More Seattle Fun

A lot has happened since I added a post to my journal. The day after we got back from the San Juan Islands, Lois and I decided to do the downtown Seattle tourist bit. We got up early, parked the car in a park-and-ride lot a few miles from the RV park and rode a bus to downtown Seattle. We got off a few blocks from Pike Place Market and wandered through the market and surrounding shops for an hour or so. I had seen the market so many times on TV and in movies, it was a thrill to finally see it in person. I recognized several of the guys at the fish market from the "Fish" videos, and they really were cheerfully throwing fish and carrying on a lot of banter shortly after 8:00 a.m. When the Seattle Aquarium opened at 9:30, Lois and I were there in line. We purchased a City Pass ticket that gave us access to five attractions. The aquarium was much smaller and less spectacular than the new Georgia Aquarium, but I thought they did an excellent job educating visitors (especially children) about the sea creatures of the Northwest.

After the Aquarium, we took a tour around Seattle harbor aboard an Argosy Lines boat. It was a short tour, but an interesting and educational introduction to the Seattle waterfront. We then had lunch at one of the Ivar's Clams outlets--crowded and noisy, but pretty good fish and better than average clam chowder.

Next on our list of attractions was the Pacific Science Center, which is a mile or two from where we were. We walked for six or eight blocks and then caught the famous Seattle monorail for the remainder of the way. I remember seeing the monorail and the Space Needle as symbols of the Seattle World's Fair back in the early sixties. They're both still operating today and are a favorite of tourists.

The Pacific Science Center was super. Like the aquarium, it was targeted at kids, but there was plenty to entertain and educate the geriatric set also. In particular, the butterfly house, the dinosaur fossil exhibit and the Imax film on Mount St. Helens. I have to admit, however, that I missed part of the film because I kept nodding off. This was certainly not the fault of the film. Since I had just finished a good lunch and was still and warm for more than five minutes, I probably would have fallen asleep if I had actually been on the side of the mountain when it erupted.
After we finished at the Science Center, Steven, who had completed the Washington State Bar Exam at noon that very day, came and picked us up at the Space Needle. (Elizabeth was still in North Carolina working.) Steven showed us their new apartment close to downtown Seattle and then took us out to Bothell, home to our RV park. We had a nice dinner with Steven at a Thai restaurant in Bothell and then a visit at our motor home. Benji, Steven and Elizabeth's dog, doesn't get too excited about any thing, but he was really glad to see Steven and to go home with him after a three-day stay with us.

On Friday, we were tired from two full days of sightseeing, so we didn't go anywhere and instead spent the day on maintenance. Lois washed clothes and I washed the motor home. Saturday morning, we checked out of the RV park and drove the motor home and the rental car to the ferry that connects Edmonds, WA, with Kingston, WA. We had decided that it would be more cost effective and time saving to take both vehicles by ferry, drop off the motor home at Emily's house in Port Townsend, and then continue in the rental car on a two-day trip around the Olympic peninsula. I'm glad that we did. The Olympic Peninsula, and Olympic National Park in particular, is a true national treasure. The picture shows the waiting line to board the Kingston Ferry.

Well, it's about 10:00 p.m., and I'm nodding off again. I'll have to finish this post in the morning. After a good night's sleep, I'll continue.

