Zion National Park

I took a hundred pictures of Zion today and when I look at them I can't recall exactly where they all are from. Its that kind of place. So grand and you want to take picture after picture but you just can't quite capture it. Here's a few. Stayed until a storm started to roll in that chased us out. Lots of thunder and lightning but turned out to be very little rain.

One of the fun things to do at Zion is to walk up the Virgin River to "the Narrows." When the water is low it is possible to reach a place in the river where the canyon walls narrow down to 20 feet or so. The water was still cold!! We didn't go real far up stream but had fun slogging through the stream.

We made it almost to Zion National Park today--not quite, we'll get there tomorrow. Hiway 89 is a leisurely and pleasant way across Utah and avoid the freeway. We bypassed Bryce Canyon NP and took a side trip to Cedar Breaks National Monument instead. It is too close to Bryce to get the attention it deserves because Cedar Breaks is very much like Bryce Canyon--but smaller and less people. The same forces were at work here to create this colorful "amphitheater." It was a cool place to spend a few hours, literally and figuratively. The rim is 10,000 ft elevation.

We watched this fire for many, many miles and never figured out what was burning. Looked ominous.

Salt Lake City and Temple Square

We said goodbye to our friends in Park City with plans to move on down the road. . .but then we didn’t leave!!

We are right here 20 miles out of Salt Lake City and we have never seen Temple Square so we decided we had to at least spend a couple of hours and see the famous Mormon Temple. We ended up spending the entire day at the 10 acre temple complex and other sites of Salt Lake City. It is certainly an impressive centerpiece of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Grew up seeing pictures of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and was pretty fun to see the inside of the historic building. If we had timed it better we could have watched them rehearse but we did hear an organ recital at one of the amazing pipe organs. The grounds are perfectly landscaped with flower beds and plantings that did not quit.

Also went to Tracy Aviary, International Peace Garden, a trendy shopping center in an renovated Trolly Barn and a Sundance Outlet store.

Park City, Utah

Staying in Park City, Utah for a couple of days to see what’s here and hang out with Tucson friends, Skip and Connie Chase who spend a major portion of their summers here. Met for breakfast this morning and then drove out to Utah Olympic Park where the 2002 winter Olympic happened. As luck would have it we caught some ski jumpers doing summer training on a wet artificial turf covered ski run. We were able to chat with a couple of the athletes and ask all kinds of questions. Later we caught the American team practicing ski jumping of another sort off of runs with ramps that allowed them to turn flips in the air before they landed in a pool. The ski acrobats landed in water that was heavily aerated so that it would be a soft landing as of course the idea is to land ski/feet first--and continue down the slope. Pretty amazing how they practice these snow sports without snow! They are all gearing up for Vancouver 2010. In light of the recent Olympics in Beijing, it was pretty fun to be here.

We then managed 9 holes of golf with Skip and Connie at very scenic Park City Hotel golf course and then dinner at “the Stewpot” where we also met up with Chris and Donalee MacIlvaine, also from Tucson and also enjoying a mountain summer. Finished the evening at Chris and Donalee's house in Deer Valley for more laughs and conversation, and licks from dog Sarah. We’re all St Andrews Presbyterians. Great day with great friends.

One last day in Idaho

We were about to leave Idaho and then made one more side trip to a little obscure place called "City of Rocks National Reserve." Apparently big with technical rock climbers. It is just a weird jumble of eroded rocks. It was actually named by the emigrants traveling west on the Oregon/California trail because it looked to them like a strange city buildings. The remnants of the old trail is still visible as are many names that the emigrants wrote on the rocks as they camped there. One is dated 1843. There was a picture of how it looked in 1930 so you can see that a lot of the names have faded but many are still clearly visible. Can't help but be in awe to think that so many pioneers passed this spot with such hope for a new future.

Tonight we are in Utah close to Salt Lake.

motoring across Idaho

We are on the move again. Visited a local farmers market first thing in Nampha. We thought all day about those fresh, new potatoes (Idaho potatoes), ripe home grown tomatoes, baby beets (I got those all to myself) and fresh orchard peaches. That was pretty much our dinner! Was great.

We are sort of following the Snake River across Idaho's agricultural south central portion. It is the river that allows all the green, irrigated fields. Rolling fields of alfalfa, corn, potatoes, wheat, sugar beats and more.

The really interesting sight we saw today was a place called Thousand Springs. If I understand the geology correctly, a layer of porous lava allows ground water to flow underground and comes bursting out of the cliff face and falling down to the river below. They are easily seen from the road for several miles.

We are in a nice but noisy RV park in Heyburn. Way too close to the busy road. I can never understand why anyone would decide a piece of property beside a busy road--or worse yet, a rail road track would be a good place for an RV park. Happens a lot.

Boise, Idaho

Three nights in Boise, Idaho. We toured the city by bicycle stopping at interesting sites like the old Idaho territorial penitentiary (gruesome conditions), the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial (unexpected find in the middle of Idaho!) and the state capitol (It is empty and under a major renovation.)

