November AZ exploring

We spent November aiming for a few places that have been on our radar around the Flagstaff area.

But first - a climb up Humphreys Peak before it got covered in snow:

It can get very windy up here.  Even the sign thinks so:

A random picture from one of our orienteering meets with the Phoenix O-club, including various spiky plants and the cute-but-DO-NOT-TOUCH teddy bear cholla:

John has been talking about SP (aka s**tpot) Crater and we finally made it out there, to the north of Flagstaff:

The side of the crater is quite steep and covered in loose cinders:

Admiring the San Francisco Peaks on the horizon:

Shadow posing on lava rock:

From the top there's an excellent view of the lava flow:

Also a look down into the deep crater:

Our car waiting for us at the trailhead:

John did a walk-about around the rim while I headed down to do some running on the plain:

One of our favorite types of photos - a mountain shadow as seen from the side or top of the mountain:

Now heading in the other direction, down into the earth, following the path through ponderosas to the Lava River Cave:

This cave is so long (over 3/4 mile) that there's a map:

This is the best lava tube we've seen (so far) - wide and tall, dark and long, easily accessible, super cool (and cold):

At the far end, John might have been considering trying to hide and scare the next group:

When in fact, all the lights bobbing toward us was a bit freaky:

Great experience, highly recommend!

Even better (and more highly recommended) was our afternoon and evening at the Lowell Observatory.  It's finally open again for tours, yay!

We got to see the historic telescope that was used to discover Pluto:

Even the structure around the telescope is interesting:

The two plates where a speck of light was found to be moving over time - it had to be something other than a star:

We spent hours going back and forth between exhibits, tours, talks in the auditorium, and celestial viewing on the patio:

In fact, I'd call this one of the top experiences in Flagstaff.  Come grab your 3-D glasses and you too can look like this!

October trip to TX & VT

After our Grand Canyon adventure, we had the chance to visit the parental units, yay!

First was a quick stop in Texas.  The only pictures I have involve John testing his new drone.  Hello, drone:

Practicing good control (in addition to the ability to send it quite a ways away before having it return "home"):

We flew up to Connecticut in order to take a train to Vermont - and somehow Kathy and Bob managed to find us!  What a crazy, wonderful surprise that none of us had planned.  Always great to see you two, even for just a short time!

Visions of fall foliage from the train window (Amtrak is so pleasant):

Chocolates on our pillow in Vermont - thank you, Billi Jo!

Our (well, John's) big project was installing a heat pump water heater for Mom.  How's it looking, John?

While he played around (serious play, of course) with water and wires (not both at once, of course), I found more pretty trees during my runs:

The reservoir was looking particularly photogenic:

That time our family got together for Christmas at the Grand Canyon (or, how we PhotoShop):

Mom got us all kinds of treats to try, including a yummy shandy (as John is on his way to do more good things):

Mom hung a new birdfeeder at the window where we watched chickadees collect sunflower seeds:

More running in beautiful places:

Welcome to Mom's basement, excellent and efficient new water heater!  Mom continues to electrify her life, way to go!

She was sorting through some of our old school stuff.  I vividly remember getting these awards every year, and Dad would always ask - "responsible for what?"

We went on a really nice hike up Mount Philo - great scenery from the top:

And smiling faces - thank you Mom for an excellent visit!

We drove down to Albany to see some friends (and fly out from there), and happily this time the Star Trek Set Tour was open for business.  You know we had to spend some time there.

Piloting the shuttle into the shuttle bay for boarding the ship (I'm an engineer with many talents, at least in a make-believe world):

A training session in the transporter room:

Beam us down, Scotty:

Our tour guide even looked the part, as he shows us around sickbay:

Memorabilia from the original series:

Grinning all the way to the outside of my mask  :)

I can almost hear the voices from the original cast, talking and walking down the corridor:

We were given permission to (pretend to) climb one of the access tubes:

Engineering and the fantastic warp core:

And of course, the highlight - the bridge of the starship Enterprise!  I was pretty comfortable at the science station:

Captain, I'd advise getting some additional crew:

The ship deposited us in the gift shop after the tour:

Hey, a couple familiar faces from our last cruise:

Fabulous experience, highly recommend!

Overall that was a super fun trip, thank you Mom and Jenny and Jerry!