Grand Canyon - Day 2

 

    I guess we enjoyed the darkness of the Frontier cabin since we both slept until nearly 9:30AM.  After we got up and started moving, we went to the dining room to find out about breakfast.  Unfortunately, we missed the breakfast window, so we tried the coffee bar.  They closed at 10:00AM.  The deli was open, but they were switching from breakfast to lunch.  Jennie picked up a cinnamon roll and I picked up a slice of pizza.  The look on her face said it all.  I noticed in the picture that she was holding the fork in between certain fingers in a "Fork You" kind of way.

   

    After our improvised breakfast, we packed up our camera stuff, got into the car, and drove to some of the places in the North Rim.  Our first stop was Vista Encantada, a picnic spot along the way.  There were some nice views of the canyon from this spot.  We sat under a tree, taking in the scenery and cool breezes blowing in the wind.  We spent about 15 minutes under the tree.

    We got back in the car and kept on driving.  We made it to the parking lot where the Cape Royal trail starts.  We started walking the trail and came across the first view of Angels Window.  We grabbed some photos of the window, and continued walking out onto the the arch that extended over the canyon.  The views were stunning and made us feel like we were floating above the canyon.  According to online sources, Angels Window was formed over 300 million years ago.  The part we walked on was made up of a layer of rock called the Supai Group.  For comparison, the top layer of the Grand Canyon (the Kaibab Formation) was formed 270 million years ago, and the bottom layer where the Colorado River flows was formed 1.8 billion years ago.  The Supai Group is made out of a soft sandstone layer called the Redwall Limestone and a harder layer known as the Supai Formation.  Over hundreds of millions of years, the Redwall Limestone layer was eroded by wind and water.  Only the Supai Formation is left. Eventually, it will collapse.  Angel's Window was possible named when the first explorers of the Grand Canyon saw the arch and were in awe of its shape and the breathtaking views of the canyon.

    We ran into a couple from Nuremberg, Germany, who offered to take the picture of Jennie and I.  They were making a crazy tour of the West.  They had flown into Vegas, visited Bryce Canyon, Zion, and were going to hit Moab, Yellowstone and several other parks along the way.  

    We decided that it was going to be too far of a walk to get to Cape Royal, so we headed back to the car and drove back towards Point Imperial.  Imperial is linked to the Cape Royal highway by a bendy, side road, which climbs the narrow valley of upper BrightAngel Creek.  The surrounding forest was nearly destroyed from fires, but groves of Aspen Trees have started to spring up.  From the parking lot it was a short walk to the viewing point overlook which jets out over the canyon, with the land falling away on three sides.  From the viewing point we had a great view of the Echo and Vermillion Cliffs, the upper Colorado canyon and a flat plateau east of the Colorado River.  Point Imperial is the highest spot in the Grand Canyon at 8,803 feet.

    We got back into the car and drove back to the lodge.  Jennie stopped in the saloon and picked up a slice of pizza.  After pizza time, we grabbed a few cold beers, found a place on the patio and sat there for a couple of hours until it was time for dinner.  As usual, dinner was great.  Since our reservation coincided with sunset, the views from our table were incredible.  After dinner, we made our way back to the cabin and were out pretty fast.

Grand Canyon North Rim - Day 1

    About one month ago, Jennie and I planned to make a long weekend trip to Santa Fe, NM. We had the place picked out, and a general idea of what we wanted to do. Unfortunately, Jennie ended up with a serious infection which required a few ER visits and an overnight in the hospital. We decided to scrap that trip and do something a little closer to home. At first we thought about the White Mountains, but I thought it would be more fun to take Jennie to the Grand Canyon's North Rim. I first visited that location in 2017 on the way back from a trip to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Ryan and I spent all of 30 minutes looking around and were back on the way home.  I checked the lodging situation and found that the cabins were wide open.  I booked a Pioneer Cabin for us and we were off.

The drive North was uneventful.  We stopped in Flagstaff for a quick lunch at Oreganos and we were off for the remainder of the drive.  As we were approaching the Navajo Bridge near Marble Canyon, we spotted some wild horses in the desert with Vermillion Cliffs behind them.  We found a place to park and grabbed some photos of the horses.