Took another of those Scenic Byways out of Boise up to Stanley to see the Sawtooth mountains. We were told they rivaled the Grand Tetons. It was a nice drive but we both agreed that they are nothing like Wyoming’s Tetons. We found some natural hot springs and spied a couple of pairs of Sandhill Cranes in mountain meadows

Redfish Lake and the Sawtooth Mountains -- The hot pools; We should have had our swim suits, would have been a bit cool getting out, however.

Are you following the Olympics in Beijing? We watched the Gold Medal match between China and US in Women's Beach Volleyball tonight. We were watching extra close because Doug and Tammy were in the audience!! He sent us a text message saying they were in the second row so we looked hard but too many rain ponchos to see their faces. You know those kids are having a good time.

McCall, Idaho to Boise

Decided it was time to get out of the river valley and head for the mountains. Ponderosa State Park in west central Idaho has one of the nicest RV parks we have seen on the trip.

We left the heat wave behind--and then a rainy morning dropped the

temperature some more. Slipped on our raincoats for a refreshing walk on one of the park trails before we packed up and headed down another one of Idaho's scenic byways to Boise. We'll be here a couple of days.

Visited the World Center for Bird's of Prey outside of Boise where we learned about raptors of all kinds.

Jet Boating in Hells Canyon

We have been hanging out in Lewiston, Idaho. We wanted to take a jet boat trip into Hells Canyon of the Snake River so had to wait until today to get on a full day trip. We sorta had to hold up yesterday as a record heat wave is griping the area. 106 was just too hot to do much of anything. Not quite that hot today but close—I think it is cooler in Tucson--good day to spend on the river. We went over 80 miles up the Snake River and well into Hells Canyon to the official deepest part before turning around and returning to Hells Canyon State Park. This canyon is supposed to be deeper than the Grand Canyon! Beyond where we ended our day is where the class 4 and 5 whitewater rafters challenge the canyon but we were able to get a tiny taste of the thrill. This was just fine, thank you.

A jet boat is not real conducive to wildlife watching as it is a bit noisy, still we managed to see big horned sheep. Also Great Blue Herons, lots of ducks, Osprey, and a family of wild turkeys.

Idaho kitch

Did you ever spend time wondering where the exact center of the universe is? Well, now you know--its in downtown Wallace, Idaho! Who knew. . .

All work, no play (well a little play)

Steph has a nice big backyard that is going to be a fun challenge for her to landscape. We tore out lots of overgrown vegetation, ready for a face lift.

We took some time to visit Stephanie's office at Indiana U. It is within walking distance of her house, by the way

Will found lots of little odds and ends that needed fixing. Like the attic
door. Lowes got a lot of our business this week.

And she cooks!!!

804 W Howe, Bloomington, Indiana

Steph's cooking dinner--Her address

at the corner of Maple and Howe--We've painted the kitchen, the living

room, now we're doing the bath.

Steph bought a house in Bloomington so we came out to help her move in. Great little house, just needed some decorating touches and tender loving care. We've all been working hard but the results have been great. It was a 1920's stone cutters cottage (all been updated) and now it is Stephanie's home and it suits her wonderfully.

from Idaho to Indiana

We're powering down the RV for a week, putting it in a storage lot and flying to Bloomington, Indiana to spend a week with Stephanie. Next posting will be from the Midwest.

Leave you with a few more pictures of idyllic northern Idaho.

Coeur d'Alene is for bicycling

The "Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes" is one of the nicest rails-to-trails bicycle trails we have seen. We rode another section of it today. Did a whopping 28 miles through farms, along streams, over bridges, past wetlands of a very picturesque Idaho.

Sunday in Spokane

We are such creatures of habit that it is always difficult to find a church when we are traveling that is to our liking. We tend to compare them to our home church and sometimes we can be a bit picky. First Presbyterian in downtown Coeur d’Alene turned out to be a grand old building plus a worshipful experience and we were blessed by being there. On account of it being Sunday morning we had no choice but to go out for breakfast afterward. Sunday paper and pancakes and coffee is a pretty good way to spend an hour or so.

Then it was off to Spokane--we are only 30 miles away. We read a small article in the newspaper about a garden tour of homes and sounded like fun. We toured six backyard gardens in a very elegant neighborhood of Spokane. (Sort of the “Summit Avenue of Spokane” for anyone familiar with St Paul, Minnesota.) If there is anything I miss from my former life in Minnesota it has to be the gardens and flowers that are not possible in Tucson. This was a double dose of gardening glory—I got my fix today. Honestly, I miss the flowers and plantings until I think about all the work it took to get them to look that way. These were very nice gardens.

Next stop was a place called Green Bluff which is an area of fruit growers out of Spokane about 20 miles where we were able to pick-your-own sweet cherries. We thought we had died and gone to heaven!! The Bing and Rainier Cherries were dead ripe and we were eating them with abandon. Both of us were up in the trees—one in the bucket, two in our mouths. We got such a chuckle out of watching a little boy “helping” his mother. I bet we ate as many as he did, however, we were just neater about it.










On down the road was an apricot orchard so we picked a few of those also. These are how apricots are supposed to taste.