Mini-Trips in Spring 2006

Mountain Biking at Lake Powell
In March 2006, we took a very memorable mountain-biking trip to the Lake Powell area. This was our first mountain biking trip together, and we immediately vowed to do many more. Unfortunately, our ancient bikes weren't so willing, and we had all manner of breakages during the ride...including a flat at the FARTHEST point on the trail. Ooog!

With bikes out of commission, we spent the rest of the weekend enjoying beautiful Lake Powell (top left), then hiking around Nevada's Valley of Fire State Park (right and bottom):

Southern Arizona Weekend with my parents
In mid-April my parents came for a visit. We were eager to show them a great time so we headed to Southern Arizona to take in the sites. We visited a cave, a state historic park, and did lots of eating out! We also toured Tumacacori National Historical Park to see the well preserved ruins of the Franciscan church built there in the early 1800s...

...and the nearby mission of San Xavier del Bac--"the White Dove of the Desert." This is the best preserved mission church in the United States, and stepping into this 200 year old church is like stepping back in time.

Best stop on the trip, however, was a visit to "the Biosphere." I've included the full text of the journal so that you can read about this totally unique, very interesting place that seems straight out of a Sci-Fi movie.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument
At the beginning of May we spent a long weekend outdoors exploring the enormous Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. I've included the full text from the journals here...because, truthfully, I am feeling a bit done with this little project for now so I'm taking the easy route. :)

Our Big Trip to Hong Kong and Macau

In February 2006, Warren and I went on a big trip to Hong Kong!  It was fanastic!!!!  I made a journal of our trip to print out as a keepsake.  I am posting those pages here. I realize the text probably won't be legible, but you could perhaps see the pictures. :)

Fall and Winter 2005 Trips

More Zion National Park
You can never tire of a place as magical as Zion National Park, so to celebrate my birthday we headed to Zion yet again. Best part was the slot canyoneering.

Watson Lake
Okay, this really wasn't a trip because Watson Lake is in Prescott (where we were living at the time), but we went there so many evenings that I had to include a few photographs. So pretty.

Thanksgiving Trip
In November, we spent Thanksgiving in Tucson (where Warren had a photoshoot), then headed over to California to spend a few days with my brother's family and parents (who were there visiting.) While in California, we spent one afternoon kayaking in the Newport Back Bay and had fantastically close encounters with all manner of birdlife.

Christmas Break
For the Christmas/New Years holiday, we headed up to Utah to my parents, stopping in en route at Bryce National Park.

After a few days at my parents, we headed through the snowy Uinta mountains over to Dinosaur National Monument to see real, actual dinosaur bones still intact in the dirt (very cool!).

After a few hikes at Dinosaur NM, we spent two days at Canyonlands National Park, hiking in the Island of the Sky area one day (above) and the Needles area the next (below).

We actually went off trail on the return portion of the Needles hike. If it weren't for Warren's supurb backcountry skills, we would surely have had to spend a night in the wilderness--sans tent, jackets, food, etc... It was actually a pretty scary experience, and I'll admit this: I wasn't terribly brave!

Our last stop before ending the two week vacation was to check out the 2,000 year old petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument.