Pining for the Fjords

As I mentioned in the set of blogs about our camping trip a few months ago to Rose Canyon Lake, down near Tucson, living in the heat of the Phoenix summer can get old after awhile.  It's annoying but you can deal with it through June, July, and August.  However, once September rolls around, and your friends on Facebook in other parts of the country are suddenly wearing jeans and sweaters while it remains 105 in your backyard, you're ready to head somewhere else - - and fast. For our part, this meant booking a mid-September camping weekend in the Northern Arizona high country, at Ten-X Campground in the Kaibab National Forest, close to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  We visited Ten-X around this time last year, on our second-ever trip with Arlene , and we loved it; the campsites are huge and nicely spread out, and it was so, so quiet.  We'd test out that theory a bit on this trip, as we decided it was time to bring the girls with us! The only picture of the four of u

Before you read the last blog about PV, check out Part 4 ! Taking a selfie with the PV sign in the marina. We are not very good at selfies. Although our last day in Puerto Vallarta, a Thursday, wasn't a full day there, since our plane didn't leave until 3pm or so, we woke up with ample time to do some wandering and calmly pack our things before we were due to head to the airport.  By this point, I was pretty sure I was coming down with something moderately gross (not COVID - thanks, rapid test results!), so instead of doing a real run, we took a walk around the area, including through the marina itself. A gorgeous sunrise, courtesy of dissipating storm clouds Making friends in the marina When we'd gone for a run a few days earlier, we made note of another set of crocodile warning signs all around the marina, to match the set we saw each day on the beach at the Marriott . Chris posing with one of the warning signs What we didn't anticipate was actually seeing any crocodi

Need to catch up?  Here's Part 3 ! This was pretty standard at the Marriott -  we had a lot of space to ourselves. Our last full day in Puerto Vallarta dawned kind of overcast, with some light rain still hanging around from the prior evening.  I'd planned to do a short run, but I woke up not feeling the greatest, so we strolled along the beach instead: I'm in the water! Am I looking for teeny, tiny sea turtles? Undoubtedly ! Although we strolled along the beach, and swam in our pool, we never actually went in the ocean here, due to any number of reasons, some of which have been outlined on this sign. Pass, thanks. We continued our stroll straight to yet another buffet breakfast at La Estancia; today, I capped off my meal with a few fresh pastries and homemade hot chocolate, served in these cute mugs! A few days earlier, we'd made some spa appointments, but before we headed to those, there was one more important activity we needed to attend: being nasal swabbed for our