Good morning. Coffee is brewing, I slept well, and all's right with the world. So, back to the story.
We left Emily's house on Saturday about 10:00 a.m. and drove to Hurricane Ridge, south of Port Angeles, our first stop in Olympic NP. The road rises from just about sea level to 5,200 feet in less than 20 miles. The view from the visitor's center on the ridge takes your breath away. looking southward, you are faced with a panorama of snow capped mountains that covers more than 180 degrees. Looking back to the north, it is said that the Straight of San Juan de Fuca is visible, but clouds barred our view. Nonetheless, it was one of the most spectacular panoramas I have ever seen. I tried to capture it with the panorama function on my camera but wasn't very successful at it.
From Hurricane Ridge, we drove back down the mountain and continued west (counterclockwise) around the Olympic Peninsula. Our next venture into the interior was a drive along the Sol Duc River toward Sol Duc Hot Springs. We didn't drive all the way to the hot springs, but did see some beautiful scenery along the river including Salmon Cascades, this small waterfall.
We returned to the perimeter road (Highway 101) and drove west, leaving 101 to drive along the coast toward Neah Bay and Cape Flattery, the most northwestern point in the U.S. Because the day was waning, we didn't make it all the way to Cape Flattery, but did see some gorgeous scenery along the coast.
After backtracking to Highway 101, we turned south toward the small town of Forks, WA, where I had made a reservation at a small mom-and-pop motel. When we had checked in, we drove to the Smokehouse Restaurant, which specializes in salmon smoked with Alder wood, where we had a good seafood dinner.

On Sunday morning, we drove to the Hoh Rain Forest, one of the main attractions in Olympic NF. Olympic's rain forests are one of the few temperate, as opposed to tropical, rain forests in the world. Not only is it a curiosity, but it has a serene beauty that's unique. It is really a magical place. Elk browse under gigantic spruce, fir and hemlock trees that are draped in hanging and clinging mosses. The understory is a forest of ferns, mosses and other ground covers. There is almost no bare ground except on the trails. This is certainly a place that everyone should visit if they have an opportunity. Returning to Highway 101, we continued south to the section of highway that parallels the Pacific Coast. Although the ocean is not visible from as many places as the drive along the California coast, it is no less spectacular. We stopped at Ruby Beach, and I walked down the bluff to take pictures of the waves, the sea stacks (standing rocks and small islands just off the beach) and massive piles of driftwood. These are a few of my shots.

Leaving the coast we continued south to the town of Aberdeen, where we had a late lunch and turned east. We drove through pastoral country before turning north for another scenic drive along the Hood Canal and back to Port Townsend. We arrived at Emily's around 5:30, chatted a while, and then went to dinner at a Mexican Restaurant within walking distance of Emily's house. We turned in early in the motor home so that Emily could get her and her dogs ready for another work week. She leaves at seven with her two dogs, drives to Kingston, takes the ferry to Edmonds, and then drives to Bellevue, where she works. Quite a schedule. It makes me appreciate being retired.

Today Lois and I will finish packing for our trip home, and then I'm going to change the oil on the motor home. Around noon or so, we'll leave the motor home here in Emily's yard and take the rental car back across the ferry to Seattle to meet up with Steven and Elizabeth. I think we have plans for a Mariners' game tonight, probably a little more sightseeing tomorrow, and an early flight to Atlanta on Wednesday.

Unless something remarkable happens, I'll probably suspend the journal while we're at home in Atlanta and start again once we return to Seattle on August 15.

Until then....

Fun in Seattle

Lois and I are having fun in Seattle.

Tuesday we picked up our rental car from Enterprise. I had reserved a compact car, but the only car available was a new Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4. They let me have it at the price of a compact, so we're really stylin' in Seattle now.

Tuesday afternoon, we went for a tour of the Boeing assembly plant. It was very interesting, but a little sterile. I had memories of touring a GM assembly plant in Arlington, TX and Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS years ago and both were much more "up close and personal". I think these days of terrorism and industrial espionage have probably resulted in diminished enjoyment of a lot of things, including tours of industrial plants. Nonetheless, the Boeing plant was impressive. We saw several planes being assembled, including the new 787 Dreamliner. Probably the most impressive thing, however, was the sheer size of the assembly building where they assemble all of their widebody planes. It's touted as the largest building in the world by volume. At this one facility, over 27,000 employees work.

After we got back from the Boeing plant, Emily dropped by with her Boxer Stella, and her new puppy Annie. Annie is a beauty, but she's the typical Boxer pup--all skin and bones with huge feet and inexhaustible energy. Although Stella is 4 1/2, she and Anne remind me of a couple of kids who can't keep their hands off each other. Emily says that they do stop scuffling sometimes, but you couldn't prove it by me. Benji wasn't impressed at all with his "cousins", but then Benji isn't crazy about any other dogs.

