The continuation of the retelling of my vacation:

Tuesday:

After sleeping in a little later than expected, we woke up and started things off with an oatmeal breakfast. We packed up all our stuff into Amy’s car and headed back to the Grand Canyon Information Center. After some thinking, we decided to just take the free Shuttle along Desert View drive going East and hit all the lookout points.

Amy packing up

A lookout near the GC Info Center

Our first stop was Grandview Point. Since this was the only spot we’d be stopping at with a trail on it, we decided to hike down a little ways. This one was much steeper and more treacherous, hugging close to a rather sheer slope with little room for error. It did offer some great photo opportunities though. Once finished, we got back on the bus and took it to Moran Point. While the bus stopped for a few minutes, I got out and snapped some pictures, then hopped right back on.

Looking out from the top of Grandview Point

I know a fast way down, but it involves a lot of pain

This was a good spot to rest and then turn back

Finally, we went to the Desert View area where they have a really cool watchtower you can climb up and look out of. I believe this is the first and only time we could actually see the Colorado River. Knowing that we still had a 4 hour drive ahead of us, we decided it was time to head back toward the Deegan’s place in Glendale.

The watchtower was based on traditional Indian architecture

On top of the big open roof of the gift shop by the tower

Descending from the tower lookout room

About 20 miles or so from Flagstaff, we noticed a thumping sort of noise and the car seemed to be shaking. At first we thought it was just the road, but when we drove onto a smoother part it was still going. So we pulled off at a rest stop only to find that the tread on the front right tire was splitting apart. After a lengthy period of time and a lot of trouble I found out that one of the lug nuts for that wheel was a different size and the lug wrench was too big for it. We even enlisted the help of a friendly trucker and his wife, but nothing in his entire socket set worked. Finally we just decided to bite the bullet (or perhaps the tire) and make the drive to a Discount Tires in Flagstaff. After a few phone calls we found the place, a mere 20 minutes before they closed (another close one). While they fixed the tire we grabbed a bite from the nearby Carl’s Jr. We thanked the Lord that we had made it in time and watched the sun begin to set as we ate our burgers.

So that's what all that noise was

No sir, I don't like it!

Carl's Jr. never tasted so good

Our car was the last one to be worked on, but we didn’t mind the wait. I did manage to get some good pictures of the sunset on the drive back. We finally made it to Glendale safely around 8:40 pm and relieved some stress by watching a few episodes of The Office. I hadn’t seen much of it before, so we watched it off and on throughout the rest of the week. And so ended an adventurous (but good) day.

Sitting out in front of Discount Tires, just waiting

A lovely end to an eventful day

Wednesday:

**Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera with me this day (stupid, I know) so no pictures**

Having slept fairly comfortably on an air matress in the living room, I woke up and walked the dog (Malachi) with Pete. He’s only about four months old, but I can tell he’s going to be a big dog, I think he’s part Great Dane. Anyhow, Pete forgot to bring a bag and we hoped to get him to the dog park before he (Malachi that is) relieved himself, but sadly he couldn’t (or didn’t want to) hold it that long and emptied his load on the sidewalk right in front of the park. Alas.

After some running around at the park, we walked back to the house and Pete headed off to work. Christie, Amy, myself, and the kids visited the library to drop off and pick up some books and movies. Then we met up with Pete at a BBQ restaurant called Famous Dave’s.

The food was very good. They had 5 kinds off sauces at the table, and we sampled all of them, finally deciding that Sweet and Zesty was our favorite. They also had a lot of witty sayings posted around such as “Yes, there are flames in Barbecue Heaven” and “Our best pigs have Famous Dave’s donor cards.” We saw that when it’s someone’s birthday, they get a bunch of ice cream and a huge sparkling candle thing. So we pretended it was Pete’s birthday (dishonest I know, but you would have done the same if you’d seen that candle, and he did have a birthday recently. Also, Christie was doing a restaurant online secret shopper thing, so I guess you could say it was a necessary part of the experience.)

That evening we went to church. I really enjoyed the college group, though only a few people actually participated much in the discussion. Given the opportunity, I’d gladly go back there. Back at the house we played a couple games of Pirate’s Dice (aka Liar’s Dice) and I think everyone enjoyed it even though I won both times (largely due to a lot of luck on my part and some previous experience with the game).

Tune in again for the next (and hopefully last) telling of my adventures in and returning from Arizona.

