On the Road; Taos NM

Sacred River


Pueblo Church of St. Jerome


Pueblo Cemetery


Taos Pueblo



<Downtown Taos <

Taos Pueblo
The most interesting part of the Taos visit, was our visit to the local Indian tribe Pueblo. This dates back to ??? In the background of the cemetery is a remnant of the first church. The Spanish missionaries converted them to Christianity. Our guide, whose understanding of English was not all that proficient, told us about their religion. Actually, I kept asking. They say that they are Catholic. For funerals the difference is that they must bury the deceased the next day and are forbidden to embalm or cremate. It sounds like Judaism and then she told us that they have no wake but have a celebration of the person's life for about a week after the funeral--their version of the Shiva. The cemetery is sacred ground and cannot be entered except for funerals and on All Saints Day. Each body in the cemetery has a simple cross marker carved by a family member. The only headstones in the cemetery are for veterans of the military (I guess the army gives them these so they take it). After the grave markers fall or deteriorate they gather them and add them to a pile of old lost crosses. They do not replace them.

I find it great the way that they have integrated their ancient customs into Christianity. They do their corn dances and pole climbing contests(You can see on a picture the big pole that was put up at the end of September and will be chopped down after the pole climbing contest before Christmas). the Catholic holidays. They have a river that they consider sacred and from which they take drinking water, cooking water etc. No one is allowed in as this would pollute the water but a big dog was wallowing in it when we looked at it.

The Pueblo is divided into an inner circle and an outer circle. The inner circle is primitve having no electricty and no plumbing. They have adobe ovens outside the little houses and they bake all their bread and cookies in here. I think that 300 people live in houses in the inner circle or maybe they just have houses --each house almost be the site of a store for the tourists.

They have a business of the pueblo. Everyone must pay $10 to walk in and pay $5 for each camera that you bring in.

ontheroad-Santa Fe

Mission of San Miguel


Oldest House


of Guadalupe


Loretto Chapel with spiral staircase


Santa Fe

Palace of the Governors!



Originally constructed in the early 17th century as Spain's seat of government, this adobe building with an inner courtyard is a museum of Santa Fe history. It was actually a little hard to figure out what it looked like originally.

Oldest House

Built supposedly in 1646, this is claimed to be the oldest house in the US (or maybe the oldest house that has been continuously lived in) because the Palace of the Governors is older as are a couple houses in the Northeast US and the Pueblo housing that we plan to visit today in Taos may have been built in the year 1000. You could not enter this house bit I took a picture of it.

Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Located on Agua Fria Street, the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe is thought to be the oldest shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe in the United States. It was built in 1795 and the chapel was once dedicated to non-Spanish speaking catholics.
San Miguel Mission

The church is one of the oldest churches in the country and first began in 1610. A bell was cast in 1356 from Spain. Inside the mission are ornaments and paintings. The structure has been strengthened over the years. All records of the church's early history were destroyed in a fire in 1680. They have a large bell on display and it is dated either 1356 or 1856. It isn't clear when you view it. I asked the curator which date it was and he said no one has any idea. It is hard to believe that an expert could not date the bell when there is a 500 year difference to pick from.

The Loretto Chapel

The Loretto Chapel is the home of the Miraculous Staircase, which has two 360-degree turns and no visible means of support. Built between 1877 and 1881, the mystery of the builder remains unknown today. The legend is that the chapel, as a girl's school, had only nuns as teachers and the nuns could not climb a ladder to reach the choir loft. So they prayed to St. Joseph for 9 days and on the 9th day a carpenter appeared at the chapel and began to construct a spiral staircase. It took him 6 months and as soon as it was completed, he left as mysteriously as he appeared.

The Museum of International Folk Art

This place was the most fun for me. The biggest wing is the Girard Collection. This collector, a famous interior designer, collected all kinds of articles from gods to toys and placed them in cases as he wanted them to remain for eternity. Lots of these things could look like junk but they are put together very well and create a great feeling for me who loves folklore. The museum also has a collection of old New Mexican Furniture, Navaho textiles, Spanish heritage art of NM, puppets and musical instruments from Indonesia and other Eastern cultures. There are great masks from South America and religious items from many places.

ontheroad-Albuquerque

Albuquerque Balloon Museum

Above is a picture of David and me posing in the gondola of a balloon. This is a unique museum. It deals with the history of balloon flight from its earliest French beginnings. Some went 22 feet and then one went 22 miles and now they go around the world. They originally got the idea from watching smoke ascend from a fire and attempted to make a balloon that would be powered by fire. These were hot air balloons. Hot air balloons have a hole in the bottom of them as is shown in the blue balloon. The zepelin is a gas balloon. On the first photo I tried to catch the size of the actual balloon. Later on they discovered gas and were able to enclose Hydrogen in the balloon. Now there are even hybrid balloons that combine the gas and hot air. People tried a lot of things that did not work such as oars to move around to steer the balloon.

Albuquerque is apparently a great place to fly these balloons because it is surrounded by mountains and the wind currents are low and just right. There are lots of balloonists in the area. Every October they have a Balloon Fest with distance races and contests for balloon designs and shapes. We were there during this week but we couldn't see any balloons go up as it poured rain and was windy. They won't fly them if the wind than maybe 12 mph. For the shape balloons the winds must be below 8mph because the shape balloons are more difficult to manuever.

On the Road-Oklahoma

Sooners

Since I was in OK I thought I should find out what their motto "sooners" means. The information presented below, I got from a waitress. She told me that when the federal government offered free land for people to develop, the government selected a date for people to be allowed to register some land. These people were called "land boomers." But some people snuck in ahead of time and grabbed huge tracts of land. They became known as the Sooners because they came sooner than the boomers.

NationalCowboy abd Wester Heritage Museum

This is to a large extent an art museum. There are lots of good oils depicting Western Life. The museum today collects a broad array of material that reflects the variety of peoples, cultures, and historical currents found in the West. We were permitted to take photograhs in the old Western town replica so I include one seidled up to the bar and one for my incarceration.

On the Road;Oklahoma City, OK, Oklahoma City National Memorial

To my readers--I am just getting in to using pictures so I must apologize that my pictures are in backwards order. I can't change them and I can't get rid of the duplicate. Susan, can you help me from the Greek Islands?












Oklahoma City
October, 5, 2009

Oklahoma City National Memorial

This museum in memory of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building is extremely well done and truly heartfelt. At the opening to the park are large shiny black arches. The first picture shows their mission statement. picture is the The next picture is for the time of the bomb.

The third picture shows some of the 168 chairs laid out in an outdoor park, one mpty chair for each dead victim.

There is a picture of the south side of the building which was left externally as it was. There are black bricks where the windows had been (all windows within blocks were blown out), the exposed red bricks show a detachment, and at the very tip you can see where the bricks were blown out of the wall.

After the explosioon children from all over the world sent painted ceramic tiles in memory of the children who were killed. I can't help but include trhree from these outdoor walls because they all touched me show deeply.

Inside the museum where you were not allowed to photograph were pieces of the building crunched every which way. There are cases with shoes, watches, keys etc that were found in the rubble.At the time time of the explosion there was a water board meeting going on across the street. It began punctually at 9a.m. and was recorded. You hear the applicaton for water usage and then you hear the explosion and sounds that follow.

There is video of McVeigh's Ryder truck passing on the street and there are newscasts from all over the world that the visitor can view. There are testimonies of some survivors.

On the Road; Forest City, Arkansas

October 3
Forest City AR


About 50 miles west of Memphis, we stopped here for the night. There were 5 motels lined up in a row and it really paid to look at a room in each one. We ended in a nice Hampton Inn. One of the motels was passable and was only $45. a night but the clientele were so repulsive, it eliminated the place completely.