After playing with the dogs for a while, we went to dinner at a nearby Macaroni Grill and then visited a Borders Bookstore to make sure that few people had the new Harry Potter book (and CDs) before us.

This morning, we got up early and drove about an hour and a half to Anacortes, WA, to catch the San Juan Island Ferry. There was a low, patchy fog as we left the dock, but it soon dissipated, and we had sunny skies the rest of the day. Our first stop was Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, the largest and most "touristy" of the towns. We walked off the ferry, browsed around a while and then decided to take the inter-island ferry back to Anacortes. We stopped and had lunch on Orcas Island and stopped but didn't get off the ferry on Shaw and Lopez Islands. Shaw and Lopez both appear to be quaint, rural islands. The highlight of the trip was sighting a bald eagle who appeared to be nesting in a tree close to one of the ferry docks. I was envious of those passengers who had large telephoto lenses on their cameras, but I was able to get a couple of pictures where you can actually tell that it was bald eagle. To top it off, on the way back to Anacortes, I noticed that Mt. Baker had peeked out from behind the clouds. What a gorgeous peak!

We got back to Anacortes about 3:00 and back to our RV Park about 4:30. All in all, it was a good day--perfect weather, beautiful scenery, small crowds and the round trip fare was only $14 each.

More later

More North Cascades Pictures

Here are some more pictures Lois and I took in North Cascades NP. This is the spot where we camped. From this picture, you can see that we were in trees, but you really can't see the size of the trees to the side of the motorhome. These two pictures give a somewhat better idea. The first is looking straight up about 10-15 feet from our motor home. The second is about 20-25 ft away from our door.

This is the fallen tree that I mentioned covered in mosses.

This is a picture I took of a small pool of water just off the Skagit River. Waves on the river filled the little pool much like a tidal pool on the beach. I thought the moss covered banks of the pool, the rocks and the leaf were beautiful.

And, last but not least is the author in his new t-shirt and haircut.

We left North Cascades this morning early and had an uneventful drive into the Seattle area. Niles led us straight to the RV park where I had made a reservation, and it is very nice. The RV sites are situated around a small lake, and they are separated by high hedges between each site. It's certainly one of the most picturesque commercial sites that we have visited. This is good since we plan to be here for about a week.

Our son-in-law Steven brought Benji their dog by this afternoon on his way to the hotel where he is staying during the bar exam. The candidates are encouraged to stay in a hotel close to the exam site since traffic jams are no excuse for tardiness and the exam will not be give again until January.

Tomorrow we'll pick up our rent car around noon and do some exploring in the Seattle area. Tomorrow night, we'll be having dinner with Emily. Thursday night we hope to have dinner with Steven after he finishes the bar exam, and Monday night we'll be going to a Seattle Mariners basesball game. Next Wednesday, August 1, we'll be flying back to Atlanta for two weeks before returning to Seattle for the remainder of our trip.

More later.

North Cascades

7-22-07

If you’ve never been to North Cascades National Park, stop what you’re doing and get out here now. If not the most beautiful place I have ever been, it has to rank among the top two or three. We’re camped tonight (sans all amenities including wifi and satellite radio) in the main National Park campground in an old-growth forest surrounded by gigantic hemlock, fir and spruce trees. There are ferns and mosses everywhere. When you walk in the forest, it’s like walking on a well-padded carpet. The trunk of a huge fallen tree was so covered with mosses and ferns that, but for its shape, you would not recognize it as a tree trunk. If this is not a true rain forest, it can’t be far from it. I'll attach some of these pictures separately.

This morning we had a leisurely breakfast before breaking camp, and Lois gave me a much-needed haircut. We left our campsite in Twisp, WA, and drove a few miles up the road to the Methow Valley United Methodist Church. Methow Valley is a combined congregation of several churches in the area, including Twisp and Winthrop. Both the Twisp and Winthrop churches burned in the 1990s and the congregations combined to form Methow Valley. We had a delightful worship experience with these good people and enjoyed coffee and fellowship after the service.

