Monday, September 29, 2014

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   

Saturday, September 27, 2014

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

Thursday, September 11, 2014

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 

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

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   

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

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