A day not ruined by ruins

For the next few days we traveled a few hours north to Sedona, AZ. We got a little less than expected at our 'resort' but hey, it's all what you make it!

We had a hard time deciding what to do for our adventure. There was hiking, horseback riding, offroad Jeep tours, downtown Segway tours, helicopter rides and ATV rentals. We looked into all of them and finally went with the side-by-side ATV rental.

IT.WAS.AWESOME.

As usual, Paul is a natural while I am look like a goober. Trumped again!

I blame my Ray Bans... too much air whizzing by while going 40 mph to be able to see.

 Photo op.

 The people with the ATV rentals said that all these trails and private sites were included in the rental. The individual ruin sites said it was indeed not part of the package. Good thing we found this out AFTER visiting a few of them.

 Some of the ruins that were found butted up next to the huge rocks of Sedona. Didn't learn much about them because we didn't know there was a tour (probably because we were trespassing).

 All the individual family rooms were cool.

 People always want to write their names on stuff. I remember saying, "1925... wow, that was a long time ago!"   Yeeeeeaaahhhhh.... Jessica... these are RUINS for crying out loud.

Much older than 87 years.

 Look, even they wanted a place to show off their trinkets!

 See the petroglyphs?

A little lizard friend on a warm and sunny day.

 I forget what the guy said this kind of cactus was. Colorful though.

 Paul with said cactus.

 At every opportunity.

 If you look really close you can see the purpleish flower bud on the cactus. This is called a prickly pear cactus. I was asking the guy at the information booth about edible cactus. He directed us to a restaurant in Sedona that served prickly pear fries and margaritas. When all done here, we decided a margarita was in order. It was tasty, indeed!

 At the second ruin site a rather large snake made an appearance about 3 feet in front of me on the path. Guess that's why Paul always makes me go first, eh?

 Caught up with a tour already in progress. He was explaining how they made the drawings on the rocks. They paint the shapes on the rock wall in animal fat, then burn a fire close to the wall so the soot is caught by the animal fat, then the fat melts onto the rock making it permanent.

 The tour guide said this was one of the most intact petroglyphs in the area. It is the story of "Mother Earth." At the top of the drawing, there is a woman's figure squatting... giving birth. Surrounding her are all of the animals she has already given birth to.

 The "Grotto" where the story goes that all the single girls would hang out. I don't make this up! The reason they knew this was because the Native Americans depicted single girls as a women's figure with large bows in their hair. Hmmm... maybe Hefner is onto something.

 Wish I had more than just my little pocket camera. But the memories are way better anyways. It was positively breathtaking to stand on the ledge and feel the wind blow through your hair.

Gahl dang...

Tools and their rants

What do you do when in Scottsdale on a warm April afternoon? If you're a couple of hipsters like Paul and I you check out Frank Lloyd Wright's compound out in the sticks. There are a few different tours of the place, we decided on the 'living space' one which consists of the common rooms and Mr and Mrs Wright's seperate bedrooms.

Now, Mr Wright was a genious architect but was also famous for being a total controlling jerk. It was his way or no way, no exceptions. The best part of the tour was by far them regaling us with stories of his dominating ways. His tricks to get you to do what he wanted without even knowing it were impressive. He is the ultimate selfish rogue. He was most disliked for taking on a contract, cashing their checks then doing what he wanted with the place - no matter if it was what they wanted or not. Most of the time this worked out because he in fact was impossibly hard to beat in his area of expertise, but sometimes it did not fare so well. I believe they told a story about how when he died - despite being the most famous architect of all time - he was practically pennyless because he owed so many people money from lost lawsuits and such.

We were told his inspiration for this compound came from the area surrounding it. We are in the desert, and what is most previlant in the desert? What is necessary for survival? Pointy things. So he decided to make everything possible into triangles, sharp points and acute edges.  

 The front lawn. He thought it important to have one soft spot in the compound for the children to play on the grass. What a nice fellow...

 Showing his utter excitement for the tour guide.

 The common living room. This was pretty interesting because first he made the doorways so short you had to hunch over while going through them. He was going for intentional discomfort. Know why? Because he wanted to force people to hurry up. He hated lingerers and wanted people to come in and sit down upon arrival. Then, when he was done with the visit he was DONE. He wanted to say good-bye and have people promptly leave... not hang around at the doorway and continue to talk. Douchy, but effective.