A few more miles up the road, while driving through the small town of Winthrop, Lois noticed a t-shirt in a shop window with a picture of a Melinda’s Hot Sauce label on the front. I’ve been a great fan of Melinda’s for at least 10 years, so we had to stop and buy one of the t-shirts. I’ll attach a copy of a picture that Lois took of me in my new t-shirt with my new haircut along with my other pictures. You'll see how spiffy I look.

After we left Winthrop, we drove through some of the most beautiful alpine scenery I’ve ever seen, including the namesake of alpine scenery, the German, Austrian and Swiss Alps. Although some of the higher peaks were shrouded in fog and a light rain was falling at times, these only added to the atmosphere and are what one would expect in the Pacific Northwest. We also passed gorgeous lakes and numerous waterfalls that would be worthy of a visit on their own.
At one of the overlooks, I was taking a picture of a dead tree potruding over a canyon. I was interested in the tree because of the moss growing on it. While I was looking through the viewfinder, a beautiful blue bird landed on the dead tree, and I was able to zoom in for what I consider to be one of my best pictures of the trip.

I’ve about run out of superlatives describing the beauty that I’ve seen today. I know Lois is tired of hearing my “oohing” and “aahing”. After all, how many times can you stand to hear someone say, “This is absolutely gorgeous” or words to that effect. But I just can’t keep quiet when confronted with such magnificence. I’m just thankful to God that he has let Lois and me live long enough and provided the resources to enable us to witness this example of the grandeur of His creation.

Tomorrow we’ll complete our transit of North Cascades NP and return to the city to dog sit our “Granddog” Benji. It will be hard to top what we’ve seen today.

More later.

One More Night

We have one more night on the road before we reach Seattle. As I write this, I'm sitting outside our motor home parked by a fast-flowing river (I think it's the Methow River, but I'm not positive.) just east of the Cascade Mountains outside a little town called Twisp, WA. Today we drove through the Columbia River valley, an area renowned for its fruits and vegetables. We stopped at a roadside produce stand and bought cherries, fresh sweet corn and zucchini. The corn and zucchini are on the grill as I write this, along with some chicken breasts that we picked up in town. This is not a bad way to live.

Tomorrow, we'll cross the Cascades through North Cascades National Park and either camp in the park or just west of there. Monday it will be an easy trip into the greater Seattle area. We're staying at an RV park in Bothell, WA, just north of Seattle. Monday afternoon our son-in-law Steven will meet us at the RV park and deliver our "Granddog" Benji, whom we will keep for a few days while Steven takes the Washington State bar exam. Elizabeth is still in Durham, NC, for a few more days finishing up her duties as Assistant Director of the Divinity School's Youth Academy. She will be back in Seattle for a few days before we leave to return to Atlanta for a couple of weeks August 1.

We also hope to see as much as we can of Emily, who is working in Seattle but commuting every day to her home in Port Townsend. This involves a long ferry ride as well as a considerable drive. We're particularly eager to see new Boxer puppy Annie. We've seen pictures, but now will get to meet her in person. (Do you meet dogs in person, or is the term "in dog"?)
The last couple of days have been good, and we've covered a lot of ground. Friday morning we left Cascade, ID, and drove north through some pretty fantastic scenery, ranging from river gorges to some of the most productive wheat country I've ever seen. Being from cotton and soybean country, wheat is a new thing for me. It's certainly prettier than either cotton or soybeans. I can see where the "amber waves of grain" comes from.

One of our stops yesterday was at the Nez Perce National Historical Site. I bought a booklet about Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce wars of the 1870's. I also bought Steven Ambrose's book about Lewis and Clark. I want to read more about Chief Joseph and Lewis and Clark and perhaps follow the Lewis and Clark trail when we return from Seattle in a few weeks.

