This is the last of the three-part retelling of my legendary adventures in Arizona. Scroll down more to see the previous two segments.

Thursday:

Pete had to go to work early, so Amy and I walked the dog together. There were a few dogs at the dog park, so it was fun getting to talk to the friendly owners and watch Malachi have a good time chasing them around (the dogs, not the owners) after a lot of bottom sniffing (mostly with the dogs). Some time after breakfast, we decided to go swimming with a few of Christie’s church friends, so we all piled in the van and headed off to a swimming pool in an apartment complex. The person who lived there had a couple kids and then anotha’ motha’ met up with us there as well. If you didn’t already know, taking kids to the pool is entirely different from dropping the kids off at the pool (sorry, I couldn’t help it). It felt kinda odd being the only adult male amidst a bunch of moms, but I adapt quickly to new environments. After slathering myself with a large amount of sunscreen (gotta protect the whiteness) I jumped in and mostly just took turns watching kids and giving them rides around the pool in their various flotation devices. It turns out Skylar absolutely HATES having water splashed in her face. I did my best to prevent it, but in a pool full of kids, it’s bound to happen. Such is life.

Malachi can't wait to hang with some other dawgs

there was a lot of sniffing going on

no dropping off of kids going on here (I hope)

I believe it was on that particular drive back to the house that I had composed the Thunderbird song, which turned out to be a big hit with Skylar. I think I’m pretty good at coming up with silly kids games (like the classic “How Big is a Giant Chicken?”). We passed a street named Thunderbird and in an effort to keep Skylar entertained, I came up with the song. Basically, it involves saying Thunderbird twice and asking the bird some kind of question or making some kind of statement. Usually you do this twice with the first and second lines rhyming.
Ex:

Thunderbird, Thunderbird have you seen a cloud?
Thunderbird, Thunderbird squawking very loud!

However, Skylar didn’t really get how rhyming worked and on top of it she cracked herself up by inventing new words and then repeating them over and over.
Ex:

Thunderbird, Thunderbird have you seen a gink?
Thunderbird, Thunderbird have you seen a gink?

Multiply that by twenty and add in the occasional tree or dink and you pretty much have it.
Anyhow, we had fun singing and Skylar and I would sing that song from then on every time we were driving somewhere and she’d crack herself up every time the word “gink” was used.

Well, after returning home from the pool trip, I watched Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I’d never seen it before even though I’m a big fan of W & G. It was basically just like one of the shows but movie-length. Naturally, I really enjoyed it. Amy and Christie left to pick up some groceries and I was left to watch over the children…by myself! This wasn’t so hard since Skylar and Joey slept the whole time, but halfway through baby Riley woke up. I thought for certain this would be a disaster since I don’t think I’ve ever been left alone with another family’s children for any such length of time. But somehow, after a little fussiness and some drooling issues (yes, I really should work on controlling my attitude and saliva), I survived.

That night Christie’s brother Ben came over. We had some of the best Enchiladas I’ve ever tasted and we played an enjoyable game of Bohnanza (aka the Bean Game) which Pete won. Way to go Pete!

Friday:

Once again Amy and I walked the dog in the morning. Then we went shopping. This was a mistake. It turned out to be pretty much the worst shopping experience I can remember. First we went to the local movie theater to get a gift card as a thank you present for Pete and Christie for their hospitality. Then we went to the mall so that I could spend the Aeropostale gift card I had from Christmas. The reason we went there during our trip was that Amy just finished working at Aeropostale that summer and had a limited time 30 percent off coupon for friends and family. However, she refused to go into the store with me (despite much persuasion on my part) because she wasn’t too fond of herformer coworkers. Finally, I just went in myself, trying to find and buy something as quick as I can. A collard shirt and a pair of pants later, I’m out. But Amy is nowhere to be seen.
Having expected to see her waiting for me outside, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I didn’t have my cell phone on me so I couldn’t call her. So I waited and walked around the area for a while. Then I went to see if she was in her car. It was still there but she wasn’t. I made a quick walk around the entire mall then I went back to the storefront and waited a good twenty minutes or so. By now, it had been about 40 minutes since I’d left the store and I was honestly starting to worry. I didn’t make sense that Amy would go missing in a store she had worked at the past few months, but then again she was nowhere around and sense was the last thing I was concerned with. Not only did I have no idea where Amy was, but I was pretty much stranded, with no cell phone and without a number to call for anyone nearby. Finally, not knowing what else to do, I decided to get security. They gave me a pretty strange look when I told them I’d lost my 20 year old sister and I didn’t remember what her number was (oh the joy of having everything stored on a cell phone), but they were helpful in thinking to go find out if they had her number on file where she used to work. So while they were looking up her number Amy walks up and says something like, “hey, whats going on.” To which I say, “Where were you?!?!?!?!?!” If I was a swearing person, I might have sworn right about then. It turns out she had assumed I’d brought my cell, wondered off around the mall and found a nice pot holder for Christie, figuring that I would call here when I was done.

