Sedona to Tucson

I had to add a few more Sedona pictures. Sedona is just full of beautiful red rock hills and cliffs and apparently it is also famous for it's Vortex's and the Mystic people who live there. You can see many signs around advertising Psychic readings, etc. It is a beautiful --- eclectic place.
This is a church that was built into the rock just outside the town. The chapel of the Holy Cross.
Beautiful red rock and cactus. We saw two deer in the bushes around the chapel. We took a couple of red rocks from a pile of rocks at the Sedona High School to put in our garden at home.
 

Tlaquepaque

Some more pictures from Tlaquepaque. 

Sedona

We went back into Sedona the next morning around 9:30 - the shops were just starting to open and the streets were quiet. There is quite an artistic community in Sedona and the streets are full of beautiful little statues and figures. I just loved these little pigs. There are quite a few art galleries and craft shops. I saw a quilt shop but it was too early and a Sunday morning so it was not open.
Another statue on the street in Sedona.


We also went to a little craft village that is just off Highway 179 in Sedona. It was called Tlaquepaque - it is quite hidden and you could miss it if you weren't looking for it. It has lots of little crafts and gift shops, galleries and restuarants. It is beside a little stream and in the shade of many deciduous trees. Nice place to spend time. We found a little Kitchen shop and bought two books "Real Women Eat Chiles" and the "Sonoran Grill" Both full of great recipes with all kinds of Chiles that can not be found in Canada! But we had a plan!!
One of the courtyards at Tlaquepaque.

Grand Canyon to Sedona

We went back to the Grand Canyon in the morning and Jim walked down the Bright Angel trail for an hour and I took the little shuttle bus out to some of the view points along Hermit Road. I just hopped on the bus and was quite away down the road when I found out that there were quite a few stops along the way and then entire trip to Hermits Head (where there was a gift shop/snack bar and bathrooms) was 1 1/2 hours. So I did not go all the way -- but I really need to go back and do the entire trip along the shuttle - there are stops and viewpoints and it is incredible to see the canyon from the viewpoints along this road. This is a picture of the Koib Studio. It is a small gift shop and art gallery that sits right at the edge of the canyon. It is in the small village that is there. There are some beautiful painting on display - some for sale and some just to look at. I took lots and lots of pictures, but none really do the Canyon justice.

I really liked the to see the Park Rangers all dressed up with the Hats. It was like seeing them when I would see them on TV back in the 60's. It is amazing to see those hats. And the signs for the National Parks is the exact sign I remember from TV as a child. We didn't have American channel but we must have seen Park Rangers and National Park signs on "Wonderful World of Disney"


We stopped just down the road at a little camp ground and had our lunch in the shade. Nice little park full of Ponderosa Pines. The drive south on Highway 64 and 180 was through the Kaibab National Forest. Lots of trees and lovely and cool and green. I took lots of pictures -- again. There was a large snow covered mountain off in the distance -- Mount Humphreys - highest point in Arizona -- 12,633 feet -- that is high.

Coming south of Flagstaff into Sedona the road descended quite a lot. Sedona sits in quite a valley surrounded by large cliffs of red rock. It is a beautiful area - very different from the Flagstaff/Grand Canyon area.
Sedona is also FULL of tourists -- tons and tons of people - we were quite surprised to see so many people. But is was a Saturday and the weather was beautiful and hot. The town was so full of people that the traffic slowed to a crawl about 2 miles before the town. This is a picture taken on a bridge about 5 miles before Sedona. You can see all the people on the rocks at the edge of the river.
We did not even attempt to find a room in Sedona. We drove on to a town about 25 miles south, Cottonwood. We got a nice room at a new Quality Inn there.

The area around Cottonwood is really nice - it is a wide open valley (unlike Sedona which is quite closed in). It was very hot there. We wandered into Walmart and attempted to buy a few items with the self serve checkout. I very nice young girl helped us out. I'm sure she thought we were a couple of morons. We don't have the self serve checkouts in Canada and Jim thought it would be quicker -- it took three times longer we double entered stuff and couldn't figure out how to delete stuff - a bit of a production.

We had a great Mexican dinner there, and we wandered around a great food store called "Food City" that was just stuffed with Mexican food - I have never seen so many corn tortilla's in my entire life. Impressive. It was a good day. 

Eagle Eye Cam - Powered By Infotec Business Systems

Eagle Eye Cam - Powered By Infotec Business Systems

I am trying the Blog this on my tool bar. This is a website that has a live camera on an Eagle's nest. The nest is on Vancouver Island near Victoria. I have been watching the two little eaglets. It is quite amazing to see - I have seen the parent Eagle come and feed them and the parent seems to settle for the night in the nest and the babies snuggle up under the parent. I think the mum and dad take turns.

Anyway I will continue to post about our trip - I am posting mostly for my own benefit so I will remember the trip --- 10 years from now or so - as we did so much I need to have it written down somewhere or I will never rememeber the details - like where we stayed and what day we saw what place etc. I really think we need to go back to Arizona - and I hear New Mexico is the same.

Anyway if anyone is interested in watching some great live video of baby eagles -- enjoy!

The Grand Canyon

We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 2:30 in the afternoon. It is an amazing place. The most amazing thing about it - beside how large and beautiful it is - it's amazing that there is just flat land and small pine trees as you drive up to the canyon, you don't even have any idea it is there until you are right at the edge of it. There really aren't words or pictures that can describe it - ever. You must experience it yourself. It was quite a cloudy day with some rain off in the distance. So there are a lot of cloud shadows on most of my pictures that afternoon.
This is Jim looking over the edge. Jim and a friend had made a trip to the Canyon 25 years ago. When he went then he walked the Bright Angel trail to the bottom - Phantom Ranch and back in one day. Now there are signs all over the trail to warn people not to attempt to walk to the bottom of the canyon and back in a day!
We got a room at the Red Feather Lodge just 2 miles south of the Park gate. The cost to get into the Park is $25.00 - we had just been to the Death Valley National Park and realized on getting to Grand Canyon we should have bought a National Park Pass for $50.00, so we purchased the pass at the Grand Canyon and the Park Ranger gave us credit for the $20.00 we had already spent at Death Valley when Jim showed him the receipt. That was a great purchase - we went into alot of National Parks after that and never had to pay again.

We had dinner and then went back to the Canyon to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful evening. It really is a special place. We then went to the IMAX Grand Canyon movie, it was very good. Watching the movie of the people going down the Colorado River in the rafts through the Canyon - now that would be a great trip to do -- maybe one day!!

The old Cars in Seligman

I thought I would put in a few pictures of the old cars in the town of Seligman.

This is the sign for the Road Kill Cafe. The pictures are not quite ending up in the order I would like them but this will be okay. I will post the Grand Canyon next. 

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