Clay Springs, Arizona

I love the names they gave the roads out in the deserts of central Arizona. I mean, c'mmon, who can't appreciate "Bloody Basin Road?"



For Memorial Day Weekend, I went with my folks up to the Rim to do some riding and spend some time with the family before I went back to work. We left on Saturday midday and it was cold and rainy in the valley. We passed through snow once up on the rim. Arizona weather has been very strange lately. One day I'm shivering in my sweater and them *bam* it's over a hundred. Back and forth, then back and forth again. What gives?



We did some horseback riding and later piled into the little rickety trailer on the back of the quad to go visit friends in the "neighborhood." What a ride. Here, my mom exhibits her keen ability to balance two open beers as we got jolted around over the bumpy roads.



The last night the wind finally died down enough to enjoy a campfire. I made a s'more and was instantly saddened that I hadn't had one in years. The stars were so bright, even over the fire. It wasn't quite the camping I was hoping to do during my break, but it was still rather satisfying.

P.S. I have the biggest, darkest bruise of my life on my leg from riding. It's so crazy. Yeah.

Sandia Peak

Once we got to Albuquerque, it took us a while to find an available hotel room for the night. We finally found one that was too cheap to even provide an alarm clock. With comforts withheld, we were up first thing the next morning and heading towards the mountains. Sandia Peak is home to the world's largest aerial tramway and travels nearly 3 miles up to the top. We had intended to do this on our way to Taos, but with the rain and fully clouded sky, we figured it would be pointless to get to the top of a mountain when you can't see a thing.



What a view! From the top we were able to see a panorama of hundreds of miles and we even made out the peaks of Taos in the distant haze. Under the ski lift (now retired for the season) I took the opportunity to lay in the grass and watch the clouds as they played in the mountain air. This was something I often daydreamed about at my office job.



After making it back down off the mountain, we began our long journey home. (We gawked at the lines that had formed to take the tram and were thankful that we had gone up earlier in the day.) We had started our trip with gloomy cold weather, but now things had cleared up and it was actually getting rather hot. With the heat, the Trooper became grouchy and threatened to overheat. The rest of the drive was made with the windows down, heat on. I was pretty happy to be home when I finally made it back to Phoenix.

Taos, New Mexico Part 2

Taos was just gorgeous.



We had some really lovely dinners.



We entertained ourselves by running up the pyramid next door.



Visited the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Long way down! We watched some rafters pass along the river below, it looked like a blast.



We followed the trail around the edge of the gorge to look back on the bridge. This cantilever truss bridge is the second highest in the United States at 650 feet above the river. When cars pass over it it sways and rumbles.



Later that day we frolicked among dandelions, indulged in a second helping of ice cream, crossed streams to climb trees and crashed a gallery opening to drink their wine.



We left later that night after some of the best pizza I think I've ever had. We made our way back to Albuquerque in the dark so that we could make the Sandia Tram early the next morning and also to break apart our long return trip. It would have been wonderful to stay one more night, but I greatly appreciated the shorter drive home the next day.

Earth Ships

While in Taos, we stayed with a friend who extended her hospitality and invited us to stay in her earth ship. The house itself is built into the ground and is only visible from the other side as a dirt mound. This partial subterranean build and structural walls built of tires and rammed earth allows for the temperature of the house to pretty much regulate itself at a comfortable level year round. The wall of windows capture the sunlight to warm the house and provide the plants inside with plenty of light. Imagine, no heating or cooling bills!



Our view from the driveway at the neighboring earth ship with its stunning backdrop of the mountains.



To satisfy our curiosity and get a better understanding of what an earth ship was, we took a public tour of one. They explained how their systems work off grid to provide a comfortable lifestyle without the need for water or electricity to be pumped in. These houses are built with recycled materials and have very little impact on the environment. The spaces, filled with warmth and light have an interestingly satisfying comfortability to them.



The builders really use their imagination to create spaces that are unique and lovely inside (and out)! I loved the walls built with the transparent colored glass bottles that let the sunlight spill in. They just feel so homey.



Outside the visitors center they had partially built walls so you could see the tires and the pounded earth that make up the structural walls of the earth ships. You can see the cans and bottles that are used for decoration in some places, but are limited to decoration only due to their non insulating properties and their inability to bear weight. This picture also shows the solar panels and the windmills that are used to generate energy for each household.




Back to our earth ship for dinner prep for one of our many lovely dinners. This particular earth ship was one of the first built and is, unlike its subsequent generations, on the grid. I know, we cheated a bit.



This is Scar, the resident one eyed dog, quite content in resting on the living room floor as the sun gave way to the stars and we prepared for bed.

Chino Valley Trip (Stepping forward in time)

Brett, on his layover in Phoenix texted me the other morning "in phoenix it's hot. And brown."

My sentiments exactly. I had just arrived back in Phoenix around midnight and left again the next day at noon, but those twelve hours were all it took for me to be itching to escape the big brown heat cloud. When I had left for New Mexico it was cold, but I returned to find Phoenix in the middle of a record breaking heat wave. Forcast: one hundred and eleven degrees. Go figure.