It took a while for my nerves to calm, but I was very thankful that she was fine and no one had to call 911 for a missing person. When we got home Skylar helped easing my tension by asking if I wanted to hear a Bible story. “Sure,” I told her. She opened up to a random page and told me the story of two Spidermans and their crime-fighting adventures. It was very amusing. Amy, Christie and I played a partial game of Carcassonne before we had to stop and prepare for the big dinner / going away gathering for Amy that night.

Some of the people in Arizona had come to know and love Amy during her stay there and the Deegan’s decided to have Amy’s closest friends over for a final hurrah before our departure. Three couples came with their children and there was an inordinate amount of delicious food including barbecued meats. One of the people who stood out to me was a one-eyed man named Mike (the kids called him Mike McGoogle, though that wasn’t his real last name) who shared my interest in board games, needless to say we got along famously. The adults (10 in all) played Saboteur and then Pirate’s Dice while the kids watched movies. I felt like the night was a big success game-wise and I was a little sad to know that I’d be leaving such a prime group of gamers so soon.

After a few more shows of The Office, I went to bed a happy (and full) man.

Mike eyes me suspiciously, could it be a bluff?

Jodi (with soulpatch protection) and Jen

Saturday:

Following a huge and delectable brunch that included waffles, bacon, and something called Dutch Babies (they weren’t actual babies, I assure you), Amy and I packed up our stuff and said our goodbyes. There were some watery eyes (no, I didn’t cry, though I was undoubtedly sad to be leaving) and a lot of hugs before we finally hit the road. The plan was that I would drop Amy off at a friend’s party in Descanso and then I’d head back home on my own. After going the wrong way on a freeway for a little ways, we finally got onto the 8 West and had a straight shot to the homestead. If only it had been that easy.

Max, the retarded cat

My parting gift, a lego man

Most of the journey was scenic and uneventful. I had to do a lot of finagling to get Amy’s radio ipod player to keep working. We stopped half way to fill up on gas and get some ice for the cheese steak casserole we brought home with us. Some time later I gave up on the ipod and we listened to the radio. Then, still a few miles from Descanso, the car started shaking. After a lot of debating, we finally realize the same thing was happening to us again and once again we decided to tough it out and just make it to the place. By God’s grace we survived driving on a falling apart tire through bumpy offroad trails. It was kinda exciting. When we got there we looked to see that yes indeed the same thing had happened by now on the other front tire. So I quickly swapped it out with the spare (fortunately all the nuts matched this time) and headed back home. Strangely enough, this second tire problem seemed to have corrected the bad alignment the first tire caused and the car was only slightly steering to the left now.

I claim the A Mountain

some smooth sand dunes near a river

there's some really cool mountains made of boulders West of El Centro

What an adventure. I arrived home, unloaded the luggage, and prepared for a more ordinary day of Sunday church services and hanging out with friends. I had to admit, it was good to be back home and especially good to fall asleep in my own bed.

**I’m planning on uploading most of my vacation photos some time next week (I’m pretty much just waiting for a good time to grab Amy’s pictures and add them to my own). I’ll let you know when they’re up.**

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.