Trip to Arizona

Ack!  I went a whole month without blogging!  Well, it's not because I wasn't doing anything interesting, that's for sure.

            Actually, I can't remember what was doing before last week, because the awesomeness of my vacation washed all other memories away.  On Saturday, Feb. 20, Nate the Great and I flew off to Arizona for a week's long vacation.  We spent 2 nights and one day in Tucson, where I visited my mom's cousins and uncle - we had a nice home-cooked meal, and we checked out some great museums.  We spent the morning at the Pima Air and Space Museum, looking at old planes.  We continued on to the Sonora Desert Museum where we saw some friendly little critters who were happy to pose for pictures.  We also spent a few hours at Old Tucson Studios, where I went as a kid when we would go out to visit family.

            On day Monday, we headed way north, up to Flagstaff, through Sedona.  The routes I had planned kept us off of the main highways for the most part, so we had a beautiful, snow-covered drive up to Flagstaff.  Going up to about 6000 feet, we took a lot of windy roads and enjoyed the scenery.

            On Tuesday, we stopped at Meteor Crater (no "the!") on our way out to Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "shay").  If it hadn't been for the stop at Meteor Crater, it would have been a 4.5 hour drive of nothing (pretty nothing . . .) but then again Meteor Crater is just a big hole, so it pretty much was anyway.  At Canyon de Chelly we hiked down to the bottom to see the White House Ruins.  It was a really nice hike, even though it was only in the mid-30's.

            After spending the night with Nate's aunt in Ganado, and checking out the Hubbell Trading Post, we drove south, again off the highway, through the Petrified Forest, then down to Scottsdale, our final stop.
We spent 3 nights and 2 full days in Scottsdale.  We visited Taliesin West (Frank Lloyd Wright's home and teaching campus) and went on a great gallery tour around the town.  On the second day, we ventured over to Phoenix and checked out the Heard Museum of Native American Art and the Phoenix Art Museum, both of which we loved.
I will try to do another post or two on the trip, specifically about the art in Phoenix and Scottsdale, when I feel up to it.  For now, just enjoy the pictures!