Atlanta, Savannah, Charleston, and Washington DC.
We spent the night in a National Park facility called the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort. It was perfection itself for a hundred bucks. What a deal.
We arrived in time to enjoy a hot springs bath just before they closed the pools and then to eat a lovely dinner just before they closed the restaurant and then to crash in our beds at 9pm.
Then we went to the REI mother ship. Acres of REI and this baaaby. His Grandma knitted that hat and knitted that sweater. Soo sweet.
Then we went to a glass blowing studio, then we went to a book store, then we went to the market, came home and ate dinner, and now we’re feet up doing our projects.
And then lunch. This is a bit from the fountain in the center of the back patio. Good food, nice environment, and vegetarian much to our surprise.
We visited the Japanese Garden this afternoon and hopped on to a tour just as we arrived. It was quite fabulous. We learned so much. What will we remember?
I hope I remember his closing comment: You visit a Japanese Garden to learn how to live your life.
October 2
That table of perfect plastic sushi is artfully positioned in the tv room (those day beds run from the tv room through the living room and around the corner through the dining room – so very many lolling opportunities) to make you think of sushi about 68 times per day. Yum.
…and then we ate a little dinner at ‘flying fish’, this place across the street that had me smilin’. It reminds me of a cross between maybe Border Grill and Ocean Avenue Seafood.
The food was very very tasty and well prepared, with a touch of humor actually, which doesn’t sound so great for food but was in fact delightful. And the seats were exceptionally comfy for which they get 10 extra points.
After dropping Nancy off Sharon and I just kind of milled around. Sharon found a bathing suit for our trip to the pool and bought a puzzle book. I bought 10 count ’em 10 little pads just like the one I use now and couldn’t find more of in LA. We read the paper and admired the view…
Another way to pass the time – shopping! Nancy bought us all sweet little good luck calendars for 2007. Thank you! And Mazel Tov Hip Hip Hurray on 15 smoke free days!! Hurray!!
Blue skies are back! It’s funny, at home I hardly ever talk about the weather since it is usually perfect but here where 250 of the year’s 365 days are grey, we’re talking about the weather every hour or so.
Nancy had to leave this morning and we stopped off in Chinatown on the way to the airport for a nice dim sum lunch. I am told we don’t say Chinatown here, it’s not pc and it’s pan-asian anyway, we say International District.
The place we ate in was The place to eat and the wait was about 45 minutes.
To pass the time we wondered around and came upon this Falun Gong group. It was exactly like the displays in LA but without the group actually doing the meditation. Once again Wikipedia does a good job of introducing you to this practice, history, and current situation that matches what else I’ve heard. Have a look.
October 1
This is from our corner patio looking down onto the lovely 5th floor common area where they also have an inside pool, jacuzzi, and gym. Tonight we will enjoy these facilities. The pool and the jacuzzi anyway.
September 30
The Dining Room. Don’cha just loove that chandelier?! All the lights are controlled from these plates with dimmers on everything so you can make those candle babies glow from flicker to blaze. Cool.
We did a sightseeing drive around Queen Ann Hill and pulled off for this photo-op. They are tall, lithe, and blond. I am short, stubby, and grey. Too bad, I simply could not pull off a pass as the third cousin.
Then we drove back to the locks from yesterday so we could see more of the migrating salmon.
Nancy is so sure these guys are meant to be run over and dead. I said not. We’re going to give a star to the winner with the correct interpretation.
‘Our’ building again. All along the street there are shops, markets, restaurants, down a few blocks is Pike’s, around the corner and up a few blocks is Seattle Center.
Oh yes it is cool.
…followed by a walk to Seattle Center with the Space Needle, the Science Center, the Music Project, and the smack-me-upside-the-head fountain.
The fountain is one of those Dancing Waters extravaganzas and it is a big hit with all viewers.
September 29
Dawn-ish (like 7:30 really) out our east facing windows. This is it for cloudy skies so far. The fog lifted and we were once again treated to a blessed day of Seattle sunshine.
Sharon and Nancy checking out what they did yesterday. That’s My Bed they’re lounging on.
Then we walked to a neighborhood restaurant to eat a vacation breakfast of bacon and eggs…
The fountain is among Sharon’s favorite things Ever and since she’d never seen it when the sun was out she’d never seen the rainbows so we all got to have a First Time experience.
