Grand Canyon Trip

Shadow & I spent several rainy days at the Grand Canyon and had a great time.  The fee for getting into the National Park is $25 bucks but with an old guys pass we got in for $0, zip, nada - just got to love that.  We were at the South Rim and all the camp sites were full so we headed to the east end of the park and found lots of sites.  It rained the whole time we were there and the canyon was in heavy cloud cover so you couldn't see a thing.  We waited for breaks in the rain and cloud cover to get several great images.  99% of the people never got to see the canyon during those days as they were way to impatient to wait it out.  It seem to me that 85% of the visitors were from other countries with the vast majority from Germany and France, the economy must be good there.  Bus load after bus load of tourist would come to the different overlooks we were at and sometimes they would see parts of the canyon and most of the time not.

Shadow was a big hit with the tourist as everyone wanted to pet her and talk to her.  A lot of people had pets at home somewhere in the world.  People took pictures of her constantly and one lady from France did a video of her.  She spent more time with Shadow rather than looking at the canyon.  I guess people have priorities of their own.  Being the center of attraction wore Shadow out by the end of the day and all she wanted was her dinner and her bed, lights out for her.

We met some great people and enjoyed talking to them.  Met three different groups that flew to the US to go to Burning Man which had just ended a few days before.  One group from Australia rented an RV and were continuing to tour the western US.  The two other groups from France and Germany rented cars and bought camping gear when they arrived.  Really nice people and they said they were having a wonderful time.  They said Burning Man had 61,000 people this year.  We also met a group of 30 to 35 bikers from mostly Germany and the surrounding countries riding Harlies.  Seems some outfit in Las Vegas rents them bikes and takes them on tours with a chase van no less, what a country.

I'll post some photos with this blog and will try to get some more up on Friday.  Hope you enjoy the images half as much as we enjoyed taking the trip.  Shadow is home with the rest of the pack and catching up with her sleep.

Tucson Barrio Project Beginning

The Barrios in Tucson started around the El Presidio Historic District.  Tucson has several barrios which include Barrio Historico, Barrio Hollywood and several others.  If you want more information on these Barrios you can Google for information and you will find several sites.

All of the old buildings were made of adobe and had very thick walls with high ceilings to survive the summer heat.  Most of the old adobes were built in the 1870's and 1880's.  Several survive to this day as homes, businesses and some close to downtown are now used as law offices.  Different business grew up as services that were required at the time.  The Chinese had small grocery stores in the area.  Credit for families was a way of life in doing business.

I am going to make this a continuing project over the next couple of years.  The barrios a very colorful and the building styles are quite varied.  I have a personal history in the barrios which will come out as the project moves along.

Back From K38 In Baja, Mexico

Shadow and I spent the week in Baja visiting friends and eating great food.  The surf was way down in size but several friends came down from San Diego and north county.  Most of the sets were knee high but got a little better at high tide.  This past weekend was the Baja Blues Fest at the Roserito Hotel.  Some great music, food and met a lot of friends that I hadn't seen for a couple of months.

Shot a couple of pictures around K38.  The image of Charlies is the outside eating area and the food is always great as the family does all the cooking.  They have another Charlies up at Popotla which is the fishing village just a few kilometers north of us.  Speaking of Popotla it is a fun place to be on Sundays at high tide.  From the pictures you can see that the place is really hopping with food and drinks.  You can buy any kind of seafood that you can think of.  High tide is very interesting as people really don't pay much attention until it is almost to late to get their car off the beach and out of harms way.  You can see one photo of a boy holding a small child behind two cars that are floating away, it's the lower right of the image.  The cars were literally floating into the bay.  The kids were able to get out of the water with help and all the cars made it out also.  Just another fine day in Mexico, you got to love it.  It's going to rain so I'm heading back to Tucson.

Back To Baja & K38

It's good to be back in Baja except that the waves are flat, about knee high which doesn't make for very good surfing.  On the way over I came across one of those signs naming a person or organization for keeping the roadsides clean.  Guess who it was?  Yes it was Jerry Garcia of the Dead, the music plays on.

The desert is still way to hot and you can imagine how great the cool sea breeze feels.  The wind has picked up this afternoon with mucho white caps so the standup paddle board is not going to make it out in the water today.  Shadow is having a great time playing with her toys and chasing balls upstairs.

Around The Tucson Barrio

I spent a couple of days photographing one of the old Barrios in Tucson.  Lots of interesting homes that are well over a hundred and thirty years old.   Some of them go even further back in time to the old Persideo.  These homes are all made of hand formed adobe with very thick walls to keep the building cool during the hot summers.  To keep the buildings cool all the windows were opened at night to invite cool air in.  Early in the morning the windows and shutters would be closed to trap the cool air inside.   In the early days most of the floors were of dirt and later in time wooden floors were added.  Dried horse manuer was used to insulate the ceilings.  Being dried in the hot desert sun it contained no moisture and didn't smell at all unless the roof leaked.  This comes from experience as I had friends who lived in these places.  During the really hot periods of the summer people would sleep on the roof of their home.

Next week Shadow and I are off to Baja for a good week or more.  We are both looking forward to the cool sea breese.  The surf has been flat for the past week or more and it looks like that will continue for another ten days.  Also the red tide is all over the area so the surface fishing won't be good at all.  So their is always kayaking and taking out the standup paddle board out to the kelp beds to do some bottom fishing.  It's really tough but somebody has to do it.

Visitors Around The House In Tucson

We have lots of birds around the house all year around and some of them migrate winter and summer.  The last three years we've had hummingbirds nest and raise their babies.  It is really something to see as they are so small.  Last year the a hummingbird mother was feed her two babies when a Kestrel, type of hawk came close the the nest.  The little mother was darting in and out in front of the hawk and in one swift move the hawk ate her.  It was that quick.  Susan located a hummingbird group that raised the two little ones.  Another next this year is making progress with out problems.

We also have an abundance of Whitewing Doves and Quail.  One of the doves is nesting in one of the cholla in the yard.  And this morning a small snake was in the pool so it had to be saved and moved to the garden area.  I didn't fill up the pool this year as I've been gone to much to use it.  Before the summer rains came the dogs love to play ball in the empty pool.

Desert Near Tucson

I was out and about looking for some place out in the desert to do some timelaps photography and came across this spot.  Really a beautiful location but not sure if it will work for the timelaps idea.  Check out
http://travelswithshadow.smugmug.com the images that canbe ordered.