A Week in Pictures

Sonja's sister, Sue, came for a five-day visit this past week. Unfortunately, I had to work the entire time she was here, so I didn't get to go exploring with the two of them. Even so, we all had a great time together in the evenings after a long day of hiking and driving around by Sonja and Sue. We watched a couple movies, sat around and chatted, and even played a game of Scrabble, during which I scored the highest point total for a single word I've ever gotten (87 points). That was my highlight of the week (ok, not really. But I'm pretty proud of it, considering the word I scored those points with was "slimey").

Anyway, since I wasn't along most of the time I can't really add much to these photos. I guess they'll have to speak for themselves, mostly.

Ok, this 5 foot bull snake wasn't actually from Sue's visit. I took this the day before she arrived at the Castle. I just haven't had a chance to post it, yet, so here it is. The rest of these pictures were taken by Sonja and Sue during their adventures.

We did actually see a snake while Sue was here. This is a tiny western diamondback rattler that was crossing the road just down from our house. It was kinda dark out, so the picture quality wasn't that great. This was Sue's first rattlesnake!

Sonja and Sue's first adventure was to hike the Broken Arrow Trail outside of Sedona.

The century plants were still in bloom.

Next, they explored the Verde Valley, including a visit to Tuzigoot National Monument. I think it was a little on the windy side that day.

Sonja took Sue over to a llama farm to help with some llama-sitting chores, too.

I don't even want to guess what the llama on the left is thinking. At least the sheep looks appreciative of the effort Sonja and Sue put into feeding them.

Their next adventure took them up to Flagstaff and Walnut Canyon National Monument.

Sue at Sunset Crater National Monument, just north of Flagstaff, standing amongst the Aa lava.

And yesterday, they both spent several hours in the car to get to one of the most recognizable natural landmarks on the planet, the Grand Canyon. Here's Sue at Mather Point.

This was Sonja's second time visiting the "Big Ditch", and she was very excited to report having seen her first "crap-load" of condors (I think that's the official classification for a group of condors). Some of her pictures came out really good, too, so I turned them into a fun little montage. It's not often you get to look down at a soaring California Condor.

So, that's the last week in the life of the Olligs and a Fogarty. I'd have added all sorts of random links to this post, but my creative juices don't seem to be flowing tonight.