The Big Trip

Friday, September 11, 2009

Sedona, August 2009

With the economy as it is, pay cuts, and slow business building, we've minimized big trips this year, but have been able to enjoy a few smaller ones along the way - occasional camping and weekend adventures, and a week trip to a Timeshare in Sedona, Az (one of our favorite drivable places).

Sedona is a place of many facets. It was named after the wife of the postal clerk there way back when, but long before that, was inhabited by several American Indians including the Paiute, Anasazi and Navajo. It is a magical place for many, with dark red stone from the iron in the earth giving it a classic "South Western" look, and its "vortexs" which some atribute to the iron, others to earth spirits, and others to the smart travel planning folks at the local chamber of comerce.

It has become a Tourist Mecca, with so many two-bit psychics, chotsky dealers, and make-a-buck stores, mixed with a big new-age community (with both its up and down sides), some rugged adventure sorts, along with spa-centric and enlightment seeking (often tied in with any number of the above).

Highlights of our trip included a talk by a Navajo guide, a "critter petting", a lovely rain-sunset, a Pink Jeep Tour, and swiming in the lovely pools.

Picts below, in a reverse order (blogger annoyances!)

Visit to Arcosanti on the way back - a designed community, supposed to be low impact, green, etc. Problem is that the archetect designs buildings, not communities. It doesn't have a life of its own - no soul. Part of the problem may be the very name which is translated as "Archetecture against the system" - which feels like a fight the whole way... This is the courtyard

Pool with 50 ton crane

A strange place - they are trying to attract 100 people to start a 5,000 person villiage, but it doesn't have anything to attract folks with... They should have talked with us - make an eco-spa destination, with retired residential, artists lofts - run with the Sedona theem... They missed out big time...

They do make great use of space - this is the area above the stage.

Outdoor stage area - note the moat around the stage that fills with water. Our guide was an odd bird as well, with memorable quotes such as "We have a summer concert season here. Some of the folks are actually ok sounding..."

Also went to some indian ruins.

This is an aqueduct dug over 600 years ago by indians to irrigate the land around the area of the spring.

Lake front indian property...

A lovely sunset in the rain

Pink Jeep Downhill ride...

Young driver

View from the Pink Jeep Tour near Two Nuns.

My favorite gals

A lovely vista near Bell Rock

B with a snake at the critter play

More indian ruins

A brunch at an opulent resort there - Enchantment. Awesome buffet, lovely views. Oh, and the suite is only $3,300 per night...

Delilah with a volcano she constructed

And B with her rock ring

Lovely rocks

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Map of our trips

I've discovered a feature that lets met put a picture on a location on a map, and have managed to suck several hours of my life into putting some of our pictures on it. Remarkable how few pictures we took of the southern states... Hum, sounds like we need to take another trip some day!

Map View

Monday, April 20, 2009

Potrero Camping April 2009

In April, we did a camping trip with a family friend Bart and his two daughters, out to a campground near Tecate called Potrero. Nice 1 hour drive, shaded spots, and flat roads great for kids riding bikes, etc. Nice place, and definitely will return there in the future.

Flora (note lady bugs)

Fauna (see the horny toad?)

Barbara's dream - two men cooking for her...

Kite not in flight

Pictures from Potrero Camping

SLO and Yulupa Trip, March 2009

Every now and then, even with a tight budget, and packed schedule, we just have to hit the highway... One of our favorite haunts is San Luis Obispo and the Central Coast area (where Dave went to college). This trip, we augmented with a fact finding mission on Co-Housing, touring a complex there named Yulupa.

An AIDS Memorial gazebo in the El Chorro Regional Park near SLO

Tide and critters at Montanya d' Oro (SLO)

Los Olivos Pass, overlooking the site of Lightning In A Bottles former location (bo-hoo - they aren't having this festival this year... )

Barbara and the rare strong-willed-imp...

Other pictures of the SLO Trip

Yulupa co-housing in Santa Rosa

Album of Yulupa

Holidays 2008

Holidays this year was, well, busy, and full, and joyful, and attempting to be frugal with a little less to circulate, and, did I mention busy? :)

For Halloween, I was motivated to make our costumes - all three of ours... Mine, a cave man, Delilah was a kitty, and Barbara's was supposed to be a cave girl, until she saw how cute Delilah's cat came out... We attended our first party at Lynea and Rheto's, while Delilah played with their daughter Josie then went Trick-or-treating with them around the area. From there, we went to Colleens house - where we had, um, sorta suggested that she should throw a Halloween party...

The costume capers...

The kiddos trick-or-treating

Barbara and the hostess Colleen doing karyoki (sp??)

This year, I bought some more Peanut oil to fry Turkies - and boy did I fry turkies! We went to my brothers for the official Thanksgiving feast, then had a "make your own extended family dinner" on Friday to up the holiday factor (2 turkies there).

Dave and Barbara Cutting up turkey number two

Leading us into Christmas -

We had our standard "Christmas Eve Eve" party, which was again well attended (about 40 people in our little place) having numerous memorable highlights.

And for Christmas, had my parents over for breakfast, and then invited a number of friends to join us for dinner.

After Christmas, things were cooking at work - so I took in the turkey fryer and cooked up three more birds to share with for a potluck! A little too much oil made this a particular mess, but rave reviews all around. Wow - talk about turkey!

Holiday Album

Camping in Anza - Nov 2008

Ok, so it's been a while since I updated this... Been keeping busy, so just a handful of weekend trips to share.

First was a weekend trip with a number of friends and their families - Brian, Anya and her mother, Jan and his son Jack, Michelle, Paul and their dog peaches, and of course Barbara, Delilah and I.

A few picts here, and the rest in an album -

Pictures of Camping

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

So Cal Decom 2008

We attended the 2008 Southern California Burning Man Decompression Event this last weekend, which was a lot of fun, but not as cool as either last year's Decomp nor of course Burning Man.

The site was nice at "Telemagica" out in Jucumba, but it had a few problems - first, it wasn't "planar", it was spread out and you had to hike through the shrubs to get from one point to another. Second, it was inclined, so the Art Cars weren't present. Finally, it seems like there were fewer art installations then at other venues. All that said, we still had a lot of fun exploring, communing with others, dancing into the wee hours of the night, eating, being friendly, and having a fun ol time!

Cast of characters for the weekend:
* Sheri - our usual baby sitter
* Crystal - Sheri's daughter. Since Sheri couldn't get off work early on Friday, Crystal watched the kids.
* Steve - A heck of a guy that we met last year at Decom. Has three kids in San Marcos
* Laura - a heck of a gal that we met last year prior to Decom, and hung out with at Decom and managed to attract Steve like a moth to a flame...

So, since we wanted an Adult Weekend, on Friday morning, Barbara took Delilah, picked up Crystal, and drove to Steve's, where Crystal watched Delilah and Steve's three kids for the weekend. Then Barbara drove back down here to meet me, where I was packing and cleaning RV, we drove off, and met Steve and Laura that had seperately rented an RV. Whew!

Some pictures:

Barbara arriving