A few of my favorites from the trip…

Here’s a couple of shots we thought we’d share from our AZ trip.  They were taken with our Rolleicord, medium-format camera.

Long live film!

Doesn’t the Element look awesome with the bikes on back!  It was a long drive, and both times we accomplished it within 36 hours.

Scottsdale was a little colder then usual, but we really didn’t mind.  This was the beginning of February, also known as the time that the huge blizzard swept across the United States!  So, we were pretty happy about our current destination.

We hit up as many local peaks as we could.  The trails were amazing! and all very unique.

We got our bouldering on in Echo Canyon.  This topped my list of things we did while in AZ!

We brought both road and mountain bikes.  Equal fun on both, but only took pictures while we were on the trails.

Hole in the Rock.

Grease Wood Flats!  Amazing country bar, with all that you’d expect from a old, ran-down, rural, hang-out.  Delicious burgers, good beer, live music, crazy decorations, dirt grounds and being in charge of your own fire; this place was definitely one of our favorites.

The Warn’s visited while we were out there!  We had a great time hanging out with them and their beautiful son, Brendan (our God-Son).  My favorite part of this photo are the crumbs on Barry’s back from Brendan’s snacks.

I didn’t feel like I’d get the real Arizona adventure experience unless I got to see what a Jumping Cholla felt like.  Not bad, but I didn’t push it in too hard.  I’m sure it would have been worse if I really put some pressure on it.  Can’t just pull these things off with your hands; you have to use two stones in a sandwich-like pull.

Joshua trees (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss trees) were all along the route to Las Vegas.  Our location made it an easy choice to attend the biggest photography convention in the US.  Viva Las Vegas!!!

Hoover Dam.

Heading back home!

Many more photos and details to come on our trip with Jennifer’s post (details are kinda her thing!).

Thanks for visiting!

Sorry that it’s been a while since our last post.  Our “off-season” is coming to an end, and we really needed to get in a little R&R.  But we’re back now, and ready blow this blog up.  We’ll have to start with our trip to the Keys.  We made quite the adventure out of our vacation by stopping often along the way as we drove close to 3000 miles.  Luckily, we had some family we were able to visit along the way.

“Ellie” was an amazing “trip-car.”  We had her packed up pretty tight.

Our mainstay was in the town of Tavernier on Islamorada Key.  We used the VRBO site and found this beautiful place to stay… right on the bayside.

Yup, that’s the hot tub to the place.  Not a bad view while soaking with your coffee in the morning.

Jen and I had a quest to find the perfect sunset while we were down there.

This was one of the best parts to our trip…the owners of our rental had a canoe.  It was amazing rowing through the ocean…and it ended up to be quite an adventure.  Here, we found a mangrove tunnel.

Hilarious, some local kids built a fort in the middle of it.  A pretty good fort at that!

We ran into some amazing wildlife.  Like a Great White Heron.

Long story.  But yes, those are toilet seats!

These next shots recap the highlight of our canoe trip.  Jennifer spotted something popping out of the water about 100 yards away… so we went to investigate.  And look what we found… Manatees!  They were huge.  We heard that there were about 5 that lived close by, but weren’t sure if we’d get to see one.  Jen has an amazing video that we’ll have to share a little later.

To top it off, we jumped in for a little snorkeling.

Gosh, my little girl is beautiful.

We made a day trip down to the colorful,beautiful Key West!  (the next three were taken with our point-and-shoot)

The southern-most tip of the United States!

We stopped in at Everglades National Park, just to walk a few trails.  We both wished we had more time to stay here.  You can actually camp on the beach there.  Oh well, looks like we need to go back now.

Here’s some of the amazing wildlife along the trails.

There were a lot of gators!

We stopped off at the famous “Robert is Here” fruit stand in Homestead.

And one last stop before we slowly made our way home…

AIRBOAT RIDE!!!  This was amazing.  That’s our two-seater below.  It was funny, because both Jen and I couldn’t remember the last time that we sat back for a half an hour and just grinned from ear to ear.

And I got drive for a little stretch.  I think the guide was really working his tip!

Much more to come.  And I promise, this time you won’t have to wait so long.

Have a great day!

We may have already mentioned on facebook about our little adventure to Atlanta!  We were there last Monday when Northern Georgia was having that massive flooding.  No, we didn’t get stuck in any fast moving water, but we did have to drive through the crazy strong rain the night before.  Luckily, everywhere that we needed to go was above water.  However, our mountain biking plans in Chattanooga were ruined.  You can really tear up a trail by going when it’s wet.  So, we did the responsible thing and stuck to the streets and walk ways of Chattanooga.  What a blessing in disguise.  If not for the rain we wouldn’t have seen quite as much of the beautiful town.  Everywhere was accessible by walking or biking.  There were so many local shops and eateries.  You could tell just how much the arts meant to this town.  So instead of camping on the wet ground, we decided to stay in town at a bed and breakfast on the bluff just east of downtown.  It was our first B&B experience, and we loved it!  I believe Chattanooga was made for people like me.  So if one day I’m no where to be found, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start looking there!

This is the old railroad bridge that they turned into a walking/biking bridge.  It was the easiest and best way to get to the north shore.  That was where most of the local shops were.

Our B&B.  There were several restaurants located right around the house.  We ate at the Italian restaurant right behind, and the food/service was AMAZING!

This is the patio to the little coffee/pastries shop right next door.  Instead of us all eating together in the morning, they gave us a voucher for breakfast here… also very delicious!

One of our favorite parts of Chattanooga was how easy every thing was to access.  This was a trial that ran at least 7 miles along the South shore.

I’m really looking forward to our next visit.  Not only do we have a date with the mountain biking trails there, but we didn’t have time to visit their Aquarium (something they’re known for) either.  Looks like we already need to start planning!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!