Monday, April 27, 2009

Whirlwind of April

Wow-- what a month!!

It seems like just the other day I was planning my spring break trip to Phoenix for April 4- 11th and now it is the end of the month. I have been swamped to say the least.

Spring Break--
What a blast!! Becky and I flew to Mom and Lyman's to visit and sight see. The weather was absolutely beautiful and it seemed that we planned everything on the right day to fit the weather-- go figure, that never happens but let me give you an example or two. We planned to go to the Grand Canyon and the day we were there was sunny with a slight breeze. We packed a picnic lunch and ate at the edge of the canyon. Becky and I even ventured out alittle on spots that were safe -- trust me-- I don't want to miss the opening of New Moon so I'm not going to do anything stupid. It was a wonderful day-- pictures to come-- having trouble with my card reader and no time for Wal-Mart right now. Anyway, we never thought about how lucky we were to have great weather until we went to the Meteor Crater--- honey, hold on to your hats.

The wind was wiping so hard and fast that dust was flying everywhere and we even felt the car rock and Mom has a big car!! Once we arrived at the crater, which is in the middle of nowhere, the wind was still gusting. The tour guide told us that the wind was gusting to 76mph-- where I come from, that is hurricane 1 force winds. Needless to say, we only took short looks outside and hung on the rails for dear life. They had canceled the 1 mile walk around the crater because of the wind-- Amen-- The strong winds even shook the video screen inside the visitor center. We had lunch there-- inside-- and we were still amazed at the size of the crater and the history behind it-- some 50,000 years ago. We were very glad that the winds were at the crater and not at the Grand Canyon.

Once we left the crater to head to Flagstaff, we noticed that there wasn't any traffic on the interstate as we approached it-- it was CLOSED!! We went back to the only gas station and the attendant told us that it was closed because there was ZERO visibility going East due to the wind storm-- geezzzz. It was so wild to drive West and see the traffic stopped for miles and miles because of a WIND STORM!! That was a first for me.

Mom said 2 days after we left Flagstaff, they had snow-- darn it, we missed that.

After Spring Break-- go, go, go, work, work, work

May will be another busy month but I will try to do better on posting--

Monday, April 6, 2009

First day in Phoenix







After a beautiful flight, we landed and began our journey. Our first stop which was literally after landing was South Mountain. We stopped there because it was closer to the airport than to Mom's house. What a view. As you can tell from my skirt blowing, it was a windy day to be standing on top of a mountain. Nope, didn't climb it (note the flip-flops).Because of all the wind stirring up dust, the view was not as breath-taking clear as it normally would be but you can still get the idea.