Bisbee and the bizarre

I'm now down in Phoenix. Despite being the end of September, the temperatures still regularly top 100 degrees. It hasn't bothered me too much, probably because I don't venture out of the house until early evening, when things have cooled down to a bearable 95 or so.

Last weekend, in a quest to find something to do, we decided to head to Bisbee, Arizona.

When we left, we didn't realize that the town was well over four hours away. Eventually we arrived, ate a quick picnic lunch, and then went to a tour of an old mining operation, where they've previously extracted copper, azurite, malachite, and turquoise.

After that, we wandered the town a little bit and did touristy things like eating ice cream and fudge (Why do tourists like fudge so much?), and ended up at the Bisbee Museum of the Bizarre.

Among the items on display were a cast of a Bigfoot footprint and accompanying hair sample, some dirt from Jim Morrison's grave, a vampire slaying kit, a fossilized fairy, a Fiji mermaid, a copy of John Dillinger's death mask, shrunken heads, and a two-headed squirrel. The room was smaller than most kitchens, but the admission was only $3, and I quite like random stuff like that.

We then piled back into the car for the long trip home, successfully making it through an immigration checkpoint en route. We thought about pretending to speak Spanish at the checkpoint, but those guys have guns, so we played it safe.

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More photos from the weekend can be found here.

Friends, fish, fire, and fun. And cold weather, beer, wine, and dogs.

I spent the long Labor Day weekend up at the lake. As with my previous trip up north, the weather was less than cooperative with my plans of spending lots of time in the water.

I dipped my foot in the water once, and then abandoned any ideas of getting wet. Fortunately, we had fire to keep us warm.

To fill the gaps in time left by not skiing, we played throwing games: ladderball (a.k.a. "testicle toss") and horseshoes. My friend also brought his dog with him, which provided some amusement.

I miss having animals around at all times, which is one of those things that makes me miss Alaska. Even at work up there, we had an office dog. Perhaps the animal issue might convince me to settle down and stay in one place eventually. Maybe.

Over the weekend, I also spent a decent amount of time on a boat not fishing. I didn't feel like buying an out-of-state fishing license for one weekend of trying to catch something that I'm allergic to.

I let everyone else do the fishing and instead took pictures and drank beer and wine. 

Easily the best part of the weekend was having the opportunity to reconnect with people I haven't seen in years. It has always amazed me how, with my close friends, I can be away for years (even the better part of a decade) and dive into conversation as if I had never left. I suppose it speaks for the quality of the people that I know.

It's almost enough to make me stick around. Almost.

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More photos from the weekend can be found here.