Amazing Grace -- Remix

At Easter Vigil service last weekend, the choir and the choristers performed a beautiful, heart-tugging version of Amazing Grace by Arlen Clarke. This is not the standard hymn that everybody knows and loves. The words are the same, but the music has been re-scored into this ethereal masterpiece. The song literally brought me to tears when I heard my own children singing solo on the second verse in the dimly lit church.

Of course, I had forgotten my camera, so the moment went completely uncaptured. I was, therefore, heartbroken when I learned the next day that our choir would not be performing the piece again.

Finally, I decided to ask the boys to sing the song for me. Luke seemed willing, and sang the first and last verses. And now, I have a little bit of this wonderful song captured on video. Here's Luke, who does an excellent job with it (even despite the background vocals by Frank):

I dug around a little bit more and turned up a full choir version of the song here. This is the song I want performed at my funeral. (With bagpipes, of course.)

Spring is here!

Finally, Spring is Here!

Jamestown Field Trip

This is a cross post from Eddie's web site. I thought the Jamestown trip was so awesome, I felt like posting it here. This is Eddie's writing, below. If you like it, pop on over to his web site and give him a comment. He'll love it!

These are pictures from my Jamestown trip. I enjoyed it a lot. We went to the Yorktown Victory Center and Jamestown Settlement. This is the 401st anniversary of Jamestown. My Mom was the best chaperon ever. I hope you like the pictures. There's also a video of a man shooting a flintlock rifle at the end. It was really loud.

Memories of Sedona

Luke's "What I Did on Spring Break" essay:


The little shop that Luke wrote about was located off the main street, just outside of town, set beautifully against the backdrop of the Sedona hills.

Easter Dinner

Since we didn't have any visiting family for Easter this year (a first!), we had Easter dinner with our Virginia family--Sharon and Desi. Dinner was great. The kids always get along well, Sharon and Desi always keep us entertained, and we always eat really well.

Sharon laid out an appetizer of apples, carrots, and radishes with a creamy dressing, plus various cheeses, crackers, and a Chianti summer sausage that we brought.

Then, for dinner, we had sumptuous rosemary, garlic and black pepper encrusted racks of lamb with grilled asparagus and boiled new potatoes, served with a 2004 Hop Kiln Old Windmill Vines Zinfandel. Very delicious.

Here are some of the highlights of the evening.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone!

As with most Easter days, it is a glorious, sunny, cool Spring morning. The boys enjoyed (perhaps their last) Easter egg hunt, and then we snacked on all the delicious chocolates that Nana sent us. For brunch, we had Pacific King Salmon on toasted bagels with cream cheese and capers. Delicious!



Easter church service was nice, but very crowded (as usual on Easter). There were tons of children, more than I've ever seen before at church. I love how this church is growing with young families. Fr. Tom gave a great sermon, and the choir sang beautifully for the anthem:

Sedona GPS Adventures

And now, for the ubergeeks out there like me, here are some cool GPS maps from our trip out west, showing waypoints and tracks for the places we visited.

This first map shows pretty much the entire area (north to south) that we traversed once in Sedona (two hours north from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport). The Grand Canyon was another two hours from Sedona to the north.


Next is a map of the greater Sedona area and nearby attractions, including the Tuzigoot and Montezuma National Parks, and Red Rock, Crescent Moon Ranch, and Slide Rock State Parks. From this map, I hope you can tell how remote Palatki is. There are no good roads out there, and this is probably a good thing to help keep it preserved.

Finally, here's a map of our leisurely 1.7 mile hike around Chimney Rock, on the Thunder Mountain trail, almost literally in the backyard of the house Ed and Kathleen were renting. From the track profile, you can see that we traversed a vertical distance of about 300 feet. Not a bad workout, but nothing near as exerting as one of George's hikes.

Honeybees

I love honeybees. What a treat it was, then, to see a large pear tree in Sedona humming with activity of an entire bee colony. The whole tree was alive and abuzz with these wonderful, vanishing bees.

These are perhaps some of my finest photos, all of which are untouched, except for cropping.

Chimney Rock and Palatki Ruins

Today was our last day in Sedona. Tomorrow, we return home on the long, long plane ride. What a great trip it's been: Grand Canyon on the first day, Montezuma and Tuzigoot on day two, Red Rock State Park on day three, and the grand finale, Palatki on the last day. Thank you, Kathleen and Ed, for the wonderful hospitality and for the great adventures.

Before I begin to describe the day we had today, let me describe what happened last night at about eleven o'clock. I had been in bed for a couple of hours already. Ed and Kathleen had gone to bed, and so had the boys. Becky was still up, reading in the living room. Suddenly, this loud caterwauling, like a cross between a dying dog and an alien police klaxon started, right outside my window.