We went to dinner at the "best restaurant in ton" which was quite terrible but it was housing a dinner for the Wynne AK Hot Rodders Assn which was quite interesting. They call themselves the Hot Rodders but it seems mainly a 50's nostalgia group. Many of the cars are 1950s, all shiny and finny. Some of the women participants dress in poodle skirts and saddle shoes. In their dining room played 50's music and a strobe light(not 50's) added to the atmosphere. The group has done Route 66 to CA and plan to do it again next year now that 66 has been somewhat improved.

Knoxville, TN

Thursday October 1, 2009

Knoxville TN
Family Time

We will be heading out soon but we have had a wonderful visit with the kids. We went with them to synagogue, to swim lessons and to gymnastics lessons. We see how they are growing up. Abby gets up each morning and dresses herself in an always coordinated outfit of her choice. She swims with total confidence and dives. Jeff does all of his buttons and snaps and wants to learn to tie shoes. He petals bikes. They both know all the letters and colors and shapes and Abby can write each letter quite clearly. They both wash their hands very carefully before eating and after using the bathroom and always use a fork or spoon with which to eat. This is just grandmother talk and for this I apologize.

On the Road- Knoxville TN

Knoxville TN

September 17, 2009

We left St. Louis fairly early so that we could get to Knoxville in plenty of time to get ready for the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah. We drove straight through as quickly as possible in order to get their by 9p.m. and we were able to see our grandchilren before they went to bed. Thurs. night was my mother's Yorzheit and I wanted to be able to make some Rosh Hashanah remembrance foods for the dinner on Friday night. The dinner Friday night was a magnificent holiday feast and our grandchildren-not quite four years old were able to say the blessings before the meal.

On Saturday morning we all went to the Children's service for the New Year and we spent the rest of the day playing at home. The synagogue that we went to was the synagogue that we belonged to the year that we lived in Knoxville. It was great to see old friends and acquaintances.

On the Road-St. Louis

September 16, 2009
Saint Louis

We left Kansas City early for St. Louis where we could visit with cousins. It is really nice to be with family after so long a time. Maria and Norman were great hosts, wining and dining us and giving me a beauty treatment at the office. Maria took us to the MO Botanical Gardens. This is a beautiful place with a Climatron Building (with regulated climates inside) a beautiful herb garden, a Japanese garden enormous koi in the pond, and overall beautiful flowers and scenes. I love the feel of St. Louis.

My cousin Susan says that she loves to follow our adventures on the blog even though we are seeing "lots of places that she would never want to see." That is the thing with driving across the country. You have to go through all the places between two points that you want to see. We try to find something to visit or appreciate in each town but the fact is that some places are not meaningful to us. Maybe some people love these little places. Maybe it is like the food. I have said how I am always surprised that you can't find any decent restaurant in these backwater towns but you can find good food in the most modest restaurant in the big city or a resort town. Maybe the reason is that the people who live in the backwater towns really love the bad food that they are served.

On the Road- Kansas City-Truman Museum and Library

September 15,2009

St. Joseph MO

Last night we stopped in St. Joseph for the night. There was a coupon for a Best Western and it was really prety basic and the neighborhood didn't look so hot either. We decided to treat ourselves to a nuce dinner but the nicest we could find was a "Ground Round." We got up early to finish our trip to Kansas City and as we drove out, I noticed that they have places of interest even there. They have a museum of psychiatric treatment history and they have the home of Jesse James with the bullet hole in the wall from when his gang shot him dead.

In Kansas City, we used another coupon but this place is very nice. It is a chain called Druray Hotels and it is clean and comfortable. Besides the free breaksfast they provide 3 free alcoholic drinks at a happy hour. I went to check it out and they really do.
Kansas City

Who would have known Independence is for all purposes Kansas City?

We noticed that the Truman Museum and Library, etc were actually very close to our motel and we went over there as soon as we got checked in.

We thought that the museum was great. There is an introductory film that gives one the sense os what brought him to Presidential office. Harry was a farm boy who excelled in school tho not in sports. He courted and married an affluent girl from a fancy family. Not having a job, he went to war during WWI as a captain(altho I don't know how he qualified). He learned from that experience that he could lead. After the war he tried different things, not successfully. He opened a business with a Jewish fellow and their business collapsed during the depression. Jobless again, he went to work for the Democratic machine in KC and was somewhat of a puppet to the party head Pentergast. Pentergast made him a judge (and Harry had no post high school education). Then Pentergast helped him to get a senate seat. Truman was not well thought of at the senate as many felt he was a Pentergast puppet. He did suggest a committee to investigate waste and fraud in government contacts and became chairman of a committee to oversee waste. He got noticed.

When FDR ran for his fourth term, it was apparent to those in the know that FDR would not live long into his nfourth therm and they needed to have a Vice Presedential candidate who could take over the presidency. The earlier VP Henry Wallace was controversal, one reason being Communist ties. Truman had Southern roots, he had labor and minority support and the farm vote and they decided on Truman.

FDR died soon into his fourth term and Truman was left to deal with the problems. One of his major decisions during the war was to drop the atom bomb on Japan

When the war ended, new problems arose. There were no goods available for purchase. Manufacturing had not converted to peacetime. There were shortages noticeabley meat and inflation became rampant. The museum displayed models in dresses with price taqgs for cost of the same dress from maybe 1936 until 1948. Then around 1947 prosperity came to the U.S. Tract houses were built in suburbs and people got tv and refrigerators with freezers.

Things were bad in Europe. The Allies were hungry and had nothing left. The Russians were tryingto spread communism all over Europe and they gained shome footholds. The museum has a very effective alcove showing the allies after the war. The alcove is dark and a wind constantly blows through the burned out houses and the bowls and pots for food are all empty.

Secretary of State Marshall proposed a plan of massive aid to allied countries and this passed and wasvery successful. Truman proposed at Doctrine to contain Communism and try to stop it from encroaching on Europe. When the Russians put a blockade up in Germany to keep supplies from getting to the U.S. sector, the U.S. air lifted food and other necessaries and this was successful.

Truman and therefore U.S. was the first to recognize Israel after Great Britain gave up Palestine,(because of war and expenses there, and they gave Palestine to the U.N. The U.N. made it a Jewish state. Chaim Weizmann, who had been put in touch with Truman by Truman's old friend from the haberdashery, told Truman that the decision to recognze Israel was for Israel a decision before Statehood and Extermination.

Then came the serious fears of communism in the U.S. and Senator Joseph McCarthy and his hearings of accusing many loyeal Amercans of being Communists. Truman went along with forcing employees to take loyalty oaths but he did question McCarthy's tactics and evidence.

The museum had a couple of auditoriums in which visitors could vote with approval or disapproval of government actions.

When you enter the Museum there is a note about the information given about Truman. It notes that "history does not speak with one voice."

On the Road-Lincoln NE

University of Nebraska at Lincoln State Museum

September 14, 2009

ELEPHANTS AND CAMELS

Who would have known that millions of years ago Nebraska had elephants and camels walking around. Tis isbecause the land bridge that at one time stretched across Asia into North America allowed these animals to cross. At that time Nebraska was on the Equator. Once the ice age came and it got colder , the ancient elephant evolved into the Woolly Mammoth with hugely extended tusks and tiny ears. Elephants' ears are used for cooling themselves so the colder the climate, the smaller the ears. There were also Mastodaons here that looked a lot like the woolly mammoth but amny scientists believe that they are not elephants. The camels apparently stepped into some mud as the Nebraska sea was evaporating and camels were unable to extricate themselves and they died right there. They found the camels' upright feet and legs in a certain layer of rock under the earth. These camels only got extinct here 11,000years ago. A form of hyena called the Borophagus ate the camel carcasses when they could.