Last night we stayed in a commercial RV park just west of Coeur d'Alene, ID, within sight (and earshot) of I-84. This morning, we drove across more wheat country before making an interesting stop at Grand Coulee Dam. Did you know that there is enough concrete in Grand Coulee Dam to build a standard six-foot-wide sidewalk around the world at the equator? It is an impressive sight and impressive country. I'll try to post a few pictures after supper.

Interstate Day

We left Snowville, UT, about 9:00 a.m. on Thursday and stayed on I-84 most of the day. Getting close to Twin Falls, ID, I noticed a sign for Shoshone Falls. I had never heard of it, but decided it was worth a short detour, anyway. I'm sure glad that we took the time. The only way to describe the falls is awsome. They are worth a trip to Utah. Here are a few pictures.

We drove to Boise and then left the Interstate, heading north on Idaho Highway 55. It rises quickly from the arid country around Boise to high mountain scenery. Tonight we're camped in a commercial RV park by the Payette River in Cascades, ID. Beautiful scenery, and we hope to see more of it tomorrow when we'll follow the Salmon River (the fabled River of No Return) north through the panhandle of Idaho.

More later.

Pictures from Bryce and Capitol Reef

Here are a few of the many pictures from Bryce Canyon.

Here are a couple from Capitol Reef.

It’s Wednesday, I haven’t posted my journal since last Saturday, and a lot has happened since then. I write this from the little burg of Snowville, UT a few miles from the Idaho border just off I 84. (I confess I traveled the interstate from Provo, UT, through Salt Lake City and on to the Idaho border. We’ll probably stay on I 84 to Boise and then get back on two lane roads.)

Today, I had intended to visit Timpanogos Cave National Monument and Golden Spike National Historic Site, but, as usual, I had planned too many activities for one day. We spent the night just south of Provo, got a relatively late start and took advantage of the urban area to do some grocery shopping. This meant that we didn’t arrive at Timpanogos until almost noon. When we bought tickets for the caves, the earliest tour available was 2:00 p.m. We had a picnic lunch and then began the 1 ½ mile hike to the cave. Now a mile and a half is nothing for old hikers like us, but this mile and a half was straight up the side of a mountain. The trail rises 1,065 feet in this mile and a half. This seemed steeper than the corridor trails at Grand Canyon. Lois and I hiked the mile and a half in about an hour, and we were really ready for a cool stroll through a cave. It didn’t disappoint us. We toured through three connected caves which, though small by Carlsbad standards, were nonetheless beautiful.

We came back out into the light about 3:00 p.m., and hiked slowly back down the trail to the motor home in about 30 minutes. Lois was having trouble with one of her knees on the down-hill portion of the hike, but we went slowly, and she toughed it out.

Needless to say, we didn’t have time to drive all the way across Salt Lake City in rush hour traffic and reach Golden Spike before closing time. So we decided to save Golden Spike for another trip and push on toward the Idaho border. Niles, our GPS guy, helped us find a little Mom and Pop RV Park. (Although to think of it, I’ve seen Pop, but Mom doesn’t seen to be anywhere around. Maybe that why there’s a “For Sale” at the entrance.)

Now I’ll catch up on what we saw the earlier part of the week.

We left Larry and Shelly Thompson’s at Grand Canyon on Sunday morning after a huge waffle breakfast with Larry, Shelly, Jennifer and the kids. It’s always hard to leave good friends, but especially hard to leave the Thompsons. They feel more like family than friends, and we miss seeing them on a regular basis.

In my last installment I mentioned that we had not decided which of two routes to take through Utah. The eastern route would take us through Moab where we hoped to see our friends Ross Rice, Kate Cannon and their girls. The western route would allow us to revisit some of our favorite national parks and to see some new ones. After looking at the map, we decided the eastern route would probably add at least two more days to our itinerary, a prospect that we couldn’t afford if we are to make it to Seattle by 7/23. So we decided to save Moab for another day—perhaps the return trip from Seattle to Taos in late August.