So my Arizona trip was pretty much great. Here’s the first installment of what happened:

Sunday:

Having meticulously packed everything the night before (I crammed way too much into way too small a space), I rushed home after finishing worship at church and Mia and Shawaii drove me to the airport. I got on the plane about 20 minutes before it took off, I guess I just can’t help cutting things close. The flight was short and uneventful. It had been a few years since I’ve been in an airplane and it was my first time every flying alone, so that was exciting. I was amazed by how much open, uninhabited space there is. Ok, so maybe it’s because I was flying over an arid desert, but still, it seems like there is a vast region of America that remains unpopulated. There was something enjoyable about looking down and seeing the little man-made structures and paths making their way through a vast wilderness of desert.

I arrived in Phoenix around 1:40 pm and, after the usual quantity of greetings and hugs, Amy drove me back to Pete and Christie’s place (the people she had been living with for most of the summer). Once we arrived at the house, we packed for our drive to Sedona that afternoon. We went with the Deegan’s (Pete, Christie, and their three kids: Skylar, Joey, and Riley) on this trip, but Amy and I drove separately. She did her best to keep up with Pete who drove petal to the carpet.

The scenery there was gorgeous. One thing I love about Arizona is how scenic it is. The sky is pretty much always doing something interesting, there’s a lot of incredible rock formations, and everything has this reddish hue to it. I hadn’t realized that there is a very large part of Arizona covered in forest. After setting up camp, Pete and I went out to get some firewood. We met an interesting guy at a hotel who led us down to a river and helped us take a big pile of wood he had previously used for a dam, but now wanted to get rid of. That night we roasted hot dogs around the fire, chatted, and I took turns with Pete playing the guitar.

Monday:

Following a reasonable night’s sleep, we took a short walk over to a nearby stream and played around for a little bit. Then we packed up and drove to Slide Rock. Unfortunately, because of the rainfall the previous day, there was too much bacteria in the water so they wouldn’t let us swim. We walked around and had sandwiches in our vehicles. Then we took off through a beautiful mountainous forest. We stopped for ice cream sandwiches at a gas station on the edge of Flagstaff and then we parted ways, Amy and I heading off toward the Grand Canyon.

After a couple hours of driving we made it to the park entrance and payed for our passes. We went to the information center and asked where we could find a good campground. The first place we stopped was inside the park, but it was already full, so we ended up at one 10 miles from the park entrance. Still, it turned out to be just right and fairly cheap. After setting up the tent, we drove back to the Grand Canyon for a hike. We went down the South Kaibab Trail until we got to a really nice lookout point. It seemed like a good place to turn back, not only because the sun was starting to set, but also Amy was feeling sick. We decided it was probably the ice cream sandwiches and her stomach having an argument. The ice cream won and She had to make a couple pit stops on the way back up. No one can say we didn’t give anything back during our visit. On the drive back we stopped to let a family of deer cross the road in front of us, it was a unique and enjoyable experience.

When we returned to our camp site Amy was feeling much better and she showed me how to use the camping stove and we had some very spicy Jamaican chicken and rice dinner. She had mentioned frequently about how she was excited to have this official camping food and so I thought it was a flavor she had specifically picked out because of how good it sounded, but it turns out that it was just on sale for really cheap. Still, it was tasty and we slept well that night.

This takes a while and I think you’ll enjoy it more not having to read the whole thing at once, so I’ll post more later when I get the chance.

High School Summer Camp went very well. The worship was great, the messages were great, the games were great, the free time was great (perhaps you’re sensing a theme here), it was pretty much all great (except for me getting tackled by one of the high school boys and my shoulder still hurting quite a bit). I think the time was meaningful and effective; God accomplished what He wanted to and I really couldn’t ask for more than that. I feel that it was a great opportunity for me to be used and I definitely experienced some personal spiritual growth. This camp was different from the last and the one before, and I’m fine with that. I’ve learned to expect something new and different every time, the same story rarely plays itself out twice. Still, I’m glad it’s over. I enjoy being able to look back and see that something went so well, maybe because it’s much easier than looking forward and believing that it will go well. I guess that’s what faith is all about.

On the other hand, I always feel funny about coming back from some big event and having to tell people how it went. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s hard for me to just quickly sum up everything that occurred and my feelings concerning such things. And I feel odd just saying “Oh, it was good/great.” It’s hard for me to convey an experience to someone who wasn’t there. And on top of that, soon after the experience has passed, the memory of it fades and contorts in to something else. It becomes more of my own take on the experience and less of the real thing.

Memory is an interesting thing. Memories are great, but they still aren’t the real thing. It’s sad to me that so many beautiful and wonderful things in life are passing and all that remains is an ever fading memory.  Sometimes I have a hard time enjoying something because I know in the back of my mind that soon enough it will be gone. It seems such a terrible loss to me, knowing that no matter how I search for that feeling/experience/thing, I’ll never find it again, at least not in the same way it was before.

