I shall do my best to struggle through some semblance of an update, given my rather lackadaisical effort last week.  That said, I am still rather disoriented from vacation.  I did however put pictures up already so hopefully that provides some kind of diversion.  Some of them are from Kelly’s camera, so that’s the reason for all the different resolutions.

We spent all last week in Arizona with the Martins.  Home base was Sedona, which proved to be just a fine little town.  The weather was nothing short of glorious all week, and according to the locals that was just for us.  Apparently it is generally on the chilly side in mid-March.  I vaguely recall our trip itinerary, which I shall attempt to run down.  We flew out Friday the 13th, not being particularly superstitious.  As a matter of fact, it turned out to be a rather lucky trip when we took a bump in Denver in return for some travel vouchers.  On the downside, we didn’t get to Sedona until 2:00 in the morning KC time.

Saturday we slept in, then went to the St. Patrick’s Day parade in big downtown Sedona.  It was quite possibly the lamest parade ever, but then we hold our parades to a rather high standard.  It passed the time at any rate, and given the weather made for a decent diversion.  (OK from here on out exact dates and times are kinda fuzzy so don’t hold me to this timeline.)  Sunday we started the day with an early morning jeep tour.  I don’t know who’s bright idea it was to paint the jeeps pink.  Call it an insecurity but I never was totally comfortable riding around in a bright pink vehicle.  I had to admit they were pretty bad machines though;  They ran them over some impressive terrain.  After that we drove to a nearby trailhead and went on a 5-mile hike.  It was rather moderate terrain, but I think everybody agreed 5 miles was a bit excessive.

Monday we enjoyed a lovely drive out to the Grand Canyon.  It took like 9 hours I think.  Or maybe 2…  All I remember was it was very, very long.  It was worth it though, the canyon was very scenic indeed.  I’d go so far as to say “grand” even.  We spent all day out there hiking around.  Tuesday is a lil’ fuzzy.  I think the Martins went hiking and we stayed back at the condo and sat by the pool reading.  We cooked up some corned beef & cabbage for dinner and…  Some other stuff.  Wednesday we made the arduous drive to Surprise AZ to catch a Royals game.  Our original plan was to roll a Cubbies game into the afternoon also, but they were all sold out.  The Royals provided us with a decent amount of entertainment though, although they lost.  Donette got Zach Greinke’s autograph, which she was excited about.  At least she claims it is his autograph;  It’s quite illegible and the photo Dakin took was not exactly proof either.  Thursday we took a nice little bike ride.  Maybe not an over-the-top crazy mountain bike adventure, but it was fun and once again the weather was perfect.  Friday we flew back to KC, picked up Gabe, and went home.

The weekend was mostly spent trying to get our clocks back on track.  Saturday we did get down to the Power & Light and sat around watching the basketball games on their big screen.  We intended to go back there Sunday but it didn’t happen.  Instead we went down to the Brooksider to try and watch the MU game, but all the Jayhawk fans were naturally taking up two or three parking places each so the lot was full.  Wouldn’t want a door ding, you know.  While we were circling the lot I took a quick census of the handicap spots too;  Sure enough they all had Jayhawk bumper stickers.   Just pointing it out.  I guess we could have walked down there, but they steal chairs also, so it just wasn’t a safe option.  We walked Gabe up to the library and back, and then sat around the house the rest of the day.