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My little sister straightened my hair for the wedding. Earlier she was wearing around one of my T-shirts, even though I’m the one who has been living out of a backpack for two weeks. At least she asked.
To be fair, because height is a point of contention in my family, I am wearing heels in that photo. My sister is actually a teensy bit taller than me. Sigh.
Much of the family is here in Las Vegas for my cousin’s wedding – but it’s not really a Vegas wedding, as I’ve gotten used to saying, because he’s from Las Vegas. It’s the first wedding I’ve ever attended.
It’s been a humbling joy to receive so much hospitality from so many friends these past two weeks as I bummed around. It was a different kind of joy altogether to wrap myself in a clean hotel towel.
Ben and I looked for a quintessential Flagstaff view without actually putting any effort into it. I thought this seemed pretty accurate, walking toward the touristy downtown from south of the tracks. But Ben is right that a proper view of Flagstaff requires the peaks, so here’s another taken farther south from Ben’s balcony in the squalor part of town between downtown and campus.
Pack light, wear sturdy shoes, eat what you want, carry a tiny spoon.
( The other half of this lunch was a bag of carrots.)
The weather still wasn’t fully cooperating, but Ben and I drove partially up one of the local mountains to the Snow Bowl area anyway. It’s a great view, though my camera doesn’t capture the sky well when clouds are dispersing the light all over. Probably it’s more my fault than the camera’s. Something else to learn.
I’m staying in Flagstaff a few days, and today Ben and I drove the familiar switchbacks down to Sedona. It’s one of my favorite stretched of road – at the Pullman antique store that no longer exists I found an old copy of Arizona Highways magazine featuring that narrow, cliff-edge road in a vertical two-page spread, and it’s the kind of thing I imagine I might frame someday. I no longer have to clench my jaw in fear around the hairpin turns, but it still feels like a road to die on.
Clouds have been sulking through the area the whole time I’ve been here, periodically dropping handfuls of rain or splitting for a few minutes of sunshine. Who would have guessed I’d see more sun in Aberdeen than Flagstaff? I suppose it’s always a good reminder for those of us who plan too much.
It seemed I’ve lived in Washington long enough that I ought to see the state Capitol in Olympia. Christina and her sister were kind enough to accompany me Saturday afternoon to see the place. The grounds were nice, with flowers blooming various shades of pink.
It’s been a while since I went out to see all the creatures at the Watts family farm, and I was lucky enough to be there when the blooming camus turns the fields light blue. I pretended to be helpful while Christina gave water to the horses and food to the emus and goats.
I’m pretty confident Christina and I could successfully backpack through Europe. It couldn’t be that different from our nomadic jaunt around Seattle, just with less terrifying traffic. Between the two of us we make a competent driver who can’t parallel park.
In trying to catch up on a little blogging, I’m probably going to be lazy and post mostly photos.
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