Grand Canyon Trip

Wow. The Grand Canyon is the prettiest place in the whole world. We went up there on Friday evening to visit with the GeoJourney kids. It was so nice to go up north and get out of Tucson for a little while. It felt really fall-like in Flagstaff and it was so nice to be camping. There are always a ton of elk at the Grand Canyon in the Fall and Winter, but this time they were up to something special. It is the rutting season and they all decided to sing to eachother. All night, the elk were making this crazy trumpeting sound. It was really eerie.
On Saturday, it rained and rained and rained, but it was okay because it was really neat to see the canyon all cloudy and dark. Plus, it gave us a good excuse to sit around in the lodge and drink cocoa.It poured all night long (hurray for a leak-free tent!) and we were a little worried about the trails, but luckily, the rain stopped in the morning and we were able to hike. We went down the Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point. You can see the trail here. It's the skinny line down the center of the picture past the green patch of trees. Plateau Point is the tippy edge of the top of the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon.
The view was amazing, but it was a little scary to be on such a steep cliff. I tried to take a picture of what the drop looked like, but I was too afraid to get very close, so the picture sucks. Basically, it is a straight drop from Plateau point down to the river 800 feet below. Yikes! We made it back up the 6 more miles to the rim (ouch!) and then celebrated with dinner with our friends. Oh man are we sore today!

A great visit

Well, my mom just went back to Georgia after a wonderful week's visit. We had such a good time together, I wish it could have lasted longer. We visited the Titan Missile, Tombstone, Gates Pass, we went to the movies and out to dinner. Whew! One of the coolest things we did was buy my cool new computer. Seriously, this is the coolest computer I have ever ever owned. I think her name will be Coco, but we're still trying it on for size. It's a shiny HP laptop with a webcam and everything. It's all very futuristic.
Meanwhile, there are some new crafty things to report.
Here is a home-craft of sorts. When mom came, we needed a place for her to sleep so Rob bought this daybed that we put in the office.
That's a pretty Mexican blanket that Katie gave me. We'll use it as a couch when no one is visiting. Also for Mom's visit, I finally organized the scary-messy craft shelf. Look! Now it's all usable. We live in a house with no closets, so everything has to be out in the open- now the crafts can be in plain sight without endangering anyone.
I also finished another pair of socks. These are for my friend Ryan. They are thick hiking socks made from fat stripey wool (Patons). This is my first knitted object that someone has actually paid me to make. Does that mean I'm a professional? Hmm, maybe we'll see how he likes them first.Finally, I'm getting ready for Kacy's shower on the 29th, and trying to think about what I'm going to feed people. I've decided to make a bunch of tiny cakes in all different flavors. Fun, huh? Well, today I got the equipment. Tiny cake pans! I have six of them. Enough for three 2-layer cakes or two 3-layer cakes. Yum. I'm thinking lemon butter cream, chocolate chocolate, and carrot cake with cream cheese. Any other ideas? Five tiny cakes ought to do it. If they turn out to be a huge pain, I may make different flavors of cupcakes instead.

Up for this weekend: a trip to the Grand Canyon to visit the GeoJourney kids. Should be fun. I'll blog about it, promise.

Busy busy busy!

Boy has this been a busy week! Not only did school begin last Monday , but Ashley and I launched our new online shop. That's us. Feeling glamorous.

Anyway, we've been making little bags and purses and aprons and jewelry. We try to make things that are cool and not stuffy or too crafty, you know? It's been really fun so far. We called our shop ALKaline because A.shley, L.izzie, and K.acy were all participating. It's at http://www.alkaline.etsy.com/ .

These are the kinds of things we're selling:

Wish us luck!

Where have I been? Here, I'll show you.

R. and I took off for a long long trip two weeks ago. There were two main goals. 1. Go to Ohio to join up with GeoJourney to travel with them for a week or so and teach students about bison use on the Plains and 2. Go to Sam and Kelly's wedding in Ann Arbor. On the first day, we flew from Tucson to Las Vegas to Atlanta to Toledo, a very long day of flying.

We spent the first day in Bowling Green packing and getting ready for the trip. It was a lot of hard work that ended in a trip to Jed's (can't find a link) to eat the BG delicacy "fireballs" which are basically teeny tiny boneless chicken wings. In the morning, we met the students and then took off for our first big drive. That night we camped in Wisconsin in a place that I imagined might look like the big woods.

