Time for a winter vacation

[ABV]

Two things I learned while on vacation:

1. It's warm in Arizona.

2. It's cold in Minnesota.

Ok, so I learned more than that, but those two stand out the most. I had an awesome time. I climbed Camelback mountain in Phoenix. We went to the south mountain and did a little hiking there too, but you drive most of the way to the top though, so it doesn't really count. I went to the Tonto natural bridge which is just amazing to walk through. We went through Sedona, which has some awesome views. Jerome, which is near Sedona, was kind of cool to see with all of the mining history.

I also saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. I could try and describe it and show you pictures, but neither would do it justice. We hiked a little there too, but it was getting late and we wanted to get Vegas at a decent time so we left. Vegas was pretty cool too. We got a hotel off the strip, which was pretty decent for only $50. It was cool to see everything in person. We went to the top of the stratosphere, but I didn't go on any of the rides.

All in all it was a pretty good trip. If I make a habit of going out there in the winter, I would definitely cut out a lot of the stuff we saw though. It was great to see everything, but it would have been a lot better to spend more time at each spot. I feel like we got to a spot, snapped a few pics and took off again. 1700 miles is way to much to be putting on a rental car for a one week vacation, especially if yout add on a 3 hr plane ride each way. Speaking of rental cars, Dodge Chargers with the 2.7 V6 and an automatic are gutless. At least it was quiet and reasonably comfortable though.

I have to say it kind of sucked getting off the plane in 15 deg weather, but my girlfriend suprised me by meeting me at work (where my truck was parked for the week). That made it much easier to come back home.

I took a ton of pictures too. I'll pick out a few of the choice ones and post them up here when I get a chance.