Ghost town near Jerome

The sun was still up high when we left Sedona, so we decided to make a quick stop in Jerome.  This time a year the town was full of tourists, so we drove right past all of them, all of the small shops and attractions, all of the art galleries and we stopped at the end of the road at the ghost town.  

There we saw junk, rust, gears, chickens, goats and a donkey.

Sedona

I have done a lot of traveling this year, and it's only two months in.  The photos below are from a day trip we took about a couple of weeks ago in Sedona and a quick stop in Jerome.  Sedona is about 2hrs from Phoenix, and then you can make a loop following Hwy 89, stop in Jerome and wind back down to the valley.

These trips are good, the fill me in with experiences, ideas, feelings and sometime that is what I need to keep on going.  

We stopped at Slide Rock State Park and explored.

These marks were on a rock, a sort of stepping rock and the markings were on the vertical wall.  They looked interesting so I took a picture of it.

And then I noticed several wood trunks where the bark was gone and all that was left were these markings that bugs had made.  A sort of designer bugs.

These greenish/gray marks on rock are lichen.  I really love the grunge like look.

Before we left the sun was high up and was illuminating these weeds that probably otherwise I would  have not noticed.

I will catch you up to our quick stop in Jerome on my next post.  I am quite a bit behind I know.  And I have a trip coming up tomorrow.  Hawaii!!  Yes, I know....I will be even more behind.

It was a day off from work for me today and after dropping the kids off at school, David and I went for a bike ride on one of the many bike trails our city has to offer. 

From the trail...

a greenbelt.

,

A solar farm.

A water canal.

We had to cross railroad tracks to continue the trail.

And then we were in downtown Gilbert, the neighboring city.

So we took a break downtown.

And then we headed back.

Time to return to work

My two weeks vacation is coming to an end.  Back to my job tomorrow.  It seems that I was off more than two weeks.  It was time well spent, time off to recoup, regroup, to not have to worry about having to be at any place at a particular time.  I did some crafting, I went to NYC with my husband and kids, I drove to Prescott, AZ with my husband and visited some galleries and co-ops, I got a volunteer job to teach refugee women to sew, I took my kids to Halloween parties, I did not sleep in, as I wanted to make the most of my days, I helped my dad search for a job, I watered my plants with no rush, I enjoyed my time off without feeling guilty spending it without a particular plan.  It felt great.
Here are a couple of pictures of the pine forest near Prescott.


I tried to practice some collaging.  It's new to me, I picked up a book at the library and got inspired to work on some house shaped collages. 


And some smaller ATC size ones too.  I hand stitched this time, fabric on paper.

It's October

Finally the season that gives us a reason to live in this desert.....nice and cool with 80F (26C) during the day, and probably 60F (15C) overnight.
I have been really really busy, mostly with work.  The kids have been home on fall break.  We live in a school district with year around school, so frequent breaks are common. 
Also my dad moved here from Nebraska, so he is with us for some time.  Lots of little changes to my normal routines.
Here are some pictures from a little outing we did a couple of weeks ago to Canyon Lake, east of town by the Superstition Mountains.