Bryce Canyon

The scenery up there is amazing.

You can see forever.

This is Goblin Valley about thirty miles from Capitol Reef. We sat up at the vista point and ate lunch.  Doesn't look all that big.

But look how big they are with us standing next to the "Goblins."

Today we hooked up with a bunch of friends from our Alaska RV tour.  We piled into a car and a pick-up and went to see Arches.  Had a blast.

The arches are the same we saw years ago.  Beautiful!

North and South Windows

Double Arches

A trail between two rock fins.  It was a bit muddy.  We had a pretty good day before the thunder storm started.  We all got back into the cars just before the rain started.  The lightning was a lot brighter and more noisy than at home.  But we had a good time.  Your dad and I came back into Moab to the post office to get our mail and had to go through a huge mud flood in town.  Glad we left the park when we did.  This evening we went back into town for dinner with our friends and where the floods were was just muddy roads and parking lots.  Ick

 

We finally have 4G here on the phone so I could sent a bunch of photos.  But I don't remember all the places we've visited in the last two weeks and I'm too lazy to look up in my pictures.  Besides we're having too much fun to stop that long and look up things.  And let me tell you I've taken about 75 pictures a day. It  would take all night to go through them all. 

 

Tomorrow we are all going to Canyon Land with everyone.  Most of our friends leave Wednesday morning, but we stay one more day.  We're not sure where we're going but there is still tons of stuff to see here in the Moab area.  That's all for tonight.

Love, Mom and Dad   

We haven't had good wifi here in rural Utah so no pictures this time.  We went to Bryce Canyon and I took 78 pictures on the first day we were there.  We stayed at Ruby's Inn for three nights.  Nice place.  From there we went to came up Utah 12 to Torrey.  Here we went to Capitol Reef and Goblin Valley.  We're leaving for Moab in the morning.  Maybe in Moab we'll have better luck with pictures.  Love Ya, Mom and Dad

Idaho

We visited the World Center for Birds of Prey while in Boise.  This is a gyrfalcon.  Who's watching who?

They have a live show every day.  This was a bird that will be in a free-flying show in October.  Very interesting.

We walked down on that trail overlooking the Snake River.  There is a golf course down there.

Another view

This bridge use to be the tallest bridge in the country.  It is over 400 feet tall.

We drove over to Shoshone Falls.  It is just a trickle this year.  They are doing some construction work and have diverted the falls for a while.  I'll bet it is beautiful when running full force.

This is the opposite direction.

Your dad looking into the sun.

And me looking into the sun.

 

The weather here has been coolish this week.  Last night it got down to about 45. The warmest today was 60.  So of course we needed sweaters.  We leave in the morning for Arco.  More later

Love, Mom and Dad 

Leavenworth

We spent several  days walking the quaint streets of Leavenworth.  It's up in the mountains and very nice and cool.

The buildings are like you're really in Bavaria.  We ate German food cooked by real German cooks.  Yum!

We went through a nut cracker museum while there.  I can't believe the thousands of nutcrackers there were. One of them is as tall as your dad.  His name is Karl.  People collect them.  I can't see how.  We saw some for collection that cost $200 or more.  Not for me.  Where would you put them?  Most of them are about 18 inches high.

We went to Pendleton for a couple of days and didn't do to much if anything.  Then we came on to Boise, ID.  We ran errands yesterday.  You know, haircuts etc.  Today we're going to an eagle place.  Evidently they rescue birds and release the ones that are healthy again.

We head up to Jerome tomorrow for two nights then on to Arco to the Craters of the Moon.  We'll write more later.  Love, Mom and Dad   

Mt. St. Helens and Tacoma

We went to The Museum of Glass in Tacoma. There is a hot shop there, and I love watching the artists.  We got lucky and saw two visiting artists in the process of creating.

These are the hands of Fred Curtis from Ireland.  He used to be a glass cutter with Waterford before they closed.  He has his own business in Ireland now. 

He is overseeing some blanks to be sent back home for him to cut.  He has been contracted to make a bunch of eagles for the museum in the home town of JFK's grandfather. . 

We  drove up to see Mt. St. Helens the other day.  We were  glad to see how much the mountain has recovered. 

 

We getting closer to the mountain.

Here we are five miles away from the crater.  We watch a movie about the eruption, and after it was over the curtains came up to windows overlooking this scene.  It was breathtaking.  Your dad took this picture because he was the taller of us.  You can see steam coming up from the lava cap.

A couple from Washington took a picture of us overlooking the Columbia Gorge.

 

We are in Leavenworth today and tomorrow.  Then we go back down to Oregon.  More later. Love, Mom and Dad

Oregon

A family along the trail took our picture for us.  We're standing in a giant redwood in Northern California.

This is the first picture I took in Oregon.  We're in the Waldport KOA.  That's the bridge we crossed to get to the campground. 

One day while in Waldport we drove up the 101 to Lincoln City.  We stopped along the way to watch people digging for clams at low tide. 

There were about twenty people down there.  From far away they looked like ants.  They go down with shovels, PVC pipes and buckets.  I'll bet dinner was good that night.

Here we are out at a state park at Otter Rock.  It was cold, but beautiful out there.

We saw a bunch of surfers from up on the cliff.  There is a walk up there around the point.

More of the same surfing beach

We drove on to Dayton to Yamhill Valley to taste wine.  The grapes are getting close to harvest. And the wine is tasty.

We're sitting outside at Amity Winery tasting.  That is a view of part of the valley.  Farmers in this valley grow more than just grapes.  Hazelnuts are the big thing up here.  Also corn, hay and tomatoes are abundant .

On our way to lunch we stopped at A Wing and A Prayer Alpaca Farm.  We saw a new baby that was less than 24 hours old.  The mother was a first time mom so she hummed every time we got near the baby.  The farmer said we were okay though.  I learned a lot about Alpacas.

Today we are just outside Portland.  We took a road trip up to Mt. Hood.  We got as close to the top as we could without having to climb it.  This is at Timberline Lodge.  They were still skiing and snowboarding today. 

 

We've had a good time so far.  Our next stop is going to be near Mt. St. Helen.  We'll be there Wednesday.  That's all for this time.  Love Ya, Mom and Dad

Redwoods and Oregon

I haven't taken many pictures this trip so far.  I've just been enjoying the scenery.  It's beautiful up here.  We spent some time in the Redwoods and did a lot of walking on trails.  This is a picture of one of the trails.  We went to the coast a lot as well.   We are now in Coos Bay Oregon.  We'll be here in Oregon for another week or so. 

The ocean was close to one RV park so we walked on the beach about two miles three days in a row.  Walking in the sand is difficult.  My legs can feel it.

We're going to go sight seeing tomorrow.  We're on Highway 101.  I'm done now, so I close for this time.