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! 

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? 

It's Not Technically Summer...

The first official day of Summer is June 21st, which isn't too far away... but Arizona doesn't know that. In the valley of the sun, it's either summer or almost summer. Though it's been fairly mild compared to last year at this time, it's still been hanging out in the 100°-108°F which doesn't exactly scream let's all go outside and play. 

On top of all of that, this wave of training I have a part-time training class and work 12:30p-8:15p which has totally messed up my whole sleeping schedule! I do enjoy sleeping in, but it's still got my all jarbled up on when I should be sleeping and when I should be awake, hats off to those third shift workers of the world, I don't know how you do it! 

More on top of that even, I have been should have been studying for an insurance exam I signed up for as part of my continuing education for my job. Me and school... I'm what you would call procrastinator. I crammed for it last minute and had my test yesterday and by some miracle I passed! I'm very glad too, it's an expensive test if you have to retake it. 

I have been checking in on a friend's house while they are on vacation, I'm trying not to kill their plants, and taking care of their cats. Bonus is they have a pool! Which in this heat I have been taking full advantage of! I've decided my house MUST have a pool, what a great treat after a long day of not studying! 

A.Drama is coming to visit in a few weeks and we have lots of fun things planned, plenty of blog worthiness coming your way soon! Hope you all are keeping cool and enjoying the almost summertime! 

On The Last Day of Sumner

As summer fades to an end, NiBo and I made the best of the last day of summer. He usually never has a Saturday off but for a change today he did and we had to do something fun in honor of that, and the last day of summer. So we went to Chicago! 

On our way to our Museum destination we took a stroll through Grant Park and checked out the Buckingham Fountain.

Our last Chicago adventure included the Art Museum, this time we opted to check out the Field Museum. Neither of us had been up to the museum for many many years. We went with the VIP ticket which got us into a 3D Movie about the T-Rex dinosaur Sue on display and access to a few other exhibits which weren't as cool.

My favorite part of the museum was definitely the fossils, fossils of any kind, but mostly the dinosaurs, because well dinosaurs are awesome.

The last time we went to Chicago we tried to go to the Skydeck but didn't feel like waiting in line for hours, so we called it a day. This time was different, we didn't have to be home so soon to get ready for Monday, so we decided no matter what we'd wait. When we got to Willis Tower they said it would be a two hour wait, blah, ok we'll wait.

They queued you up in a couple spots so at least you felt like you were moving. Most of the people in line were from foreign countries, even as Illinoians we took the tourist destination bait and waited and waited in line. While we waited they had slide show pictures of Chicago views on the TV monitors, we found it funny and odd that people were cramming to take pictures of the pictures. Wouldn't you rather go out into the city and actually see them? How do you explain that, " well why I was waiting in line I took some pictures of the pictures of Chicago" Also we learned that people do not know proper line etiquette, which can be annoying, but is just par for the course I suppose.

Once we got to the top, which only ended up being about an hour wait, the views were worth it! And the glass boxes that stick out the side of the 103rd floor were pretty cool too! 

 Happy last day of summer! Hope you got to live it up too!