usual-babysitting a nine month old and going shooting!

We spent the weekend at Derek and Kathryn's place the way we usually do-watching football and eating delicious food that Keith made us! On Saturday night, Keith and I watched Cole so Derek and Kathryn could have a night out. Since Cole is pretty much the best and cutest baby in the whole world, there are really no horror stories!

From Arizona

I have to say babysitting is a lot more fun to do as an adult when you actually like the kid, then when you're 13 and just need a some money to go to the movies!

From Arizona

On Sunday, since the Bears were getting massacred by the Cardinals, we decided to go shooting! I had never even held a gun before-this was awesome!

From Arizona

We shot 22's, handguns, and a rifle.

From Arizona

From Arizona

Yes, I am a bad ass!

Sedona: Land of Red Rocks and Tourists

This weekend escape our from Winslow was Sedona, where we did a little hiking, wine tasting and a lot of eating!

It was too early to check into our hotel when we got to Sedona, so (big surprise here!) we went for a little hike.The main highlight (although I'm not sure that's the right word for it) was BJ being the luckiest puppy in the whole wide world-let me explain.

From Arizona

After a couple minutes on the trail we heard some movement in the woods-my immediate thought of Bear!! was wrong but it was a HUGE skunk-needless to say we got the heck out of it's way and oblivious BJ had no idea what was going on. We round the next bend and what's there-another HUGE skunk and this time BJ notices it and takes off running after it-oh dear lord NO! We try to call him back but he keeps pursuing. Keith realizes that he needs to just go drag BJ away from the skunk, by the time Keith pulls BJ away BJ has had his nose directly in the skunks butt and made it away without being sprayed! My only guess is that the skunk was having a confused Pepe Le Lew moment and thought this stinky black thing must just be an amorous skunk-and I'm sorry there are no pics I couldn't get a shot of two black animals running around in the woods (Keith is very disappointed by this!)!

Sedona is very beautiful and has some great restaurants, but it is also full of old people tourists so we did what we could to stay out of the downtown area. We were planning of spending Saturday wine tasting, but our day didn't last as long as we thought it would. The first place we went to Page Springs Vineyard had some really great wines but kind of a weird set up-at least for us Oregonians- for $ 10 ($10 !?!?!) we got to taste a preselected flight of five wines (they had a number of flights-no mixing and matching) and while they were good and we did buy a bottle it would have been a massive amount more fun and we probably would have bought more wine if we got to pick what we tasted and didn't have a ridiculous fee that was not refunded with the purchase of a bottle (unheard of in Oregon!). The second place we went to was Oak Creek Vineyard-this place was a little better at only $5 for 4 tastes and the wine was surprisingly really great. The third place was Javelina Leap Vineyard-all we needed to see what 4 tastes for $12 before we walked out-do these people think this is Napa-it's Arizona!!

What to do for the rest of the day? Go to Jerome, AZ "the largest ghost town in America"-on Halloween:)

From Arizona

It was really just a cute (and of course touristy) little town and unfortunately there were no encounters with ghosts-although if we ever go back we should stay at the Jerome Grand Hotel that is obviously haunted and you can get the ghost hunting hotel package-awesome!!

Since Sunday is 'Punishing Hike Day' for our little clan, we were on our way up Wilson Mountain right after breakfast. It was a hot and beautiful day and the hike promised great views of Sedona and the surrounding areas and it did not disappoint!

From Arizona

From Arizona

From Arizona

It was such a pretty day, but the hike was pretty hard, so we had to take lots of breaks in the shade-which BJ did not mind at all!

From Arizona

BJ and I both need a nap!

If I fall asleep, will it be over?

When I started writing this blog I planned on full disclosure-and so far everything has been pretty awesome. I feel like Winslow is trying balance the universe-we just had too much fun, too many great experiences in Enterprise and Winslow is planning to bring us down a notch and it is succeeding.

From Arizona

Today Winslow looks more like a post-apocalyptic hellhole than usual. It is insanely windy and that has caused a raging dust storm. It is also getting really cold at night and we have been using the pellet stove in the dinning room to heat it-usually only turning it on the morning.

From Arizona

I had the stove on and was sitting at the dinning room table doing homework when all of the sudden smoke came pouring out of the back of the stove-now I have never used one of these stoves before and it seemed common sense to be to turn it off and unplug it and while it was probably the right thing to do if things were normal-but this is Winslow-so more horrible things have to happen. As soon as a shut it off sparks fly out of the back of it and it keeps smoking-and then the smoking gets worse and worse until the whole house is full of smoke. Keith finally gets home for lunch and figures out that the pellets at the hopper were on fire and causing all the smoke and that is was probably the force of the raging winds outside that caused that happen. Of course by the time Keith gets home, BJ and I are of the front porch so we don't breath in too much smoke-there's nothing like crying on the front porch with your lungs burning in the middle of a dust storm to ruin your day-thank you Winslow!

Now I am trying to get the overwhelming stench of smoke out of the house and clean up all the dust and dirt that blew in when we had the windows open. Oh and our landlord thinks there may be something wrong with the stove and has asked us not to use and it's supposed to snow tomorrow....