On Our Way Home

Today is our thirty-sixth day out and we're both ready for home.  

We began the day at a place called "Omelet House" where we had a great breakfast.  We've gotten pretty good at finding yummy places to eat by googling something like "cheap breakfast near me"!  Anyway, breakfast was the best.  Yelp recommended it and the six egg (!) omelet, the homemade warm banana bread and the fresh made crispy, potato chips were amazing.  It just may be the best thing we found in Las Vegas....

But to give the devil his due, we went for a most entertaining walk along the Strip before heading for the airport.  People watching extraordinaire, music, fountains, gardens, columns, crowns, olive trees.  You name it. (Do they actually harvest the olives?) 

The interior of Caesar's Palace--it was the nicest of the casinos that we saw. 

And at the airport, after security, this bottle of water is $3.67!  I think that's called usury but I'm not sure.  Anyway, we're waiting for our 11:59 pm red eye flight back to Boston.  This has been a wonderful five week trip visiting so many beautiful national parks and more.  There were some lessons learned, some questions asked and some answered....  

We should get to Woodstock courtesy of the Dartmouth Coach and Chris and Vassie about 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon.  Ahhh....

Las Vegas…

Well, here we are in "Sin City", as they say, with tattoos, piercings, cigarette smoke and gaming machines everywhere...

... mid century nostalgia...

Las Vegas is actually great fun if you don't take it too seriously.

In the am, we headed toward Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. WOW!

Our first sight of Lake Mead.  I thought the lake would be much larger--more filled up...  But what we learned was that the lake level has dropped 125 feet since the 1980's when it was filled to the line below where the light rock ends and the dark begins...

Global warming?

Here's Rick on our boat.  As we rode along on the paddle wheeler, we saw an amazing view of the the Hoover Dam from Lake Mead....

Then, we visited the Dam itself and saw this...

 ...looking down into the Colorado River as it empties out of the dam.

And this view of the "spillover" which hasn't been full enough to "spill over" since 1983....

This is one of the very 1930's sculptures, meant to honor the workers who gave their live in the building of the Hoover Dam.  

Many miles of nothing...

We left our hotel in Ridgecrest, CA this morning and after 30 minutes of driving around trying to find our way to Death Valley, we're still married--despite the challenges of putting together our Rand McNally book of US maps and two (sometimes warring) GPS devices's along with Kathy's impaired sense of direction.  :o)
As usual, the road was wide and relatively empty...

...the day was bright and sunny and the scenery was wonderful.

Eventually, this handsome dude posed for a photo as we came to the sea level marker in Death Valley.  By 2:30 we reached 288 feet below sea level--the lowest in the contiguous United States. 

 Here's the visitor center and despite this reading, our car said 111 degrees soon after.  It is still spring here.

We're looking east (above) and west (below) in the same place at the same time.  Isn't it amazing how empty (and similar) the landscape is in both directions?

This is called the artist's palette because of all the colors arrayed along the hills.

And finally we arrived, Rick vastly relieved, in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel.  Interesting place.  More tomorrow....

On Our Way to Death Valley....

Today we left Greg and Sarah at our Exeter, CA Airbnb and working ranch, where we could hear their four horses snorting and whinnying and I loved it!
After our traditional morning stop at Starbucks, we headed for Visalia and their amazing Farmers Market, open every Saturday all year long.

Beautiful flowers, fruits and veggies for sale and we (of course) succumbed to cherries and nectarines and wished we were able to take more but home is far away....

These beautiful olives called Rick and we bought blue cheese stuffed ones.  Yum.

In Bakersfield we went round and round and finally found our way east...

...through the valley with trees growing every kind of fruit you can imagine.  As we traveled further, we went through a beautiful canyon...

,..and on through to a valley on the other side.

But then there was the most wonderful surpirse--A Joshua Tree!!!

I so wanted to get to Joshua Tree National Park but it was too far south for us to include it so this was a major gift for me.

