Flickr photos from the album 2003 - Sedona by domesticat

Oak Creek Canyon overlook
by domesticat.Oak Creek Canyon overlook
by domesticat.Leaving Oak Creek Canyon
by domesticat.Very red rocks
by domesticat.Cathedral Rock - 1 of 4
by domesticat.Cathedral Rock - 2 of 4
by domesticat.Cathedral Rock - 3 of 4
by domesticat.Cathedral Rock - 4 of 4
by domesticat.Primitive road?
by domesticat.Sunset - 1 of 5
by domesticat.

10 out of 17 on Flickr

So that's what the photos from the Grand Canyon look like. I wasn't able to get Matt and Kara's computer to play nicely with my card reader, so even looking at the photos had to wait until I got to California, but a few of them were actually worth the wait.There are about twenty photos in this batch. I took more, but decided to prune out the obvious duplicates. I'll post the photos from Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona separately. Right now I have a choice: sit here and work on photos, or make myself some lunch and enjoy an exquisitely sunny day.

I have a 4 p.m. play date with a very exuberant Labrador retriever, whose day job is to be a hearing dog for one of Noah and David's friends. We're going down to the beach, and we're planning on having a lovely romp.

Sunset and rock formation photos can wait. It's time to play.

So here I am above palm trees so straight and tall
You are smaller, getting smaller
But I still see you.
  — Jimmy Eat World - 'Goodbye Sky Harbor'

It's difficult to write anything coherent about one of the most visually beautiful days of my life when I have a camera full of photos that I can't show you. Silly computers. They promise us a world of information, given and received, and then sometimes snatch it away from us when we least expect (or want) it.

I have a confession to make. It will surprise a few of my friends, but not Jeff, who has insisted in the truth of this statement for quite some time, to my disbelief:I am a chilehead.

* * * * *

Ages ago, someone who didn't know me very well asked me what my favorite restaurant was. (Anyone who knows me well would inherently recognize the dangers and long-windedness inherent in such a topic, and would steer clear. It's almost as bad as asking me about my cats.) My response was typically obtuse, yet truthful:

"What kind?"

"Oh, any."

I wish I could remember the gist of my response, but I told the truth. If I want to go to a Japanese steakhouse, I have to go to Tuscaloosa, to have Ben-Kei's shrimp sauce. If I want sushi, it's Vancouver. Blue crab? The little shack that Andy took me to a few years ago. Cheesesteaks? Philadelphia. Indian? Little Rock.

Lumbar Support Boy doesn't know it, but he was lucky to make it to Phoenix. It took two and a half hours of him attempting to pummel his feet into my lower back before I rose over the back of my seat to growl at him, but I think his mother got the point rather quickly.Take your child's feet from out of my back or I will make a scene. Oh, and have a lovely trip, wherever you're going, eh? Don't make me ritually sacrifice your kid at cruising altitude or you'll find out just how deadly knitting needles are when they're wielded with malice aforethought.

I took the purple-handled scissors and snipped off the 'HSV' tag left on the bag from Jeff's last flight. In the world of baggage, his trumps mine; back, many years ago when my parents gave me a set of inexpensive luggage as a gift, I'm not sure they ever envisioned me flying, much less taking these bags with me.But the bags survived four years of college, more road trips than I can count, and moved with me to Alabama. I learned just how frustrating it was to cart unwheeled baggage through Atlanta's Hartsfield airport.