Day Two (12/3)

Snowman in the desert.

View more photos 

We went with Brendan and Jen to the Phoenix Zoo.  It was a really nice zoo!  The weather was great:  high 60's with bright, blue skies.  Most of the animals were out and about so we got some good pics.  It was neat that a lot of the animal exhibits were really up close.  For example, the monkey village let you walk into the monkey habitat.  They didn't come up to the people, but they walked on ropes over our heads and what not.  You had to be careful they didn't pee on you, though.  They did that a lot.  We also discovered that Francis has a great talent for photographing monkey asses.  That shouldn't be a big surprise, but he's really quite good at it.

Phoenix itself is very commercial.  There are so many stores, they don't get crowded this time of year because all you have to do is drive another few miles and there's another Circuit City or Target or Linens N Things.  Everything looks new and everything is stucco.  Not really appealing to us.

Camelback Mountain. It looks like a sleeping camel.

View more photos 

After we got back from the zoo, we said good-bye to Brendan and headed up north to Flagstaff.  It was about a 2 hour drive on I-17, which had a speed limit of 75.  Sweet.  It was neat to see the climate change in such a short distance.  In Phoenix and outside, it was all brush and cacti... soon it was just empty hills and bushes with occasional random cows... and then all evergreens.  The temperature dropped considerably, too, and Flagstaff is now about 30 degrees.  The forecast says no storms for several days, clear skies, and temps in the 40s.

There are a bunch of pics today.  There are a couple more that will be added to yesterday, too.