Paul and Denise where hanging out with Luke after lunch Sunday. This is also an excuse to test the new Android WordPress application.

Hung out with all the babies the Friday after St. Patrick’s Day and gave the new 35mm f/1.8 a workout. Low light and no flash meant I was shooting wide open at high ISOs. Got some good shots, but I needed more light to bring the shutter speed up which would have increased the number of keepers.

My favorite is Luke sticking his tongue out.

After that we headed down the 89 into Prescott for some more Cracker Barrel goodness and worked our way back down to the 10. I didn’t look at the route too closely on Google Maps before we left, but we went through several mountain ranges which provided some nice driving in the RSX. That’s about it. I posted a more complete gallery at my new Picasa Web Album so check that out too.

The plan for today was to head up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and see as many sites as possible on the way there. Heading up into Sedona there were nice views of the red rocks.

Had breakfast at the Wildflower Bread Company in Sedona and stopped off at the Church of the Holy Cross.

Continued the drive up 89A to Flagstaff and stopped for some shots of the canyon.

Bypassed Flagstaff and continued up the 89. Took a detour through the Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments. Snow on the ground at the crater and crazy winds at one of the ruins.

Back on 89, stopped in Cameron before heading over to the east Grand Canyon entrance. There’s really nothing out there except for the Cameron Trading Post and its little restaurant. We got frybread which was absolutely scrumptious with a little honey.

Headed over to the east Grand Canyon entrance and went up in the Watchtower for our first peek at the result of millions of years of work.

I was confused by these signs, the guy looks like he’s saying “Alright cliff slide!”

We worked our way along the rim and stopped at the different lookouts before heading back down towards Flagstaff from the west entrance. We had planned to do a little spelunking in a lava tube, but it got dark too fast and there were several inches of snow on the ground in that area. Headed back down to Sedona for some vegetarian dinner at D’lish and called it a night.

Hung out a little longer than we had planned so we had an early dinner at Cracker Barrel. Shared some good old chicken and dumplings before hitting the road again.

It was dark by the time we left Pheonix so we couldn’t really see the storm moving in over Northern Arizona. We were heading up the 17 and got a nice view of the electrical storm before the hail started. Checked into our Priceline’d room at the Hilton resort in Oak Creek. I’ve never been in a hotel room with so many doors.

So Day 1 we drove out on the 10 and made a stop in Papago Park to check out the Hole in the Rock. Walked around a bit and then headed to the hotel to check in. Priceline’d a nice 3-star Courtyard by Marriott in Chandler. Mike and Danielle were doing a movie in the park outreach that night so we stopped by and then visited at their place. Went back to the hotel and slept in possibly the most comfortable bed ever.

• 2 SKSs
• 2 AR-15s
• 2 Ruger 10/22
• my Savage Mark II bolt-action rifle
• 2 black powder rifles
• 30-30 lever action
• .45LC lever action
• 3 shotguns
• 3 S&W .357s
• Glock in .40S&W
• Ruger in .45ACP
• Springfield XD in .45?
• .45LC revolver
• black powder revolver
• and Jason’s sweet little Colt .22

Fun was had by all and we burned through most of our ammo. I shot everything except the black powder guns, but stuck to my .22 and .357 for most of the day. Probably shot 400-500 rounds of .22 and 100-150 of .357 and .38 special.

A .22 pistol is high on my list right now and I still want a Marlin 1894C lever action rifle in .357. I know I sound like a gun nut, but those are the only other guns I want except maybe a shotgun and a 1911. Pics of all the shooting fun is up in the gallery:

Burro Canyon Shooting