Arizona

The summer before I turned 13 I went with a friend of mine named Marc and his family to a reunion in Snowflake, Arizona. His family owned property in the mountains there and we stayed for a few days. It was a very fun reunion, there were all kinds of activities to participate in. There was even a dance (there were a lot of teenagers there at the reunion). I was one of the lucky ones because I didn't have to dance with a bunch of girls I was related to :) The weather was really nice because we were in the mountains and pine trees.

One day Marc and I decide to go shooting with his twelve gauge shotgun. We didn't really know what to shoot at, but Marc spotted a bird in a tree branch and decided to aim for it. He missed … but he was close enough to knock the tree branch down and it somehow fell on the bird and killed it. I don't think we really thought about the fact that we were killing the bird (it didn't really hit home for either of us until it was too late, and Marc and I both felt pretty bad about it).

After that we went to Winslow Arizona where Marc's grandmother lived. One day we went to a river near some cliffs and did some cliff jumping. It was very fun. Then we went to a ranch … I don't remember why, but it was probably owned by one of Marc's relatives. We shot guns – I think there was a 10 gauge shotgun that had a pretty good kick. And we got to drive a truck through the ranch (“off road”). It was probably the first time I had ever driven a vehicle completely by myself. I definitely liked it.

Finally we ended up at Marc's sister's house in Mesa, Arizona. It was August and it was sooooo hot. We were supposed to stay a whole week, but one of Marc's brothers was going home early and I went with him while Marc stayed. I really didn't want anything to do with the stifling heat in Mesa, the mountains of Snowflake were much nicer than the suburban Mesa desert. I also have a random memory of being in Mesa and finding some club soda in the closet. I thought it would be good, like Sprite, so I opened a can and started to drink … but it was one of the worst things I have ever tasted :)