    We drove a few more miles and stopped at the Navajo Bridge.  We walked out to the center of the bridge to grab a few pictures, and quickly made our way back to the visitors center.  It was 103 degrees when we got out of the car.  After a quick look at the gift shop items, we were back in the car until we stopped at the Cliff Dwellers location.  The name Cliff Dwellers makes you believe that Navajo members used to dwell in the cliffs.  However, the history behind the name comes from something completely different.  In the 1920's, Blanche Russell, a successful dancer with the Siegfried Follies was was traveling with her husband Bill.  Legend has it that they broke down near this location and liked it so much, they decided to stay.  We spent about ten minutes outside and got back in the car.

The rest of the trip consisted of the drive from Marble Canyon to the North Rim.  We parked the car, made a quick trip to a viewpoint and grabbed the key to our Frontier cabin.  Jennie is not the camping type, a was a little worried about this arrangement.  I decided to mess with her and told her that we do not have our own bathroom, but a shared one for the camp.  The look on her face was a mix of WTF, I'm leaving and many other emotions.  I let her off the hook and we found cabin 93.  After a look around the cabin, we grabbed our bags and unpacked.  This was a true cabin with no air conditioning and a few bugs making our way inside.

    We had dinner reservations for 8:15, so we headed over to the lodge to watch the sunset. While there was no dramatic clouds or sunset, you can't go wrong with the views from the North Rim.  We grabbed some cocktails and headed to dinner around 8:00.  They got us a table as soon as we checked in and we ordered a salad and trout, which we shared.  Both of the dishes were huge, and we ended up having food leftover despite two people sharing.  After dinner we rolled back to the cabin, where it was lights out around 10:00.  

    

The Year That Was - 2023

     I started entering daily items into a journaling app in July 2022.  I really wish I would have started doing this a long time ago.  As I am sitting at home, listening to music at an obscene volume level, and enjoying some cold Ballatore Spumante, I thought it would be fun to look back at 2023.  With that, let's take a quick peek backwards.

Travels

    We broke new ground in 2023. It was the first solo out of country trip for Emma, the first out of country trip for Charlotte and Amelia, and the first cruise for Jennie.  Our travels started in February with Jennie and Amelia making a visit to Flagstaff and Winslow.  They took that trip because Emma was on a trip to the Galapagos Islands at the same time with her high school.  In April, the 8th grade class had their trip to Flagstaff.  They visited Bearizona and a ropes course.  Jennie tried the ropes course, but decided to keep her priest company on the ground.  May brought a trip to Prescott for Jennie and Emma.  It was the first concert for Emma, and they picked a doozie.  It was an all day music fest, outside under the sun.  I'm sure if we had drug tested them, they would have tested positive from the contact high they received.  

    May brought another trip to the Coconino Forest for the girls.  They found a swimming hole in the forest that they wanted to go to.  It was touch and go for a while, as the road was terrible.  

    June took Jennie and Patrick to Seattle, WA to board the Discovery Princess.  This was a 7 day round trip cruise to Alaska with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, and Victoria, BC.  The excursions were the best.  We took a bus tour of Ketchian, a scenic cruise of Endicott Arm, caught a glimpse of the Dawes Glacier, flew in a helicopter with a landing on the Mendenhall Glacier, a train ride into the Yukon territory and a night visit to Buchart Gardens.  Most importantly, Jennie caught the cruise bug and was already planning her next adventure.  

    Late June found us breaking more new ground as all of us road tripped to Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico.  The girls idea of a beach was California.  Anyone who has visited the beach in California knows that the water is cold and murky.  Rocky Point offered 80 degree water, with a nice greenish-blue hue to it.  We enjoyed the beach, parasailed and took a sunset cruise.  Oh yeah, it was tequila shots on the cruise too.

    July found Charlotte taking a trip to Seattle, Washington to visit the national parks around Seattle on her 8th grade trip with her Dad.  In September, Ryan and Patrick road tripped to Las Vegas. Ryan paid to attend a conference for a card game he plays.  While he was attending the conference, Patrick took time to find some old favorite places from when he lived in Las Vegas from 1996-1999.  

    In October, Jennie and Patrick took a quick trip to Flagstaff and Williams to celebrate Patricks' 53rd birthday. October also had Patrick on a solo trip to St. Louis to close on a house that belonged to Theresa's parents.  When the husband died, he left no will and the estate was put into probate.  After nearly 1 year of rehabilitation on the property, October was the time it was finally sold.  It was good to see Mike and Angela Colley, as well as seeing Nebraska play in Champaign.

