As we were on holiday for all of August, there was obviously a lot more eating out and other forms of not-cooking than usual. Though we still managed to eat a few home-cooked meals. Not many, though!
31 August 2013
29 August 2013
Before the baby...
JR and Amber, who probably consider themselves the real babies of my brother's household, really enjoyed having extra people around to pay them attention.
28 August 2013
Get your kicks (or at least dinner) on Route 66...
Girls dancing in the bed of Steve's pickup - after dinner at Galaxy Diner, on the actual Route 66, in Flagstaff, AZ.
mmm, beer.
Philly cheesesteak with onion rings
BLTA - the a for avocado...
A day at the Big Hole
No trip to Arizona can be complete without a trip to the Grand Canyon. Of course, the day we went, it was chilly and rainy - what are the chances of being cold and wet in Arizona? (Higher up north, of course, than in the desert, where my brother lives).
Luckily, the sun came out later and warmed us up.
Perhaps the visibility wasn't quite as good as it might have been on a clear day, but it was still rather impressive.
Between the weather and having a small baby with us, we didn't do a lot of walking along the trails - mostly used the free shuttle buses and just got out and had a good look at some of the viewing points. Someday, it would be nice to go back, and spend more time there - stay overnight perhaps and try to go down into the Canyon itself. But it was a nice introduction to this rather spectacular piece of geography.
Here's the Colorado River, a mile below us on the Canyon Floor. It looks tiny, but it's still hundreds of feet wide at many points.
We saw a bit of wildlife - Western Bluebird,
and some ravens, which seem to be all over the place. We also saw an elk, but only from the shuttle bus, so the photo is terrible!
I also enjoyed the flora - still quite scraggly and very different from home, but much more lush and green than down in Scottsdale.
Some of us perhaps didn't get that much out of the visit, but as she lives in Arizona, I'm sure she'll get another chance!
Dad & Mom enjoyed the Canyon, though - first road trip for Baby Elise!
27 August 2013
A brief tour of Scottsdale and environs
We started out from my brother's house and took a wee drive around the local area, just to have a look at things like cacti and mountains and so on...
This palm is actually in a neighbour's garden.
The roads are all planted like this around where Steve lives.
We went out to the start of a trail up into the mountains - not to have a long walk, but just to check out the flora and fauna.
Teddy Bear Cactus
Prickly pear
A bit of cactus skeleton from a dead plant.
Barrel cactus with a blossom coming out.
Dessert rabbit trying to pretend he's actually part of the rock...
Little skink or something like that.
Sideways saguaro not sure why it's sideways as I turned it before uploading it... will try to turn it again later.
Some partridge crossing the road - there were tons of them crossing the road in cute little families.
Dinner, 27/8/13: Taco Bonanza
It's always nice to be cooked for, but when the person cooking for you is as good as my brother, it's even better. Originally, we were going to have tacos last night for dinner, but with the plane being delayed so much due to the haboob (dust storm) we didn't get in until nearly midnight. So we had the tacos for a late lunch today - it will be our primary meal, though. Just as well as I think we are all stuffed.
In addition to the usual taco ingredients, Steve had four different kinds of taco shells (hard corn shells, soft flour shells steamed, soft flour shells lightly fried and steamed white corn shells) for us to choose from - I felt it my duty to have at least one of each kind, just to be fair...
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