Los Vegas to the Grand Canyon

We left Los Vegas first thing in the morning and this is the Hoover Dam. We drove along the Interstate most of the way but then we left the Interstate briefly for a lunch stop. We had a nice lunch packed in the cooler and when we pulled off the road by chance we ended up in this little town called Seligman. Which happens to be a bit of an historical site on the old Route 66 highway -- and there was a antique car show going on that weekend.
We ended up having a lunch of ribs at this little tent instead of our packed lunch. The Road Kill Cafe was right next door. Years ago when Andrew was about 10 he had this Road Kill Cafe T-Shirt, I can't even remember where he got it - so of course we decide he needed a new one - and his new one glows in the dark!! Not sure what he thinks of that!
The town was quite busy with people and cars. Great to accidently stop in to the place.
I had uploaded a few more pictures but it seems that four was all the program would take. It is a bit of a challenge at times - this blogger. 

An RV park at Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley.
Jim inspecting the creek for Pupp Fish.
Our lunch stop at Death Valley Junction.
The fountains at Bellagio's with Caesars Palace in the background. 

Ridgecrest to Los Vegas

We got up not too early and headed out northeast on Highway 178 towards Death Valley. There were just a couple of little towns along the road (Trona being the main town) boy did Trona look desolate, out in the middle of nowhere.

Death Valley is really quite beautiful, it was hot and dry - about 98 degrees F. We first stopped at the summit (4956 ft. in elevation) and took a few pictures. There is a washroom at the summit and the honey bees have invaded the men's urinal! Looking for any water they could find I guess. We stopped at Stovepipe Wells for a bit - there is a couple of shops there and a little resort and RV Park. Not a tree for a thousand miles. It is hard to imagine camping in an RV in the middle of Death Valley.

The lowest point in Death Valley is 263 feet below sea level. We went to the visitors centre around Furnace Creek and then drove back toward where we had been to see the Pupp fish that swim around in a very tiny little bit of hot desert water ( husband is a biologist - need I say more) There were thousands of Pupp fish and Thousands of Black flies - the biggest Black flies I have ever seen in my life. And I have seen big Black flies - I lived in Winnipeg Manitoba once!

Onward to Los Vegas - our planned stop for the night. We had lunch at Desert Valley Junction under the shade of an old building in the centre of town. Interesting places these desert towns.

We got to Los Vegas around the usual 4 p.m. time. Didn't seem to matter what time we left somewhere or how far we were driving we always seemed to get in sometime in the late afternoon. We drove around Los Vegas for awhile. I had never been there before. Quite the site all the Hotels that you see from the TV etc. Caesars Palace, Circus Circus, MGM Grand etc. Both Donald and Ivana Trump are building hotels there. We didn't want to stay at a big hotel as we had lots of bags and a cooler etc to haul up and down elevators so we decided to stay at the Howard Johnson. What a dump!!!!! The lobby was nice - our room was terrible - I got to experience my first cockroach laying on it's back in the bathroom. (I should have taken a picture) Fortunately that was the only one and we were too tired to find something else so we stayed the night.

We took the bus (which took forever) to the main area of Hotels etc. While we were sitting on the bus in front of Caesars Palace we saw all these crowds of people standing around - and right then some guy on a motorcycle did a jump and flip on his motorbike over the fountain at Caesars Palace. We saw the landing only from the bus.

We had Dinner at Bellagio's. Nice meal. Walked around Los Vegas a bit - it really does look wonderful at night with all the lights everywhere. Bellagio has these fountains and lights that go off to music. Some hotel had fire and fountains. Everything is HUGE!! We went into Caesars Palace and put some money $1.00 into a slot machine - with the assistance of someone who works there. Neither one of us has ever gambled but I really felt I should try since we were in Vegas after all. But all the codes on the slot machines and what they mean after they spin -- anyway in the end I won $3.00. So I took my money and we ran! Taking the bus back to the hotel - it was more crowded and slower at 11 PM than it was at 6PM. As we were waiting in line for the bus another tourist was looking for change for a $5.00 bill to get on the bus - but no one had the change - so I gave her $2.00 - my entire profit of winnings. And that was Los Vegas - it was a long and tiring day.

