A grand weekend indeed!

Hello!

Well, once again it's been a while. Despite all good intentions, we just aren't so good at posting regularly to the blog! I guess it's more fun to report on adventures - keeping true to the title of our blog. Since our last post, we've decided that Tucson is not the place for us. The plan right now is to move our stuff home (aka the Twin Cities). We're still planning on spending the summer on Madeline Island but after that we're a bit up in the air. It's either back to Minneapolis or, given the right opportunity, perhaps an international address, we'll see. I still hope to pursue my PhD and plan on applying to a program at the U of MN.

Anyways, in light of this decision we decided that we could not leave Arizona without a visit to the Grand Canyon. We drove up to Flagstaff, a cute little mountain town in a pine forest, on Friday night and checked in to the England House, a cozy B&B we discovered earlier this year. On Saturday we were treated to a delicious breakfast and shortly after we got on the road. We started our grand adventure by checking out Sunset Crater and the Wupatki Ruins - a very cool side adventure! From there we headed up to the Grand Canyon in search of "the secret spot" - a secluded viewing point recommended to us by Richard and Laurel from the England House. For anyone planning a trip to the Grand Canyon, it's mile post 246! The mile or so hike in was totally worth it. We had the canyon pretty much to ourselves, which was so cool considering the numbers of tourists all over the park.

We had lunch at the El Tovar Hotel, which is right in the village at the head of the Bright Angel trail. It was a very tasty restaurant with beautiful views of the canyon - the perfect snack before heading out on our hike down the South Kaibab trail. Despite its steepness, it was an awesome trail with magnificent views of the canyon. By the time we got there, the crowds we not too bad at all. Based on huffing and puffing of the people we crossed going up though, we knew the climb back up would be a challenge - good thing Richard and Laurel loaned us their walking sticks!

After the climb back up, we treated ourselves to happy hour back at the El Tovar. All bundled up, a nice change from the already 90+ degree weather in Tucson, we watched another amazing desert sunset - giving the Grand Canyon a truly beautiful pinkish glow! Desert sunsets - now that is something we will miss!

We finished off our weekend getaway with a visit of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. We've never been to any other Frank Lloyd Wright property but this has inspired us to visit more, especially the original Taliesin in Wisconsin. The property was amazing and totally worth the visit! A great end to a grand weekend! (click on any picture to see the full collection of pictures)

Now it's back to Tucson for about 5 more weeks. Our stuff is partially in boxes, movers have been booked, and we're getting ready to come home!