Yeah, you wish you lived here. At least now. In August, not so much.

Here are Nick Bambakidis' kids, Eva and Peter, loaded into a bike wagon.

Over Easter weekend, I was a character assistant at a church Egg Hunt and Easter Carnival. This was my boss. Wasn't too demanding, all things considered. Just had to bring Diet Cokes and keep the papparazzi back.

Saturday night we went to a Mexican place for dinner. They have a big concrete donkey out front. I don't know why either, but I took a poor quality group shot!

Sunday morning we went up Piestewa Peak, which is a bit higher than the buttes! Here's Terry at the top. My Pic of Kevin had my thumb in the way, but he took some shots with a much better camera while he was up there. Hey Kevin, send me those pics!

Suck it, Edmond Hillary!

We also went climbing up the Papago buttes.

Terry, looking rugged and dramatic. Behold his majesty.

It was some uphill hiking toward the end. This is Kevin in the funny hat. His fiance Amber is standing behind him, and Terry's wife Kim is sitting down.

Eventually, the trail ended.

We had problems finding the vortex. No miracle healing. We think it was in this forest clearing where there were about two dozen piles of stacked stones. This was the tallest one.

Another shot from the trail. That's a resort poking though the trees. I've heard they've got topless Yoga there...

I hadn't been to Sedona in probably more than a decade. It's a beautiful place. We went hiking looking for one of the mythic vortexs. This is a red rock bluff along the trail.

Terry and Kevin came out to visit March 16-21. They first went up to Sedona, where I drove up on Friday to visit them. This is a small shot from the parking lot of their hotel.

A better shot of Papago Park from one of the buttes we climbed. I can walk to this park from my house.

This is Ben, a doctor I met out here. We go running together, and he sometimes foolishly follows me when I decide to climb up the buttes in Papago park. Why do I know so many doctors?

Ophelia, at dusk. A rare quiet moment for her.

Random cat photo time! Fear the DEVIL KITTY!

All the hills in this one area were this sort of lichen-covered rock. Quite strange. Looked like another planet.

This was right after we ate lunch.

Yep, we have water in Arizona. Lots of stream-hopping in the last third of the trail. Wet shoes abounded.

The trail was about 5.8 miles, a hike that took about 4 hours to do.

Pretty green, huh? It actually rained on us for about 20 minutes.

This past weekend Heather and I went hiking in the Superstition Mountains with the local church group. These camera-phone photos aren't the best, but they get the job done. Here is a shot down into a valley at the end of the trip.

Hiking Trip