Carmel to Ridgecrest California

Blackwells Corner - the last place James Dean stopped before he crashed his car and died.

Kern Canyon, California along Highway 178


I am now back home and after a few days of feeling very tired I think I am recovering from all that driving. Altogether we drove 7600 kms. I will post the rest of the trip over the next few days or so. I will add the pictures from the lap top because the pictures are still there. I will be a bit of a complicated process.

We left Carmel and headed west. The goal was to get as close as we could to Death Valley so we could go stay the night somewhere and head into Death Valley early in the morning. We drove south down the 101 to Pasa Robles where we then headed east along the 46. The is a little town along highway 46 that we drove right past - Cholame - which is apparently where James Dean crashed his car and died. We stopped at a little gas station in Blackwells Corner to eat lunch in the shade and that is apparently the last place James Dean stopped into before he died. That is how we found out that the crashed his car at Cholame. There are pistachio and almond trees all along the road and the gas station in Blackwells Corner sold all kinds and flavours of these nuts. We bought 3 bags, had lunch and continues onwards.

After driving through Bakersfield we headed along highway 178 through the Kern Canyon and past Lake Isabella. A lovely little canyon set in the Sequoia National Forest. It was getting quite dry and hot compared to the cool foggy air around Carmel. We saw Joshua Trees as the countryside was getting quite desert like after Lake Isabella - which is a man made lake. We got into Ridgecrest around 4 p.m. or so. We stay the night at an Econo Lodge - okay place. We ate supper at a nice Mexican restaurant. The food was good. The air was hot and dry and there was a real hot wind in the evening. I really loved the wind. I stood out on the balcony of the motel late that night with the hot wind blowing. I couldn't help thinking about the book "The White Oleander" with the "Santa Ana Winds" Lots of different climate zones as we drove from west to east in California. From the cool ocean air to the hot desert.
The sunset from the hotel room in Ridgecrest. It was a lovely night.

Hearst Castle

This is a quilt that was hanging in the Visitors Centre and Hearst Castle. I am home now and I will try to add some pictures to the posts and post some more about the trip.


Yesterday we drove down the #1 Highway to San Simeon and took the tour of Hearst Castle. The weather was cool and foggy so we didn't get a bunch of sea view pictures. Saw Big Sur - which is sort of like Tofino -vegetarian 30 something surfers with natty dreads and big hats. There were lots of areas along the highway where the road had been washed out from all the rain and had just recently been repaired.

Hearst Castle was wonderful to see. It is beautiful and full of antiques. Inside it looks like an old English castle - full of old wooden choir stalls and old ceilings and fixtures and furniture. The thing I found interesting at the Castle is the bathrooms, because everything is antique in the castle you forget the castle is not built in the 12th century until you see the lovely modern bathrooms with the granite countertops. The two pools are stunning. Well worth the visit. I took a ton of pictures but we were not allowed to take flash pictures so many of them are too dark. It was very foggy and the view from the castle was mostly just fog. There is also an IMAX type movie about WR Hearst that was very good, we really enjoyed it. I took a picture of a Quilt that was hanging in the interpretive centre at Hearst Castle.

Today we drove through the California countryside -- across Highway 46 and 178 -- along the Kern Canyon and Sequoia National Forrest. We are stay the night at Ridgecrest and are heading off through Death Valley tomorrow.

Sausalito to Carmel California

Mount Shasta in Northern California. It was a beautiful sunny day for our drive from Salem to Sausalito. Northern California is very pretty, and not very populated. I was surprised.
The remodeled rooms at the Hotel. It was nice to go back to the Hotel after 15 years. Sausalito has not changed much although it is much busier. The hotel is nicely remodeled. This is a terrible picture - but the rooms are nice.
The view of the park across the street from our room.
The Hotel Sausalito. Looks the same from the outside.


We drove all day Sunday to get to Sausalito. It was a long day of driving, we left Salem at 7:30 a.m. and arrived in Sausalito around 6 p.m. It was a surprisingly nice drive along most of the I-5. The freeway through Oregon is green with trees and farms (cows, sheep and llamas) and mountains and very few towns or cities. Roseburg is a lovely little town set on a hillside covered in trees. I got some great pictures from the car of the scenery - Mt. MacLaughlin, Mt. Shasta etc. I can't load them onto the blogger yet as this computer doesn't have the program installed yet so I will add photos later.

