Warren's Surprise Trip to NYC!

For our anniversary, Warren surprised me with a 5 day trip to New York City! What a romantic. :)

We stayed at the stylish Moderne Hotel, saw the hilarious Broadway Show "Spamalot", and ate dinner at the top of the Rainbow Room. Warren made all the arrangements ahead of time and managed to keep it a secret until the week before. 

While there, we (characteristically) walked a lot, exploring the streets and sites of the city...

...and indulged in some of the more 'touristy' activities like touring the UN (very interesting) and visiting the Museum of Modern Art:

We had a blast spending time with Betsy's aunt Ardith (who lives in New York City). Together we explored the Park Slope area and had long conversations over delicious New York food.

On our last day in the city, we strolled around Central Park, and then renewed our commitment to each other for another year amongst the beautiful flowers and shady trees.

It was a perfect trip!

The Big Island of Hawaii!

In February 2005, Warren and I went to the Big Island of Hawaii. We spent the first three days exploring at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park...

...where we were lucky enough to catch an active lava flow--all the way into the ocean! Of course, getting to the site required traversing an ankle-wrecking field of hardened lava.

Then we headed over to the other side of the island to meet up with friends Josh and Amy, where we spent four more beautiful days. We kayaked out to a snorkeling spot one day...

...and snorkeled with giant sea turtles and other colorful sea life on another day.

We also visited the observatory at Mauna Kea (Warren, Josh and Amy even went twice!)...

...and visited other parts of the island like South Point, Lapahoehoe Point, and the Waipi'o Valley:

Beautiful trip! 

Fall 2004 Activities

Texas is BIG
In early September we DROVE to San Marcos, Texas, and learned firsthand just how enormous Texas truly is! Warren had an air-to-air photo shoot with a P49 and a P48-- vintage airplanes that he planned to use for the 2004 Prescott Air Show Poster. It was a bit of a rushed trip, but enjoyable nonetheless, especially since it was my first time in Texas.

October Trip to California
The next month, we took a long weekend trip to California to visit my brother's family, catch my niece (Sarah) and nephew (Nate) play soccer, and take my nephew to the big Miramar Air Show. Nate ended up liking it, but also found it to be a bit too loud. I agree.)

On the way back we spent a day in Anza Borrega State Park, hiking a small slot canyon and enjoying the desert landscape.

Prescott's first snow of the season
Although this wasn't a 'trip' per se, below are some pictures of a hike we went on after the first snows of the season in Prescott (where we were living at the time):

Thanksgiving in Utah
And, we spent Thanksgiving at my parents...which was always a good opportunity for outdoor activities in beautiful Utah.

Utah's High Uinta Mountains

In the summer of 2004, Warren and I went on a weekend trip in the High Uintas with my parents. Here are some photos:

Ahhh....Alaska!

In July of 2004, Warren had some photo shoots in Alaska, so we made a vacation out of it. Wow...Alaska is so beautiful. We did a lot of driving and a lot of hiking in the week that we were there, and were continually speechless by the beauty of the landscape.

Landing on the roof of the continent
The highlight of the trip was definitely our scenic flight over Denali National Park to catch a close up of Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. It was a bit expensive, but we decided to go ahead and splurge since it was our last day in Alaska. Below are some images from the flight.

 To top it off...our airplane was ski-equipped so we had the once in a lifetime experience of landing on a glacier! It was amazing to stand among the great peaks; the immense scale was astounding!

Big Southeast Trip

In the late spring of 2004, Warren and I headed to the southeastern part of the United States. Warren had some photo shoots for a client, and I tagged along. :)  Maybe someday I will add more pictures and write journal entries (probably not), but for now, here's a little:

Louisiana

 New Orleans, Louisiana

Beautiful Savannah, Georgia

 

Georgia's Okefenokee swamp

 
Florida's Apalachicola National Forest

Snorkeling with the Manatees in Florida

 

Additional Florida collages to be loaded soon---St Augustine, Ponce Inlet, and Clearwater area.

And lastly, here's some paparazzi photos I took of Warren while walking along Daytona Beach, Florida (including him showing me how to correctly hold the camera...ha ha).

Spring Trip on the Plateau

During the spring of 2004, we had to go to Colorado for work so we packed in a lot of adventures on the way there and back.  Don't have many pictures to show for this trip...just lots of great memories. :)

The Little Painted Desert (AZ)

 Quaint little towns in the Colorado Rockies 

Mesa Verde National Monument (CO) -- photo to come


Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (CO)

El Moro National Park (NM)

Washington Adventures

In January 2004, Warren and I headed to Seattle, where Warren had a photo shoot. After business was all taken care of...

we spent time with Warren's friend Martha, traveled with her to a coastal town in Southern Washington to see her boyfriend play give a cello concert (at a B&B right on the coast...beautiful).

Then, we headed up the coast for a visit Olympic National Park's Hoh Rain Forest...

...as well as Olympic's coastal beaches, which we had virtually to ourselves.

Fall and Thanksgiving in Southern Arizona

In October 2003, Warren and I spent a weekend hiking in Tucson, including hiking in Saguaro National Park, popping down to Mexico for a day of shopping, and visiting all our usual haunts in town.  (We went to Tucson a lot when we lived in Arizona!)

Then, since we had so much fun on the previous trip to Tucson, we headed there for our five day Thanksgiving break in 2003. We hiked in Chiricahua National Monument...

visited the gimicky old West town of Tombstone and the old mining town of Bisbee (shown below), and several other spots along the way.

Four Corners Get-away

In October 2003, Warren and I spent a long weekend exploring the Four Corners area, spending a day hiking Monument Valley...

...a day hiking in Natural Bridges National Monument and nearby Butler Wash...

 

 ...and a day hiking the rim of Canyon de Chelly, home of centuries old cliff dwellings.

 En route between Natural Bridges and Canyon de Chelly, we checked out Valley of the Gods State Park, a 'little Monument Valley.' Anywhere else in the world this would be a major attraction, but such are the riches of the Four Corners area that here it is merely a BLM-administered area.

Northern Arizona Adventures

In September 2003, Warren and I spent yet another weekend in Flagstaff, hiking from Locket Meadow to "the Inner Basin"--the inside of the ancient San Francisco volcano (which came to a fiery end millions of years ago.)  Flagstaff is so beautiful -- a perfect hiking destination.

We also checked out Petrified Forest National Park --  home to a collection of broken, fossilized logs dating from the Triassic Period (225 m.y.a.) It's an interesting place to visit, but not necessarily a place to visit twice (unless you are a nice guy like Warren, and your wife hasn't been there yet).

Long Weekend in Wisconsin, Michigan, and then some

In the summer of 2003, Warren's father was flying his new (self-built!) airplane to Wisconsin to attend the Osh Kosh Air Show, so Warren and I hitched a ride and spent five days exploring Wisconsin and Michigan (...and actually a bit of Minnesota too, since while in northern Wisconsin, we absolutely could NOT find a hotel with vacancies, and ended up driving hours into the neighboring state of Minnesota before finally finding 'room at the inn' at 2am!)

These first few pictures are (1) Warren and his dad at the controls of the airplane, and (2) a very air-sick me, post vomiting, cherishing a few moments on solid ground while Tom refueled. I usually didn't get air sick, but flying over the Rockies on a hot day in a little airplane was just too much for me.

We both absolutely loved the lush landscape, especially on our hike out to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (MI)...

...and our kayaking trip to the Apostle Island sea caves (Apostle Island National Lakeshore, WI).