ALL ANIMALS LIVED IN THE SEA
At an earlier time, there was no atmosphere on Earth and all animals lived in the water. The whale was an ancestor of many animals and in NE, the rhino was a direct descendant of the whale. There were even sharks living in the NE sea 300 million years ago. When the oceans got too crowded, some animal pioneers ventured on to land and found that they could survive.

Nebraska has huge amounts of fossils and bones from these ancient animals. NE is most famous for fossils of the Cenozoic period. They found bones from 10,000 elephants so far and they estimate that there are 3000 more. At this point, still one in ten houses in NE has elephant or dinosaur bones buried under it. The stegasaurus was first found and named in NE and they dug up plenty of them.

SCALE TREES
The most common plant-eating mammal on the Great Plains was the Oreodont. The earlist tree type are scale trees. The museum had some fossils of them and these trees had no rings. Flowers first developed 199 million years ago.

DINOSAURS
Dinsaurs developed here about the same time as mammals. The stegasaurus was first discovered and named in NE. There were many of them found here as well as other dinosaurs. Dinosaurs and early mammals often swallowed stones that helped grind there stiff plant food so that it could be digested.

On the Road;Cheyenne

September 12, 2009

Cheyenne

Cheyenne is the capital city of Wyoming and at one time, it was a pretty good sized city. gold was discovered there and the Pacific Railroad went through the city. The railroad went over the nearby mountain making that track the highest on the entire railroad line. The main street there is Lincoln Highway and Lincoln Highway is the oldest road to go East -West across the country. It is older than route 66. At one time Cheyenne was in the running to have the Intl airport but it lost out to Denver which has turned out to be a much bigger city. Our guide on our trolley sightseeing tour told us that at one time Cheyenne was the richest city in terms of per capita assets. There was a millionaire's row and one millionaire purchased a house and built 6 brick houses on the property, one for each of his daughters. None of the daughters ever lived in one. The money came from rr money and oil money.(They have oil here and we some oil jacks as we drove along the road).There was one escaped slave who opened a restaurant and got quite rich. The doctor and the lawyers and the architects did well also.

The shops downtown seem to close at 2p.m. on Saturday and after that it looks dead in the city. We visited a Museum of the West which had quit a number of old carriages. There is a statue outside on the road of an Esther something who was the first woman in the U.S. to cast a vote. Wyoming wasn't quite a state when the territory gave women the right to vote. Wyoming is one of 10 states to have gold on the dome of their capital building.

In July, Cheyenne hosts a big week long event called Pioneer Days.

The best museum that we got to see was the state museum. It had a dinosaur section because the first triceratops skeleton was discovered in Wyoming. It was discovered by some Yale professor who uncovered about 16 of them but he took them all out of Wyoming; and all Wyoming ever got back was a cast of a skull. They had a tortoise fossil of a giant tortoise that was some 40 million years old. There was a room of furnitue created by a Wyoming fellow--Tom something--in which he used burls from trees as will as straight logs for his furniture. He used Pioneer and Indian designs on the upholstery.

iAn intersting thing that I noticed was a case of Indian made artifacts that the Indians made in a way of copying the Pioneers that they met. They were woven neckties sitting in a stiff frame, lady's hanbags with Indian beading.



There was a lake here that was 20,000 miles wide. It evaporated and some chemical from the water seeped into the land and made some mineral called Trona. They have most of the Trona in the world and it is used the make baking soda, boric acid, detergents, etc. they also mine a lot of coal here--either because they have a whole lot or they allow it all to get mined.

There is no income tax in Wyoming and a 5% sales tax.

On the Road-Wyoming

September 11, 2009- Day of Remembrance

Jackson Hole

<>It turns out that Jackson Hole pretty much shuts down after labor day. The stage coach ride, which I was looking forward to was over. The daily shoot-out in the town square at 6 p.m. was over. Our guide told us that by the end of September, it would become a ghost town. It looked pretty crowded to me but every lodging seemed to have a vacancy and we got a good deal on our room. The history, or apocryphal, is quite colorful with shady hotel owners and visiting outlaws. TAhey get a lot of mileage out of the Hollywood movies such as "Shane" that have been made there and Willy Nelson was there at some time.


The best restaurant that we found in JH is a breakfast place called The Bunnery. Its specialty is their flour called OSM which is Oat, Sunflower, Millet.

Driving across Wyoming

When we left Jackson Hole to trave East and South to St. Louis, we found that we had to go back North through the Tetons in order to get on a good road East. The mountains were again beautiful with their nipple points but when we got on the highway to go across the state, it became really boring. By this I mean that you can drive for hours and hours and see nothing but dead looking grassy land and some cows roaming or resting. The cattle are fenced in from the road(fences were not so total in Montana) but in the pastures there is another kind of fence. It looks like separate pieces of fencing that is not secured in the ground but stands up because of protruding pieces In the back allowing it to stand up, rather like a stage prop. I can't find it on Google images so I will have to ask someone. The cattle often congregate against these fake fences. Like Montana, you see some windmill farms as you ride along. But like Montana, it seems totally empty.
UPDATE:Turns out these free standing unattached fences are snow fences. These keep the wind from blowing the snow into unwanted drifts.

Museum of Frontier History

We came upon this museum and it was an actual building on the road and it was marked "free" and we needed a rest stop so we went to visit. It tuned out to be a remarkable place. We did not take the camera because we didn't anything that spectacular. There were old Frontier Wagons. One particularly interesting one was a "sheep wagon" which which was used by Shephards to move with their herd---but David thought that the inside looked just like a modern RV. There was a kitchen stove, hanging post and pans, storage drawers, windows and a bed.

There was a magnificent log looking full service bar with a ;sign by the cash register with the name of a town drunk for whom it was forbidden to be served any alcohol. There was a sign of Stage Coach rules which included abstaining from alcohol unless you would share the bottle around, not smoking cigars in the prescience of ladies. These were suggestions but a man would be put off the coach in the middle of nowhere if "he behaved unchivalrously toward a lady." IT was a;sp forbidden to discuss "stage coach robberies or Indian sightings."

There was replica of a "chemist's shop" a "doctor's office" frontier "home furniture", extensive Indian arrows and arrowheads. There were pictures of hangings and a replica of the hangman's noose.


It turned out that this museum was in actual town called Lander. When I asked the woman in the museum gift shop where I could get a cup of coffee, she told me about 2 places on Main Street. I asked her where Main Street was and she said that I was on it. Sure enough, a while down the road we came upon some stores and we stopped at the supermarket and I got a good coffee. When we left Lander, it was more open spaces until Laramie.

There were lots and lots of trucks on our road and many carried cows or sheep. They may have been going to market, I don't know. There were also many really oversized loads of metal boxes(with no tops) and these trailers holding very long white canvass looking rolled fabric
UPDATE: Turns out that those long white cones and the metal boxes are for another windmilll farm.
Cheyenne

We were going to stop in Laramie for the night but there is a big college football game this weekend(Wyoming and Texas" and the rooms were dear so we went on to Cheyenne, the capital city.Landers, Wyoming

Jackson Hole

Wednesday September 9, 2009

we left Yellowstone by 8 a.m. and we drove south through the Great Tetons Natl Park. These are especially varied peaks and they get their name from the French for breast. I could see that. As lovely as it was, I was sated with seeing mountains already and I wanted to get to a place with internet, cell phone coverage and radio and tv.



Jackson Hole

We pulled into Jackson before noon and we were enchanted. Everything has a wild west decor. There are lots of souvenir shops but they are in good taste and cleverly named. One is called "shirt off my back" and one is called

Shirts and Ernies.

I like the name of the town. It is surrounded by mountains and apparently some early fur trader called it Jackson Hole and the name stuck.