The Rest Stops in Oregon are great places to stop. Clean, easy access in and out, picnic tables, bathrooms, grass and trees.

We crossed into California at noon exactly and had lunch at a very nice little rest stop just across the state line.

We stayed at the same hotel in Sausalito that we stay in 15 years ago. They have completely remodeled the inside of it. I will have to get the old photos and compare them to the new ones. The night desk clerk is interested in seeing the old photos as well. It was a lovely old hotel full of antique furniture and stained glass windows, now it is a Mediterranean Inn -- Still called the Sausalito hotel. We had supper at a very nice little family run Thai restuarant. The next morning before we left we had a nice walk around Sausalito. I bought a little Laurel Burch bag from a shop that sells a bunch of her things, bags, books, socks, etc - but no fabric. Laurel Burch is from that area and the woman from the shop knows her and I signed a guest book for Laurel Burch. We had coffee at Starbucks and talked to Andrew for awhile on MSN. Nice to talk to him.

We left for Carmel this morning and promptly took the wrong exit in San Francisco - got a bit sidetracked but managed to get away okay. We did not stay at all in San Francisco as we have been there a few times before.

Drove the 17 mile drive around Pebble Beach Golf Course. Took lots of pictures - will post some later.

We are now staying in Carmel at the same hotel we stayed at 15 years ago as well. Normandy Inn -- it hasn't changed at all --neither has Carmel. Off to see the Hearst Castle tomorrow.

Salem Oregon

We left late this morning and spent the day driving down the I-5 in the misty rain! The traffic got quite slow through Seattle. As soon as you get across the border you notice that so many more people live in the US. The are so many more lanes on the highway and much more industry, homes, restaurants etc along the freeway. We packed a lunch to eat along the way -but there are a few places I have never eaten and I really think I need to try -- Taco Bell (they are everywhere) and Jack in the Box - I see the commercials, and I'm not really sure what kind of food they serve there, Jim says they serve a beef on a bun. Although I don't think he's ever eaten at a Jack in the Box either.

We stopped at a grocery store in Chehalis and got a big piece of goat cheese with herbs and garlic for $1.79 -- amazing, and smoked Gouda for 1.69. I love American grocery stores.

We are staying at a Best Western in Salem Oregon. Tonight we had a good seafood dinner at Newport Seafood Cafe - great Calamari with a hot pepper Aaoli. And to top it off we can watch Canadian hockey on OLN -- Ottawa eliminated Tampa Bay and Calgary beat Anaheim.

We plan to drive to Sausalito tomorrow. It will be a long drive but we will just head down the 1-5 and drive straight through. I think Oregon needs a holiday all of it's own instead of just driving down the coast and having a quick look. I want to come and spend just a week in Oregon, so for now we will just drive through and plan a proper holiday on the Oregon coast at a later time.

Getting ready to go to Arizona

I thought I would post a picture of myself and since I am usually the one with the camera and I don't like having my picture taken this is about the best one I could find. This is taken on Chestermans beach near Tofino and Vancouver Island. I'm sure I will eventually find a better picture - but for now this is it. I was thinking of posting the Six weird things but I don't know if I can come up with six.

1. I am left handed and I am unable to easily and quickly determine left from right and quite often give out wrong directions, saying turn left when they are supposed to turn right and in my mind I see the correct way but don't know what is left or right. I have to think very hard before every new task to decide which hand I will use. Some things I can do with either hand. I write with my left hand but I use right handed scissors.

2. I can't spell at all - thank goodness for spellcheck - I agonized for years over my inability to spell but I have accepted it now! Every time I need to spell a word with a "ie" I still go " i before e except after c". Some words I have written thousands of times and I still spell them wrong - or they just look wrong. Andrew has inherited my genetic abnormality and I have encouraged him to just accept and embrace it and use spellcheck. And I have recently discovered the google spellcheck on my google toolbar!!!

