A Grand Week

Well this week has been a "Grand" one for me. Last Friday, Theresa and I took the kids up to the Grand Canyon. We figured that since we have lived in Arizona for the past five years, it was time to check out this natural wonder of the world. So on Friday we drove up early in the morning and went straight to the park. We found our parking spot and made a quick stop at one of the visitor centers there at the park. We then made the short walk and took in the sights. I must say it was pretty amazing. You can check out my Facebook page for the photos. I always enjoy taking in the amazing nature of the earth.

I have been lucky to see some pretty awesome nature in my lifetime. The redwood forest of California, I have seen the mighty Rocky Mountains from atop several 14,000 ft peaks, the arches in Utah, and I recall Central Park in fall. The Grand Canyon is definitely up on that list. We enjoyed walking/hiking along the rim for the afternoon and visiting the various visitor locations. We even got see some California Condors fly over. At the end of the day, we were pretty tired but as soon as we checked into the hotel, the kids got their swimsuits on and were ready to hit the indoor pool.

So we went swimming, after about half hour of that, I was dead tired but the kids kept it going for a couple of hours and we finally had to lure them out with dinner. We hit the local Wendy's and the kids got some toys to keep them busy. Ethan was lucky enough to get "mini-twister" which is played with your pointer finger and thumb. It's a lot harder than it looks but is a lot of fun. The next morning it was back to Canyon and we hiked for a short distance down into the Canyon using one of the trails. It was a lot fun and sure was a great weekend with the family. The kids are looking forward to going back and want to camp next time. They also want to hike further down into the Canyon.

It has been pretty hot this week in Phoenix. I guess summer finally caught up to us. I have still been running and getting ready for SF in July. Last Sunday I was going to run eight miles but I elected to sleep in. By the time I got started running it was already mid-80's and after about 7 miles, I called it. I guess on days when it is going to be 110, I have to get up early and run. Today I had race 2 of my summer series. It was another 5K race that went well. I had forgotten my watch at home so I wasn't able to figure my pace as I went and I thought I was doing worse than my previous race. I did the first race in 26:37 and my goal was to get under 26 minutes. I was happy to finish with a time of 25:11. I am just glad to see some improvement in my time. The next race is a four mile race on the Fourth of July. Hopefully, I can cut my pace time even further.

I am really looking forward to my first half-marathon and have just six more weeks to go. This weekend I got my plane tickets.

That's it for this week, it sure was a good one. I hope this coming week will be even better, or at least as good.