Hike to Lower Falls of Johnston Canyon

Hoping to see wildlife but no luck. Instead found Johnson Canyon and a great waterfall at the end of a nice hike. Met Susan M. Stephens Davis and her family. She and her six children (plus her mom and aunt) are on an inspiring and exciting journey. Safe journeys new friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Jammer Tour

We took a tour of a piece of the western part of Glacier National Park in a "Red Jammer"--a 1930's vehicle designed specifically to transport tourists in national parks. The canvas top can be rolled back on gorgeous days like today. They have since been retrofitted (to the tune of $200,000+ each...a gift from Ford) with new, fuel-efficient engines. The tour was nice, but the car and the fun were the best part. Here, Cas, our driver and guide, is coming around the front to greet us and pick us up.

 Ooooh, they even come with their own blankets...Pendletons no less.

At Huckleberry Mountain.

A scenic look through the top. The metal bars provide support when you want to stand up and look out the top of the car. The fabric strips are what hold the canvas top in place when it's not rolled back.

We dropped all the other passengers off at the Lake McDonald Lodge so we had a private chauffeur ride back to Apgar Visitor Center. Cas took this pic for us.

Our little (well, fortunately not too little) Tahoe rent car waits for us in the parking lot. As much fun as the Red Jammer was, we like our make-our-own tours in the Tahoe. Thanks Dungarees Expeditions for all you've done to make this amazing trip possible!

More Lake McDonald

Lake McDonald is big, so driving on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, we stopped at one more scenic outlook over the lake.

Local brew and food

Stopped for some local brew and dinner last night but the brewery doesn't serve food. Oh wait! There's a food truck out back with Montana beef BBQ. Don't know if everything (beer and BBQ both) was particularly delicious or just felt that way because I was so hungry. But either way...it was a great dinner with great friends and the perfect kick off to this particular vacation.

How did this happen??

The original plans were:

1. Mary would fly from Dallas in to Montana a day early and spend time with relatives in MT.
2. Karen would fly from Austin to Kalispell via Denver.
3. Rodney would fly from Denver to Seattle to Kalispell (heaven only knows why the not-direct flight was so much cheaper but it was going to be worth it).
4. I would meet up with Rodney in Seattle and we would be on the same flight in to Kalispell. 

Well Tuesday morning, Mary gets a message that her flight has been cancelled and they've rebooked her on a Wednesday flight instead of a Tuesday flight. She's now on Karen's flight from Denver to Kalispell. Wednesday morning, Rodney gets a message that his flight from Denver to Seattle is delayed...delayed enough that he'll miss his connection in Seattle. So he gets Alaska Airlines to put him on the United flight that Karen and Mary are on. Yep. The three of them get to Kalispell at the same time on the same flight and before me! Hey don't have too much more fun until I get there!

 Karen and Rodney actually got seats together. Here are Karen and Mary doing something silly in the Kalispell airport. They're at the gift shop...didn't even get outside security yet. I think I'm too late on the "don't have fun without me" request.

Old Faithful (1/9/2015)

What's a trip to Yellowstone without a visit to Old Faithful. We met up with our friends from the photo safari...the four of them know each other from days of yore in Pennsylvania; the one couple has since moved to Idaho. What a fun way to get back together with old friends! There's a group shot of the six of us that one of them is going to send to us. Actually, Cindy is going to create a DropBox account we can all use to share our pics with each other. Anyway, this was a great way to end a great day, followed by a yummy dinner with a great waitress and some delicious wine. Now this is a vacation.

We Are Off!

Saturday morning, Rodney and I made our lists (imagine that) and went shopping for the last of the camping supplies and our groceries for the week. We got to the house to start packing and organizing. Then we were going to pick up lunch on our way out of town.

At the last minute, Dain, Sara, and the boys decided to go with us just for our Day 1. Arches is only 1.5 hours from Grand Junction and one of the things they wanted to do when they moved to Grand Junction was take advantage of the incredible outdoor opportunities available to them. However, they really hadn't had time to do any of that yet, so Arches was their first journey.

After a late lunch (we rendezvoused at McDonald's), we headed out.

The major north/south streets in Grand Junction are simply numbered: 22 street, 25 street, 24 1/2 street, etc. It turns out, those numbers are the distance from the Utah border. So it didn't take very long for us to feel like we were really off on our big adventure because very quickly, we crossed the Utah border.

We drove straight to Arches where Rodney purchased a National Park Pass for $80. It's good for a year, but we were going to more than break even with it in just five days. Arches: $10 a day. A quick stop at the Visitor Center to watch the orientation movie and ask a few questions (and take a potty break and play on the brass statues) and then we were off. Rodney and I squeezed into the family van and we drove to the major highlights of Arches. We drove past the Three Gossips (we decided they looked more like the Three Wisemen) and to The Windows area and Balanced Rock. We also drove to the Delicate Arch viewing area. It was all so impressive and we had beautiful weather.

