Hiking and Quilts or Is That Quilts and Hiking?

 One of the nice things about living in the Phoenix Metro

is that we are only a 3 hour drive from

the South Rim of the Grand Canyon

We took a few days vacation with our friends 

the Hollands to combine

some hiking with visits to a few quilt stores

along the way.

 Paul and Mr. Cactus

were quite the adventurers as they trekked 

down to 

3 Mile Rest House on 

Bright Angel Trail

With endless switchbacks, the Grand Canyon

is known as "a place of extremes"

While descending the 2400 feet,

going down can be hard on the knees,

but the coming back up can be exhaustive.

Mr. Cactus was quite surprised he had service

when his phone rang

deep down in the canyon.

It was our 90 year old Aunt

calling to say she was home from the hospital :)

At least it was good news!

 While the guys hiked

Denise and I hung out at the top of the rim

visiting places like Lookout Studio

and the Lodge

 Always the quilter looking for inspiration

I noticed this Hexagon pattern

on the tile floor in the ladies restroom :)

(go ahead and laugh)

 The day before on our ride towards the Canyon

we stopped at a few quilt stores 

like Quilter's Store in Sedona

Very nice with a great selection of batiks

Southwest patterns and fabrics

and even some Modern

and Quilts on Route 66

in the small town of Williams

 Quaint with a Vintage feel

and current fabrics.

We were glad we stopped.

And to not overload the guys with too much

quilty stuff in one day

we spent the evening in Flagstaff

at the Lowell Observatory

where Pluto was discovered in 1930

on this telescope.

We've been to the Lowell several times

but this was our first visit at night.

They opened up their telescopes

for some terrific views of the Moon

I was even more thrilled to be able to see

up close

 the rings

around Saturn and 3 of it's moons.