4 posts tagged “kc”

Do you read the Sunday paper?  Which one(s)?

I don't usually read the Sunday Chronicle, but it was laying on the kitchen table yesterday and the Travel section caught my eye. It was a picture of Rongbuk Monastery at the foot of Mount Everest, where my sister and I stayed when we went to Tibet eight years ago. The article details the exact trip we took, which is apparently quite a popular route now. The debate about whether this area inspired Lost Horizon has been going on for years, and I read the book to see if I could discern any places I'd been to. Which reminds me that I've been meaning to scan a bunch of those photos. I'll add that to the list of things to do this week.

Now, anyone who knows anything about Arizona will probably tell you about what a diverse place it is. But I don't know squat about Arizona, and would be hard pressed to even point it out on an unmarked map, despite having driven through it several times. I was surprised to find that Flagstaff is shockingly devoid of cacti and never mind desert! At this time of year, it's damn cold. And full of pine trees.

I'll be the first to admit that I didn't go to educate myself about the Arizona climate or landscape. This was my first time to Flagstaff, and my sole purpose was to catch up on the past year with two of my best friends from college, Susan and Tania, whom I haven't seen since we got together last November.

But, since I was there, I did have a look around. It's an amazing place, and we got the full tour from Susan, who has been leading river rafting tours through the Grand Canyon for several years. It was my first time to the Canyon, and it's hard to grasp the full impact of it in such a short visit. It was an overcast day (the clouds produced flurries on the way home) and I can only imagine what the view is like when it's bright and sunny. The colors in these photos are muted, and amazing in a different way than if the sun was out in full force. Plus there's just something different about the light at 8,000 feet -- colors are more vivid and clear than they are here at sea level.

 

After absorbing the scenery, we headed to the El Tovar for prickly pear cosmos and dinner, an appropriate end to an amazing day at the Canyon.

A small aside: the Rolling Stones played in my head throughout the entire visit. If I had the MP3, I'd insert it here -- it's from their first album, and they're so young, bluesy yet Beatles-ish that you can't help but sing along. It's always been one of my favorite Stones songs, and never fails to pop into my head when I hear someone mention Gallup, New Mexico. Only now when I hear it, I'll know what Flagstaff is really like. Next stop: Winona.

I had dinner with Lily and Ivy the other night, which prompted Lily to send some photos over from a girls night more than a year ago.

 

Then...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now.

How cute were you as a baby/child? Let's see those baby pics!

 There's this one...

And then there's this one! Maybe I should have been a plumber?