We spent a while deciding on which motel room to take In one motel room that we were given a key to take a look at the room there were 7 or 8 emplayees sitting having lunch and watching mtv. The proprietress did not see anything wrong with that but I did. Another thing that I discovered is that when a lodgine receptionist won't let you take a look at a room unless it is made up, she is right. Looking at someone else's left behind room is offputting.

There is a cowboy saloon where all the barstools are saddles.

Yellowstone National Park-YNP's Grand Canyon

September 7, 2009 Labor Day

Yellowstone

Biggest Hot Spot in the World
I am not certain that I understand what a hot spot is, but it is underground and very hot and there are only 20 in the world and Yellowstone is the biggest. Geologists don’t know what causes them. In Yellowstone they provide over 10,000 thermal springs the steam from which one sees rising all over the park. The magma under the earth heats and moves around.

In some cases one sees “bubbling cauldrons” looking like mud or yeasty substance bubbling away. Often you can smell the sulfur that is rising as the hydrogen sulfide in the land converts to sulfuric acid because of thermoacidophiles (organisms that thrive(love) on acid.

Right hand with palm facing you- map of Yellowstone Lake
When you hold your right hand this way, you get your map of Yellowstone Lake. Water enters from the river at the Pinky and eventually goes out through the West thumb. It takes eleven days to go through the Yellowstone Lake to exit at the West Thumb. From there it flows into the Missouri River and then the Mississippi.

Old Faithful
Perhaps the most famous piece of Yellowstone is the thermal spring that is the biggest geyser in the world and erupts faithfully every 60-90 minutes. Hundreds, if not thousands of people, sit each hour watching the steam as it changes and waiting for a big eruption. At times before the eruption we saw bubbles like a fountain of water rising a few times and then returning to steam. It came beautifully into much higher fountain waters that erupt a few times before they settle back down. Old Faithful is not the only geyser at Yellowstone, but it is the biggest.

What causes a geyser?
From what I understand, the hot magma moves around and can create fissures. In order to have a geyser, there have to be three things. First is plenty of water and Yellowstone has lots of snow and rain. The water finds its way in to the fissure and is under the tremendous pressure of the earth above it. The hot magma heats the water and because of the very high pressure, it can heat to a boiling point of 400 F. There has to be way out for this steam but in order for it to come out as a geyser, there must be a serious constriction in its route out. At old Faithful the constriction is 4.5 inches and the rest of chamber is more than 20 inches. So when the steam gets that restriction it builds pressure until it explodes up through the top. If there is not a very special rock coating the steam’s path, the whole geyser would explode the first time it blows. So you need a rock to withstand the geyser. Someone called it Carbonite and someone called it Geyserite.

Is this a volcano?
Yellowstone is super volcano but it has not erupted in 430 million years. When it did erupt it made a crater that created Yellowstone Lake, the biggest lake in North America at this altitude. Yellowstone is basically in Wyoming and when this volcano erupted, dinosaurs in Nebraska had their lungs burnt out.

Wildlife
Yellowstone may be best known for its bears but we did not see any. You see bears out mainly in the early summer –they are still in the park but have moved north to eat White Birch -and what you see in the late summer are lots of Bison. Bison have their rutting season mostly in August and when they are looking for mates, they join the heard to find females that they can court. Gestation is 8 months so the newbies conceived in July have the best chance for their first winter survival. We are in to September now and there are still a few Bison still trying to copulate and you can see them try to separate a female from the herd to cut down other male interference. The male bison can weigh 2000 lbs and are quite big. We were seeing a lot of them but we only got really close in a car because they can be dangerous to walk near. You should leave 75 ft. between yourself and the bison. We went on a nature walk with a ranger in the area of a herd. First thing, it is easy to identify the scat of these animals as they are quite circular and loose and have rivulets around the feces. The bison is upset if his tail is raised and that is a sign to be careful. We saw many relaxed bison (even an orange bison which shows that it is less than 4 months old) but we did not too close. On our way back along our loop, a bison wondered on to our path so the ranger took us off trail through the meadows to avoid him. We also saw an elk.

The soil quality of Yellowstone is quite poor. It can support the Lodgepole Pine and that tree makes it possible for some other tree types to grow. There are fir trees which are identifiable by there soft luxuriant needles like fur. Our ranger told us that Congress allowed this to become the First National Park because they believed it had little value—the soil was poor, it contained no gold or silver, and you couldn’t get lumber out of here without big problems.

Yellowstone National Park-Old Faithful

September 7, 2009 Labor Day

Yellowstone

Biggest Hot Spot in the World
I am not certain that I understand what a hot spot is, but it is underground and very hot and there are only 20 in the world and Yellowstone is the biggest. Geologists don’t know what causes them. In Yellowstone they provide over 10,000 thermal springs the steam from which one sees rising all over the park. The magma under the earth heats and moves around.

In some cases one sees “bubbling cauldrons” looking like mud or yeasty substance bubbling away. Often you can smell the sulfur that is rising as the hydrogen sulfide in the land converts to sulfuric acid because of thermoacidophiles (organisms that thrive(love) on acid.

Right hand with palm facing you- map of Yellowstone Lake
When you hold your right hand this way, you get your map of Yellowstone Lake. Water enters from the river at the Pinky and eventually goes out through the West thumb. It takes eleven days to go through the Yellowstone Lake to exit at the West Thumb. From there it flows into the Missouri River and then the Mississippi.

Old Faithful
Perhaps the most famous piece of Yellowstone is the thermal spring that is the biggest geyser in the world and erupts faithfully every 60-90 minutes. Hundreds, if not thousands of people, sit each hour watching the steam as it changes and waiting for a big eruption. At times before the eruption we saw bubbles like a fountain of water rising a few times and then returning to steam. It came beautifully into much higher fountain waters that erupt a few times before they settle back down. Old Faithful is not the only geyser at Yellowstone, but it is the biggest.

What causes a geyser?
From what I understand, the hot magma moves around and can create fissures. In order to have a geyser, there have to be three things. First is plenty of water and Yellowstone has lots of snow and rain. The water finds its way in to the fissure and is under the tremendous pressure of the earth above it. The hot magma heats the water and because of the very high pressure, it can heat to a boiling point of 400 F. There has to be way out for this steam but in order for it to come out as a geyser, there must be a serious constriction in its route out. At old Faithful the constriction is 4.5 inches and the rest of chamber is more than 20 inches. So when the steam gets that restriction it builds pressure until it explodes up through the top. If there is not a very special rock coating the steam’s path, the whole geyser would explode the first time it blows. So you need a rock to withstand the geyser. Someone called it Carbonite and someone called it Geyserite.

Is this a volcano?
Yellowstone is super volcano but it has not erupted in 430 million years. When it did erupt it made a crater that created Yellowstone Lake, the biggest lake in North America at this altitude. Yellowstone is basically in Wyoming and when this volcano erupted, dinosaurs in Nebraska had their lungs burnt out.

Wildlife
Yellowstone may be best known for its bears but we did not see any. You see bears out mainly in the early summer –they are still in the park but have moved north to eat White Birch -and what you see in the late summer are lots of Bison. Bison have their rutting season mostly in August and when they are looking for mates, they join the heard to find females that they can court. Gestation is 8 months so the newbies conceived in July have the best chance for their first winter survival. We are in to September now and there are still a few Bison still trying to copulate and you can see them try to separate a female from the herd to cut down other male interference. The male bison can weigh 2000 lbs and are quite big. We were seeing a lot of them but we only got really close in a car because they can be dangerous to walk near. You should leave 75 ft. between yourself and the bison. We went on a nature walk with a ranger in the area of a herd. First thing, it is easy to identify the scat of these animals as they are quite circular and loose and have rivulets around the feces. The bison is upset if his tail is raised and that is a sign to be careful. We saw many relaxed bison (even an orange bison which shows that it is less than 4 months old) but we did not too close. On our way back along our loop, a bison wondered on to our path so the ranger took us off trail through the meadows to avoid him. We also saw an elk.