I recently finished listening to the entire Chronicles of Narnia on CD. It was an amazingly well-done production and (of course) I’m sad that it’s over now. In the final book, The Last Battle, Jill expresses her lament that the world of Narnia can’t last forever and she is sad to see it come to an end. But then, when her and a good portion of the Narnia characters travel through Aslan’s Country they find that all the things they loved about Narnia are there, but even grander than they had remembered them. They go on to find that England is there too, along with the rest of the world and many other worlds within worlds. It was an incredibly moving scene and the idea of this life being just a dream compared to the eternal is one that resonates deeply within me. It is inspiring to me, to hope for that day, knowing that I’ll finally be in the presence of a true beauty in its purest form, one that is unhindered, unsullied, and unfading. All the things that once marred beauty and stole it away will have faded to nothing and been blown away like a waft of fog in the wind. And then the holiday will begin.

I intended to write this long, thoughtful, awe inspiring, life-changing post; one that would make you question everything you knew (ok, so it probably wouldn’t have been that great). But time escaped me. It’s been doing that a lot lately.

So here’s just a little update since I wanted to write something if only for writing’s sake and so those who’re interested can know what’s going on:

I’ve got High School Summer Camp coming up. It’s during the first weekend of August up in the Palomar mountains. I’m sure it will be another wonderful transforming experience and, just like last year, Calvary Chapel Alpine will be joining us for the crazy ride.

I’m going to visit my little sister, Amy, in Arizona from August 10th through the 16th. It’s been a while since I’ve been out of the state and/or had anything that could be considered a vacation. I’m planning on enjoying it immensely (don’t even try to stop me).

Work has been going well. I’ve started a new project and it involves a lot more creativity than the things I usually work on. I can’t say what it is, but it there’s lots of guns, swords, and ridiculous fight sequences, thus ranking it high on the awesome scale. Also, over the course of my employment at House of Moves, my position has evolved so that in many cases I’m the go-to guy for information, which is kinda cool. It’s nice to know I’m useful though it does sometimes make it a little harder for me to get my own work done.

Lastly, I’ve uploaded a few new pictures to my photo gallery, just for fun.

From what I can, tell things are running smoothly again (hold the Exlax jokes please), all malicious software has been eliminated and Google says my site is safe once more. Huzzah! I’ve also updated to the latest version of WordPress. I think that’s where the security issue was and it had been a far too long since I’d done an update. Sadly, I lost all my post categories in the process since they switched to a new system, but it’s not a big deal, and I’ll slowly build them up again. Thanks for your patience everyone. I’ll write again soon.

For some reason I’m getting strange warning messages when trying to access the blog and I suspect some of you get the same alert page when you try to visit. I’ve spent a couple hours trying to fix it, but to no avail. It seems fine in Safari, but not in Firefox, which makes me wonder if it’s a Firefox problem or there is actually some kind of outside malicious tampering with my site. Don’t be too surprised if things look a little messed up around here while I try to find a solution. Hopefully I’ll be able to fix it soon. Boy do I hate this kind of thing.

Yes, something’s definitely not right. I tested it in Windows on a PC and both Firefox and IE gave warnings when visiting the site. Still looking into it

***Latest Update***

Alright, thanks to some help from Brian, I believe the problem is fixed. I’m still waiting for Google to verify that the site is safe, so until then a warning page might still come up, but hopefully within a day or two things should be good again. Let me know if any of you are still having problems.

I’m taking a break from this regularly unscheduled blog to notify you that I’ve finally finished uploading pictures to my Flickr account (here). I pretty much went through my entire photo collection in chronological order and uploaded the ones I thought would be of some interest to the general populace. Check them out and feel free to add comments and whatnot. I’d say the best way is to view them as a slideshow and start from the very back and work your way forwards. Or you could just browse though the 10 pages of thumbnails if you wanted to get it done quickly. That’s entirely up to you.

Having that little project out of the way, my plan from now on is to upload new pictures to my Mac gallery through the brand new MobileMe service (formerly .mac). I’m not sure if I’ll still keep uploading to Flickr or not. The Mac way is, naturally, a much easier process and (being a service I payed for over a free one) is something I’m more inclined to take advantage of.

It helps me sometimes to remember then when I make mistakes and when I’m feeling less than inadequate, there isn’t this huge anvil of judgment hanging over my head, just about to drop. Instead, I am picked back up off the ground and given the command, “do better My son.”

Like in the Jars of Clay song, Collide, sometimes I feel as if I’m waiting for the axe to fall. If only I would look, I’d see it was lying on the ground. And in its place, a kind embrace. Yes, I will try again Father. And I will do better, I will.