At Ale's Steakhouse they have a great "senior dinner" comprised of a salad, a 10 oz. tri-tip steak with mashed potatoes topped with cheese and bacon for--can you believe--$10!  We both had it and it was great--why don't more restautants do this?

And tonight, the sky said goodnight to us as we got back to our room.

Do you remember "Death Valley Days"?  Ronald Regan advertised Twenty Mule Team Borax and the stories fueled my imagination of the Great West.  And we're on our way there tomorrow.  Wow.  

Sequoia to Kings Canyon...

Thursday morning, we left Pond House reluctantly after enjoying three nights with Natalie and John.  Natalie's breakfasts were so wonderful--fresh fruits and yummy baked goods and great coffee--and she and John were happy to consult with us on how to get wherever we wanted to go....

At the end of the day it was so lovely to sit by their pond and relax after being in the car for hours...

...the rowboat was inviting...

...and it's fine to see Rick who has driven about 6,000 miles so far, relaxing by

 the pond.

In the morning, we headed toward Exeter and along the way saw some lovely sights like this.

We found our new airbnb and Greg let us in early--so, we had our lunch next to...

...yes, the pool, how idyllic is this?  Then, we headed to Sequoia National Park and along the way we found...

...more beautiful oak trees, so emblymatic of the area...

...groves of orange, pistacio, walnut, lime and grapefruit trees and I"m sure we missd a bunch of fruits!

We were not prepared for the the twisty turn roads--or the spectacular beauty of the park...

The sequoira trees are enormous beyond belief and 2,000 plus years old.

Rick just wanted to hug them!

We walked through the shell of a burnt out tree, many feet in length.

 

Looking up is like looking up to an imaginary Jack and the Beanstalk home!

Here I am at the bottom of the tree over on the left--another Where's Waldo?--can you see how tiny I am compared to the giant Sequoia?  Can you see me at all?  :o)

There have been many fires in the park, both planned burns and unplanned fires, including last year's Rough Fire that burned many acres in the north of the park.

One of the benefits of the fires is that the undergrowth is cleared making way for wildflowers and new growth as you can see below...

Tomorrow we leave on our last jaunt to Death Valley before we head home to Vermont.  This has been such an amazing experience--a retreat of sorts that will take some time to sort out--a pleasant project in itself...

Another Day in Paradise

Yosemite is a miracle that had me striving to remember the first words of John's Gospel. 

When we got back to our airbnb I looked them up: "In the beginning waa the the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God...all things were made through Him and without him was not anything made...in him was life and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."  And here we were, looking at these most awesome sights thinking how God has made this huge, spectacular space and still loves and cares for every little one of us as individuals.  Come here and be spiritually moved.  Really.

...more waterfalls...

 ..and at the top of Glacier Point, we have a different perspective on Half Dome and the waterfalls....

We met this rock climber from New Zealand who had just climbed the rocky face shown below that morning.  He gracefully and patiently explained how he did it using all the hardware he was wearing and carrying and admitted he suffers from vertigo when he "looks down" too.  Wow!

Can you find the climbers?  They are two little black spots in the lower middle of the rock face.  Even with binoculars it is difficult to find them....

And in another tribute to Ansel Adams, the white dogwoods are blossoming.  Some say they rival the mountains and waterfalls for beauty.  As Ansel photographed them, in black and white.

With 34-foot high ceilings, enormous pine trestles and granite pillars, the chandelier-lit Majestic Hotel Dining Room is as spectacular as it is inviting.

We had a very special lunch there, sharing delicious cobb and caesar salads in that beautiful dining room....

Ahhhh, Yosemite

I would never say that I had a favorite National Park but if I did Yosemite would be it....

First is the friendly Ranger--and they all are--saying "Welcome to Yosemite!"  Our Golden Age Passes which cost us $10 each three years ago have saved us hundreds of dollars at $30 or so per park.  

Our first incredible vista came after driving through a long tunnel and it was breathtaking.  

El Capitan and Half Dome, amazingly right there in front of us....

... along with several hundred othere people!  As we drove along, the falls are many and beautiful...

...looking up...

...and looking down.   Wow.  More tomorrow!