Check your shoes for tarantulas!

A sentence I never thought I would murmur.

Okay, maybe not this time of year as we learned from the oh so helpful park ranger here at Picacho Peak State Park in Arizona.  They are all lying dormant in their cozy nests in the ground. Thank you God, because I’ve seen those babies in action in the summer time and it’s enough to keep you awake at night much less sitting by a campfire. Although they’re not very poisonous and have to be really provoked in order to bite a human, homey just ain’t playin that!!

So with that bit of hysteria aside, we enjoyed such a nice leisurely day here in the Sonoran Desert. Hubby has been on vacation all week and it has been so nice just being a family without the distraction of work AND without the distractions of home. You know if we were at home, we all would inevitably fall into the clutches of some mundane, insignificant, time swallowing project like priming and painting all the dogs claw marks on the inside of the exterior doors. Or recaulking all the bathroom showers. You know, all the things that beckon us on our to do list and take time away from the things that really matter.

So today we are truly appreciating not having to make that choice and just soaking up the southwestern sunshine as we contemplate certain questions of life such as the kind of rock the mountain we have just scaled is made of and the meaning of the Latin prefix -im, as in impossible and impassable. Nothing but time, goldfish crackers and one hell of a view.

And speaking of view, I must mention the field of saguaro cacti here in Picacho Peak State Park. Is it a plant, is it a weapon?  My three year old would vote weapon because she would swear one jumped up and bit her foot as I pulled a spike from the sole of her shoe. Just another amazing flora God has blessed this planet with. Did you know that they only grow in the Sonoran Desert? And the iconic cacti that you see above, you know like the ones in old cartoons like “The Roadrunner”, are in upwards of 200 years old. Just fascinating! And don’t they make for one helluva photograph. Loving desert photography!!

As the sun set tonight we built our fire and cooked our hamburgers and enjoyed the desert sky as it put on its nightly show. Tomorrow, we move on to our last stop before the end of America, aka California. Where it is back to work and back to school and we’ll long for the time of just being.