Arizona

desert

Grand Canyon

panoramae

Phoenix

arrival

hotel

the Rez

dust storm

Tempe

Tucson

I've had several good reasons to visit the beautiful state of Arizona: friends and business. My godkids lived in Tucson for many years, and I spent a summer and autumn working as a computer security geek, seconded from my Israeli employers to Motorola corporation (shown at right) in the four-city area: Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, and Mesa.

It was in the middle of that time - the last week in August and the first week of September, 1997 - that I took my wife Rose along for a long weekend between two workweeks. (I'd been leaving San Francisco and flying to Phoenix each Monday morning and returning each Friday evening. This time I had the company fly her down and back instead of me.) A round-trip is a round-trip, no matter who is in the seat.