     The final adventure of the year was a trip to Rome, Italy for Jennie and Charlotte. They jetted off to Rome on Christmas night, and returned to Phoenix on January 2nd.  As part of the Pueri Cantores group, they were in Italy for a private audience with Pope Francis, and to sing at the January 1st, 2024 Mass in St. Peters.  Along the way they visited many churches, the catacombs, the Holy Stairs, and St. Peters Basilica.  

Home Improvements

    When we bought our house in 2017, we knew there were some things that needed to be addressed.  2023 seemed like a good time to knock some of those items off the list.  In March we had new windows installed throughout the house.  It was great to be able to open/close the windows, and to know that they are blocking out more heat and cold than the 20 year old ones they replaced.  Around that same time, we had a new roof installed on our back patio which had been leaking for some time.  It is a shingle roof and the desert sun tears it up.  The final big project was to put travertine tile on our pool deck to replace the old deck that was cracking, peeling and looking bad. There were some smaller projects we completed like new light fixtures for the dining room and entry way, a new shelf over the television and a blue planter box for Jennie's green thumb.

Work

    Because we did not win the billion dollar lottery, we still are getting out of bed on weekdays and dragging ourselves to work.  This year marked the 19th year for Patrick with the FBI, and the 9th year for Jennie at Annunciation Catholic school.  Patrick had three trials he testified in, 2 in Tucson and 1 in Phoenix.  The Phoenix trial was for distribution of child sex abuse material and marked a first in 19 years.  It was the first trial where a defendant took the stand to testify on their behalf.  Although, watching the testimony of that defendant, he would have been better to remain silent.  Because of this new wrinkle, Patrick had the experience of being called to rebut the defendant's testimony and also being called back a third time due to defense counsel convincing the judge he needed one more crack at the government's case.  The verdict was returned in 23 minutes which was the fastest verdict Patrick had ever had.  The other two trials were for the murder of an 8 year old girl in Tucson and the murder of a Deputy US Marshal in Tucson.  The trial for the 8 year old was a hung jury, while the US Marshal case was a guilty verdict.  The trial for the 8 year old is taking place again in 2024.  Patrick interviewed with American Express for a cyber role and was offered the job in November.  The salary, along with the pension from the FBI would have been a decent increase in pay.  After initially accepting the offer, he changed his mind.  With a long vacation planned in June with Ryan, as well as a healthy raise in salary due to a step increase & 5% increase, he decided to stay with the FBI.  He is retirement eligible in January 2024 and will likely stay until they kick him out in 2027 when he gets to be too old.  

    Jennie took on the added role of adult faith formation for her parish.  She taught some classes during the religious education year and was even talked into giving two talks to the adults of the parish.  She also took some photography jobs during the year, as well as picking up the director position in the summer for Camp Invention.   

    Ryan continued working at Kiwanis and took the imitative to pick up extra shifts during school breaks and summer break.  Emma picked up a side gig taking care of a student from ACS during after school periods and on breaks.  

Medical Issues

    We are a healthy family for the most part.  Ryan and Emma rarely get sick.  Charlotte and Amelia usually pick up a virus or two during the year, but nothing else.  The adults in the house are usually good to go, despite the nature of the work that we do and the people we come into contact with.  However, 2023 brought a serious health scare to our family.  After we returned from our cruise to Alaska, Patrick felt run down and out of it for about a week.  He was feeling so bad that he took a Covid test, which came back negative.  On the drive back from Rocky Point, Mexico, Jennie stopped in Gila Bend because she thought she might be having a heart attack.  Her arm hurt, her chest was tight and she was having trouble breathing.  Upon returning to Phoenix, she had a deep tissue massage which seemed to alleviate the symptoms.  Less than one week later the symptoms returned and sent her to visit the urgent care.  They did a chest X-ray and believed that she had a collapsed lung.  She went down the street to the Abrazo emergency room, where they ran a variety of tests and determined that she did not have a collapsed lung. Instead they found fluid around her heart (pericarditis) and transferred her via ambulance to the heart hospital. There was a unsettled feeling in the air when Fr. Chad King came to give Jennie the anointing of the sick.  However, her heart rate which was running in the mid to high 90's, came back down to the 70's while he was praying and anointing her.  

"O Lord our God, the Physician of our souls and bodies, look down upon thy Servant Jennifer and cure her of all infirmities of the flesh, if it be Your will, in the Name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, with Whom Thou art blessed, together with Thy Most Holy, Gracious, and Life-giving Spirit, always, now and forever, and unto ages of ages. Amen."