That night we had a huge huge HUGE storm that sent the students running to the vans. I was running around trying to help people save their tents until trees started falling in camp (three of them!). So there I was. In my underwear. in front of 25 students. all wet. very cold.

The next day, we drove across Minnesota and South Dakota to the badlands. Along the way we went to the Corn Palace!! Bad. Ass.

Here are a selection of Prairie shots plus a big storm that was building up in the south:

Then we went to the Badlands where we watched the meteor shower and tried to let all of our gear dry out:

Then, we drove through Wounded Knee, Custer State Park, and visited a mammoth site.

Then, we climbed the highest point in South Dakota, Harney Peak. It was a gorgeous hike.

Then, we drove to Belle Fourche, Spearfish, and Camp Crook in South Dakota. There we met Mike the Buffalo rancher. We bought a 2 year old bull from Mike. In the morning, we butchered the buffalo using stone tools and traditional techniques. The students were wonderful, and they worked really hard. I will spare you the pictures of Buffalo day. The next morning, we drove to Ranch A in Wyoming. I love Ranch A so much and I wish I could spend the whole summer there.

After that, it was time for Rob and I to head east as quickly as we could to get to Sam and Kelly's wedding.

On the way, Rob was so sweet and agreed to drive two hours out of the way to go see DeSmet, South Dakota, the real Little Town on the Prairie. We were in a huge hurry and it was getting dark, so we didn't spend much time there. I consider this a preliminary visit to scope the place out before we come back with Katie. I wished I had had Laura Ingalls' maps when I was there because I wasn't able to find all of the places I wanted to see. We did see the homestead site:

And some local farmland:
And the house that Pa built on Third Street:

Then we raced as fast as we could to Michigan for the wedding. There are no pictures of us that do not show how tired we were and how much wine we'd had, so here's a picture of Kelly in the car on the way to the wedding:

It was beautiful and we wish them well.

Whew! So that's it. Now we're back. We have mountains of laundry and lots of housecleaning to do, but we're glad to be sleeping in our own bed.

Lodges

I am a sucker for any place that calls itself a "lodge". I think some people feel the same way about "shoppes" and "inns." If you're willing to call your place a lodge, it's probably the kind of place I'd like to stay. Most of my favorites are in National Parks. The best one by far is Yellowstone Lodge:

Who wouldn't want to stay there? I've had drinks at the bar, but I've never stayed. Actually, to be perfectly fair, it's called Old Faithful Inn and isn't actually a lodge, but it still defines the category in my book. El Tovar at the Grand Canyon also is a "hotel" but should be called a lodge. Again, plenty of drinks there, but no actual overnight stays. Zion Lodge is a for real lodge. They even have rocking chairs on the lawn. Rob and I played in the snow there, but we never stayed over. See a pattern? Well, I want to break the pattern and go to this lodge and actually stay the night. Have you ever seen such a beautiful hotel? Me neither. First of all, it's in Oregon. Second, it looks like a Hobbit lives there. Plus, did you see the waterfall? Wow. Someday I'm going to stay in a lodge and maybe it'll be this one.

Bathroom

I painted two walls in my bathroom yesterday. It's a dark khaki green called "G.I. green". I really like the color, but something's not quite right. Somehow the pictures and the mirror don't look the way I thought they would. Does anybody have suggestions on how to make it flow better? Should I hang things up in a different arrangement or ditch the pictures all together?

Whoa.

I feel like I've been away for weeks and weeks. Harry Potter finally came out on Saturday (in case you've been in a long-term coma or something). R and I were so anxious. We got up really early and tried to pretend we weren't waiting for the book, but every time a truck drove down the street we would both panic and look to see if it was for us. The darn FedEx man (though normally FedEx people are awesome) stopped at the mailbox next door. The nerve! A little while later the UPS truck came rolling down the street and R and I shoved each other out of the way to get the the mailbox first. He said "Here's your book! I hope you like it!" I imagined that his truck was filled to the brim with Harry Potter books and nothing else that day. We ran inside, gazed at the package for a minute and then dug in.

24 hours later and we're both done (note neutral tone of voice).

It was perfect Harry Potter weather. You know, kind of dark and gloomy and dementor-ish.

The monsoons have been kind of intense lately. Today was especially crazy. Our front yard was kind of flowing and there were waves on the street. You can hardly see where the street ends and the yard begins. Wow!

seriously. waves.

This is a picture from the other day.

Isn't that pretty? My mom would say it was a picture of Grace.