The soil quality of Yellowstone is quite poor. It can support the Lodgepole Pine and that tree makes it possible for some other tree types to grow. There are fir trees which are identifiable by there soft luxuriant needles like fur. Our ranger told us that Congress allowed this to become the First National Park because they believed it had little value—the soil was poor, it contained no gold or silver, and you couldn’t get lumber out of here without big problems.

On the Road;Yellowstone Natl. Park-Getting Here

Yellowstone National Park
September 6, 2009

Trip from Glacier to Yellowstone
We got an early start to leave Glacier as Yellowstone turns out to be 625 miles away and we had a room booked for tonight. We began driving across Montana on the highways. On and on we drove and there was nothing on either side of the road but grass, some fences, occasional cows. At last we came to a rest stop. At the entrance to the little park was a sign “Stay on Sidewalks. Rattlesnakes have been spotted.” David made very good time on the roads. A lot of time he could go 70 or 75 and sometimes he passed slower motorists.

The first sign of residences or businesses was around Helena, the capital. We stopped for lunch at a Burger King and it appeared to be crowded with people coming from church. At the booth next to ours was a couple of great grandparents with 3 very young ones of a granddaughter(who is just turning 21 years old) and a granddaughter(aunt to the little ones who is 9 nine years old). After lunch they were going to picture appointments at the Wal-Mart next door.

Arrival at Yellowstone

We arrived at Yellowstone at a little after 3 p.m. but after waiting for a ranger to give us information and going to the hotel for more information, we found out that our cabin was another hour and a half away. On the way we saw large fields of ice and steam from geysers rising into the air. We were stopped on the road by some inconsiderate visitors who stopped their cars to apparently look at bears. We did not see the bears but we did see two enormous bison grazing by the side of the road as we neared our destination. Our cabin was at the end of some cabins that felt like the middle of nowhere but we were pleasantly surprised to see that the cabin had been remodeled into an attractive western cabin with a nice new bathroom. For folks who like the feeling of no internet, no cell phone connection, no radio or tv this is wonderful but I feel insecure.

Glacier National Park-U.S.-Continental Divide

To my loyal readers--We have been out of connection for the last 5 days that we spent at the National Parks. These are coming not on real time.


Glacier National Park-
September 5, 2009

Continental Divide
This morning we planned to drive to the West Side of the park. I wanted to see what made that more popular. David said that the west side is warmer and less windy but rains more. This weather difference is apparently because of this called the Continental Divide. As far as I understand it is a fault under the Rockies that travels on the same lane north/south through all of N. America. It holds lots of water. When rain or snow falls on this fault area, all the snow that falls on the West side goes out to the Pacific, the precipitation that falls on the East side goes to the Hudson Bay and all the wetness that falls on the South side goes to the Atlantic.

Lesson on Rocks
At an early pull off for an overlook we noticed 3 mini-buses marked Whitman College, Walla Walla WA. It was a geology field trip and 3 professors were explaining the rock formations. I was fascinated.

The different kinds of rock are fairly easily identifiable if you know rock. Layers of rock pile on top of each other to make a mountain. I had wanted to know what makes different colored layers on mountains and seems to be because they are different rocks. Near water the bottom layer is sandstone and then on top of that is shale and then on top of that may be a carbonate. A carbonate is a layer of rock of which fossilized shells and animals form a white layer. There are names for all different rock layer groups. For example a mountain made of sandstone, then shale, then carbonate has a name to identify the group and then if that mountain is grouped with others with characteristics there is a name for that group. There are also angles of rocks that happen when they converge and these angles are called orthogonal. Geologists can tell where rock slides will occur from the angle of the rocks. Also, when you look at mountains with vegetation you can see vertical lines down the mountain where rock slides can occur.

There is a term for rocks that crack easily. These cracks get increased as ice and silt forms in them. They measure the angle of the cracks in these rocks.
Biggest glaciers are on the NE corner of a mountain.
Acid is often used to identify a rock. The biggest glaciers are on the Northeast side of a mountain. This is because they melt less and get more cold wind.

My own Cairns

Since we got lost yesterday I decided that on each trail today as the path turned I would put down some stones that I could recognize that pointed in the direction home. At first I thought that I was doing a Hansel but then I realized that I was actually making cairns like the ancients. And they work.

Tree lines are beginning of the Alpine Areas
5880 is the treelike on the mountains here.
I was watching for the trees to disappear as we entered alpine and sub-alpine areas. Our GPS gives elevations so it is easy to see how high we are by pushing a button. I saw the treelike as being at 5880 but a ranger intern said it was 6440. In alpine areas there are no trees and it is colder and windier and the sun is more intense. Very few plants and animals can adapt to this. On the other hand, if you can adapt to this you have the advantage of being in a place inhospitable to predators. Plants that adapt sometimes have swollen and hairy leaves that allow it to hold more water. There is at least one plant that turns red in the winter. The bright color allows it to absorb more sun and to photosynthesize at lower temps than green plants. When summer comes it begins to turn green.

.Remnants from forest fires
We saw a large area on our drive that had white skeletons of trees for miles. This was apparently a big fire. At one point on our road we saw 4 t black cows with piercings in an ear and other places but this was to show who they belonged to. They stood right at the asphalt road edge waiting to cross the road as cars sped by a 70mph.

Clickety Clack Butterflies

In the east side of the park are numbers of yellow butterflies with black trim. When they fly their wings must touch each other and each time they make a large clickety clack.

McDonald Lodge
On our drive on the Road to the Rising Sun (as the park road is called) we stopped to see the stately old lodges in the park. These were built in the early 20th century and look like giant log cabins with Native American furnishings. I love the big lobbies with the really high ceilings and the long outdoor porches that are lined with rockers or other comfy chairs to look out at the mountains, the lakes, the trees. They have nice dining rooms, lounges, gift shops, card rooms—all within the Lodge building.

My favorite is McDonald Lodge. When it was built there were no roads in the park and visitors had to arrive there by boats on the lake.

Glacier National Park-U.S.

On the Road-Calgary

Thursday, September 03, 2009



After I did laundry we left Canmore and started East on our way to Glacier National Park across the border in Montana, Our route took us practically into Calgary, and since we were there, I wanted to see its downtown. It is a giant and confusing city. They have numbered streets and numbered avenues and the visitor centre is listed as being at 238 11th Avenue. I kept directing David to what truned out to be either 11th street or 2nd ave. We finally got to second street and eleventh avenue and parked the car. There are pay booths located on every block or so. You enter the number of the parking zone that you are parked in-the zone number is on a sign above the sign that says 2 hour parking. So you put in the zone number and then you must put in your license plate number. Then you put in your loonies or townies or credit card and choose your time for up to two hours. The parking meter maid told me that this is a great system because no matter where you are in the city, you can go to a pay booth and put in your zone number and add time. I asked her “what about the 2 hour limit” and she said “well, you’re supposed to stay only two hours but so what.” I guess at $3.00 an hour they don’t mind you staying.

It turned out that while we had found 2nd street and 11th ave. we were in the NW 2nd and 11th and we needed the SE. We had a lovely lunch at a chophouse called Vintage. The glass of house Chardonnay that I ordered turned out to be $14. I complained that I had clearly told the waiter that I wanted the bottom price and the waitress brought me a menu to show that the $14 glass was the cheapest one. The food prices were more reasonable.

On the Road-Banff-Lake Louise

September 3, 2009
Lake Louise

Lake Louise is quite famous and it could be the most beautiful lake in the world. It is a total clear light blue that sits at the bottom of magnificent mountains, some with glaciers showing. The whole area smells of pine trees. There is one hotel on the property, a Fairmount property that looks like a fairy castle. From inside this hotel you can look out at the lake and snow on the the jagged peaks of individual looking peaks.