It’s starting to get to fall here. In the distance you can see some of the surface of the Experience Music Project and the Sci-fi Museum and Hall of Fame.
We had a small dispute regarding this building. I said it was a comic imitation of a Frank Gehry building and Nancy insisted that was in fact a Frank Gehry building. Nancy was right! Gehry did Bilbao in 1997, this mishmash in 1999, and the Disney Center opened in 2003. Just goes to show how wrong a gal can be.
Here we are reflected in the surface of one of the components of this building.
A postcard: Spring in Seattle, Summer in Seattle, Fall in Seattle, Winter in Seattle.
As I write this the next morning I’m sitting on My Bed (with perfect electricity wherever you reach out and excellent lighting and a perfect tray to hold my coffee,) and it does look like this now. We just agreed, hurray for the last two days of sunshine.
We had a lunch-hour break at The Edgewater hotel and from their lobby entrance you can see ‘our’ building. Fog’s all gone lucky lucky.
Doesn’t everyone call it Pike’s Market? I do. But the actual name is Pike Place Market. Who cares. We were most struck by the quality and low price of the amazing flowers in the flower shops of which there were about two dozen.
And the fish places are remarkable too. See that big fish in the foreground, bottom center, with its mouth open. Before he was just lying across the ice head down. People were gathering around to look at his prehistoric face and his mouth full of teeth and at just the right moment the guy behind the counter pulled a string causing the fish to rear up. Shrieks and hilarity ensued.
We shopped for dinner and got everything for a Major Feast designed and executed by dear Sharon.
…past West Point (this is West Point in the foreground and Mt Rainier behind), through the Hiram Chittenden Locks and down the Lake Washington Ship Canal, and into Lake Union where we got off the boat and a bus transported us back to the pier. It was fun!
I was on the wrong side of the plane for the mountain views coming up so I caught a few shots out that funky little window back by the toilets.
I think the one in the front is Crater Lake(?) or Mt St Helen’s(?) or What? and the one behind is… What? Who knows? It was only about 30 minutes outside Seattle.
We arrived, set down our stuff, went GAGA over the condo, and then went out for a walk.
Look! We can see Mt Rainier!! Sharon has been in Seattle many many times and never had the chance to actually See Mt Rainier. That whole thing about the clouds and the rain in Seattle is based on some truth after all.
Here’s part of the restaurant on the pier where we went for a Welcome to Seattle dinner of seafood and view. That’s ‘our’ building there and you can see why the views are so faaabulous from the 27th floor.
What were the first words from our waitress? ‘What a glorious day in Seattle!’
This is the view from My BED which is a custom-made giGantic day bed where two people can easily lie in opposite directions. It is situated against floor to ceiling windows and you Know how I love windows. This is looking in one direction…
November 22
The next day we went casino hopping until I had to leave in the late afternoon. Here are a few examples:
The overhead show at the Tropicana. Why they have what looks like a Victorian train station in a hotel called the Tropicana I haven’t figured out.
The latest contribution to the Strip, Wynn. It was ok inside but for me it didn’t make me gasp. And if a ga-zillion dollar complex in Vegas doesn’t make you gasp it’s hardly worth the bother.
The gigantic aquarium at Mandalay Bay. This place I liked.
Good ones for a walking tour include Bellagio and her world famous Dancing Waters, the Venetian is very cool, Aladdin, although a bit down market has a nice shopping mall and interesting restaurants, and NY NY has some entertaining entertainment in the bars. The pirate show outside Treasure Island is a popular stop and I still have a soft spot for the Mirage. As for Mandalay Bay, we just whizzed through but it might fall into this category too.
We saw a ventriloquist, Ronn Lucas, a long time favorite of Paul and Gretchen. It was fun!
Tomorrow we’re going to chase up Nancy D’s grandson Charlie’s mother Kelly’s father Paul Kozak, aka Kozak The Magician. That should be fun too.
November 20, 2005
Viva Las Vegas! It’s the holiday week in Paul and Gretchen’s Las Vegas timeshare. It’s the perfect time of year for me to visit Las Vegas as the highs are steady at 70 degrees, the lows are happy at 45.