We crossed the Colorado on the Navajo Bridge and drove across the Arizona strip, stopping at Jacobs Lake Inn and picking up a bag of the cookies for which they are famous. We got a variety, and are sharing one after lunch every day. They are delicious, and they make a nice light dessert.

Driving through the Kaibab NF, we were struck by the severity of the drought and the restrictions put in place. All the campgrounds, picnic areas and most, if not all, the forest roads were closed. Pray for rain. The forests in the Southwest are parched and sorely need it.

Our next stop was a delightful one--Pipe Spring National Historical Site, a small, little known site on the Arizona strip west of Fredonia. Pipe Spring is an old Mormon farming settlement and fort which is being preserved by the National Park Service and the Paiute Indian Tribe. We had a guided tour of the fort and strolled the grounds. The orchards that were planted by the Mormon pioneers are still yielding fruit today.

We drove west from Pipe Spring through the twin towns of Colorado City, AZ, and Hillsdale, UT, towns that you’ve heard a lot about on the news in the last few years. These towns contain large concentrations of Mormon fundamentalists who still practice polygamy and who have run afoul of the law. We looked for extra large houses and other signs of “large-than-normal” families, but aside from a few houses which appeared to be larger than one would expect, the towns seemed normal.

Sunday night we stayed in an RV Park on the Virgin River, not far from Zion NP. When checking my e-mail that night, I had a message from my good friend Bob Barksdale in Jackson, MS, who recommended that we stop at the Bumbleberry Café in Springdale, UT, at the entrance to Zion for a piece of Bumbleberry Pie. So Monday morning, on our way to Zion, we picked up a couple of pieces of Bumbleberry pie to go and had it for our dessert Monday night. It was delicious. Thanks for the tip, Bob.

Monday was probably our biggest scenery day of the trip. We rode the shuttle bus up Zion Canyon, got out at the end of the hike, and walked about a mile up the trail to where the pavement stops but the trail continues, if you don’t mind walking in the Virgin River. Almost twenty years ago, when we first visited Zion with Emily and Elizabeth, Emily and I hiked another mile or so in the river. The canyon narrows quickly and in some cases, it seems that you can almost touch the sides. Lois and I weren’t equipped for river hiking, so we deferred this experience for another time.

After we got back to the visitors' center, we drove through Zion on the main east-west highway. It’s truly a magnificent trip. In one spot, there is a mile-long tunnel for which we had to pay a $15 fee for an escort because of the size of our vehicle. The tunnel is so narrow that they restrict it to one-way traffic in the case of large vehicles like our motor home.

After we left Zion, we drove quickly to Bryce Canyon and took the shuttle to some of the main viewpoints in that magnificent park. Zion and Bryce are so different, but each so beautiful. The colors and formations in Bryce could delight a photographer for weeks and weeks. We had only a few hours. As Arnold said—I’ll be back!

We dry camped at a primitive campground in Bryce on Tuesday night and got an early start for another fabulous scenery day. We drove northwest out of Bryce on Utah Highway 12, which is billed as one of the most scenic highways in the West. It lives up to its billing. It seems there’s a photo opportunity around every curve. The route goes from slick rock canyons to alpine passes at around 9,600 ft. One could spend several days just following Route 12.

We turned off Route 12 to visit a national park which neither of us had visited before and neither had heard or read much about—Capitol Reef National Park. Capitol Reef is a strange, beautiful land of multi-hued rock layers. In most places, it is rugged, stark and dry. In those few places which have water, there is a oasis quality—green grass and fruit trees. Again, there is evidence of Mormon pioneers tin the area. By mid-afternoon, we left Capitol Reef and headed toward Salt Lake City. We drove late and arrived in the Provo area around 7:00 p.m.

That catches up with what we’ve been doing the last few days.

I've got more pictures, but apparently there's a limit of five photos per post. I'll put pictures from Bryce and Capitol Reef on a separate post.

