My month in Arizona

I just got back yesterday from spending the month in Tucson. As I'd said in a previous blog, I was doing a Neurology rotation which went very well. So today, instead of discussing that anymore, I will tell about some of the extracurricular events Becca and I did while there.

On the first weekend, we went down to Chiricaua National Monument. It's in Southeastern Arizona and is an area with a lot of interesting rock formations predominantly composed of vertical pillars of rocks. Its a fascinating place in part because I have a hard time understanding it. I understand how a place like the Grand Canyon could have formed, but how does this happen? The explanation they provide there states that there was a volcanic eruption, lots of deposits in the area from it, then progressive erosion leaving these formations. It still doesn't really make sense to me. That said, however it formed, it's a beautiful place. We took a hike down there and this is a picture from the hike.

The second weekend Becca was on call Saturday night, so we we're going to go anywhere far away. Instead we went Saturday morning and took walk of about 6 miles in Sabino Canyon of which I've posted pictures before. If you get down to Tucson Sabino Canyon is right there and certainly worth going too. We went back there the last weekend as well and did a different hike, this one somewhere between 6 and 8 miles. We weren't exactly certain where we turned around so I don't know how far we went.

The 3rd weekend was Becca's class retreat in Rocky Point, Mexico, also known as Puerto Penasco. It's the same place Becca and I had gone to visit last fall. We spent Saturday morning on the beach swimming, tossing a football around, reading, enjoying the sun, etc., basically enjoying a beautiful beach. We also went shopping a bit this time like we had done last trip, but this time we didn't but anything. On the way back we waited at the border for 1 1/2 hours, but some of the others left later than we did and waited up to 3 1/2 hours. I thought our wait was bad enough.

The last night I was there we went west of Tucson to watch the sunset. There were a few clouds that somewhat obscured the view, but it was still beautiful. I think the next time I'm out there we may go out to that spot again and see if it's a better time for pictures, but we did get some decent pictures anyway. We took a few of the two of us with our backs to the sunset, but the lighting didn't come out too well.

Then I flew back to Albany yesterday and spent today getting settled back in here. Tomorrow I get back to work and start my Endocrinology rotation.