Bridgey Speaks

This past weekend was the last of five trips since the middle of June. Some were big trips (Boston, Arizona), and the others were small weekends away. This past weekend we went to Berkeley Spring to camp for one night — just Dave, Leela, and me — and to spend the rest of the weekend with Cindy and Matt (and celebrate Cindy’s birthday) and Kristan, Steve, and Violet. This was our first meeting with Violet, and she is a heart breaker. She is a super-cute, sweet, happy baby. Kristan and Steve make it all look easy, and I do believe with Violet, it IS easy. It’s at least easiER than for some folks. She was a delight to snuggle, make laugh, and just watch.

It was also a ton of fun to catch up with friends. I have been lucky to be able to do a lot of that in the last year or two, and it has felt really good. It’s never enough time with people you care about, but I’m still grateful for it. It was also so wonderful to see my friends in such happy places in their lives!

This weekend came quickly on the heels of a visit from my sister, niece, and nephew, who managed to sneak in a visit between my trip to Arizona and the Berkeley Springs weekend. They were here for an all-to-brief two and a half days, but it was also wonderful. We took the kids to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to see the new, very cool dinosaur exhibit, and we spent a day at Sandcastle, the water park here in Pittsburgh. Tuesday turned out to be a perfect day to hit Sandcastle, as we didn’t have to wait in line at all and just rode water slides until we were completely exhausted. The rest of the weekend we spent relaxing and catching up. The kids and my sister are great!

Now I’m settling back in the house and giving the kitties some attention before I gear up for things to return to “normal” again tomorrow — whatever that means.

Day two in Arizona consisted of only conference-related activities and dinner, so I have no stories or photos to share. On day three, we were able to visit the Desert Botanical Gardens. This is definitely not Phipps, but it was cool in a completely different way. It’s all outside, and mostly consists of cacti and other desert plans. Surprised? Of course not. It also had amazing views! We didn’t have a lot of time there, and it was seriously hot–106 degrees! I also didn’t have my camera for the entire trip, so all photos are from my iPhone. Not bad, considering. You can see photos of the Desert Botanical Gardens starting here.

The last day in Arizona only included one final conference session, so we were able to drive up to Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon. It was all so beautiful, and we saw multiple terrains over the two hour drive. On the way to Sedona we stopped at Montezuma’s Castle. It was very cool to see and learn about the dwelling Native Americans had built into the side of the mountain.

Then we finally arrived in Sedona, had lunch, saw the views, and visited the little shops. See the photos below:

Entering Sedona
Shopping Sign
Leaving Sedona
Leaving Sedona 2

After leaving Sedona we headed to Oak Creek Canyon and were treated to amazing views. We traveled from about 1,000 feet in altitude, where the temperature was 106 to about 6,000 feet at Oak Creek Canyon, where were treated to the fabulously dry 81. The dry heat makes a difference for sure, as long as you stay under 90 degrees. After that, I believe one of my traveling companions said it best, “Yeah, well an oven is also dry heat, but it still cooks your pizza.”

On an unrelated side note, I’m healing quite well from the poison ivy now that I’m on my third dose of prednisone. The oozing and much of the itchy has stopped. I’m much more comfortable and oh-so-grateful to my dermatologist and her very kind staff!

Well, I’m currently battling several nasty reactions to some poison something — ivy, oak, sumac. Who knows and who cares. I didn’t see any of the suspicious plants, so I don’t know which I came in contact with. I only know that it is no picnic, and this is likely not a bad case by most accounts. Anyway, while I wait for the drying stuff to dry on this and a couple of other spots, I figured I’d post of pix of my trip thus far.

It’s my first full day in Arizona for a conference. I learned a lot in the first two workshops, so that’s good. I didn’t get to do a lot of sight seeing because I was at the conference. Days 2 and 3 are likely to be the same. We get out a little early on Wednesday, so there’s hope I’ll get to see some stuff. Thursday afternoon, the plan is to go to Sedona.

While the conference is good, it is freezing inside the conference center. I literally drank a cup of hot tea outside in the 99 degree heat to warm up. I did so next to this thing in a cute little courtyard area.

A few colleagues and I did get to see the Dreamy Draw Recreation Area. I did not make that up. It’s weird that everything is really flat, and then on one side of the resort these mountains just rise up out of nothing. It’s also weird that were are at a “resort” that is neither out in the middle of nowhere nor in a city. It’s just in the middle of suburbia. I’ll have to wait until I see more to know for sure, but it seems that Phoenix is just a sprawling suburbia. Other pix of Dreamy Draw:

Little Cactus
Big Cactus
Walkway into Mountains
Mountain View
Mountains and Sky
Mountains, Sky, Sunset

Tonight we ate at a Mexican place called Carlos O’Brien’s. It seemed appropriate, and the food was very good. It took a long time to get it, but it was very tasty. So was the margarita! (Also check out the logo.)

Well, with some girlfriends I finally finished watching the Sex and the City series and got to see the movie in the theater. I won’t give anything away because I was so grateful to manage to take this long to finish the series without any spoilers! Now I can finally read the book Dave gave me for Christmas. YAY!

What I will say is that I thoroughly enjoyed both the series and the movie. I love the characters and the stories and how I could relate to them. I think not only is the writing fabulous, but the characters themselves are lovable and enjoyable because they are human. They don’t always do what we want them to do or what they should do. When they make mistakes or act childish or foolish, I can understand, even if I want better for them.

This weekend was also the 4th of July holiday. We celebrated Dave’s grandmother’s 90th birthday! She looks amazing for 90 — in fact, she looks amazing for 80! And she’s still sharp. She hasn’t seen me in months, but she knew who I was and always has a funny comment for you.

Leela got to play with her sister, Bella, from the litter after hers. It was amazing to me how much Bella looks like their mom, Bambi. I thought Leela looked a lot like her, but compared with Bella, it is clear how much Leela actually looks like her dad as well. After two days of getting to play with her sister, Leela is STILL tired. It’s an immense effort for her to switch spots on her dog bed. She didn’t so much as acknowledge either of the cats.

The cats, for their part, were thrilled to see us after a long weekend away. Mojo followed us around while Maia was very snuggly at bedtime.

I can’t believe we are already into week two of July. Three of our five trips over June and July are complete. I will be headed to Arizona for a conference next week, and we will top off the month with a visit to Berkeley Springs to see Kristan and Cindy, and their crews. Whew!