The first weekend of this month was a busy one. On Saturday, Jeff and I spent the afternoon in Jerome, AZ, the ghost town near us. We wandered the galleries before their monthly art walk started at 5pm. After that, Jeff was in the gallery with his photographs so he could greet visitors and tell them the back-story of how they were taken.

While he was working, I sat on the gallery’s deck, looking out over the beautiful Verde Valley and Red Rocks of Sedona. I read and watched the shadows crawl across the valley. I could hear a rooster crow and a goat bleat from a house on the street below. It was so peaceful.

The next day, we went to Prescott to visit their arts and crafts fair. First, we went to Watson Lake in the Granite Dells to have a picnic. We sat in a ramada high above the lake. The view of the rounded boulders around and islands in the lake was gorgeous. Jeff decided to take some photographs.

Over an hour and a sunburn later, he decided to quit for the day. Neither of us had put on any sunscreen that morning, thinking we weren’t really going to be in the sun much. Bad decision. The sun in Arizona can cook you to a crisp in very little time. And it’s worse in the high altitudes, like Prescott and Flagstaff. I was luckier than Jeff, because I stayed pretty much in the shade.

Fortunately, the arts and crafts fair was around the Courthouse Square under the trees. Yes, Arizona has lakes and trees. So we didn’t get much more sun. But it was a lesson that we should have known by now. We’ll put on sunscreen any time we’re going to be outdoors.