Sedona/Why I Love Working for the Government

After an incredibly crazy weekend (Friday night seeing the Lion King, Saturday general craziness documented in the previous blog, and six hours of meetings on Sunday), I was glad that I could take advantage of having Martin Luther King Day off to go to Sedona:

This is the Courthouse. We hiked 4.2 miles around it and climbed to the top of a shorter structure where we took the next three pictures.

The structure had us up quite a bit higher than the picture above might look. It was a great find, and I really want to go back and hike/climb it with a picnic lunch!

The plant life that we saw on the hike was phenomenal, and I LOVED it! I thought it was all just incredibly beautiful. (Did I really just say that about dessert plant life?!?!?!) I loved this plant which was probably only ten inches high and reminded me of a bonsai tree. (I'll spare you the several other pictures that I took of the other flora, though!)

Post-hike. Almost immediately after we finished our hike I noticed that something started feeling funny with my right foot while I was walking. Turns out, the sole of my hiking boot was done with hiking. Amazingly, I realized that I've had these boots for years...as in almost FOURTEEN years. (I keep wondering how this happened--as in, I can't even figure out how I never noticed how much time had passed by!) Many thanks to shoes that took me hiking through Indiana, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Arizona. Sadly, dear shoes, you are now trash. (This also means everyone will likely get to see another blog entry about a new pair of hiking shoes!)

Oh. And did I mention I'm not working this next Friday, either, since I'm working a flex schedule?