Boo!

I'm still in the islands but I thought I'd do a quick update. I was just reading about how zombies had come to Phoenix, and it reminded me of where we were a year ago - Fantasy Fest/Key West. That zombie invasion was a bit different than Arizona's. We live such a strange life.

Key West Zombie

AZ Zombie (AZ Central)

Here in Arizona, Halloween is also the Day of the Dead for the many Mexicans who live here, and celebrations are a bit...different.

Source: AZ Central

It looks like the downtown Fountain Hills median is about done. Should be good for the soon to be restarted farmer's market and upcoming art fair.

Source: AZ Central

It seems we've been missing record hot temperatures in AZ. It's still rather swampy here on St. Kitts too - as a matter of fact, we've got a tropical wave moving over us, so that means rain in the forecast. If it brings winds, I'll take it.

There's quite a bit going on for Oct 31st, so be sure to get out there and get into the Halloween spirit (click on image to get to interactive calendar).

Yes, I'm still blogging about my St. Kitts activities on Island Babble, for those interested in island life.

Ah, The Island Life

So we're back in the Caribbean. It's only temporary, unfortunately, but it certainly feels good to be back. We headed to the Phoenix airport at 10:30pm Sunday and arrived on St. Kitts at 3pm Monday. Yes it was a loooong travel night/day. I don't sleep on planes, but that was ok because it wasn't long before we were flying into the sunrise. It was quite pretty.

Once on island, the first thing we did was change into shorts and a t-shirt. It's hot! The Christmas winds haven't kicked in yet, so things are little muggier than usual. Let's just take this in, shall we?

Next up was meeting up with our pals at The Dock for happy hour. The funny thing was that the some of the same people were sitting in their usual spots, so it felt like we'd never left. You really do just pick up where you left off. That predictability could be boring, but for some reason, we found it rather comforting.



We then took that party to Boozie's (formerly Family & Friends) farther down The Strip (note the link write-up is very outdated, most of those bars are named something else now).

A rare shot of Popcorn smiling.

Yes, it's good to be back. Michael will only be here a week, so once he returns to Arizona, he'll do some local AZ stuff, and I'll post it here. I'll post my month-long island activities, however, on my original St. Kitts blog, Island Babble. I blogged from the island from 2009 to August 2012 but handed it over to someone else when we left. That person is leaving soon himself, so I suppose Island Babble will soon be no more. Sniffle.

The hash events, the main reason we're here, start Thursday, so stay tuned for that insanity. I will also update all the folks that haven't been on-island for awhile as to the changes that have been going on here. We don't have a car, so we'll tackle things within walking distance first. Here's a map, in case you're wondering where the heck St. Kitts is.

And, of course, there's a kitty to play with. Of course. This one looks like our Puffin.

That was a First.

We'll start with some fun pics of dogs that dressed up for a Halloween costume contest held at/by Glenbrook Creamery. We did cruise by to see if anyone was there, but I don't think things had quite taken off yet. The photos are from the creamery. Second place:

Tie for first:



The runners' up:

 

That's a banana split on the left. I would have voted for the dinosaur. A couple of dogs were making political statements, with costumes commenting on the controversial firing of a local teacher.



Not a bad turn out. There will be another contest where humans and their pets can compete on October 31st during all the Halloween in The Hills festivities in the middle of the Avenue of the Fountains at 5:30pm.

Then despite being told by my podiatrist that I had a second foot fracture, I decided to get a hike in this weekend. I'm good most of the time. Well, some of the time. Anyway, the Marcus Landslide trail is only about 3 miles long and pretty easy, so perfect for a test run before our St. Kitts trip. I will be hiking there (and on Nevis). I will be strong!

As I climbed up that thing, I was less worried about my broken foot than I was about running into a snake or accidentally grabbing onto a scorpion. Ha! I needn't have worried. About snakes and scorpions.

Just centipedes. Aack! We actually saw the thing in both directions, once in the crevice (you say crev-ahs, I say crev-is, some say crev-ass...), and once on the trail, surprisingly far from where we first spotted it.



That's Michael's size 9 shoe next to it. I don't normally get too crazy about creepy crawlies (although don't toss a spider my way or it won't be pretty) - I've camped, I've sailed, I've traveled, I've lived in NYC with its plethora of roaches, and we had plenty of tarantulas sharing our "yard" with us when we had our AZ home (they're surprisingly laid back, so I make an exception for them). But I've been bitten by centipedes 3 times while living on St. Kitts (they are quite common in the Caribbean and they are most definitley not laid back), so this was not a welcome sight. On the other hand, I was intrigued. We lived here 16 years, +1 recently, had pretty much untouched land surrounding our house, and hiked lots and have never seen one of these. I guess it was a good reminder that we'll be back in the land of centipedes in about a week, so it's best to prep our mindset for it.

Once we were past the ick factor and confirmed we'd never do any rock climbing in the area (yes, it's allowed), at least not without armor, we were entertained by the informative signs and interactive stuff along the trail. They called it "interpretive."



That's Michael looking for the Verde River in the first one. That second one was Michael miming an attempt to put Fallen Mushroom back upright (I promise he wasn't exerting any pressure - please don't arrest us). "Mushrooms" in this instance are these weird columns of granite that have been compromised and shaped by water.



There were a lot of butterflies around, which was cool, and as usual we could see the fountain off in the distance.



The trail is called the Marcos Landslide trail because supposedly Arizona's second largest landslide happened here, but frankly, we couldn't see it. I'm guessing by the sign title, we weren't the only ones.

Every tumble of boulders looked the same to us.



And the only rock formation I found "interpretive" was this one,

which I thought looked like this hysterical moment on the t.v. show Modern Family.


You know it does.

More trips

I had great weather for the rest of my Virginia trip, with clouds coming in and sprinkles hitting the windshield on the day I left. On one nice day before I headed back, we hit the zoo.



How about this pic? First it was hard to see the giraffe at all (how do you hide a giraffe?) and then it looked like a dinosaur.

I think we were looking for moles here, but the humans stole the show.

And I walked that beach every single day.



I love the water, but the mountains are great for recharging too. So back to AZ I went. We still have these 2 darn kittens from that litter of 6.



They spend most of their time at the Scottsdale Pavilion Petco, but when their time is up there (temporarily), we have them. And I wonder why I can't get any sleep some nights (did you count 4?).

Birth control?

I unpacked and packed again, and we decided to cheer a couple of friends on who were in a mountain bike race up in Pinetop. The drive takes 2 1/2 -3 1/2 hours of drive time, depending on traffic, and the temperatures are much cooler.

Once again, however, we had fantastic weather. Mornings were in the high 30s, brr, but the days were in the 70s. Fountain Hills has cooled down at nights too - now in the 60s not 80s - but the days have still been in the high 90s.  The guys did well in their race.



And afterwards, there was bluegrass music and free beer for everyone - even non-racers. Well, do-si-do.


The cabin we stayed in was quite cozy and even had apple trees in the backyard so we could pick our own apples.

We looked out for elk and bear but didn't see any (just huge paw/hoof prints). Our final day up there, we hit one of the many lakes and did some kayaking.



Michael & JD ran across a huge log floating in the water, and since once a boater always a boater, Michael's first thought was that it could really do damage to a prop(eller). Yep. So JD tied the hazard to his kayak and dragged it out of harm's way.



What happens when you give Michael the camera.

Another great weekend.