Then, as you see in this picture (above), this woman is about my size and her head is almost hitting the ceiling. Again, this was his master manipulation at work. He forces you to sit down in order to see what he wants you to see. The beauty of the surroundings can only be witnessed once you sit on these seats by the windows. Also, these funny looking angled chairs??? They are just comfortable enough that you can sit for a quick conversation, but not so inviting that you would want to stay a while. Again, douchy - yet effective. This guy would have been interesting to pick his brain!

We were the youngest people there by far, and we were obviously surrounded by avid fans of his work.There were quite a few people that must have either been architects themselves or something. Everyone else was taking pictures standing in front of buildings, putting their arms around and comparing themselves to statues of Frank Lloyd Wright, etc. Naturally I was making fun of them in such a way that they (hopefully) wouldn't catch on to, when one woman came up to me and said, "Honey, should I take a picture of you guys?" (Snicker inserted here.)

 True dat.

 This was, again, a pretty interesting room. He wanted a theater to entertain. He built this crooked

8-sided room so there were no echoes. The acoustics were astounding as well. Somehow he was able to make it to where you could be all the way in the back row and hear a person whispering all the way in the front, even with their back turned towards you. Some say he did this so he could hear all the nasty things said about him. :)

Also, it is hard to tell from this shot, but all the rows were tilted ever so slightly. He did this because he always sat the same way at these things. With his left leg crossed over the right and his right arm around his wife sitting next to him. When the pews/benches/seats were facing straight on this would cause his body to be twisted into an uncomfortable viewing position. So he changed the seats so that everyone else was uncomfortable BUT him. Classic.

One more thing... you can't see it here but it was in this very room that Frank Lloyd Wright invented aisle lighting. Ya know, like the ones on airplanes and movie theaters? They were small triangle shaped lights at the end of the aisle originally just for looks but had quite a lot more function than anticipated.

After a long day in the heat, we went into a small nearby town for dinner at a cute little outside restaurant. I had the bolognese and he had the lamb shank I think. Looks a little like a heart from this angle. Had to be descreet... he is easily embarrassed by my picture-taking. 

Arizona gone wild.

Just a few short weeks later, I was off to Arizona to spend a little R&R time with Paul. We first spent a few days in Scottsdale getting used to being on vacation, then moved on to Sedona for a little adventure. Even though it was warm (and we all know how I do in extreme heat), I was super sad to leave and go back to my real life.

 The first day there and we were greeted by this gorgeous sunset. Too bad I'm not good enough to capture it on film.

 On a walk around the neighborhood, Paul pointed out this javelina as part of someone's lawn decor. Good thing it wasn't a real one, I hear they aren't very friendly.

 We had missed most of them, but were fortunate enough to catch just a few of the flowering cactus plants in bloom.

 Took a little hike to catch the view of North Scottsdale. After about an hour I had to get outta there... I had sweated off all my SPF... but it was so awesome!!

I never miss an oppourtunity, right?

Good 'ol biker fun

Soon after arriving in Knoxville, we met the coolest traveler ever known to man (besides Shawna and me of course). Her name is Debbie, and she is the shit! Debbie spent the last 4 years in Portland, which explains why we instantly liked her. She moved to Knoxville to be closer to her sister and her husband, who had recently had their second child. Debbie, being the awesome person that she is, came all the way to Tennessee to hang out and help. Along the way, she met and later introduced us to a pretty rad couple who are friends with her sister. They were Howard and Kolla (like "holla!"). We all went out for some local brew one Tuesday night, and this is what came next...

 

A ride on their very own hand made tandem bike, equipped with lights and all!

I knew these people were cool!

There was no way in hell I was letting Shawna be the leader, and no way she wanted to tip the thing over, so Howard was a good sport and took us all for a spin. What an experience to be completely useless and out of control on the back of a bike, staring at your new friend's rear end.

Debbie, taking her turn. 

A few days later we saw this on our way to work. Don't kid yourself, they aren't riding in a pack for the 'togetherness.' They are doing it because if they don't ride in a substantial sized group they will get creamed in the traffic in Knoxville. This place is the most pedestrian and biker UN-friendly place I have ever seen.