3. I really want to exercise but I hate exercising. I think I need to embrace and accept that also.

4. My mother hated musicals and hated Julie Andrews even more for some reason - so I was an adult before I ever saw "The Sound of Music" I thought the movie was wonderful and loved Julie Andrews in it. I have never seen "West Side Story" or most of the famous musicals - "South Pacific" etc. I have married a man that loves the old musicals so I am starting to watch a few now. I quite enjoy them. I also had only one television channel until the mid 1970's (CBC) So I never saw alot of the old television series - Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, Mayberry FRD, etc. We watched "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "Red Skelton" on Sunday nights and that was the extent of my childhood televison memories -- except of course for "Hockey Night in Canada"

5. I have no musical ability at all -- probably inherited from my mother! I can not carry a tune or can I recognize what is in tune or out of tune -- I can not recognize a song until the actual singing of the title of the song. But - even though I watched very little TV as a child my TV and movie trivia knowledge is amazing! So, in our house - Jim does the music trivia and I do the TV trivia.

6. I love oranges, I would eat them all day long. I am very picky about my oranges and spend a long time choosing them. I love lamb. My mother hated lamb and I grew up thinking lamb was horrible stuff and never had lamb until I was 30 - I discovered I really liked it! I have a great and wonderful mother (other than the Julie Andrews and Lamb issues) - she is left handed also. Some things are passed on from mother to daughter and some are not.

I am getting ready to leave for our trip to Arizona tomorrow and I really should be packing and stuff but I'm not!! I should get going here.

Spring Retreat

I am back from Spring Retreat and have been at work for the past two days - so a bit of a delayed post.

As always I had a great time. The spring retreat is a place to finish or start all those various projects - UFO's - COPS - PIGS !! etc. (love that PIGS) I finished Jessica's table runner and put all the binding on my big quilt. I am sort of working on a "Thinking Outside the Block" project but wasn't too inspired to do very much on it. I also made a few bags. (That could be one weird thing about me, but we won't go there yet) The NVOS has about 20 separate little bedrooms - I should have taken a picture of mine - they have little sinks and bunk beds and are quite comfortable for sleeping. The meals are all provide - we just have to wander from the sewing room to the dining room when they ring the bell! The food is really good. Breakfasts are always so good -- French toast, pancakes, blueberry sauce, fruit salad, yogurt, eggs, bacon, sausage. I don't really need to eat much for the rest of the day after that. We have little door prizes during the weekend. I won 4 fat quarters and we each got to take home our placemat. Each year the women that organize the retreat make little things for us to take home. Once it was a little quited bag to carry a coffee mug - I used mine for my camera. One woman works for a magazine distribution company and we each get a BIG stack of quilting magazine.

On Monday my package came from Keene NH with my 40 fat eighth's for my Dear Jane. I can't believe how quickly it got here. I didn't have to pay any duty or extra charges on it. I will definitely order from her again.

We are getting ready to start our road trip to Arizona this Saturday. I am hoping to prepare a few Dear Jane blocks to take along and sew up in the evenings in the hotel room. Not sure if I will get that done though. I have to work a night shift tonight and then I have a bunch of things that need to be done before Saturday --- LIKE PACK!!! So I better get at it. We are going to take the laptop computer with us on the trip - so we can take lots of pictures and just download them onto the computer. I am hoping that we can also get on the internet and check email and blogs etc. The computer has the wireless web - but we have never used it --- so it will be interesting. I will post before I go off anyway.

Another view of the Sewing Room 

The Sewing Room 

The dining Room 

The Cutting Room 

The ironing Room 

North Van Outdoor School 

Sitting outside in the Sun

More Dear Jane Blocks

I have completed three more Dear Jane Blocks! I am enjoying doing them. I guess that's good since I have 260 or so left to do.

I am going off today to have a visit with someone I haven't seen in a long time. It will be nice to see her and get out of the house. I have been home all week with a cough and a sore chest from coughing - not really a cold but tired and sore. I still have been coughing a fair bit at night and I didn't work yesterday because of the cough. I hope getting out and about today will help me feel better because I have my quilt retreat this weekend and I have work to do. I plan on finishing the table runner for Jessica's wedding and put the binding on the big sampler quilt. I would like to finish both completely by Sunday. I think I need to start something new though - I have been buying a bit of bright, fun fabric lately - Jane Sassaman - and a few others and I think I need to do something fun with that fabric. Once the big sampler quilt is ready to go in the show I will start something new. I have been seeing some various quilts on different blogs that have inspired me.

