Vacation High Points

- finally getting the suitcase closed over all the winter clothing
- finally having a fellow driver kind enough to let you pull out from behind the semi climbing the mountain at 37 mph
-  seeing Dry Beaver Creek full of water, noting a place to pull off next trip now you know it's there and can turn in time without getting rear-ended
- seeing all the snow on the red rock formations
- meeting good friends and making them better ones
- sharing each other's stories
- gracefully navigating 4 adults with just one bathroom
- finding out the landlord stocked just over enough toilet paper for you all, it was just hidden
- finding back roads you never knew existed, offering new vistas
- locating Coffee Pot, Sugarloaf, and Snoopy rocks
- not needing to walk the dogs
- having even the non-dog-person agree that our dogs are actually well behaved, even if he won't pet them and thinks they stink up his car 
- being able to sit in the car while others with better knees do most of the hiking
- finding a large ammonite, opalized in red bands blending to orange, in my price range
- exploring the Turquoise Spider, visited on a previous visit many years ago, enjoying it even more this time (sign: "Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.") (T-shirt with fly fisherman in stream picture: "Sorry I couldn't answer the phone. I was on my other line.") (T-shirt with feathered fishing lure pictured: "The way to a man's heart is through his fly.")
- also finding a pottery storyteller in googly-eyed frogs with ladybugs. In my price range.
- Seeing more architectural details from the old mining town not noticed on previous trip
- finding a really great Mexican restaurant, another time a great pizza restaurant
- saving money by mostly cooking at the house
- having somebody else do most of the cooking and appreciate what you cook
- turning around to see the huge pile of snow now covering the sidewalk where you just had walked when the tree had only dumped a tiny bit on its snow on your head, waiting till you passed
- sharing some of your favorite and much-visited places and finding your friends take just as much enjoyment from them
- crackling fires in the fireplace, once somebody buys a hatchet to make actual kindling
- somebody else driving
- free native flute concerts
- sighting most of a javelina,
- having packed enough ibuprofin even though it doesn't begin to make up for the abuse your knees have taken through the week

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- having car packed  to head home with help carrying from friends
- collecting good-bye hugs
- having the other couple still there when you finally remember what you forgot to pack, and arranging to get it from them next summer
- driving yourself
- reprising the high points of the last week with your partner
- peace and quiet again
- warmer temps
- saguaros again
- putting the dogs in the back yard while you unpack the car
- no stair between you and the bathroom
- having your own bathroom again and a low-threshold shower instead of a tub
- having your partner be the second one to flush, realizing he needs to go out and turn the water back on, and doing it
- opening up the house to fresh air again, briefly. (Note to self: next time remember to take the garbage out before you leave!)
- knowing the real unpacking can wait a bit
- finding some actually decent pictures among the hordes
- RECLINERS!!!   ahhhhhhhhhhhh....