So I cackled with glee that I had plans to escape to where it was cooler and hightailed it up to Chino Valley to visit my friend Kim. I had a lovely visit filled with the best chimichangas ever (!!), awesome meals at little local restaurants, nutella and banana crepes and a visit to downtown Prescott. We also bought beads and strung necklaces for ourselves after a nice meal at the Olive Garden. I have been such a glutton!




It's always nice to get away for a visit to Kim's. Here she is churning her compost, hard at work making dirt. Hooray for gardening. That's one thing that I really miss while living on a boat.

Taos, New Mexico

After Santa Fe, we drove up to Taos to stay with a friend in her Earthship (more on that later). One of our first activities the next morning was to head up to Taos Ski Valley to pelt one another with snowballs.

And to create a giant snow bunny. We then headed back down to the Taos Cow to get lunch and icecream before heading into town.


After browsing the art galleries of downtown Taos, we headed back to the earthship for a break. This is the view out the main room window.

As the sun set, we explored the back roads with the dogs before heading back in to make another tasty dinner. Happily full of wine and good food with good company, it was a treat to drift off to sleep under the generous view of the bright night sky through the windows of the Earthship.

Santa Fe, New Mexico!

Yay for roadtrips! And ever being connected with digital cameras, iPhones and laptops (which you can't see in the picture).

There was an interesting array of culture mixed in with the tacky tourist shops.

We arrived to find a very grey and rainy Santa Fe. In addition to the lousy weather, it was only Thursday so there weren't many people milling around to compete with.

We had a lovely "New Mexican" style lunch at the Shed, complete with various types of margaritas and then strolled through the plazas and browsed the galleries and the flower gardens between them.

Back in the land of the Zonies

After spending my last few days in Florida doing things like walking on the beach, I caught my flight back home to Phoenix. This is the view over the Tempe Town Lake bridge.

Spent a few days in Phoenix seeing friends and cleaning out my old closet in my parents' house. Lots of great laughs from old notes passed in class.


Headed back down to Tucson for Jennifer's birthday. I made her a cake with extra sprinkles, but it didn't travel well from Phoenix.




Stayed at Tim's and watched him manhandle his cat. Hung around in my PJs while we recorded a song for Natalie about our upcoming road trip to New Mexico. Just take my word for it, it was amazing. Ha.

I-drive and the back roads

Welcome to the veritable vomit of tacky signs all eagerly clamoring for the attention of tourists in the heart of Orlando's amusement park district.

I-drive offers you everything you've never wanted to see. We couldn't wait to get away from it all.


For our return to Ft. Lauderdale, we opted for the "scenic" back roads for a more enjoyable drive. As you could imagine, this drive was much prettier than the toll freeway. Through the bug collection on the windshield we caught views of farms and trees and old broken down houses surrounded by their piles of junk. But mostly the road was lined with pretty trees and pleasant scenery.


The "scenic" drive took us around lake Okeechobee which was... not really scenic at all. The road does follow the shoreline, but the lake is out of sight on the other side of an embankment. Aside from a few overlook stops, there wasn't much to see. Regardless, the return trip made for a nice relaxing day.

Universal Studios

Florida is flat. I found that this made trips across the state... well, boring. Maybe I was expecting too much from Florida's Turnpike, but the drive really just looked like this the whole way from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando. I've been spoiled by Arizona's landscape.

But it was worth it!

It was almost worth it for the corny picture opportunities alone. Ha.

Universal Studios was a blast. Having never been before I listened to stories of how cool it was... and was let down at first! I was expecting thrilling roller coasters, but as anyone who's ever been knows, rides like Jaws are not (he showed me where on the ride he had cried as a kid). The Mummy was better, though.

I mentioned corny picture opportunities, right? We practically had the place to ourselves that Tuesday morning. It was almost awkward being the only passengers on the Jaws ride. All those theatrics just for us. So special.


We (the coolest people in line) did the new Simpsons ride and weren't too impressed. We hadn't encountered any lines all morning, but waited ages for the Simpsons. Technical difficulties aside, the ride was interesting but for me it's not worth a repeat.

And that's when we moved on to the other park, Islands of Adventure, which fulfilled all of my wildest hopes and dreams. Roller coasters and dinosaurs! *Swoon*


The giddy eleven year old in me (who had been absolutely obsessed) revealed herself for the Jurassic Park ride. I boggles my mind that fifteen years have passed since the movie was released.

Between the Hulk and the Dragons, we certainly got our fill of roller coasters and thrills. Since the lines were so short, we were able to hop off the ride and right back into the line with less than a five minute wait to ride it again. We repeated the dragons four times back to back before we decided we had had enough.

After a slew of other rides and attractions (including the animal actors show, ha) we ended the day with two more trips on the Mummy, running through the empty lines to make it that one last time before they closed. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. Happy Jess.

Dock Express

View out the crew mess porthole on the Sunday morning that we left Pier 66. (I am sad that we never got to do their brunch.)


Here we are heading into the boat that will be taking our boat to the other side of the Atlantic. As you can see, it fills up with water so that the boats can pull in. Once they are all settled, they drain the water for the passage.

"One of these things is not like the other...." Boats waiting their turn to be loaded onto the Dock Express.


Pulling into our slot, looking down at the rows of cables that secure the boats.

Since only one crew member can make the crossing with the boat, I get three weeks vacation. Can't really complain about that, now can I?