Jason Moran
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Back From Vacation in Arizona
My wife and I had a blast touring around Arizona. I hate to admit this, but I didn't know where Arizona was until the last day of our trip. I knew it was somewhere south of Colorado, but I'm not even all that sure about where Colorado is. For some reason I thought there was a state south of AZ...
Anyway, it was so fun and beautiful. The scenery is so much cooler than ANYTHING in Ohio. We flew in to Phoenix, grabbed our rental car, then headed to the Fairmont Princess Resort in Scottsdale. Dude, that place is serious luxury (and huge...requiring up to MINUTES of driving to get to different parts of the resort). It has the longest water slide in Arizona for it's guests, a huge spa, a PGA golf course, like 5 restaurants, and I'm sure a lot more.
Scottsdale is ritzy and expensive. The worst car we saw in 3 days of driving around was a 2005 Lexus. I'm not exaggerating at all either. Anyway, I don't know what you are supposed to do in Scottsdale, but we mostly just went out to eat or shop at expensive places.
I don't want to get too detailed, so let's speed this up. Next up was Sedona, which is where the "Red Rocks" are. We took a Pink Jeep Tour which was freaking awesome and otherwise took in the impressive scenery. Oh yeah, back in Mesa (in the valley near Phoenix just like Scottsdale is) we went on an ATV tour through the mountains--this was the best part of our trip.
Next was a day trip to the Grand Canyon which you need to see in person (pictures don't do it justice) followed by a quiet night in Flagstaff. This state has such extremes! In Scottsdale it was 109 degrees and a couple of days later it was a high of 55 degrees in Flagstaff (7000-foot-elevation is why).
Anyway, the return to the valley had us stop by Sedona again at the Sedona Rouge Resort and a stop by the Cowboy Club restaurant for Cactus Fries, Buffalo Steaks, and Rattlesnake Skewers (they were all really good). We finished the trip up in Tempe, which is nestled up to Phoenix and Scottsdale. It's a cool college town, so it's much younger than the rest of our trip was.
I really liked AZ and I would consider moving there... I'll have some pics out some time later this week (possibly on my soon to be updated website). ¶ 10:20 AM 4 Comments
Anyway, it was so fun and beautiful. The scenery is so much cooler than ANYTHING in Ohio. We flew in to Phoenix, grabbed our rental car, then headed to the Fairmont Princess Resort in Scottsdale. Dude, that place is serious luxury (and huge...requiring up to MINUTES of driving to get to different parts of the resort). It has the longest water slide in Arizona for it's guests, a huge spa, a PGA golf course, like 5 restaurants, and I'm sure a lot more.
Scottsdale is ritzy and expensive. The worst car we saw in 3 days of driving around was a 2005 Lexus. I'm not exaggerating at all either. Anyway, I don't know what you are supposed to do in Scottsdale, but we mostly just went out to eat or shop at expensive places.
I don't want to get too detailed, so let's speed this up. Next up was Sedona, which is where the "Red Rocks" are. We took a Pink Jeep Tour which was freaking awesome and otherwise took in the impressive scenery. Oh yeah, back in Mesa (in the valley near Phoenix just like Scottsdale is) we went on an ATV tour through the mountains--this was the best part of our trip.
Next was a day trip to the Grand Canyon which you need to see in person (pictures don't do it justice) followed by a quiet night in Flagstaff. This state has such extremes! In Scottsdale it was 109 degrees and a couple of days later it was a high of 55 degrees in Flagstaff (7000-foot-elevation is why).
Anyway, the return to the valley had us stop by Sedona again at the Sedona Rouge Resort and a stop by the Cowboy Club restaurant for Cactus Fries, Buffalo Steaks, and Rattlesnake Skewers (they were all really good). We finished the trip up in Tempe, which is nestled up to Phoenix and Scottsdale. It's a cool college town, so it's much younger than the rest of our trip was.
I really liked AZ and I would consider moving there... I'll have some pics out some time later this week (possibly on my soon to be updated website). ¶ 10:20 AM 4 Comments
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Washing Your Feet
I'm just hopeful that nobody had any weird foot diseases. Athlete's foot, eww. Since I was the 2nd last one to put my foot into the washing bowl, I have a lot to worry about.
You see, last night as part of my Christian men's group we did something with very little social relevance nowadays: we washed one another's feet. We coupled each foot washing with words of encouragement and a few minutes of prayer as we laid our hands on the man's back.
I suppose that kind of thing is weird sounding to the average Joe, but it was a good and memorable time. It takes a lot of humbleness both to wash a foot or to even let your own foot get washed. In the present age, letting another dude grab your foot and wash it is, well, awkward. I also don't know many people that would think "Hey, let me rub your bunion-riddled and corn-covered crusty heel and toes." (Thankfully nobody had feet that gross).
I think a lot of people know the story where Jesus washed the apostles feet (and they objected because that was a servants job, not their master's job. That sacrifice and humbleness was just a glimpse into the sacrifice and humbleness a God was about to take by allowing iron nails and some wood to take the life of the same being that flung stars into distant galaxies. His feet washing was paralleling the washing of our sins away. For the 0.007% of you that will get this reference, it was like the Scouring of the Shire at the end of the Lord of the Rings book in that it was a tiny paralleled version of a bigger story.
I don't usually make very religion-oriented posts, but yesterday was enough out of the ordinary that I thought I'd make an out of the ordinary post about it.
You see, last night as part of my Christian men's group we did something with very little social relevance nowadays: we washed one another's feet. We coupled each foot washing with words of encouragement and a few minutes of prayer as we laid our hands on the man's back.
I suppose that kind of thing is weird sounding to the average Joe, but it was a good and memorable time. It takes a lot of humbleness both to wash a foot or to even let your own foot get washed. In the present age, letting another dude grab your foot and wash it is, well, awkward. I also don't know many people that would think "Hey, let me rub your bunion-riddled and corn-covered crusty heel and toes." (Thankfully nobody had feet that gross).
I think a lot of people know the story where Jesus washed the apostles feet (and they objected because that was a servants job, not their master's job. That sacrifice and humbleness was just a glimpse into the sacrifice and humbleness a God was about to take by allowing iron nails and some wood to take the life of the same being that flung stars into distant galaxies. His feet washing was paralleling the washing of our sins away. For the 0.007% of you that will get this reference, it was like the Scouring of the Shire at the end of the Lord of the Rings book in that it was a tiny paralleled version of a bigger story.
I don't usually make very religion-oriented posts, but yesterday was enough out of the ordinary that I thought I'd make an out of the ordinary post about it.
Labels: Christianity, feet
¶ 3:32 PM 4 Comments