somewhere on a desert highway...

This weekend adriana and brian came to visit....i think that we packed everything that we could in three days!!!
they got in on friday night around 7ish, so we went into town for Thai ( too bad racha cha cha thai was closed.) We went to this little place on the wrong side of the tracks for dinner and then walked to the Hotel monte Vista for coffee and the most amazing carrot cake in the universe!!! afterward we were too tired to do much else, and we wanted to get some sleep since we had a busy day planned for saturday.
We got up early-ish on saturday and after breakfast and getting our packs ready, we headed out to the lava tubes....
tony and i were so excited to go, since last time we rushed into them, we only got to go half way...this time we finished it and it was well worth it...a few really tight spots ( not too great for claustrophobics) but so rad...then we had a little picnic in the dark of peanut ( or soy) butter and jam sandwhiches...it was really fun..
after that we headed right out to the grand canyon...brian and ay have never been there, so we tried to get the best views that we could in a little bit of time...
we got there right as the sun was getting ready to set, which is amazing, but the canyon gets really hazy and misty, so it is hard to see how beautiful and breath taking it is...
we ran a cross a few deer that ran right past us on our hike up to the rim of the canyon...also pretty amazing, although they are sorta like the deer on belle isle ( except it is against the law to feed them or approach them, so you have to let them do the work of approaching.)
On the way home from the Grand Canyon, we saw an elk!!! FINALLY!! i have been 'elk hunting' since we got here...a friend of ours even calls us and lets us know when they are in her horse field-but we are always at getting ready for work or sleeping so we have not yet been to see them...
but this time, adriana shouted out that she saw one and i turned the car around and we all were looking right at it...tony said he saw a bull, but i missed it!!! NUTS!!!
we got home from the canyon really late ( i was driving so slow after we kept seeing animals run in front of my car -and after i hit a bunny and cried my eyes out) so we had a really late dinner of homemade tortilla soup-yummy...after the warmth of the soup hit, all i remember seeing was the back of my eyelids...
we got up early again on sunday and headed to the Galaxy diner, which is a little 1950's themed diner on route 66. We all ate really well and headed to sedona for another long day of hiking...
we started on our way to the 7 sacred apache pools ( which turned out to be soo worth getting up early.) Before we got to the pools, though we passed the biggest sinkhole in arizona ( devil's kitchen) which also had the biggest rattlesnake i have ever seen up close.well up close enough, i was looking down at it from the top of the sinkhole...and maybe it was the biggest i have ever seen, because i have never come face to face with a rattlesnake that was not in the zoo!!!

Then right after i was talking to the kids about this mojave green snake that a friend of mine told me about ( it is the deadliest rattler in Arizona) i saw a green snake cross my path and freaked out a little. It was totally NOT that mojave, but it was a little frightening nonetheless...
anyway we were going to hike up to the arches at the end of the pools, but the parking lot closed at 6, so we got outta there...not before landing right in the middle of someone's tour and we listened in for awhile and learned some desert survival tips ( and quickly realized that we would all have died if we really needed to survive in the desert for a long time).

Turns out that very clear water is also very unsafe to drink!! the sacred pools contained really muddy, yucky looking water and the tour guide asked who would drink it if they were thirsty in the desert...and then he said that clear water is clear because of the arsenic in it ( at least in desert areas) and drinking it would kill you...that is when i remembered why i liked living in MI so much with all the clean water around!!!
After we left the pools, we headed to the airport mesa so that AY and brian could experience a Sedona Vortex...it was really cool up there, but also windy...there was a storm rolling in, so we got some great photos!!!
after that we walked around downtown sedona for a bit and then went to oaxaca for some mexican food and margaritas ( well ay and tony- i was driving).
we got home a little late, hung out abit and then off to bed...Adriana and brian had to leave in the morning-waaaa waa...
well i had a great time and i can not wait for some more days off...i think for tony's 30th we might go kayaking at lake powell, but we shall see!!!