Armed and dangerous

For those of you who usually carry a handgun with you when you go to the bathroom, here's a tip: you can't do that at the Navajo National Monument. It says so right on the bathroom door.

I'm guessing that also applies to knives, hand grenades, machetes, knitting needles, more than 3 ounces of liquid, and shoes with soles. But it didn't say so.

I'd just use my best judgment if I were you.

Prodigal Hat

My hat ran away from home three times yesterday, at three different places. I thought it was snug in my backpack. But apparently it wasn't.

Is it just going through a phase? Does it really want to be on it's own? Or is it a homing hat, grateful to be returned by the three kind strangers who knew the blue knit cap went with the girl in the green down jacket?

There's probably only one way to find out. I'll just leave it out in the open tonight and see if it's still there in the morning.

Wordless

You need a thesaurus to describe what we've seen in the past few days. This place eats up adjectives faster than a cat has fleas (my girls will know what that means :). Breathtaking, glorious, magnificent, beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, awe-inspiring, moving, uplifting, radiant with color. Bitchin.

If people are a disappointment to God, he can still feel pretty darn good about nature, especially Rainbow Bridge and the canyons of Lake Powell.

Note to God: stay away from the city. This is where you did your best work.

Marching to Zion....

The song is right. It's really 'beautiful, beautiful Zion'. But I'm not sure it's the "beautiful City of God."

His summer home, maybe. But I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to live there all the time.

Why? Because, like Yosemite, and many other National Parks, it is just too crowded - so crowded with people, shuttle buses, boy scouts on Easter break, and Asian and European tourists, that you forget it's one of the truly magnificent places on earth. It feels like the Multiplex on a Saturday night, and who wants to go there anymore?

When we got there yesterday, it was cloudy and cold. Few people were there, lulling us into believing that our plan to travel during school vacation time was an ok decision. When we were in The Narrows, it started to hail. Intrepid hikers continued into the canyon. So did we. Most people were smiling. It seemed cool somehow to be out there in this glorious rock canyon land, undaunted by the weather. The light for photos wasn't the best, but who cared? You could see everything through your own eyes and that was enough.

Today, however, the sun came out and so did hundreds of people. Disneyland on a weekend, the Mall the day after Thanksgiving, America on vacation.

So we saw a few things, hiked a few hikes, and left. So did God, I think. Tomorrow I'll tell you where he went.

Red Rock City

Day One:

We saw a petrified log in the Valley of Fire State Park (Nevada).

It didn't look that scared to me.