Had a full week of travel, first to Orlando on Thursday and Friday with a return to Phoenix for a meeting on Saturday with a flight back to Albuquerque on Sunday evening. Through it all Priceline came through, and this time in Phoenix, Mr. Schatner delivered all that he could.
Sometime last year my wife and I had commented that the grandson would begin to think that his Pappa and Nanna lived in giant houses with huge pools and had parties on the weekend where lots of people got invited. Well, the Hyatt Gainey Ranch is one of those weekend houses that has one thing that we have not encountered anywhere else in Phoenix, it has a sand beach that slopes down into the main pool.
Turns out that my daughter had told the grandson that he could go to “Pappa’s Beach on Saturday, but didn’t really say anything to us about it before we got there. So Friday evening when we drove up the little guy ran out yelling “I’m going to Pappa’s beach.”
That’s what it’s all about – such a smile – we broke out laughing.
Turns out that they were able to spend days at the beach.
Nanna got cuddle time, as usual.
After a week of rest my back was healed enough to take on the water slide. I can’t wait till the boy is tall enough to go down with me.
He does however, love the hot tub – and we took in a few moments together at the tub.
I sang to him “I love you” while I took the photos – and he sang it right back.
Saturday, February 26, 2011 Posted in Skiing
The day started out sunny and bright, but the forecast did call for some mountain cloud. I had been afraid that the warm air from earlier in the week had wrecked the snow in Santa Fe but during the week they picked up about 8 to 10 inches of new snow.
Saturday I just had to check it out. I stopped just at the edge of the ragged cloud – about a thousand feet down from the summit where it was snowing. I didn’t really get the shot I wanted but at least I have a solitary reminder. In the middle of the photo you can see the sunny valley that is between Santa Fe and Espanola, some 5,000 feet below.
As the afternoon progressed the entire mountain became a snow magnet and we picked up another couple of inches in several hours. I actually broke some of my skiing rules – those that say skiing in the white cloud, on a white hill during a whiteout – is not the brightest thing – because you really can’t see the changes in the slope right in front of you.
But the challenging conditions kept me on the mountain until, sure enough, down I went in a pretty significant fall on this very run. It’s called parachute and it’s one of the groomed black diamond runs that really is quite steep. I knocked the wind out of myself and then decided that it was time to head on down to 10,000 Waves and the hot tub and sauna. I knew that my back was going to be sore for some time to come.
It turned out that it was only 10 minutes before quitting time anyway.
The hot tub was all that it could be.
You wouldn’t hardly know it was winter this weekend – highs in the 60’s, warm breezes. I decided to take short hike on the back side of the mountain, looking of all things, for a single tree in the middle of the forest.
We didn’t find the tree but on the way back into town we decided it was time to stop and try a local bar that is well known for it’s music. Molly’s has bands there 4 or 5 nights a week, but closes at 9pm. If you want to dance, be sure to get there early.
I’m going back.
I thought about trying to climb the mountain on Sunday, but didn’t buy microspikes yet. I wasn’t in the mood to try and push through iced over snow drifts so I went back to find the tree.
So there it is – one individual tree that has a split trunk and all. Don’t ask me how I know this, but this singular tree had it’s gestation back in 1678 – or thereabouts. Lady Godiva rode around town naked to protest taxes that spring.
Granddaughter meets grandma this week – 4 days of working in Phoenix gave the two of them plenty of bonding time.
Here you have it – proof positive – well if you can get the meta data – that I do get up from time to time to see and photograph a sunrise. As rare as it is, occasionally I will step out onto a snow covered balcony and fire away with whatever camera is at hand.
Here is the panorama of three images.
The full size panorama can be found here.
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