You can walk half way along the lake and at the end of the road is a trail up the mountain.. We always meet people along the way often with the guise of getting more information about the trail or vegetation. There were some mountain climbers along the way that were exciting to watch as they look for purchase on the sheer rock and try to go up. The scenery changed as the road turned and it wall gorgeous except for one spot which was black rocks in piles as you looked down and it seemed like something that we could have seen in Peekskill. Ther was a mountain goat along the way that some people saw but we never did.

At the end of the road is a path leading up Mt. Whyte (named for a Canadian Pacific rr mogul) and it did not too steep. A sign said that it was only 3.5 km and that there was a famous teahouse at the top. I still can't get a handle on how far those km are and the teahouse looked inviting so I thought that we might try to walk it. Actually, I make a correction today to say that the path to the teahuse said 6.5 km and it was some km until you even reach that path. We had met this delightful young lady at the Lake and she was wanting to take the hike but she was catching a greyhound back to her hostle in Banff and would not time. We told her that she could walk with us and we would take her back to Banff as we had to go back to exchange a tee shirt. It turned out that both the girl and me would have turned back if we did not want to look fainthearted in front of the other one. We were hoping that there would be a road to take back from the teahouse but oh no. There is no road and their supplies are dropped by helicopter in early summer and they try to make tea there with no electricity and no plumbing. I was dying for a glass of water but they would give me a sip because their water is taken from an underground spring and then boiled for use. On the mountain as we neared the lake we noticed that the water level of the lake had risen(I don't if it was a tide or what) but we noticed because it was wetter to have to cross a bit of the road.

Banff

Banff is a beautiful looking little town. We ate breakfast and dinner there and I shopped at the great little shops. They had a gondola ride up a mountain but since we had just done that, it did hold much of a temptation for us. We were surprised that almost every hotel(all but one) had a vacancy sign and one had a sign saying "walk in and be surprised at our price." I didn't stop there but later on I got curious and stopped at the King Edward hotel and got a price for a room with a queen sized bed and bath for $85.00 Canadian. This is less than the cabin like accommodations that we had in the town of Canmore. Canmorebeing the town nearby known for cheaper rooms.

On the Road-Jasper Canada, Inukshuk; Mt. Whistler

Tuesday, Sept. 1

Mount Whistler

We drove to catch the first Tramway up 5000 feet and above the tree line on this mountain. There is supposed to be some wildlife up there but no one I spoke to saw any more than mosquitoes. The mountain gets its name from the whistling sound made by the Marmot who is supposed to be there. This Mt. Whistler is not to be confused with the famous Mt. Whistler skiing area next to Vancouver. These were biting like crazy at 10:00 until 12:30 when we left. You are surrounded by beautiful mountains in all directions as you climb a steep path. The air is thin and one is always struggling to catch one's breath. At the summit or near the summit is a metal disk which looks a lot like a sundial. But this is a mountain pointer. You move the raised wedge around the dial and it points you to any of 20 mount ins.

Inukshuk
These Inuit stone markers are a form of Cairns used by ancient peoples as markers for navigation, road trails, burial, and caribou slaughter cliffs. The Inukshuk was used by Indians of Canada, Alaska, and Greenland. They are piles of stones that are quite evident and the word "Inukshuk" apparently means "takes the place of a person." There are some stone markers which are formed to look like a person but they are called by a slightly different name than Inukshuk. On the barren mountain people had erected dozens and dozens of these Inukshuks. I said to David "maybe people come up here each summer and construct these since there is no wildlife to destroy them and no vegetation to obscure them." The Indians here are quite vocal about wrongs done to them and this may an expression of native pride. I have also read that the Inukshuk is becoming the national symbol of Canada and maybe that is why everyone is making them.

Athabasca Falls and the Icefileld Highway
We drove down the Ice field Highway as a scenic experience and to get to Lake Louise. The entire 3 1/2 hour drive you follow the beautiful Athabasca River and are surrounded by beautiful varied looking mountains. The best place that we stopped to see was the Athabasca Falls. These produce the wildest water flow that we have ever seen. In several different places new pools of rapidly swirling water work their way through the rock causing beautiful ruts in all the rock around them. There are lots of warning signs around the fences as ever year someone thinks that they will just step on the rock outside the since and end up slipping to their death. They was a touching memoriam on a bench at one point to this young man-Roger, he was 21- who went hiking with friends in 2002 and made one bad choice.

PRINCESS LOUISE CAROLINE ALBERTA

Since we are at Lake Louise in the Canadian Province of Alberta, I would like to mention where these names come from. Princess Louise Caroline Alberta was the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. Her husband was named Governor General of Canada in the 1880s and as a love gift he gave her gift of all of her names being names of Canada. We haven't come upon Caroline yet.

On the Road-Jasper Alberta

August 31, 2009

Mount Edith Cavell and Angel Glacier

We left before 8:00 a.m. to start down Icefield Parkway a bit to reach the entrance to Mt. Edith Cavell. Actually we had thought that it was 7:00 because we had not noticed that the time had changed to Rocky Mountain Time. The road up to the trail head was windy and seemed to take forever to reach a parking area for our walk. It was close to 5000 feet above sea level. Our first walk led us up and very close to this mountain. It is named for a British nurse who was executed during WWII for helping prisoners of war in Belguim escape. The walk out to the glacier pond and the visions of what is left of the glacier took about an hour. On the way we saw several different ground squirrels and a full grown Marmut stuffing himself with a large bunch of grass. We also some evergreens that had were apparently in a fire and the bottom half of these trees is burned black and the tops are green. We also saw instances of new vegetation peeking up through Rocky(where landslides carried down rock) or burned out areas. I expected it to be very cold by the glacier but it was warm. This glacier and many others in North America formed about 400 years ago during a mini ice age. In 1951 there was still enough of the glacier that snow covered some of the area that were clear for walking today. water runs down the steep mountain as the glacier melts. Angel Pond is the result of melting glacier water running down and pieces of the glacier breaking off and falling into the pond. While we were there, a piece of the glacier right above the pond kept calving and dropping ice into the pond with a big splash which reverberated through the woods like the sound of a gunshot or firecrackers.

The second walk that we took went up much higher and showed us higher views of the mountain and the landscape up there was more meadows with wildflowers as well as the evergreens. On the walk down from this second hike, we walked with this woman that had gone to library school about the same time that I did and we got to talk about the changes that were going on for libraries.

After our hiking we went to the Post Office to mail some souvenirs off to the kids and I was surprised to be handed customs sheets to be filled out for each package.

On the Road-Victria BC-Jasper Alberta

LEAVING VICTORIA

Saturday Aug. 29th

We were warned that we better not take our car to the ferry too early on a Saturday morning or we would have to wait a long time. So we left in time to catch the 11:00 ferry and managed to get on the 1:00. For one thing there was an AC-DC concert in Vancouver on Saturday and it seemed that every young person on Vancouver Island wa aboard a ferry for this concert. When we landed back on the mainland(near Vancouver) we drove through what appeared to be uninhabited areas for long miles on the road and once in a while there would be a town. We stopped for the evening in a place called Merritt BC. It had very weak Internet connectivity and a Chinese restaurant that was terrible. We began our drive north and east to get to get to Jasper in the province of Alberta. All along the road were trees-a lot were dead- and beautiful mountains with striations of different colors horizontally on the rocks. Peaks of snow were often visible. Lots of reminders for snow tires or chains and gates that close off the road in winter.

