Another Quick Update from AZ

It's been a wonderful long weekend. Mom and Susan and I headed north on Saturday afternoon and spent the night in Flagstaff. We had an amazing meal at a veggie-friendly restaurant, and cranked up the heat in our hotel room (it was cold and rainy, not quite the weather that any of us had expected). On Sunday morning, we got up, had breakfast at another nifty coffeehouse, and headed for the Grand Canyon. Thankfully, the weather had cleared and it was sunny and warm, but not too hot.

The Grand Canyon was just spectacular! It's hard to even wrap the mind around how enormous and beautiful the scenery is. Mom and I strolled along the Rim Trail, which took us past several outlooks and also gave us a view of hikers and mules going up and down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon. We also watched the National Geographic IMAX movie about the Canyon before entering the park, which was amazing.

Once Susan gets her pictures developed, I'll post a couple of photos, but they can't possibly do the place justice. When the crumpet gets a bit older, Alex and I hope to return and do some hiking off the North Rim, which is less crowded.

We did start the crumpet's National Parks passport book, leaving plenty of room for a second Grand Canyon stamp later on.

Today, Mom and Susan went off to tour Taliesin West, and I got a lot of studying done.

Here are a couple of photos that I took when Alex was here, just showing the lay of the land a bit. Here's a view of the apartment complex. Mine is all the way in the corner there, on the second floor.


And here's a view of the kitchen. If only it always had Alex in it making guacamole! Though cooking has been much easier since he brought me a big cutting board and our second-best chef's knife.


That's all for now! Mom and Susan unfortunately head out tomorrow, and Dad arrives Thursday. I'm expecting a busy week working with one of the chief residents.