Hurricanes on the house!

Someone's going to be standing here this time tomorrow night.

--Rob

(Standing, Rob? I'm not sure I'll be able to stand by the end of the evening. :-) --Diane)

Ruff stuff

Someone's very fierce doggie on Miami Beach during our vacation last summer.

--Rob

What do they do, exactly?

We saw this sign as we pulled into a parking area in the Everglades last June. Fortunately, we did not suffer any vehicular damage.

This time of year you are probably getting a bit more snow than this. Diane shot this photo of a snowman Nick made in El Paso, Texas, when we were there in 2004 for the Sun Bowl football game for my job.

Happy Holidays!

--Rob

One of the first things that struck me about Las Vegas, on my first trip there back in the 1990s, was the garish carpeting in all the casinos.

Apparently, I'm not the only one to have wondered about this. In fact, David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has devoted significant time to studying the psychological impact of this floor covering, as seen here: http://www.dieiscast.com/gallery/carpet-essay/

Anyway, I decided to do a little photoessay of my own, the last time we were in Vegas:

Silence at the springs

I enjoy traveling with my family so much that sometimes I forget how much I also love traveling alone. It’s such a decadent treat.

Lately I’ve been craving silence and solitude in a huge way. The way I craved liverwurst when I was pregnant. (I know, right?) So I hopped into my car and headed up into the Tonto National Forest near the Mogollon Rim. In an hour and a half, I can go from beige desert spiked with saguaro cacti to lush pine forests.

Rim country is amazing. The Mogollon (pronounced “mo-guh-yon”) Rim is an escarpment (a big word for a big cliff) that stretches across the state of Arizona. The land at the bottom of the rim is about 4,000-5,000 feet, and it rises in an instant to about 7,000 feet. It’s an understatement to say that the views of the Rim and from the Rim are spectacular.


There is a hike just outside of Payson called Horton Springs Trail. At the top of the trail (about 3.5 miles with a 1,000-foot climb) there is a spring that feeds Horton Creek. I have hiked along this trail many times, but never, over the course of about 16 years, reached the springs. This was due to various reasons—weather, young child in tow, whatever. I decided that this weekend I would finish the hike already and see the springs.

Take a hike with me...

Today is officially "lazy day." Nick and I had a late morning swim in the ocean, and have spent the afternoon playing games and reading. I'm considering a nap before we head down the beach again when the sun's not so strong.

Our beach is not crowded at all. There were maybe 4 or 5 people there in the late morning.

Tomorrow we are planning to head down to the Keys. There will be snorkeling on Key Largo, and then we will head down to catch the sunset on Key West. We'll spend the night there and take our time coming back up here the following day. Rob got a new underwater camera for the trip, so I'm hoping we can get some great shots from our snorkeling trip!

--Diane

Miami Beach day 1

I am lying in bed in a room that overlooks Miami Beach. Life is good.

We spent most of today traveling. We left Phoenix at 8 this morning and flew first to Austin. On the flight, I pondered the irony of traveling from a hot desert to a hot tropical region, but having to bring a sweatshirt just to survive the freezing cold airplane. We flew Southwest because we got a good deal, but we did shell out an extra $60 ($10 per person per flight) to get the early-bird check-in. We didn't want to risk not getting seats together.

In Austin we had lunch at the exact same BBQ place (The Salt Lick) where I ate with Conrad on the way back from the URMA conference last year.

From Austin we flew into Ft. Lauderdale, picked up our rental car, and drove down to the condo we are renting. I've heard some horror stories about condo rentals, but Rob had a good gut feeling about this landlady and he was not led astray. This place is beautiful--two bedrooms, two baths, full kitchen, and right smack dab on the beach. After getting into the apartment and wolfing down some KFC we picked up on the way in, we raced down to the beach to get in our first swim before dark. The water was warm and the sunset lit up the sky in fiery orange.

Bliss.

We went out tonight to get groceries for the week. Sadly, the Publix doesn't carry hard alcohol and the liquor store was closed for the night. Luckily, a former guest at our condo left about half a bottle of tequila in the freezer, so Rob can still have margaritas tonight. I'm sure Coronas will be enough for me. Despite it only being 8 p.m. our time, I'm exhuasted.

We lugged our groceries up to the 8th floor in a bellhop cart that was sitting by the elevator in the garage. I'm so glad we didn't have to make multiple trips, although I did lose the rock-paper-scissors contest to see who had to bring it back downstairs.


Tomorrow morning I think I'll jump in the ocean again while my coffee brews.

--Diane (photos, of course, by Rob)

U.S. proposing new regulations on airlines

The Obama administration is proposing new rules for airlines that would require them to pay customers more for being bumped, be more transparent about baggage fees, and limit the amount of time planes can sit on the tarmac before returning passengers to the terminal.

Read more here.

These don't really address most of my biggest beefs with flying, but it's nice to know the government is at least trying to make the experience more pleasant for the consumer.