I was confused by the heaviness of sleep, and I first thought it was some kind of fire alarm. Finally, I got up to investigate and crept into the living room in my skivvies. As I rounded the corner, I saw Becky looking out the window, also wondering about the noise. Everybody else was still asleep.

As she turned around, I startled her by asking what the noise was. It was crazy-loud and very unusual. Finally, we could pick out yip-yaps and what sounded like a woman's scream. Turns out, they were coyotes, and they were right outside our house.

Life in the desert is definitely not like life in Virginia!

This morning, we left early for a wonderful sunny morning hike around Chimney Rock. This was a pretty easy hike, but the weather was phenomenally good--sunny, mild, and very fresh. The hike took us 1.7 miles around the signature rock outside Ed and Kathleen's rental house, circumnavigating an area of 71 acres.

Then, after lunch, we took off for a very special visit to Palatki. Palatki is the site of some very ancient petroglyphs. The scratchings and writings date from a variety of prehistoric ages, from pre-ice age (yes PRE ice age!), to post-ice age up through the time of Christ and to (unfortunately) modern times (as recently as two weeks ago, sadly).

Our guide was a retired geologist and now full time archaeologist, and he volunteers on site. He had a wealth of knowledge about the writings, and it was a real treat to hear him tell his stories.

Palatki also contains more cliff dwellings of the Sinagua people, and we briefly toured these as well. The bonus of Palatki is that at this site, the rangers will let you enter the dwellings, provided you behave yourself, and touch nothing.

It was another wonderful day in a pretty fantastic place!

As usual, here are a few of my favorite photos (from the 500 I took just today... thank God for digital):

1. Setting out on the Chimney Rock trail.
2. This scat ain't as pretty as what Ella did! Evidence of a javelina.
3. Some blue agave. I can almost taste the salt on my glass.
4. Trudging onward.
5. Chimney rock in silhouette.
6. Further evidence of javelina. The javelina's favorite food in this area are the prickly pear cacti. I'm told they have special enzymes in their saliva to break down and digest the fibrous cactus. These bites were less than a day old.
   

1. Eddie gets brave and shows us how he can touch the cactus.
2. A view of Thunder Mountain (left hand side only) from the trail.
3. A scraggly desert tree (a Joshua tree, perhaps?)
4. Posing in front of Chimney Rock. Yes, Adolfo, this photo has people in it! (Just for you!)
5. Taking a little breather near the end of the trail.
   

1. Onward to Palatki on the most primitive road I've seen. It took us an hour to get 12 miles.
2. A scrub jay.
3. The view of the hills from the parking lot of Palatki. You'd never know there are cliff dwellings up there.
4. Enthralled by our archaeologist guide.
   

1. Sinagua (pre-Hopi) writings. The "alien" is, in fact, a depiction of a ready-to-be-married girl wearing traditional butterfly head-dress, still worn today.
2. Glyphs showing the Mother Earth giving birth to various animals. Glyphs of this type are very rare, we were told.
3. Also striking were the various lichens that grew on the rocks.
4. More lichen.
5. Hiking up to the cliff dwellings.
6. Our guide at the cliff dwellings, a nice lady from Philadelphia.
   

Red Rock State Park, Crescent Moon Ranch, and Tourist Junque

Today, we took an invigorating hike up to Eagle's Nest at Red Rocks State Park. This provided us with plentiful views of the iconic Sedona rocks surrounding us. The hike was only moderately difficult, but the weather was splendid and gave us a good bit of fresh air.

After Red Rocks, we headed over to Crescent Moon Ranch, which sits along Oak Creek and provides unparalleled vistas of the Cathedral Rock.

Finally, by the end of the day, we headed into town to do some shopping at the various tourist traps downtown.

Here are the photos from the day:

1. Eagle's Nest. Our destination for the day.
2. Setting out on the trail.
3. On the higher part of the trail.
4. A view of the rocks.
5. The Seven Warriors.
   

1. Luke's heart-shaped prickly pear cactus.
2. Eagle's nest from a sister butte.
3. A nice tree and cactus.
4. A wee little gecko.
5. The Oak Creek.
   

1. A tributary off Oak Creek.
2. Cathedral Rock.
3. Cathedral Rock and Oak Creek.
4. Hello, Grandpa!
5. Eddie chooses an elk at the tourist shops.
   

1. Some fine edibles at the tourist shops. Of course, Ed asked, what's the point of Fartless Chili?
2. Some Screaming Sphincter to go with your Fartless Chili.
3. Cowboy Luke
4. Eddie and the Javelinas.
5. This one's for Barry!
   

1. Our new stemware... very classy!
2. This place grabbed us like a vice and forced us to buy a half pound of fudge!
3. Sedona is known for its art communities. This is my kind of art!