Hmmm... I am actually back in Indiana right now (more about that later), but have not posted anything for the past two weeks and thought I would finally update the blog again. Doing it late is better than not doing it at all, right? Do to some unforeseen circumstances, I left my cache of photos in Arizona, and my flash drive has now traveled to Idaho, and may be moving on to Canada soon... Until I get them back, you'll have to use your imagination for what things looked like! BREAKING UPDATE: I've gotten my photos and inspiration to post them! :)
Well, two weekends ago, on the 23rd, our dear Christine Chan left us for her own field work. She was the geologist that somehow finagled her way into the physics/astronomy REU program... hmm. Anyways, she gave us her research presentation, and then that night we decided to have a little shindig to send her off. To celebrate, we decided to go to Altitudes, a brewery/restaurant in Flagstaff. We headed over and got a table outside the restaurant. After ordering our food, the sky got progressively darker and darker... Eventually it started raining and we ran to the restaurant. The place was packed, though, so we just hung out for a while. Finally we got some seats inside! As we did, a train passed by (the place is right next to the tracks). Okay, so to say there are a lot trains passing through Flag is the understatement of the day. On average, something like 80 trains pass through in a day. Recently, they passed a law saying the trains were not allowed to honk, so that's nice. At Altitudes, they have 'train shots', which you take every time a train passes through (you can see how this can get to be crazy as more time passes...) Some of our 21 and older crowd joined the tradition.
Finally our food comes, much later. We had a fun time sitting around and talking though. I think the best part of the evening may have been the prank Nicole played on Eric. Eric is notorious for liking an obscenely excessive amount (to me) of pepper on his food. As he went to put pepper on his soup, Nicole removed the top of the shaker and a huge amount of pepper came out. Yes, we are so mature.
ALL of us at Altitudes! Finally a group shot! From left: Nicole, Eric, Sarah, Cailah, Nick, Christine, Myself and Teresa.
Finally we returned back to the apartments, where we helped Christine pack a bit. We then hung out in my apartment, playing cards, etc. and then watched 40 year-old Virgin on TV for a bit. One by one we fell asleep in various strange places/positions. The next morning, I slept in for once. It was glorious. I woke up, made some coffee, and sat in bed drinking it while listening to 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me' on NPR. Don't even call me a nerd, my mom already did.
We decided to 'take the day off' that Saturday. We do something every weekend, and it was nice to just relax for once. I made some pancakes and the boys and Nicole came over for lunch/breakfast. We sat around the apartment all day. For dinner, we all went to Lowell for a picnic. Afterward, Teresa and I managed to bribe Eric into coming to the Galaxy Diner for some swing dancing (we had to buy him some coffee afterward...) We learned the balboa, which was pretty fun. The Galaxy Diner was a cute little old-fashioned place.
SWING! Paul and Maria, two people from Lowell, dancing
When we returned home, we watched The Orphanage, a horror movie that wasn't too scary, but pretty well made. The next day (Sunday), we went to Sedona again. We had already been there, to Oak Creek Canyon. This time our destination was a place called Secret Canyon, which had been recommended to us by someone I can't remember- maybe Kathy. Well, after getting lost for quite a while, we finally found the way to Secret Canyon. Unfortunately the road was very rugged and definitely meant for Eric's Chevy Malibu... A little bit into the drive, we decided to take our losses and turn around. We came to a point where it was literally impassible with the car we were in.
Instead, we went to Bear Mountain to hike. It was pretty fun, but nothing too special. We didn't really know where else to go, though. We got some nice views after hiking to the top of a plateau, also. Not too much to say about the hike. I led the group for a bit, but led us around in circles so they decided not to let me be in the front after that...
Our short hike to Bear Mountain.
After our hike, we drove around a bit, looking for a nice place to eat lunch, but all the cool places/recreation areas required a fee. Sedona is an extremely tourist-y place. To the point where it makes you not want to go at all. In our anti-touristing anger we just stopped on the side of the road and ate our lunch. Take that, Sedona.
We got back and I had a nice run. Had some dinner, then we watched the Blues Brothers. Good stuff. All in all, it was a pretty chill weekend. Nice to have a little downtime. Although it's really fun to go places/do things every weekend, every so often a break is nice!
Well, two weekends ago, on the 23rd, our dear Christine Chan left us for her own field work. She was the geologist that somehow finagled her way into the physics/astronomy REU program... hmm. Anyways, she gave us her research presentation, and then that night we decided to have a little shindig to send her off. To celebrate, we decided to go to Altitudes, a brewery/restaurant in Flagstaff. We headed over and got a table outside the restaurant. After ordering our food, the sky got progressively darker and darker... Eventually it started raining and we ran to the restaurant. The place was packed, though, so we just hung out for a while. Finally we got some seats inside! As we did, a train passed by (the place is right next to the tracks). Okay, so to say there are a lot trains passing through Flag is the understatement of the day. On average, something like 80 trains pass through in a day. Recently, they passed a law saying the trains were not allowed to honk, so that's nice. At Altitudes, they have 'train shots', which you take every time a train passes through (you can see how this can get to be crazy as more time passes...) Some of our 21 and older crowd joined the tradition.
Finally our food comes, much later. We had a fun time sitting around and talking though. I think the best part of the evening may have been the prank Nicole played on Eric. Eric is notorious for liking an obscenely excessive amount (to me) of pepper on his food. As he went to put pepper on his soup, Nicole removed the top of the shaker and a huge amount of pepper came out. Yes, we are so mature.
ALL of us at Altitudes! Finally a group shot! From left: Nicole, Eric, Sarah, Cailah, Nick, Christine, Myself and Teresa.We decided to 'take the day off' that Saturday. We do something every weekend, and it was nice to just relax for once. I made some pancakes and the boys and Nicole came over for lunch/breakfast. We sat around the apartment all day. For dinner, we all went to Lowell for a picnic. Afterward, Teresa and I managed to bribe Eric into coming to the Galaxy Diner for some swing dancing (we had to buy him some coffee afterward...) We learned the balboa, which was pretty fun. The Galaxy Diner was a cute little old-fashioned place.
SWING! Paul and Maria, two people from Lowell, dancingWhen we returned home, we watched The Orphanage, a horror movie that wasn't too scary, but pretty well made. The next day (Sunday), we went to Sedona again. We had already been there, to Oak Creek Canyon. This time our destination was a place called Secret Canyon, which had been recommended to us by someone I can't remember- maybe Kathy. Well, after getting lost for quite a while, we finally found the way to Secret Canyon. Unfortunately the road was very rugged and definitely meant for Eric's Chevy Malibu... A little bit into the drive, we decided to take our losses and turn around. We came to a point where it was literally impassible with the car we were in.
Instead, we went to Bear Mountain to hike. It was pretty fun, but nothing too special. We didn't really know where else to go, though. We got some nice views after hiking to the top of a plateau, also. Not too much to say about the hike. I led the group for a bit, but led us around in circles so they decided not to let me be in the front after that...
Our short hike to Bear Mountain.After our hike, we drove around a bit, looking for a nice place to eat lunch, but all the cool places/recreation areas required a fee. Sedona is an extremely tourist-y place. To the point where it makes you not want to go at all. In our anti-touristing anger we just stopped on the side of the road and ate our lunch. Take that, Sedona.
We got back and I had a nice run. Had some dinner, then we watched the Blues Brothers. Good stuff. All in all, it was a pretty chill weekend. Nice to have a little downtime. Although it's really fun to go places/do things every weekend, every so often a break is nice!
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