Walkin’ weather! Today I walked more than 18,000 steps which I know from my nifty pedometer. That’s about 9 miles. Should be good except for the Mountain (an entire Alp, really) of food I ate at the half-price buffet…
November 21
At 8:30am three times a week the timeshare place, the Tahiti, provides a complementary tour to Red Rock Canyon. They did a great job, really.
As you can certainly expect, internet information abounds on Red Rock Canyon so click on this official Red Rock Canyon government site and if you want more maybe this is interesting.
Here he is! Kozak The Magician!!
Nancy D’s grandson Charlie’s mother Kelly’s father Paul Kozak, see this link Kozak The Magician! for a nice review of the show.
WOW…he’s taller than most everyone!
pb.
Where you have red rocks it makes sense that you’d find red dirt. But the dirt in Canyon de Chelly was not red. Yes, we need a geologist.
May 26
This is the town of Williams, the Amtrak kickoff point for the Grand Canyon. There were tons of motels around the several block Old Town. It was actually kind of cute.
I wish I knew a geologist who could do a nice compare and contrast discussion on Canyon de Chelly and Sedona’s landscapes.
Here we are! That couple cracked me up. The man did not speak more than four words the entire time. The woman was not quiet for more than four seconds. A classic accommodation for happily ever after. The guide’s name is Timothy and he said he’s been taking tourists in here for 18 years.
So very many pictures. Here was my chance, I thought, because I had the car, to take the tripod and get great razor sharp landscapes. Have I taken that tripod out of its bag? Good guess. No I have not.
There were many tours going on at the same time and no doubt all hitting the same spots. This is the only National Park on Native American lands so there is a lot of partnership projects regarding maintenance and visitor policy. All the guides and vendors are Navajo.
Coming out of the canyon you are smacked upside the head by the GaGa-ness of Red Rock country in Sedona. Here’s a little taste of a housing tract in Sedona.
The ‘town’ is one street now totally torn up for road improvements where you will find a collection of low rise buildings tricked out all Western-style like from the movies.
So I decided to get myself up early enough to do a tour if the tour wasn’t going to be too crowded. It worked out great as the guests were me and a retired couple from Mesa Arizona. That’s our transport.
The canyon bottom was all about a foot deep of soft powdery dirt making only four wheel drive vehicles able to pass, and even they were working like crazy, whining and bouncing so aggressively my pedometer registered about 6,000 steps!
May 25
Flagstaff is pretty nice. It smells good from the 7,000 foot altitude and the pine forests. (Santa Fe is also at 7,000 feet and I like the air there too.) Flagstaff is into a revitalization of the Historic Old Downtown that reminds me of a 1/4 sized Long Beach downtown project when Long Beach was 1/4 done – still a little rough, but optimistic.
I don’t think these horses are wild since you could get quite close. There are about 100 Navajo families who live and farm on the canyon floor.
All the ruins are from the Anasazi (sounds like Anastasi) people who disappeared from here around 1200. The Navajo didn’t come until 1300-1500. The guide said the Navajo people never go into the cliff dwellings because the spirits of the Anastasi are still there.
Note the truck in the lower middle, for scale. It’s another flatbed full of tourists. The cliff dwelling is right in the middle of the picture.
May 23-24
Next I’m on to the very cool, and never before visited by me, Canyon de Chelly. See that sign? Now you know you’re on the res. There is one every few miles.
My skin was in terror of being touched. HOTHOTHOT. SOOOooo HOT.
Get.
Away.
From.
ME.
I’m sorry you guys! Really!
I arrived near sundown on the 23rd in time to drive around a little and say ahhh ahhh a bunch.
Click here for the .gov site for Canyon de Chelly.
I took these next two pictures for my sisters. Sisters! Needles! Remember?
I was never more miserable, more unbearably intolerable than during those Augusts when we drove across country in 2 1/2 days in 104 degree heat with no air conditioning, Daddy smoking and not letting us open the window, and with Mom in the front seat making peanut butter and sweet pickle sandwiches and passing out lukewarm koolaid.
Notice the Greyhound bus station behind the McDonald’s, then the highway above, and what you can’t see is the train tracks that run under the bridge. That McDonald’s had a counter with 10 busy lines, maybe 20 workers behind the lines.