Fat Eighths 

My first eBay purchase

I have purchased some fabric for my Dear Jane quilt on eBay. I have never bought anything on eBay before and it was surprisingly easy. Although I just did it yesterday so we will see how quickly it gets here and how smoothly the rest of the process goes. The mail seems to be very slow to our little village at the best of times. I still do not have the invitation for Jessica and Ben's wedding and she sent them out almost two weeks ago.

I had opened an eBay account quite a few months ago because Andrew wanted to try and buy some sort of music recording equipment on eBay. We were unsuccessful in our bid. Which in the end was good because the program he was interested in had some bits of hardware that would not have been able to be installed in the laptop computer he was going to be using.

I have been trying to find bits of Civil war reproduction fabric for this quilt and I thought --- why don't I do a search on eBay -- well surprise, surprise there is tons of fabric for sale on eBay. I tried to bid on some - a set of 17-12.5 inch squares that someone in Nevada I think was selling - but again my bid was unsuccessful. I didn't "win". I find that when people say - "I won this on eBay" I think of winning as getting it for free - but you really have to pay! Anyway I found someone that sell all kinds of fabric - fat quarters, yardage etc, nice looking pictures of fabric and she sell civil war fat quarters. I was looking for fat eighth's and so I sent her an email and asked if she also sold fat eighth's as I just needed small bits for the Dear Jane. She emailed me right back with a link to a nice looking bunch of fat eighth's that I could "buy it now" Thank goodness because my bidding skills are obviously lacking so far. So I bought it now! I am quite excited - she sent me back another email - it was all successful and she is mailing them off today.

We had a nice Easter dinner yesterday with Andrew and Anri and Eric. I never took any pictures. We had turkey. I was kind of hoping to have a nice leg of lamb but we couldn't find a leg of lamb anywhere on Saturday when we were out shopping. We went to about 5 different grocery stores. So turkey it was. Andrew was happy, he is not a big lamb fan. We used to have a nice roast dinner every Sunday when the kids were all younger and living at home. Lamb or beef usually. Lamb was my favorite - and then on Monday we would have Beef or Sheep dip or Beef stew or Lamb soup. All those foods we just don't make anymore just for the two of us. I really made a wonderful Lamb Soup. Anyway I seem to be wandering off at the fingers here. Happy Easter.

Magnolia Tree in Bloom

The Magnolia tree in our yard is blooming this year. This is the first year since we moved here that the tree has bloomed. I am not sure why it has decided to bloom after four years of doing nothing but it is so lovely to see it finally blooming away.

Everything is starting to come up so early this year. The hosta's are already well and truly coming up - way ahead of anything from the past years.

Jim and I are planning a road trip to the Grande Canyon the first two weeks of May. We are going to drive down through Washington - the I-5 until Portland or so and then drive down the Oregon Coast - into California and along the coast to San Franciso, Carmel, San Simeon to see the Hearst Castle and then east to Los Vegas and the Grande Canyon and Phoenix. I have never been to the Grande Canyon and I am really looking forward to the trip.

I hope to find a few quilt shops along the way. I don't want to have to go driving out of the way to find quilt shops but it would be nice to come across a few in our travels. I will try to do a bit of pre-trip research. I am still looking for the Civil War Repro fabric for my Dear Jane quilt. I have 8 blocks done now. I may take a few blocks to hand stitch up along the trip.

Red Roses

My Dear Husband went off this afternoon to get gas for the BBQ and came back with a lovely bunch of Red Roses for me. Such a nice surprise.

It was cloudy and mild today but didn't really rain so I did get out a bit today in the garden. Jessica must have phoned about 4 times this morning about various wedding things. She sounds like she might be getting a bit stressed out with wedding details. She certainly seems to be planning a fancy wedding. She has ordered flowers, a limo, bought her wedding dress. One day I will post a picture of her dress - she sent me a few pictures when she tried it on. It is a lovely dress. She will be 28 this August so I guess that she is ready to get married. Ben is a really nice guy and I think a very good match for her. Hopefully the wedding goes just as Jessica has planned.

