Our first view of the Grand Canyon, wow!
Hiked a short ways down Hermits Rest, altitude got the better of us.
Bright Angel trail, the mules travel on this one and one that you could hike to the bottom. The hike to Plateau Point is 6 miles one way with an elevation change of 3,000 feet. They do not recommend trying to hike from the rim to the river and back again in the same day.
Sunset at Lupin overlook, there were many couples out there taking wedding photographs. We did not make it to watch a sunrise but hopefully next trip.
Walnut Canyon National Monument, the island trail is just under a mile with a 185 foot climb passing by 25 cliff dwellings rooms. While walking around the Island you are able to see many more dwellings across the canyon.
Here is one of the cliff dwellings. They would build them under the overhangs for added protection.
Sunset Crater Volcano, this is our first lava field to explore, nothing like we imagined, we looked at the pictures on line and weren’t to excited to go but we had to stop once we saw it in person, it was pretty amazing.
Wukoki Pueblo, on the left was their patio, how awesome would that be. In the distance (minus the clouds) you could see the San Francisco mountains. There is also a great view of the Painted Desert.
Wupatki, came about 100 years after the volcano, there are many ruins in the area. They are all built on the higher points of land. Some people say it was for protection others think it was so they could be easier seen by traveling tribes.
Boyton Canyon – Vortex, 6 miles round trip with about a 800’ elevation change. There are a few different vortex sites around Sedona.
Bell Rock, another hike of ours.
Cathedral Rock, along Bell Rock, nice hiking paths in this area. even this time of year the afternoons get hot and dusty, you need to carry plenty of water.
Taking in some more of the Grand Canyon. We could sit there and look at it all day long.
Watch Tower is interesting and has some amazing views.
View from the watch tower.
Karen trying to blend in inside the Watch Tower.
Colorado River winding its way through the Grand Canyon. We took so many pictures of the canyon there is just no way to show them all. Rafting down the Colorado River through the Canyon is still on our bucket list.
Our friends, Bonnie and Sue, from Las Vegas came for a visit. It was great catching up.
Oatman and the ‘wild’ donkeys. John the ass whisperer.
Just outside of Laughlin the have a bunch of Labyrinth walkable mazes. One could A decent workout doing all of them.
In Lake Havasu by the London Bridge. If we go there again it would be fun to rent a boat to tour around the lake. The water was so clear you could see the fish swimming around.
Drinks in Los Algodones, loosening the purse strings, and discussing our good cop bad cop negotiation strategy. We had a lot of fun and came home with items we didn’t know we needed.
Finally, back to the ocean!
Sunset cliffs, absolutely beautiful here.
Sunset cliffs prime location for sunsets. Plenty of parking spots but go early so you can explore the cliffs prior to sunset.
Practicing lifesaving over the cliffs.
South Bay Salt Works future is in doubt due to development of Chula Vista’s bay front.
Temecula CA, wine country, starts off in a cute little town, shopping & restaurants, museum a little bit of everything.
Robert Renzoni Vineyards, all of them were beautiful places. We stopped at Baily’s and Lorimar.
John swimming in the Pacific Ocean, he didn’t stay in for too long.
Seal by Seaport Village begging for a treat.
Walked around Seaport Village stumbled onto the Unconditional Surrender statue.
Bob Hope tribute, USS Midway in the background.
Balboa Park elephant art.
Cool day by Ocean Beach.
The sunset over the bay was worth the wait.
Cabrillo National Monument, great place to overlook the bay and watch the helicopters from the navy base.
Not the best of days to go down by the tide pools, but still worth walking along the shore.
Karen refusing to leave the ocean and beaches behind.
Three high bunks, interesting self guided tour, 1/3 of the prison was torn down to build a new railroad bridge over the Colorado River.
Martha’s Garden Date Farm, we split one of their famous date shakes, as it was pretty darn tasty, and it was pretty sweet, not sure I could of ate one all by myself.
