Arizona

This was a quick state for us as we only two stops: Tucson and Phoenix.

We were expecting Tucson to be like Dayton, but it’s actually a pretty cool city. It has a big art scene so there were lots of cool little restaurants and coffee shops and well, lots of art everywhere!

Walking bridge - you enter the mouth...

And exit by the rattle!

The best part of Tucson was the discovery of the Sonoran hot dog!! Here’s wikipedia’s definition:
The Sonoran hot dog, found in Tucson, Metro Phoenix, and in neighboring Sonora, Mexico, is a hot dog grilled in a processor or on a griddle, wrapped in Mesquite-smoked bacon, topped with freshly-chopped tomatoes, onions, shredded yellow or cotijo cheese, tomatillo salsa or red chili sauce, pinto beans, mayonnaise, ketchup and/or mustard, and served on bread.

Craig is enjoying his Sanoran hot dog and Mexican Coke

Lets get a close up of this deliciousness!

In Phoenix, Craig was pretty busy with shoots, so we didn’t have much time for sightseeing but we did hang with the Fullers and go on a hike.

Couldn't get in to the hockey game but had a good time anyway!

A desert hike - the cactuses are so cool!

Great view!

After Phoenix we decided to head back to Denver for a month. We are exhausted and need a break. It’s hard work living on the open road! Plus, Craig is completely swamped with work so he needs some time to catch up on all his projects. So we’ve been back in Denver a week now and Craig is cranking through work while I, Sara, am trying to get motivated to do our taxes and get my resume ready! It’s great to be back in Denver but looking forward to getting back on the road!

 

California

Well, as usual, we’re way behind on the posts. Here’s our photos from the big CA!

Our first stop in CA was Mt. Shasta. It was too cold and snowy for hiking but we stopped for a shoot for one of Craig’s clients. It’s a very small mountain/ski town so this is our only photo:

Mt. Shasta

Next we headed to the Redwoods National Parks:

Feels like were in Lord of the Rings!

The start to our 6 mile hike

Sara hugging a tree

While visiting the Redwoods we stayed near Crescent City. The Pacific Ocean is so much better than the Atlantic!

Lighthouse near Crescent City

The pacific ocean is so cool

After the Redwoods, we headed to San Francisco and hung out with some good friends who showed us the city:

San Francisco

One of our fav’s from sightseeing was the Alcatraz tour!

Alcatraz

Craig is very excited about the tour

Sara following the audio tour

Cell in Alcatraz...super small!

Looks like the movies

I, Sara, had a day to myself when Craig had to go back to Seattle for 24 hours. I went on a hike close to the ocean and then to Golden Gate Park. It was a great day!

Hike near San Francisco

Japanese Tea Garden

A really cool bridge in the tea garden

Next we headed to Yosemite. A snow storm had just moved through when we arrived and many of the roads were closed. So we were limited but we did make it in the park and went on a small hike. It’s beautiful and definately a place we’ll be going back to one day~

Yosemite in the snow

Half dome...snow cleared out later in the day

On a snowy hike

After Yosemite, we headed to LA where we flew to Cincy for the Holidays. It was nice to relax and hang with our families!

After the holidays we headed back to LA. Unfortunately, we didn’t take a single photo while we were there. I, Sara, was unimpressed with the city. I was expecting New York City on the west coast and LA is nothing like it. It’s one giant suburb and it takes forever to get anywhere in the city. The only touristy thing we did was go to Hollywood and it’s a dump! Of course we did have lots of little things go wrong like all our sleeping options fell through(including camping) and we started have car troubles and some other things. So maybe we’ll have to give LA another shot sometime! We really enjoyed the weather and all the boardwalks next to the beach. That was definitely a redeeming quality!

Next we moved onto San Diego. If we ever moved to CA this is the city we would chose! The weather and beaches were great and it feels less crowded. We had a great tour guide, a friend of Craigs, who let us stay with him and showed us some of the sights!

Our friend is the shadow...it's a group photo!

Craig being a rebel and drinking a beer on the beach

Great sunset in San Diego

This ends our time in California. It was great hanging with our friends, seeing some sights and meeting some amazing people that you’ll see in the near future on Recycle Your Faith. We can’t wait to go back again!

 

A Change in Plans

The past couple weeks have been pretty stressful with the house purchase. Long story short, the deal got more complicated as the house went through HUD inspections, FHA inspections and our own inspections. We were being required by FHA to hire contractors to do a laundry list of improvements within 60 days, most of which we were planing to do ourselves over time. The costs kept on increasing and finally last night Sara and I realized that it was too much. So, we walked away. We’re sad, but it’s all good. Life goes on.

Your next question is, what next? We’re not exactly sure at the moment, but we have a few ideas up our sleeves. We’ll keep you posted.

To be continued…

 

We have a contract

We will soon be surburbians! Craig and I started house hunting at the end of May. We really wanted to live downtown but housing is a bit pricey in Denver. So we moved our search to suburbia and found a house close to where we live now. And today we got our contract!! We’ve attached some photos. Warning: We bought a WIP(work in progress). An example would be that there is no plumbing at the moment. Apparently, someone discovered that the house was empty and took all the copper piping. However, the house has a lot of potential and we’re pretty exited! So while we can’t be urban Denverites we will be suburbians with a mountain view(the back porch has a great view of the mountains).

Here’s the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/2explorers.com/7541MeadeWay?authkey=Gv1sRgCMX8zKGKj6HTpQE&feat=directlink#

 

My Dad’s Crazy Adventure

Mt. Aconcagua

I must admit, I’m pretty proud of my Dad right now. About a year ago he started planning a trip to Mt. Aconcagua (in Argentina), the highest mountain outside Asia. At 22,841 feet, it’s a killer of a mountain. For comparison, the highest peak in the continental US is Mt. Whitney at 14,505 (we did that a few years ago as a family). While some may minimize Aconcagua since it’s not technical, the real threat is altitude sickness. Man was not created to survive at such elevations and after a certain point (I forget what height that is) you slowly start to die. But with some acclimatizing, your body will increase the production of red blood cells, allowing for short visits at such elevations. My dad has been training very hard for this trip, working out every day, taking small training trips to the smokey mountains and southern ohio with a 70lb pack just to hike up and down “hills”. Hopefully all that work will pay off in the next couple weeks. He is on the mountain right now, and will be for the next 12 days. Over the next week they will move back and forth between base camp and two other camps moving equipment and allowing their bodies to acclimatize. On day 9 they are scheduled to make a summit attempt, with 2 extra days as backups in case of bad weather. He is with his brother (my uncle) and 10 other people along with a couple of guides. None of the 10 other men or women are from the US and ages range from 33-69…how cool is that!

Any who know my Cousin Ben will understand who is responsible for their carrying a small device that transmits information to family and friends via satellite. They press a button and it sends an e-mail to us with GPS coordinates and a googlemap. It’s really pretty cool. If you are interested in tracking their progress, here is the link. You’ll have to zoom into Argentina to see their progress on the mountain.

I’m definitely a bit jealous of Dad’s adventure and all the super cool new gear he brought for the trip, I think subconsciously that’s why Sara and I hiked The Twin Sisters yesterday in Rocky Mountain National Park. It wouldn’t have been all so bad if there wasn’t snow on the ground and I was in better shape! The wind at the top was incredible! We had a hard time standing without getting blown over by gusts of wind! It’s encouraging that we can still hike in the winter, I wouldn’t have thought that before moving here.

Sara atop twin #1

Our water bottles got frozen over!

Sunset on the hike down