Canyon de Chelly and Grand Canyon

After a quick stop at a WalMart Super Center and Home Depot, we left Gallup, NM on Wednesday morning, leaving the interstate behind us again. We went north on the highway that was once highway 666, but which has since been renamed, and then turned and headed west on highway 264 across the Navajo reservation. After a quick stop at Hubbel Trading Post, where we saw hundreds of Navajo rugs which we couldn't afford, we were headed for Canyon de Chelly, which is about 30 miles north of highway 264. We asked Niles, the voice of our GPS for directions. Obviously Niles was not familiar with the Navajo reservation. He insisted on directing us north on every dirt road and trail that we came to, including ones that had a closed gate across them. We eventually turned Nile off and used our map and turned north on highway 191 a little west of the town of Ganado. We made it to Chinle, the town outside Canyon de Chelly, about noon. After a quick trip to the visitor center, we had a picnic lunch at the picnic grounds and headed on the south rim drive. We stopped at the first overlook, which was almost completely occupied by Native Americans selling their wares. We were impressed by the work of a couple of the artists, and ended up buying some small rock art from two artisans--one for a gift and one to keep.

We stopped at two more overlooks, Whitehouse Ruins and Spider Rock. Both were absolutely spectacular. I agree with Frommers that, while dramatically different from the Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly is nonetheless spectacular and worthy of a visit. The red rock walls contrasting with the green floor of the canyon is gorgeous. I zoomed by camera as much as I could and came away with a reasonably good picture of Whitehouse Ruins, which was quite a way away.

Spider Rock was really the highlight, though. It is a spire rising from the bottom of the canyon to almost the height of the rim. It's a photographer's dream, and I wish that I could have done it more justice. By the time we left Spider Rock, it was about 2:00 p.m. and we needed to push on to the Grand Canyon. Canyon de Chelly, however is definitely on our revisit list, and next time I want to hike to the bottom of the canyon and get as close to Whitehouse Ruins as is permissible.

After a dramatic, but tiring, drive across the Navajo reservation, we came in the east gate to GCNP and made it to our friends Larry and Shelly Thompson's house around 6:30, just in time to take advantage of one of Larry's famous grill-fests. We had barbecued chicken and ribs and the whole works. Larry and Shelly have never learned the secret of cooking small portions, and boy, am I glad! After dinner we chatted with them until almost midnight, and then went to bed in our motor home, which was parked and hooked up to utilities in their driveway.

On Friday, we visited the new exhibit at Yavapai Observation Station and the renovated El Tovar Hotel, both of which Lois and I had not seen and both of which were extremely impressive. We then went by the Headquarters building, and I visited some old friends and coworkers, who were unlucky enough to be working on a lovely Friday afternoon at one of the world's most beautiful sites. I was especially happy to see JoAnne Fearon, the Budget Chief, and Mary Killeen, whose husband I had seen a few days ago at Home Depot in Durango. Last night we had a delightful pizza dinner with Larry, Shelly, their daughter Jennifer and grandchildren, Alex, Dominic and Mackenzie.

This morning I attended a digital photo workshop sponsored by Canon cameras. It was conducted by renowned wildlife photographers and was held on the rim of the canyon. Canon provided the students top-of-the-line digital SLRs and lenses and then gave us tips on how to take better pictures. The wildlife accommodated us, and we had California Condors circling overhead and elk browsing a short distance from the ruin.

Tonight, the Canon folks will have the pictures that we took with their equipment transferred to a CD and we'll have a slide show at the Shrine of the Ages. If any of the pictures that I took are "keepers", I'll upload them to the journal.

After the photo workshop, we had a delicious lunch at the gourmet El Tovar dining room and then rode around the park looking at other familiar sites.

Tomorrow Lois and I will push on to points North. We really haven't decided where we're going from here. We had originally planned to visit the North Rim, Zion and Bryce Canyon before heading north toward Salt Lake City. Now we're toying with the idea of heading toward Moab, Utah from here and stopping by to see our friends Kate Cannon, Ross Rice and their girls. I suppose we'll have to make a decision tonight or some time tomorrow, before we get to where the road divides.

More later.