A belated birthday dinner for Chris.... who obviously just turned 29.

Flagstaff is about 2.5 hours north of Phoenix. We drove up to a ski resort (AZ Snowbowl) to do some hiking. It is comparable to the Mt. Baldy hike and starts around an elevation of 9,500 ft. Unfortunately, this is the monsoon season and there were plenty of thunderstorms--the lift was closed, and the hikes were pretty muddy. We went to a hike lower down on the mountain and also spent a couple hours at Lowell Observatory (where Pluto was discovered) just outside of Flagstaff.

Photos around Chris and Jeff's house after the big thunderstorm the night before drenched the place.

A tour around where Chris and Jeff work. The Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park, AZ (suburb of Phoenix)

A musuem for General George Patton. It was in the middle of nowhere, on I-10, about halfway between Phoenix and Los Angeles. The only thing in the area was the gas station and Foster's Freeze.