Oh, Honey!

After two weeks of traveling, Wes and I were hanging out for what was supposed to be a chill evening in Prescott with his cousin Zach.
"Quinn, what kind of honey is this?"  Zach hollered from the kitchen with a chuckle.  I turned my gaze, his hands were caked with a dull yellow colored goo stringing like glue between both fingers and palms.  It was everywhere, and it was hardening!  (photos to come)  His laughter stopped when he barely could pry his hands away from one another.

Zach was just mixing honey with some spices for a yummy chicken dinner, or so we thought.  When the honey started quickly rising in the mixing bowl, Zach chose to pour it into the sink instead of over the chicken.  The mixture continued to rise and thicken, so he shoved his hands in the mix to assist removal.  What was this mystery item that was so cleverly masked in a squeeze bottle on a shelf next to brown sugar and coffee in the van?

More on that in a minute.

The two weeks prior were filled with much family, driving and desert landscape.  It started with a last minute trip to Lubbock, Texas to visit with Wesley's immediate family.

After a weekend of baseball, soccer games and wonderful company, we made our way back to the Phoenix area.  Ops, and a quick stop to see the largest pistachio.  These people make lovely flavored pistachios, and an okay pistachio wine.

Wes squeezing on Cloud Tower

Last Pitch Cloud Tower

One night to unpack, re-pack and we were off again to Red Rocks, Las Vegas.  This time we were taking the VW van for a tour!  What a spoiled way of traveling...bed, fridge, stove, even stocked with a little coffee, honey, and pinto beans!!!  The weather was stellar, as well as the company!  Some friends from Canada were down for a week at a "conference."  Another group of friends was also down from Colorado Springs.  It was great climbing with everyone, jokes and laughter abound!

Eric avoiding the water hazard at the base of a climb

View from the tasting room in Jerome.  Sedona in distance.  

After six stellar days of climbing, Wes and I made our way back to Arizona.  Some time before seeing Zach in Prescott, we stopped off in Jerome.  A cute steep hillside town with wine tasting, many motorcyclists, and old mine history.  A well known musician established a winery and tasting room that we both wanted to check out.  The wine was great, but the service by one of the gals was a bit snobby.

Disgruntle customers

Back to the honey, I mean expanding foam.  Yes, expanding foam!!

After spending the rest of the evening manually picking at, pouring various chemicals on, and a making use of a car scrapper on Zach's hands, we finally saw skin just before midnight.  Poor guy.  Crusty pieces of curry flavored expanding foam were on his hands for days!

Poor sink.  Wes reached down the disposal and pulled out a Nerf football sized chunk of foam.  We tried to help put the kitchen back together, Wes working on the drain clog, me putting away the various products we poured on Zach in attempt to slough the stuff off.  We left the next morning, feeling terrible.  We thought we were just offering him honey!!!

Barbie doll shoved in hole?

Douglas hiking to the cliffs!

Arriving early in the morning back in Phoenix, I had just enough time to pack up all of my belongings.  The loaded corolla headed out that same day to spend a few days in New Mexico with a good friend who happens to be working on a job in Albuquerque for the next few months!  A warm goodbye hug to Rae and Wes sent me off on another leg of the journey.

Douglas and I climbed just outside of town on Friday, and then headed up to El Rito on Saturday.

El Rito is just north of Santa Fe.  The climbing is on oddly composed conglomerate rock piled in small spires along a hill side.  You grab onto large river stones cemented together, or the holes where stones used to be.  Douglas ran into an old expedition buddy at the cliff, so over a drizzly campfire dinner that evening we made new friends and told stories.  I woke up a bit chilled but motivated to finish the snowy drive to Estes Park.  I arrived yesterday to lovely snowy conditions.  It feels good to be back to one of my favorite places in the world!!!!

Karla and Astro with snowball cling-age.