JASPER ALBERTA

We drove many hours and we finally reached Jasper which is a national park. Before you enter the park ever one must pay a fee. You pay a fee for each day that you plan to be in the parks until you reach seven days and that buys you an annual pass. We drove into the park and we came upon the city/town of Jasper. Jasper is right in the middle of the park and the ranger station is right in the middle of town. David and I were delighted to see what a beautiful almost magical looking town that it was. All kinds of shops and restaurants line the first couple streets.

I was feeling as though we are doing a very long journey but that was before I met Albert and Marilyn. This couple who lives in Lincoln shire England bought themselves a motorcycle, flew themselves and the cycle to Anchorage, and are driving to Argentina. They have been on the road for just 3 weeks and re having a ball. Also at our hotel are a lovely couple named Gordon and Dorothy and they are in their 8o0's and are doing a road trip all across Western Canada.

;ontheroad-Victoria BC

August 28, 2009

MINIATURE WORLD

Located in Victoria's prime hotel, the Empress(built by some more of those RR magnates) is a museum of dioramas depicting varied things. As you enter, there is a dark hallway that displays in virtual fashion futuristic time travel. Then you proceed down a series of hallways that have the dioramas inside glass covering along both sides of the hallways. The exhibits begin with detailed depictions of past battles which include battlefields and razed civilian buildings. Battles were from WWII, WWI, Civil War of U.S., Revolutionary War of U.S., Napoleonic Wars and replications of pioneer days includeing Indians stampeding buffalo in order to use there meat and hides.; and a working sawmill with everything cut in one inch to one foot scale with machines perfectly cutting , turnikng, and stacking wood. One finally reaches the hallways of fantasy. There is a fine diarama of Snow White and her 7 Dwarves, Jack and the Beanstalk and the Old Woman who lived in the shoe. After that a large sections depicting some Dickens. There is a window for Oliver Ywist, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickelby, etc. Then there are several large and detailed Victorian Dollhouses. The final museum section is called the Circus and show big top areas, carnival rides(moving and lit), unsrupulous gamers and Wild West Shows.

FRINGE FESTIVAL
Big in Victoria this week is the arrival of the Fringe Festival. This, which we had never heard of is a collection offbeat theater and dance performances. This festival travels around all through Canada, and we were surprised to learn goes even to San Francisco. Many are one man plays. In this festival the performers get all the money from the ticket sales and the whole festival is run on a shoestring budget mainly coming from the $5 every one is supposed to pay to belong to the festival and buy tickets. The show that we saw was called STRAIGHT and was an excellent presentation by a talented young woman. It is about her life, her mother's death, and her repeating her mother's life.

Canadianisms

There are not00 many language differences. On the West Coast, as this is called you hear very little French-you hear more at Sharon Green- and not many things are printed in the 2 languages. There seem to be a couple of French tv stations but there are also Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese etc.
WASHROOMS
Canadians so use the term "Washroom" consistently where we would use "rest rooms." There are a few other Britishisms I notice such as "mind your step" and of course there are metres and liters,and spelling with extra "u"s and "re"s instead of "er"s.
LOONIES AND TWONIES
Specific to Canadians are terms for the one dollar and two dollar coins which are called Loonies and Twonies respectively. There is a picture of a loon on the one dollar coin and the two dollar coin makes it rhyme by saying twonies.

POUTINE
You find this on menus and it is a Queebec contribution. What it is is french fries, gravy and cheese on top. Nothing sounds more revolting to me. I have been looking for abaked potato since we entered Canada and they don't seem to eat their potatoes baked.

On the Road-Victoria BC

Thursday August 17

BUTCHART GARDENS -over 100 years in bloom

On Vancouver Island in the city of Victoria, (Victoria is the capital of British Columbia) is a National Landmark of Canada call Butchart Gardens. These 55 acres of different gardens is the result of the pet project by Jennie Butchart, wife of a cement manufacturer. Their property was an enormous Lime quarry (lime being what is processed to make cement. The lime excavation created deep barren chasms and Mrs. Butchart set about creating gardens in this area She brought back seeds from all over the world and had many gardeners and access to landscape architects, money being no object. If the limestone was of inferior quality, that area was not mined and this created walls around one sunken garden. There is also a Mediteranium Garden, a Japenese Garden, a Perennial Garden...We had been advised to arrive at the garden in late afternoon so that we could see the garden in daylight and wait around until dark when the garden is transformed with lights. Waiting around was not difficult as sat outside and had a little dinner and then at 7:30 entertainment began on the concert lawn. A large band played music from the 40's and audience members danced quite competently to the waltzes, cha=cha etc.

On the Road-Vancouver-Stanley Park

Wednesday, August 26

STANLEY PARK, THE GARDEN SPOT OF VANCOUVER

Located at the North end of the city, this park is accessible on foot by following the sea wall of False Creek until its end. The park is 1000 beautiful acres surrounded by the water of English Bay and Burrard Inlet. Contained in the park are other lakes such as Lost Lagoon and Beaver Lake. The park has three beaches, some playgrounds, many trails, a petting zoo, the aquarium; and most beautiful to me the iconic totem poles and and the community gardens. The park has areas set aside for lawn bowling and croquet. A large group os attractive middle-aged women all dressed in white were socializing as a few set up the croquet path. The park has lots of wildlife and we spent a few minutes trying to get good photos of the friendly raccoons who seemed to love posing for pictures on their hind legs. I only got one shot of them on their hind legs as they were faster moving than our camera could shoot.

TOTEM POLES
The garden of totem poles is representatve of the early peoples referred to as Inuit and Coast Salish. The poles are carved of cedar and stand way taller than I am. They depict either historical or mythological events that the people wnted to proclaim in the front of their houses.

COMMUNITY GARDENS
A large area of formal gardens often set in circular displays of high flowers sometimes containing angular grass designs. Every circle is carefully edged around to separate each flower area from the rest of the lawn.

On the Road-Vancouver

ONTHEROAD-VANCOUVER August 25

Drink in British Columbia
They drink and produce a lot of beer here. There is a chain here called Fogg 'n Suds which has beers aver 100 beers from all over the world. The Fogg is for Phineas Fogg from around the World in 80 days and the Suds is of course beer.

In Iced Teas there is Shaken Iced Tea- a good tea fruit blend from a big coffee chain called BLENZ. In Chinatown there were many signs for Bubble Tea which is an Iced Tea with round fruity candies in the bottom of your glass.

GRANVILLE ISLAND
We took a bus ato get here but it doesn't seem to require a bridge to get there. There is a large portion of False Creek around Granville and many small water taxis to take passengers across the water to parts of the city on the other side of the water. The highlight of GI is the Public Market which seems like an indoor daily farmer's market at which each booth has wonderful products--the food booths we sampled. I got a fabulous scone which had a hint of cheese and salt and no sugar. In the whole state of California I have not found an unsugared scone.

David and I declined to take a ferry in favor of walking along a paved path that follows the creek and atook us into Chinatown.
CHINATOWN
First we visited the Dr. Sun-Yet sun Garden. This is a small type Ming Garden and bult to give a sense of larger space and containing elements of water, Earth, Heaven,nature. There is Ying and Yang all over the place so that opposites which are really complementary can be shone. This is seen in male and female foliage, round stones and skinny rectangular stones, live bamboo and mineral rocks against the bamboo that have an opposite texture from the bamboo. In their temple room they have a view of an Evergreen to symbolize strength and long-life, a bamboo to symbolize flexibility, and a snow cherry (this is a tree that blooms in the China before the snow is gone) to symbolize rebirth.

For lunch we were directed to the Jade Dynasty restauraant for freshly prepared Dim Sum. They were not kidding. You ordered from a menu and then they cooked it and brought it out to you right from the oven in a steamer. You could taste the freshness.

