MCOQueen's Ramblings

I finally got my brother to give me the pictures from our trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona. I even have a picture of my Aunt and I standing side by side. We look so much alike. I have all 42 pictures in my Arizona Gallery on 3 pages. Here's the link:

http://pics.livejournal.com/mcoqueen/gallery/00009fax

Here's a preview of one of the pics:



Enjoy the pictures!

We all slept in this morning. We were up and around 11am this morning (2pm Eastern time). The time difference is really screwing up our systems. We made a trip to Super Wal-mart and got a few things that we needed. By the time we got back home, it was only an hour and a half before we had to go to my Aunt's for dinner. Dinner was really good. She cooked lasagna. I got to meet my Great Aunt Betty and my dad's cousin, Lorry who has this really dry humor. I also met my dad's cousin Cindy. We all had a lot of fun chatting and reminiscing about my grandparents. I can't write much right now. I'm preparing my food for the trip tomorrow to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. We're going to get up at 5am (Phoenix time) and be out on the road by 6am. We'll spend a few hours at the Grand Canyon and then stop in Sedona for a few hours on the way back. Apparently Sedona has some nice outlet malls. Tomorrow is going to be a nice long day. Later.

Day one was really really long. The flight was 5 hours and 20 minutes. We just got a few snacks on the plane. Varqa and I watched movies on my new I-pod Video 80 GB. Varqa was really impressed. The picture quality is amazing. It took an hour to get our rental car. The Phoenix Sky Harbor airport has a state of the art car rental facility. RDU needs one of those. We got our rental and then followed my aunt's directions to get to her home. My Aunt Merle made all of us lunch. I got to see my cousins, Danny, Alicia, and Linda. I also got to see Danny's Fiance and my Uncle Jack. I hadn't seen them since I was 8 or 9. We stayed there for a few hours until we followed my Aunt to the resort. We got checked in and chilled for a little bit. The rooms are so nice. The main room has a jacuzzi in the bathroom and a full kitchen. My room has a big ass shower and a half kitchen. I have a microwave/convection oven. We decided to go grocery shopping for the week. We went to a Fry's grocery store. They had a lot of Kroger products. I'm wondering if they're owned by the same people. We all were so tired yesterday that we were at times either euphorically high or snapping at each other. I did manage to get some sleep last night. I was watching the baseball playoffs on the fox affiliate channel over here, FOX 45.

I decided to call insignia_void last night during the game. It was 8pm here, but 11pm in North Carolina. We chatted for a bit, and then I decided to go to sleep. Today we're going to drive around and go to stores and stuff. There's a whole lot of places to visit near to the resort. Tomorrow night, we're all going to go to a dinner party my Aunt is having and I will meet some more of my relatives. Wednesday, we're going to go to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. It's about an hour and a half to two hours away from here. Phoenix is so beautiful. We're in the subdivision, Scottsdale, at the moment. The city is flat, but the surrounding areas are hills and mountains. The view is so beautiful. Sedona is supposed to be really pretty. I will take a lot of pictures. I am really enjoying not having to work right now. I haven't taken off a vacation day this whole year until right now. It was worth the wait. I have my cell phone with me. I have the national calling plan, so I'm happy that I can keep in touch with my family and friends while I am here. The weather is so beautiful. It's in the mid 80's and there's absolutely no humidity. It just does not get very cold here at all, and there's very little rain during the year. I have to go now. I'll write more tomorrow. Later.

I just purchased my ticket to go to Phoenix, Arizona for my cousin Danny's wedding in October. I have the 14th of October through the 22nd off already. My boss accused me of taking off in October again because he thinks I am trying to avoid the baseball playoffs in October. Last October I took off at that time for that specific reason. It's not my fault my cousin's wedding just happens to be in October. My cousin Danny is on my father's side of the family. I haven't seen anyone from his side of the family since I was 8 or 9 years old. I'm looking forward to meeting my great Aunt Betty. She's met all of my brothers and my parents, of course. She just hasn't met me yet. She kept bugging my brother to make sure that I would come up and visit before she dies. She is in her eighties and really wants to see me. My Aunt Merle is letting my brother and his fiancee and I use her time share at this really nice resort in Phoenix. We don't have to pay for our hotel stay! We're going to rent a car and visit all the sites in Phoenix. The room in the resort has a kitchen. We'll just buy groceries and cook our own food. It's much cheaper than eating out all the time. Our flight to Phoenix is a non-stop four hour flight. We have one stop when coming back to Raleigh. I'm leaving on the 15th of October and coming back on the 22nd. I can't wait.