Our Trip Out West, Day 5: We Really Hit the Road

This was the first day of the major driving that we’d be doing for the trip. Our first stop was Page, AZ, after driving through some lovely country with scattered houses and farms. Man, that drive took me back: sage brush, the occasional juniper or Joshua tree, unexpected washes, lovely streaks of red and white sandstone in the distance. I do miss the beauty of the West in all its many forms.

I was really fascinated by that freestanding butte for some reason.

Was it a butte? They're supposed to be taller than they are wide,

but this one doesn't quite meet that. So is it a mesa? 

An actual, mesa-sized mesa?

I can’t tell you exactly what time we got to Page because we must have crossed into different time zones four or five times the whole trip. First there was the divide between Pacific and Mountain time, then apparently Arizona doesn’t have daylight savings, but the Native American reservations do. So yeah, we pretty much confused until we finally hit Colorado.

Page has a dam too, the Glenn Canyon Dam that forms Lake Powell, so we had a bit more fun with that. Then it was time to head out to the Navajo Nation to see Antelope Canyon.

Yeah, it was a bit windy that day. More on that later.

Areg had been especially excited about this, and when we booked everything back in June we’d had no choice but to book a “private” tour—which ended up being pretty awesome. Antelope Canyon was crowded with tourists (hard to avoid that, given that it’s a slot canyon), but then we got to go to nearby Rattlesnake Canyon all on our own, with only the guide. Honestly, Areg and I both preferred that canyon for its beauty, the quiet and privacy, and the way that you could walk the whole thing end to end.

Here's Antelope Canyon. 

Rattlesnake Canyon is after the next paragraph.

Can you see the heart?

This one looks a little bit like a certain "monument" 

that we'd be seeing the next day.

Our guide was young, and getting information about the canyon out of him was a bit like pulling teeth, but he definitely knew all the best spots to take photos and even knew how to help Areg adjust his cell phone for the best lighting. He did share that his people actually avoided the canyons in the past, as they were bad luck—not only because the overhangs blocked the sky, but because they’re a favorite spot for owls, which are considered unlucky. He shared that the woman who owns the land has a ceremony for all the guides at the beginning of the season to counter any bad luck. He also told us that he, along with many of the Navajo who were not working, would spend the following day of the eclipse indoors with family and friends, being careful not to sleep until the event was over (not too big an issue, since the eclipse was in the middle of the day).

Rattlesnake Canyon

Areg just looks awesome in all his pictures from this trip. 8-)

We ended up taking the long way around on our way back to Page. First, we stopped at Horseshoe Bend, one of the places that Areg had been before but I hadn’t (I don’t think—I saw a lot of awesome squiggly rivers in Utah and its area, but don’t think my family ever made it that far). The wind was picking up and it below a bunch of sand into our hair. It made picture taking hard, but I’ve had a weird soft spot for picking sand out of my hair since I lived in Singapore, since it reminds me of the best parts of a vacation.

 Horseshoe Bend

Next we took a scenic drive along the edge of Lake Powell, just to take a closer look. It’s hard to imagine that it was basically like Zion Canyon, but much longer, before the Glen Canyon Dam went in and formed the lake. As with Lake Mead at Hoover Dam, the lake was down almost 80 feet. Still, we couldn’t have picked a better time of day to visit—the storm in the distant south turned the sky spectacular red, blues, indigos, and violets, and the setting sun to the west lit up the stone cliffs across the lake.

Sunset over the cliffs across the water.

An awesome sunset with a rainbow, lightning storm, 

and incredibly rich colors.

If we’d had more time, I would have loved to spend an extra day at Lake Powell—to take a boat tour up the lake along the tops of the still-impressive once-towering cliffs, hike to see Rainbow Bridge, and visit Lower Antelope Canyon—apparently you can do that last by kayak, starting from the lake! 

For more pictures, see Areg's Facebook. 

Work and a Room

Today when I talked to my mom on the phone, she pointed out that I had been remiss in keeping Twitter, Facebook, etc. up to date with my current situation. Thing is, I don't just have the new job to talk about today. I also have...

...an apartment!

It was very quick. During the last week of my internship, I started looking at PadMapper on the recommendation of a coworker, scoping out prices and locations. I arranged for some meetings, saw apartments in Harlem and Brooklyn, and finally settled on this one in the Lower East Side. Check it out: 

Isn't it awesome? There's another window in front of the chair and a closet to the left as you walk into the room. Probably a bit too much space for me, really, but it's great. 

I'm living with two adults--I mean, older than me, the noob (as Kate would say)--past their twenties. The guy with the lease is Australian, has lived in New York for seven years, and owns to bars, one in the Lower East Side (LES) and one in Brooklyn. He's very into sports, especially swimming. His grandfather was in the Olympics in the 1930s and won more than one gold medal. I've hardly seen the person renting the other room. She's in film production, working with projects that shoot on location in New York, and she's usually out all night. The one time I saw her, she'd just gotten home from work as I was making breakfast at 6:15 in the morning! 

In addition to the extra space, there's a full kitchen, a washer and dryer, and a place to keep a bike downstairs. 

It's not perfect, of course. If it was, I'd be living with even more people my own age. But it's great for a first place to live. 

Now on to The Job!

I won't apologize for all the exclamation points. It's exciting.

I work in the Flatiron Building. Over lunch on Monday I saw more people than I expected looking up at it, so after casually finding a spot where I wouldn't be observed (Muhlenberg's social psych experiments have made me very self-conscious about looking up just because someone else is) I looked up too. And lo, a rainbow did shine forth in a halo around the majestic edifice in which I am to spend my days toiling in the name of publishing and capitalism. </end olde talke> I couldn't take a picture because I could barely look long enough to see it, the sky was so bright--I was hoping that one of the many pictures I saw being taken would get posted on the internet so I could direct you to it, but no such luck, apparently. 

Monday was a full day of orientation: benefits, perks, insurance, technology, clocking hours, all capped of by an editorial meeting in which I followed only about 80% of what was happening. The rest of this week was and is full of more personal editorial-assistant training from other EAs and the Assistant Editor I'll be working with/for. Everyone has been so nice, friendly, and helpful. I'm in a bit of a spot because office reorganization has temporarily landed me in the flat side of the building while the rest of editorial is in the point (!), and there's a card-swipe door between the two that I won't be able to get through on my own until I get my ID. I should be back with the rest of the team in a few weeks. 

I'm sure I'll have more interesting details to talk about as I learn and do more, but for now I'll keep this post incredibly short (for me) and get back to hunting down easy, tasty recipes. Rhinophant can't satisfy forever. If you have any suggestions, let me know!