Six Dear Jane Blocks

My first 6 blocks are completed. I am trying not to get too obsessed with making them. I have this little pile of stuff in the TV room sitting on the table and on the floor. It has not moved for a month or so. We will just pick it up, vacumn and put it all back. It is all the supplies needed for my Dear Jane - three different pairs of sissors, paper, books, thread, patterns, fabric, etc. - looks like a little junk heap. All the required things needed to make the blocks. I also have the Mariners Compass quilt sitting on the floor because I can quilt a row or two on that when I am not working on the Dear Jane.

I have been sort of stuck at home for the part of this week. I had to take my car in to spend two days at the Volkswagon dealer getting "decarbonized" Seems that the diesel fuel was starting to clog up the car. Andrew came out and picked me up yesterday to get my car. Nice to have a bit of a visit with him. Most of the time he is staying at his girlfriends house - Although he insists that he has not moved out. I kind of miss my visits with him. I do try to get a lunch or a coffee visit in once a week or so. He has been working as a ski lift operator at a local ski hill for the past couple of months. He figures he is the first ski lift operator in the civilized world that does NOT ski! He did get a couple of free rentals and tried a bit of snowboarding though. And he did phone home afterwards to reassure me that he hadn't broken anything.

So I did do quite abit of quilting instead of going out into the garden which was what I really should have been doing. And it was supposed to rain today so I went off and bought myself some new gardening tools -- instead it never rained and I still never went out into the garden. We have a fair amount of work to do before Jessica and Ben's June wedding. So now that I have new gardening tools and if it does not rain tomorrow I WILL go out and do some work in the garden tomorrow. But now there is a hockey game to watch and I think I can do another Dear Jane block tonight.

Flowers and Pheasants

We had not seen or heard from Phineaus for 5 days. I last heard him early Monday morning before going to work so I threw some corn out for him because I knew he would be by early and we would be gone all day. He has been coming to our yard for almost 2 years now at least 2-3 times a day for food and to just sit in the corner of the garden and rest. 5 days is a long time to not see or hear him crowing off in the distance at least. He returned early Saturday morning, bright and early crowing and looking for corn. One day I guess he will go away and not return and we will miss seeing him. We just don't know when that will happen. Not sure how long pheasants live - we did a bit of internet research but the life span of a wild pheasant doesn't seem to be well known. Mostly it seems they don't live more that 2 years or so because of predators and hunters. We think he has to be over 3 years old because this is his 3rd spring in our neighbourhood.
The early spring flowers are blooming. This is a camellia in our front yard.
Daffodils in the back garden.
A large Rhododendron bush also in the front yard.

Time to get out in the Garden and start the spring time weeding chores. I saw that some of the hosta's are already starting to poke out through the soil. I love the early spring when things are growing and green and the ground is wet and easy to dig. All the plants are budding and blooming. The weeds are easy to pull up. By the end of July I have lost all interest in the garden and find it hard to get out and weed. We are going to need to spend a bit more time in the garden this spring because of Jessica's wedding. I guess the visitors from Alberta will be coming to the house and we need to get the garden a bit more presentable than it is now.

Three more Dear Jane blocks

This block had that little tiny piece in the centre that I tried to sew on straight and had a heck of a time. I pulled it off once and then the second time I left it - until my husband commented that it was funny looking! So I then decided to reverse applique the centre piece. That worked much better --- then in all my wisdom I thought I would look up the tips and hints on the Dear Jane CD - guess what the tip was - reverse applique the entire block!!!! From now on I will read the tips and hints for the block before I start the block.


These Dear Jane blocks were all applique blocks. I thought I should go back to a bit of an easier block - that first block had such tiny pieces to stitch together by hand, and it had been years and years since I did any hand stitching of seams. I completely forgot how it do it at first. I have a couple more blocks cut out and ready to go.

I am completely finished hand quilting my great big sampler quilt. I just have the binding to put now. So it should be ready for our guild quilt show in September.