I am hanging close to death at the Grand Canyon. This photo was taken from Lookout Studio.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

This is where I was for the last two days - so beautiful. It's nice to be able to spend time in such a peaceful place, away from helicopters and police sirens and WORK. If you haven't ever been to the Grand Canyon, I suggest you make it a point to visit. It is breathtaking.

So cute!!!

Lolz...

Just thought this would be pretty to post.

I've had my glass of wine now the day can continue...

I just found this picture going through some stuff - it's pretty funny. I uploaded it to flickr (yay for flickr) and thought I would post it because, for some reason, it makes me giggle.

Luke, Jake and Sassy on Mt. Lemmon.

This is a picture that I took of Jake on Monday while on a picnic at Mt. Lemmon. I think it's cute... and kinda artistic I guess. Since everyone else is posting doggy pictures, I figured I would too.

I love eet!

I did not know this... I live 145.2 miles from the ocean. It seems like such a small distance, when I will drive 120 miles to go to Ikea. The problem is, that the ocean is in Mexico. With crossing the desert, and the border, and more desert, it takes four hours to reach Puerto Penasco, and only 90 minutes to reach the mecca of european furnishings.

I have been playing with this new, ultra cool program called Google Earth. It combines satellite imagery of the entire planet, with real topographical information (yes, I'm a dork) and lets you see three dimensional pictures of places. I took a couple of where you can live, so you can experience the views that I have.


Looking east. My house is where the little label is (see, not too much grass out here). You can see the Rillito River snaking across the top. The Santa Catalina mountains are on the left, and the Rincon Mountains on the right. Most of the Catalinas are within the 6000-9000 foot range, and Tucson sits at about 2100 feet above sea level.


Looking north-eastish. More of the Catalina Mountains. It's pretty accurate... especially when compared to the current camera image from the University of Arizona...

Sue Johansen on Vacation!!!

Last night a friend and I decided we would drive to the top of Mt. Lemmon (right around 10,000 feet I think)to watch the city lights. We would stop along the way up and watch the sunset. Well, mother nature had other plans in store for us. We sped our way up the mountain with hopes of getting a good seat for the show, all while thick black clouds gathered right above Bigelow Mtn. We ended up stopping at the Windy Point Vista, which is the last official vista where you can park and actually see Tucson. We got out and climbed onto some rock formations and took some pictures. I told my friend that I should put the camera away because I felt it was going to rain before we got back to the car. And it did. From mile marker 17 on Catalina Highway all the way to the top it stormed like I have never experienced. Normally, this wouldn't be so bad but when you are precariously driving feet from a drop off that would bring certain death, it is more interesting. We were getting pelted with hail and rain, hitting my car so hard I thought that the roof was going to come off. My wipers couldn't keep up with it. There was a brown dirty steam coming off the roads that were being cooled for the first time in months, making it really hard to see. We stopped at the San Pedro vista and then the Aspen Vista because visibility was so poor we couldn't see anything. When it finally let up (temporarily) we made our way up to Ski Valley and through the scary windey road up to the summit. When we got up there, there was only one car parked at the top of the mountain. Save for lightning, which was still all around us, it was pitch black. The other car had its dome light on, but we couldn't see anything inside. We sat up there for two hours, looking at the city below, talking, listening to the rain and watching the lightning all around. It must have been fifty degrees, which was a nice change from Tucson where it has been above 100 for the last 36 days and above 110 for the last 15 days. As we left, we joked about how we had both seen too many horror movies and that other car was scaring us. When we drove past, my friend looked into the other car and said "OH MY GOD there is someone lying back in the drivers seat." We quickly pondered over whether or not this person was still living, and I got spooked and made excellent time back to Summerhaven. It was a great evening and I can't wait to do it again soon! How, here are some pictures that I took right before the storm hit: