When the Valley Gets Hot, Go North!

Last weekend Tulip and I had it with the heat here in the valley, so we decided to head North for some new scenery and cooler breezes.

We were going to go to Sedona and see the beautiful red rocks but took at look at their temperatures and decided that wasn't a cool enough escape from the 110+° so we looked farther north to Flagstaff and were much more content with those temps. I haven't seen two digit numbers for a high for a couple months now! It was definitely a nice reprieve from the heat.

Flagstaff Visitor Center:

Chapel of the Holy Dove: 

Red Mountain:

Driving through Coconino National Forest:

Inner Basin Trail: 

The drive up the mountain, rain in the distance

BEARS?!

It was too late in the day to attempt this whole trail, we only hiked in for about 20 minutes, but it was so beautiful and peaceful. Can't wait to go back! 

Howard the Travel Troll

This is Howard. Howard is a Travel Troll. You may not have heard of traveling trolls, but they exist! Howard is quite the little travel troll. He's been to Germany, Disneyland and everywhere in between. Howard usually resides here in Arizona with me but sometimes he likes to go on trips with other friends.

Howard is currently visiting Paris, France this week and will head to London in a couple days, quite the life he lives! Howard is on Instagram if you'd like to follow his adventures you can find him with the username: HowardsTravels to follow along with his trips! 

Do you have a travel troll at your house? Howard loves to hear about other traveling troll adventures, send your pictures and stories to him at howardstravels@gmail.com and maybe you'll be featured on his instagram! 

Yeah... Sure.. We'll go with that

Energy Saving Mode (ESM) has been in full effect here at North of 10th. The hot weather is a perfect time to go into ESM. This weekend I have been so incredibly hot that it's just gross. It's a constant battle between do I want to be hot and sweaty or spend money on my summer electric bill and just make my humble abode an ice castle. I usually land somewhere in the middle.

My brother ever so eloquently pointed out that I have neglected my blog for at least a whole month. Yeah yeah.... I could say to him, that he hasn't send me any exciting NiBo Hawaiian adventures for me to share with you either, so ha! 

Have any of you just been so incredibly bored that you start thinking of ridiculous things to do? My current ridiculous thought is going back to school, for a for-me-degree. I graduated six years ago with my Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration. It was one of those, this is what I should do decisions. It makes sense, Bachelor's in Science is nice. Then when you are 2.5 years in and doing imaginary number math up to your eyeballs you have that thought that maybe this isn't what you want to be doing. I've always said I wanted to be a teacher and with my current job at the insurance company as a trainer, I can start to actually see that I'm kind of good at it. On top of that I love learning things, I'm good at researching the crap out of things on even just life purchases like a car, add to that a little bit of fun, like say history and I'm hooked. I casually browsed Arizona State University's online programs, and it just so happens they have both Bachelor's and Master's online degrees for History. Hmmm. My ideal job in life would be a historian, ideally working at some grand Museum sharing the stories of the past with others.

Some of the pros: 
- It's all online so I wouldn't have to quit my job 
- I'd be in no hurry to finish, so I could take one class here and there as my wallet allows

Cons: 
- Is a for-me-degree really worth it in the longrun? 
- what if I never do anything with it, was it a waste? 

What will come of this? Who knows, I have a tendency to work myself up about these things, then just slowly back away. Just ask anyone in my family. I don't know though, we shall see. Would be cool to eventually get more degrees and be Dr. 'North of 10th' and maybe I could add some archeology in there too just like Dr. Jones and go all Raiders of the Lost Ark on life... could be cool right?