I want to acknowledge my appreciation to Mr and Mrs McDonald’s. Your stores are everywhere, as we all know, meaning an at least decent restroom is always near at hand. Thank you.
Nasty as you might find a McBurger, you don’t have to eat it, you don’t even have to buy it. Just be grateful that you’re not in some skanky old gas station begging for the key.
On the way back to Flagstaff I stopped along the creek thinking to take a stroll and ran into this talkative fellow. Before long the light was gone and I had to get going since I avoid driving at night.
Too much in too short a time? Probably, but still I’m glad to have done it.
I did learn a big fat lesson though, and in less than 2 weeks, so that’s good. What I would do much differently is this: I wouldn’t take for granted that I’d figure it out along the way. I should have bought guidebooks. I should have studied up, the same as going to Cambodia or Peru. Study up! It makes for a richer experience.
Desert colors. The rest stops along this route are most recommendable. And when you open the car door and become enveloped in the blast furnace that is the desert near summer, well, you say to yourself, it’s a dry heat.
In the ‘interdunal’ areas (I think that’s the right word) the plants were all abloom.
May 15
The drive from LA to Phoenix, it’s fun, really. The first sixty miles were a bit grim as the air quality was utterly dismal but once reaching the amazingly cool Wind Farms outside Palm Springs all was well.
The Group – a middle-aged couple from Germany and an Indian family of four. It was fun!
May 18
My night in Alamogordo was in a place similar to the previous night’s. These roadside motels run around $35 but I did check out several each time before coming on one that felt good. You can hardly beat the price even at hostels and when they’re good you’ve got everything you need in luxury.
The main topic of the tour was ‘how do plants and animals survive out here in such a hostile, shifting environment.’ It was very interesting too.
You can find pretty much the whole story here at the White Sands National Monument website.
…and desert rocks with other kinds of desert trees.
This diversion took me to Willcox, a small town several miles off the main road where I spent the night in a arch-typical roadside motel.
Here’s what AAA has to say about Willcox: ‘Willcox grew from a small cow town into one of the country’s major cattle-shipping centers. In days past, the large cattle ranches in the nearby hills harbored nearly as many fugitive gunslingers as cattle. The area also was the homeland of the Apache Indians; Cochise and Geronimo led raids in the area.’
…but still in time for the guided Sunset Stroll. Park Rangers, our tax dollars doing good work.
Check out the bird on the second tallest arm. It’s a virtual Saguaro Forest here.
And now entering White Sands National Monument. I thought I was timing my arrival for a couple of hours before sunset but I missed the time change(!) and so was later than I intended…
I was diverted onto a side road by a change in the scenery.
Just because I’m almost sixty years old doesn’t mean I no longer get to take picture of rocks that look like big fat b*tts.
Continuing on to Alamogordo I took another few miles detour this time to see the White Sands Missile Range. The signs said there was a Visitor’s Center. The brochure called it a Museum & Missile Park. ‘At the close of WWII White Sands Proving Ground was established to test the emerging rocket technology.’
This was part of it. I think the whole set-up was designed for 10 year old boys and their 70 year old grandpas.
The Press Box. Every service has its own phone, data port, and power, isolated from the others. Then there are radio and television booths next door.
So many systems to be attended to by the Engineering department!
It seems many of the original buildings are retained in tact, full of Gift Shop Items of course, and it would be much more entertaining if they got the cars off the main plaza. But anyway seeing it was well worth the detour.
Hi Spud! We tootled around in this cart for an hour or so and then did a little walking.
The church in that first picture was closed so I found the office and asked when it would open. They gave me the key. It always pays to ask.
Look deep into the picture under the JumboTron and you can see the swimming pool and jacuzzi – a whole hang-out backyard available for renting at $5,999 per game, and fully booked for the season.
They have a lot of hooks to pull in the fans. For one thing every Sunday they let all the kids run the bases. That’ll get the parents lined up.
I heard so many interesting stories there is no hope I’ll remember them all. One thing that stuck good though is all about the Air Conditioning.
The roof can close and they can cool up the whole place in a few hours. See that silver duct work, that carries the cool air. There are gigantic fans blowing over chilled water, like an evaporative cooler. It’s quite a massive operation all right.