GASTOWN
This was the in place in Vancouver in mid 19th century. It gets its name from a developer here who told long-winded stories. The Original Spahetti Factory is located here and there is old trolley car in the middle of the restaurant that you chose to sit in.

VANCOUVER PUBLIC LIBRARY
David wanted me to get to see the library which is very close to our hotel. It is a block long and 7 stories high. It houses 1.3 million tomes/resources. Even with this gigantic building some collections must be kept on shelves that have no space between one set of bookcases and the next. One must press a button to move the shelves apart and get to the shelves that you need. While some libraries are beginning to have coffee bars in them, this place has a full block long row of little snack stores across from the door where one actually enters to get to the books. Originally, I thought that patrons could eat snacks in parts of the library but a VPL librarian tells me that you cannot eat in the library. When you go through the gates upon entering the book area, they give you shopping baskets like the hand-held kind that you get in food markets. The catalog has my mother's books. They allow non-members to use the Internet for an hour.

ontheroad; Vancouver BC

Monday August 24, 2009
vancouver canada and the Quality Inn
We drive ubti Canada this Morning. We wanted to be certain that we had secured our hotel room in Vancouver baefore we left the U.S. It was difficult to secure a decent place downtown for a decent price at the last minute. There is a section here known as "downtown entertainment district" which describes an area filled with "gentleman's clubs" and I wanted to be sure not to get that area. But I went with Priceline Downtown Vancouver and we ended up with a Quality Inn in a dicey area that we could have probably gotten a better price if we had called them directly.
The parking lot is gated and requires a card to enter. Then in order to get from the hotel down to get to your car, you need a key to open the inside door to the garage. In the garage are all sorts of signs posted such as "report anyone that you see enter the garage not using a key." This has made me realize that valet parking has a tremendous advantage in terms of security. It is a good idea even if you don't like someone else driving your car.

The diwntiwn that we saw has chain stores such as Gap and Banana Republic but the buildings are older. There are some stores undergraound that you enter from a stairway going down from street level. We visited a loarge Vintage Clothing store down there. There are signs all along Robson Street(the shopping street) for Cuban cigars. Outside on the sidewalks are intermittent statues of Eagles painted by artists and financed by businesses. The idea here is rather like the painted cows that we had in the states (most notably Chicago) that will be auctioned off and the money given to charity. The charity for British Columbia is "disabled kids" and other Eagle Products are being sold to raise more money for this. For example, ther is a chocalate eagle that sells for $10.00.

The food we sampled was "big city delicious." Lunch was outside at an Italian Eatery and my Slavaki and David's salad were superb. For dinner we went for Tapas at an attractive red-checkered tablecloth place with garlic plants hanging on the walls. The food was good and the pitcher of Sangria that I ordered to go with it improved boosted the place to very verry good.

On the Road-North Cascades;Skagit Co. WA

August 22, 2009
Northern Cascades-the Stepchild of the National Parks—or—Don’t pee on the Heather.
We drove up to Skagit and booked a cabin in a “resort” called Clark’s Skagit Cabins and RV hookups in the mountains. The founding family, all of whom remain here today (in the middle of nowhere) had a mill and used to house their workers in these cabins. Linoleum floors and handmade curtains, they are clean and have no odors including artificial sprayed scents. There is no maid service during ones stay; and all you can do is place your used wet towels on the porch and any empty rolls of toilet paper or paper towels that you want replaced.

The Skagit resort community appears to be enormous. You can walk for a long time and find different housing, old rusted metal vehicles and tools, sheds for wood, bikes, chairs. On one trail, I came upon 3 mobile homes permanently moored to the land. One had a horse in its yard with surveyer type sticks and rope to serve as a tiny corral. ;There is an enormous round concrete edifice which is probably for collecting water. I tripped over a couple of rabbits that must be pets—a black one and a white one. Across the road is a tiny chapel. It is very little bigger than a kid’s play house. Plastic flowers are planted outside the chapel. The door opened for me and inside were extremely short in length pews and a little table in the front that held a book of a service.

There are no fancy visitor centers here or ranger led walks. We asked the ranger for suggested hikes but he directed us to short walks on level land. There seem to be very many less visitors here. Rangers seem to be mainly there to issue back country camping permits. We waited while 2 young men in front of us got very detailed instructions which including preserving the delicate forest growth. One piece of this information was “don’t pee on the heather because acid in the urine is harmful.”

We drove then to the town of Winthrop. On the way we went up four thousand plus feet and saw the most varied and incredible views. This park might be the best for all of its varied mountain views and how one can drive right up to snow patches left on mountains. As we approached the town of Winthrop we dropped to almost sea level and it got much hotter. Before entering Winthrop we saw a big campground housing a Woodstock revival with some of the same performers. Winthrop when we arrived, appeared to be the cowboy town that I had been promised. However there had been a power failure and most restaurants and stores were closed. It was hot so we turned the car around and returned to our Clark’s Skagit Cabins. We had a bad dinner at their restaurant and then situated ourselves in our cabin for the night.

On the Road;Bainbridge Is. WA

August 21
Took the ferry to Bainbridge Island and walked through the town of Winslow. It is a nice town but I was disappointed because I saw nothing more than the Sound and some shops and restaurants. We could only fill 2 hours there so we came back, had lunch at the 3 girls bakery and got our luggage and left town.

We stopped on our way North to see Jody’s baby Emily. We went on toward the Northern Cascades.
on

ontheroad- Skagit-North Cascades

CONCRETE WA

As you leave Seattle and drive East into Skagit Co and the North Cascades, you first approach a town called CONCRETE. At one time its large wall of concrete semicircles was the largest concrete structure in the U.S. or the world and I believe they made concrete. Now it is all Sat. morning swap meets and flea markets. It is a scocial activity for them and the one we stopped at has music each week of some kind. There is a lunch truck that sets up at one end by some picnic tables. I saw an old couple and their enormously fat grown daughter eating grilled cheese sandwiches out of styrofoam containers; and I wondered if these sandwiches were the highlight of their week.

On the Road-San Juan Islands, WA

SAN JUAN ISLAND


Off the NW Coast of WA is a group of islands, some too tiny for habitation, and all of them beautiful. It must have always been the perfect summer getaway for Seattle residents but when we visited we saw that there were many tourists from lots of places. We had heard and read how beautiful these islands are and we did not want to miss this. When I called for reservations there wer none or way beyond our budget so we decided on a day excursion. You can take your car with you but this may require reservations for the week-end and does require that you arrive 2 hours ahead to put your car in the line for boadrding. David and I decided that we would walk on the ferry as passengers and make our destination FRIDAY HARBOR which is the busiest town and very walkable on the island called itself Sna Juan.

The ferry ride across is picturesque(you see some really tiny islands as well as some larger inhabited ones) and cheap and they seem to always have a naturalist on board to give a talk to those who will listen. We went to hear a man talk about Orca whales--and we happened to see 3 not far from our ferry-as he spoke. To me, the most interesting thing that he said was how different whale pods can pass each other and pay no attention to each other, even though they live in big social groups and keep in sonar contact with their own group all of the time. The J pods around the Puget Sound are happy outgoing and eat only salmon--80% Chinook and 20% Chum. When there is not enough slamon, they starve rather than eat any other fish. The pod that they call the transients eat different kinds of sea mammals and eat no fish. DNA tests show that hey have not interbred in thousands of years; and the mammal eaters have a stronger jaw.

We disembarked on Friday Island and walked around. We started to the nearest beach and then I felt that we should go back to the harborside and get some lunch. High on a bluff overlooking the harbor, we sat at a table at the edge of the bluff. The restaurant is actually called THE BLUFF. The weather was perfect, the food and service extraordinary. As we began to eat, a good bluegrass band began playing form the park below and serenading us through lunch. We liked them so much that we went to hear the rest of the concert after lunch.