I’m late!  I’ve never posted my “entry” to the Weekly Photo Challenge this late!  I have a good excuse though:  the parents are in town!  They were here when I got home from work and are staying for the weekend.  Always fun having them around.  This evening my aunt, uncle, cousin and her son came over to visit and we all enjoyed sitting on the patio in the beautiful weather visiting and…well…drinking.  🙂  My mint has gone gang-busters lately, so I made a few mojitos.  Last weekend I didn’t have rum so used vodka instead.  This weekend I had rum and I think I may prefer the vodka.  But, I digress…and you may be getting bored.  So, here…a half and half picture from Sedona, AZ:

I immediately knew which album I wanted to choose from when this week’s photo challenge, “Half and Half” posted.  We were challenged to share an image that has two clear halves, literally or figuratively.  No where was this more present than during a trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon that week took back in October 2013.  A couple of stories about this trip:

We had never been to Sedona, or Arizona, for that matter.  But, we love to hike and had heard about the beauty of the area and the amazing red rock, so decided it was the perfect destination.  I remember winding our way towards Sedona from Phoenix.  There’s not much to see along the way.  In fact, when we turned off to Sedona we still had not seen one single red rock.  We were, at that point, 10 miles from town.  No red rock.  I suggested to the husband that, perhaps, there was only one large red rock in Sedona…the one they show on all of the tourist publications.  No sooner had I uttered those words than we came around a corner and the red rocks cluttered the landscape before us.  It was breathtaking and a sight that I soon will not forget.  You wouldn’t think that rock could be that beautiful…but beautiful it is.

Remember the government shutdown a few years ago?  In fall 2013, to be exact?  The shut down that included all of the national parks? Just happened to coincide with our trip to Arizona.  Where did we intend to go to on a day trip?  You guessed it:  Grand Canyon. I would check the internet each morning when we awoke to see if the parks had opened and was disappointed each day. After experiencing the beauty of Sedona for a few days we decided that we’d be okay with not seeing the GC. The very next morning the Governor of AZ opened that park on the states own dime (government shutdown be damned!!) and we immediately headed to the main visitors center on the south rim.  Not all the facilities were opened (which was actually kind of nice as many had yet to realize the park was open) but we didn’t need much…we had our own lunch, we just wanted to take in the view.  I remember my first view of the canyon.  It’s such a majestically huge beautiful glorious thing.  I’m not going to lie…I teared up.  After talking with a park ranger we decided, since we were only there for the day, to focus on quality versus quantity.  That means that, instead of driving along the ridge all day in the car trying to cover as much territory as we could, we elected to park at the visitors center and walk along the ridge trail to Grand Canyon Village.  2.5 miles one way, 5 miles round trip.  We spent hours on that short little walk.  We gaped, we paused…repeat. And it was the best way we could have spent our day.

To me, the Grand Canyon is an excellent representation of half and half.  It’s amazing how the rim appeared so cleanly cut against the October sky.  Enjoy…and if you’ve haven’t gone….DO!  GO NOW!  Well, maybe not right now because it’s probably blazingly hot…but you know what I mean.