Fruit picking, it’s a group of mostly guys, in their ‘silver’ years that get together twice a week and pick citrus. Mesa is known as the citrus capital so when a new development comes in they can only remove as many trees as it takes to build the house. They have to keep and maintain (I say this loosely) the rest of the citrus trees. In a lot of the developments the home owners get fined if they don’t pick the fruit by a certain date. If you leave the fruit on the trees you attract unwanted rodents.
Reminds us of the state workers, 1 person working 2 others “supervising”.
Usery Mountain, a ‘natural’ bridge, a bunch of rocks wedged in a crevasse, step lightly.
Ostrich Festival with my brother Roger and his wife Karen.
Ostrich races, they did have real ostriches racing too.
Camel races, something everyone has to see at least once.
Emu taking a break.
At VDO ( the campground) they have a train club, they set it up every fall and take it down in the spring so the hot Arizona sun doesn’t ruin it.
Casa Grande Ruins, Dad and Karen 
The Great House, would be four floors. One floor of the Great house is almost buried along with the other structures in the compound left to preserve them.
Little Ranger, Big Leaner.
Eloy skydiving, skydivers come from all over the world to learn how to skydive here. If you go bring a antigravity chair so you can tip back and watch them.
We had happy hour(s) with the Burlingame’s, friends from back home. Very enjoyable afternoon.
Lost Dutchman’s, Karen, Dad, Roger, and John behind the camera.
Canyon Lake, one of three man-made reservoirs, part of the Apache Trail AZ-88, so worth all the bumps, switchbacks, and elevation changes.
Tortilla Flat, restaurant, general store, and museum.
Fish Creek Hill, right around mile marker 220, where the ‘fun’ gravel road starts.
This picture of 88 makes it look really nice compared to the actual ride.
Theodore Roosevelt Dam
Dad and Roger with the longest one span bridge in North America behind them.
Salt River, beautiful scenery.
If we come back to this area we will try boondocking here, Bartlett reservoir. First come first served on where you want to camp.
Dad took us out for dinner at the local German restaurant. Prost!
We met our cousins, Sherry, Gene, Saffron, and Sadie at Lukes Air Force base for Luke Days, very entertaining show. Afterwards we went to Sherry & Gene’s for Italian margaritas and burgers, we would highly recommend this place.
Luke Air Force airshow featuring the Blue Angels.
The airshow was a lot of fun but it did get a little dusty when the dirt devils blew through.
Ben got to fly to Phoenix to receive an award from work we were able to meet up with him and Bubba, we drove them out to Tortilla Flat, they didn’t get the full experience (gravel roads) due to time constraints.
Tortilla Flat, women’s bathroom, yes the doors are short.
Sunset from our home at Valle Del Oro.
Busy day at Saguaro Lake, looking back at our starting point and wondering why we just didn’t stay on the beach.
Organ stop pizza, the pizza was good, the music was great.
Stonehenge II is 90% as wide and 60% as tall as the original Stonehenge in England.
The view of South Padre Island as we’re crossing over the 2.4 mile bridge.
Top of the lighthouse, John, our brother Tim, and Karen
Crossing the walking bridge to Mexico
Getting serenaded while getting pampered.
Beautiful day for a walk on the beach.
Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge tram ride. Rainy start to the day, cleared off and got to see the Northern Aplomado Falcon roust.
Mark’s first time at oyster on the half shell.
Our last day together I think we’re all exhausted.
Lanterns on the water, it was kind of a bust, they were talking about they floated around the river walk but pretty much stayed where they dropped them in.
From the top of The Americans Tower, if you can find the little white column, to the right is the Alamo.
On our way there was a couple of miles of debris from Hurricane Harvey.
Three oil rigs in storage by Port Aransas.
The Jetty in Port Aransas, wear your sneakers if you want to walk it. Fun to watch the ships from here.
Selfie at Port Aransas beach.
The beach at Mustang State Park, road 3. The State Park and road 2 are closed for repairs.
The Palmer Express 