Hot, Hot, Hot!

Wow. I am really horrible at updating this...I apologize.

We have been somewhat busy with life recently. T is working really hard and trying to finish all this oral board stuff, but there is a certain large boat that keeps getting in the way. He did come home today more excited than usual about going to Japan. He was able to chat with someone who went this past January and he found out that we could spend some time in Beijing. Now that excites me, because I have always wanted to go to China.

So what's with the "hot, hot, hot?" We spent the fourth of July weekend in Arizona!! And it was definitely MUCH hotter than our little corner of the NW. We left Thursday after T came home from work and flew from Seat.tle to Phoe.nix. We had to drive 1.5 hours to the Wo.rl.dma.rk condos in Tucson and we didn't there until probably midnight or later. We did notice how the area is very dark at night. As in, there are no streetlamps and the houses have little to no outside lights. Evidently the area is surrounded by observatories and the city has put several restrictions in place to prevent light pollution. Needless to say that when you have NO IDEA where you're going and it looks like you're in the middle of a residential neighborhood, where you should be approaching a large condominium complex, you start to lose faith in the trusty Ga.rmin. :-)

The next morning we woke up BRIGHT and EARLY to go to the Son.ora Dese.rt Museum. Thankfully we were there early enough to avoid the blazing noon/afternoon sun, but we all got pretty sweaty anyway. The museum is split into different sections, so we saw the different landscapes of Ar.izona, as well as a variety of animals. Probably the only animal I had never seen before was the Javalina. It looks like a very hairy hog, but they are pretty popular in Ariz.ona.
T.W. with a cactus

A Javalina under the bridge - Can you spot it???

P & L at the visitor's area

Following our desert excursion, we headed down to Tu.bac with T's grandparents. There is a cute little shopping area and the town is literally next door to Me.xico. We even went through a border patrol barricade before going back to their house in Tuc.son. Evidently "ille.gal e.ntrants" are pretty common.

The Desert Landscape/Sunset

That night we had dinner in Tu.cson and finished the evening at a casino in the area. I managed to walk away with a $6.84 profit (as long as you disregard the first $20...that was practice)! Luckily, the casino had a VERY large fireworks display that night. We decided to leave before traffic got bad, thinking the finale was happening, when in actuality, we watched the real finale from the street in front of T's grandparent's house.
The craziest thing though was the show nature was putting on; neither T or I had seen so much lightning in our lives. It was amazing, especially with no thunder to be heard. On the way back to the condo that evening, we got stuck in a bit of a monsoon. We barely made it home and when we did get there, the weather channel let us know that there were severe flash flood warnings in the area.

Me and my winnings!

The next day was spent at the pool and BBQing at the condo. T and I had to leave in the mid-afternoon to drive back to Pho.enix and catch a flight home that evening. The flight was great! We had an exit row to ourselves and spent the last half-hour watching fireworks from the window.

Celebrating the 4th in style!

With T's grandpa

The entire group (minus T's grandma who couldn't come to the BBQ)

Overall a great trip!!