She spent nearly 4 days in the ICU and they ran so many tests to determine what was causing the pericarditis.  In the end, they attributed it to an unknown virus.  She was responding to the steroids and other medicine, so they sent her home to recover.  Two weeks later she was back in the hospital as the symptoms returned.  They determined that the heart was still inflamed and suggested that she visit with a rheumatologist.  They discharged her as there was nothing else they could do.

    Another two weeks later, we were back in the ER.  This time we went to the Mayo hospital and that turned out to be the smartest thing we did.  They kept her on a high dose steroid while they ran a battery of tests and waited for her to get an appointment with the recurrent pericarditis specialist at Mayo.  That visit took place in early November.  One thing we learned is that Mayo would not have put Jennie on steroids as a first line of treatment.  Clinical evidence suggests that this can lead to a high incidence of recurrence.  Because of the number of times she had recurring pericarditis, the doctor suggested that she take a weekly injection of a newly approved medicine called Arcalyst.  She said that they have had a near 100% success rate in getting patients off of steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs by using Arcalyst.  The downside to this is that they still are not sure how to get people off of Arcalyst.  There seems to be a recurring return of pericarditis in about 40% of the people who taper off the drug.  We made the decision to go on Arcalyst and it has worked as advertised.  In early December she started reducing the steroids and anti-inflamatory drugs and everything is going well.  

Kids

    Ryan started his senior year at Gateway Academy and maintains a 4.0 GPA.  In the fall he applied to Northern Arizona University and was accepted with a full tuition scholarship for the fall of 2024.  He plans to attend NAU and study computers.  As mentioned above, Ryan works at Kiwanis and has benefited greatly from this experience.  He gets to deal with the general public, the good, the bad and the really bad.  It has helped take him out of his shell.  He has a full social calendar with his friends, and is doing great.

    Emma turned 16 in 2023 and was quickly tasked with driving herself to school.  We found a Hyundai Kona for her.  She pays for 1/2 of the car and insurance with her job.  After our renter moved out of the Casita this summer, we made the decision to move Emma to the casita and give the younger girls their own rooms.  It was done to maintain some level of peace in the household as three girls sharing one bathroom, and two teen girls sharing one room had pushed us to the breaking point.  In the fall she visited NAU and that might be a possibility for her in 2025.

    Charlotte graduated from ACS in May and started high school at Notre Dame Prep in August.  She received the Christian service award and the St. Thomas Aquinas scholarship.  She and Emma drive to school together.  That arrangement started off kind of rocky, but it is all good now.  In her free time she is working towards her Eagle Scout rank and has recently taken up horse back riding lessons.

    Amelia is the only kid left at her mom's school.  She entered 7th grade in August and they are starting to think about where she will spent her high school years.  Once we moved Emma out to the casita, Amelia has become a wanna be interior decorator for room.  She picked out her new furniture and convinced us to paint the room a different color.  To hear it from her, she was hoodwinked into accepting the blue paint that we put in the room in 2018.  With her gone to her Dad's while Jennie was in Rome, I was able to paint it back to a color that ironically was close to what it was when we bought the house.

A Look Ahead To 2024    

    2024 promises to bring more adventures, challenges and changes to our family.  We are going to have one less kid in the house come August 2024 with Ryan moving to Flagstaff to start college at NAU.  Jennie and the girls are going on a Carnival cruise in June, while Patrick and Ryan are going on an Alaskan cruise to celebrate his high school graduation. Jennie is going with some staff from her parish church to Indianapolis in July for the National Eucharistic Congress.  We don't have any home improvement projects on the agenda as we need to digest the ones we already took on.  Let's hope there are no unexpected ones.  Patrick has three trials scheduled for 2024, with a few more pending.  Jennie is already planning on the Camp Invention program for the summer.  We still have to figure out how this medical issue is going to play out when we hit the 1 year mark and start discussing come off of the medicine.  In addition, my good friend and former Pastor, Fr. Robert Rankin, has serious health issues that he is dealing with, and 2024 will likely see changes for him and the parish of St. Melany in Tucson.  With all of the changes and uncertainty that faces our family, we take comfort in the words of the Theotokos to Juan Diego:

    "Listen and understand, my littlest son, let nothing frighten and afflict you or trouble your heart.  Am I not here, I, who am your mother?  Are you not under my shadow?  Am I not your health?  Are you not by chance held in my mantle?"

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!