Heading To Baja Sometime Next Week

Shadow and I are heading to Baja next week to get a little surfing in.  It seens like the past two months that the surf conditions have been poor with 1 to 2 foot surf which is not good to say the least.  We have had some 3 to 4 foot days but they have been few and far between.  Need to go somewhere where  the waves have some height and form.

I'm looking to plan a trip in the next few weeks to either the Point in San Quintin on the Pacific side to do some major surfing or go over to the Gulf of California side to do some fishing at Bahia de Los Angles.  It all sounds good to me!  The Point at San Quintin is a great place for both surfing and fishing.  The Point is really hard to get to as you have to fourwheel it along the beach at low tide and then climb a 200 foot sand mountain.  Believe me when I say it is not an easy trip to make it out to the good surfing spots.  I'll put somemore pictures up on a new post of the area in a day or two.

Tumacacori Mission in Southern Arizona

Tumacacore Mission was established in 1691 by Father Kino making it the oldest Jesuit mission site in southern Arizona.  The mission was established at an existing native O'odham settlement on the east side of the Santa Cruz River.  After the Pima rebellion of 1751, the mission was moved to the present site on the west side of the Santa Cruz river.  By 1848, the mission was abandoned due to the lack of people living in the area.

The black& white photo was taken about 1924 in front of the old mission.  In the photograph are may great grandparents Emil and Emma Wagner from Ft Recovery, OH.  Also in the photo is Edith Wagner Hegemeyer my grandmother, my father Paul Hegemeyer and my aunt Betty Hegemeyer Williams.  The Hegemeyer family were living in Nogales, Arizona which is on the Mexico border.  My grandfather Art Hegemeyer owned a battery shop at the time serving the copper mines in the area.

These images can be purchased at the smugmug site.         http://travelswithshadow.smugmug.com

Mission San Xavier del Bac Panoramic Images

I'm still working at photographing Mission San Xavier from different perspectives.  The weather is cooling down some in Tucson which makes it a little easier to be out shooting in the later afternoon.  Looking to make a trip down to Mission Tumacacori to make some additional shots.  All of the images on this blog are for sale at http://travelswithshadow.smugmug.com.  If you can't find a particular image give me a call (520) 907-1556.

Mission San Xavier del Bac

Mission San Xavier del Bac is located about ten miles south of Tucson, Arizona.  The area was first visited by Father Kino in 1692 and a mission building was started about 1700 but never finished.  The present mission was started in 1783 and finished in 1783.  It was built to serve the Tohono O'odham nation which was part of Mexico at the time.  The images are all of the outside of the mission so when I get the time I'll head back and photograph the interior which is beautifully restored within the last few years.  Hope you enjoy the images.

Leaving The Grand Canyon

We left the South Rim of the Grand Canyon from the east gate and took Rt 180 to Flagstaff.  We caught some heavy rain on the way down or I should say up as the road climbs to over 8000 feet.  Their was on break in the rain so I stopped to take these few images as the light was just incredible.  I had decided to go thru Sedona on our way back to Tucson.  We made it to Oak Creek just north of Sedona and camped along the creek.  The next day it was still raining so Shadow thought it would be a good idea to make it down to Tucson where it might be a little dryer.  I was a great trip and met many interesting people.  Just doing what I love.

Grand Canyon 2nd & 3rd Days

I really enjoyed meeting people from all over the world and what they had to say about the US.  One family I met from Queensland, Australia flew into Los Angles last March and bought an RV to do a walk-about.  He met his wife when he was a teacher in Vietnam and they now have a 5 year old boy.  It was very interesting to learn about life there so many years after the war.  One of the things he wanted to talk about was he didn't understand why the US government spends some much money on defense.  He questions why his country follows the US lead in these wars for the last several years.  Being a teacher he thinks the US would be way a head in the world if we would have spent that money on education.  I couldn't disagree with him so we moved on to other subjects.  That little family will head back to Los Angles in December, sell their RV and fly back to Queensland for Christmas.

I talked to another guy and his wife from Belgium.  They bought an RV a couple of years ago and come over here a couple of times a year.  He has his own business so he can afford it.  He said Europe is so crowed everywhere you go and here in the US it is so vast with wide open spaces.  They love it as do I.