After about 3 hours in the park, we all drove to Arch View Resort where Rodney and I had a cabin reserved and after a lot of futility and hard work, we successfully created some kind of dinner for the 6 of us to eat: Kabobs (off the stick after 20 minutes on a warm charcoal pile and then fried/heated in the frying pan on the Coleman stove) and rice (without butter....something to pick up at our next stop) with warmed up marshmallows for dessert. After dinner, Dain played guitar and we sang inside the cabin, then the family headed back to Grand Junction and the two of us called it a night, each of us with our iPhones in the dark (but plugged in for recharging...the joys of having a cabin)

8/20/2011 Last Night in Reno

Tonight, Jacque and Dan took me to their favorite restaurant, Washoe Steakhouse. We were going to meet their friend, Jackie, and depending on how busy the night was, we might be joined by Craig, the restaurant's owner. Delightfully, Craig was able to spend a lot of time with us and we were joined for a short while by another regular customer, Steve. It was a perfect night for sitting out on the cozy patio, and it was yet another amazing evening of great friends, amazing food, and good spirits. (They were actually incredibly fabulous spirits, but "good spirits" just has such a nice ring to it and captures the mellowness of the evening.) I can't remember the last time that I was so engages in such great conversation that lasted four hours before you looked at your watch and said, "Where has the time gone?" it was definitely a magical evening and even if you don't have the amazing company I had, I HIGHLY recommend the food, the atmosphere, and the service at Washoe.

8/17/2011 Relaxin' in Reno

This is why I can justify leaving Maine in the middle of summer. What a great week of just hanging out with Jacque and Dan on their gorgeous patio in the beautiful weather that Reno was having while I was here. This is the life. :-)

8/15/2011 The Gallery

"The Family" (Rodney, Dain, Sara, and the boys) have lived in Aurora for almost exactly a year now. Dain and his dad have done A LOT of remodeling and fixing up on this house. It's been fun to see the change and improvement over time. But Rodney has never really made his room "home." Now he was ready to do that, and I was thrilled to get to be a part of it. Yesterday, we went to Michael's and picked out some really nice frames (on 40% off sale and then found a coupon for 25% off that price). Last night, he went through his photos (he has a LOT of photos) and set aside about 20 that he really liked. He had to like the look as well as like the story that went with it or the emotions that it evoked. Instead of trying to narrow down from 20 to 9 while looking at them on his laptop, we just sent all 20 to WalMart's online photo shop and had them all made into 5x7 prints. This morning while he was in school, I picked them up. It worked out perfectly! We had choices and could work with groupings and figure out what looked good together and what looked good in these frames. He ended up with 3 pics of the Oregon coast from 3 different trips (from when he lived in Oregon), 4 that represented each of the seasons, and 1 that was just very special. AND we got them all hung. You can't see the amazing photography in these pics, but you can see that we accomplished a great thing. My favorite part? I got to keep all the 5x7 prints that didn't get picked to go on the wall!!

8/13/2011 Mini Hollins Reunion

When I was editor of the Hollins Columns my junior year in college, Susan Bright was a talented first year student who joined the staff. By second semester, she was my features editor. With a name like Susan "Bright" how could she be anything but my "Star Reporter"? Well now she lives in Lafayette, CO, so I borrowed Rodney's car (after dropping him off at work) and drove to Lafayette. Bonus! Rebecca de la Vega lives near Susan and they're in the same band, Stubborn Gray, as well as the same church praise music group. Rebecca was hosting a cookout and jam session so that's where I went. It was great to get the Hollins gang together again! Rebecca actually graduated from Texas Women's University which is right next door to my second alma mater, North Texas. Small world!

Susan and her partner Kathy Rosser:

6/20/2011 The Marathon is Over

Wowser. I've been gone for 25 days. That's a long time to be away. I basically had 3 separate trips end-to-end, which is the only smart way to travel out of Maine because no matter what trip you're on, it takes two full days to get there and come back, so you might as well make the most of it. I figure I saved 4 travel days by doing the back-to-back thing. And fortunately, I was able to do laundry in all 3 places, so I packed light (one 36-pound roller bag). I did some shopping in Albuquerque, but I shipped a box of stuff home from ABQ, too.

So today's marathon was: up at 0230 CDT to shower and pack, leave KMO's casa at 0400 to arrive at airport at 0430 for an 0600 flight. I flew to BWI (sat next to a delightfully inquisitive and articulate 1st grader), changed planes, flew to Boston, B A R E L Y caught the 12:35 Concord Coach to Portland (Maine), waited 30 minutes, caught another Concord Coach to Augusta, drove my car from Augusta to Farmington arriving 1715 EDT. What a day. I stopped at the grocery store then went home where I opened all the windows (storm windows were still down 'cuz it was still cold when I left) then sat on my veranda and soaked up sunshine and cool breezes . . . very cool breezes, not like the ones in Austin. But I was exhausted. I started to listen to the Red Sox game on the radio while I was unpacking but went to bed when the game was still tied 3-3. I missed the 42-minute half-inning where we scored 10 points and went through the lineup at least twice. Go Sox!

So this marathon trip was more than just today . . . I was gone for 25 days! That's a long time to be gone. But when traveling from Maine, it makes sense to put your trips end-to-end 'cuz any one trip involves two full days of travel just to get to and from your destination. I saved 4 days by putting 3 trips together: a week in Dallas for Hank's ordination to the priesthood and lots of great friend visiting, 11 days in Albuquerque with my parents and all of their/my friends, and the big KMOve.

Thank you, God, for safe travels, fun adventures, and amazing friends and family. Here's to the next adventure!!

6/19/2011 Austin Symphonic Band

I changed my airline ticket 3 times for this trip. First, I was going from Albuquerque directly to Austin to "visit KMO at her new house" because she was going to be moved by mid-May. Then I was flying from Albuquerque straight home and skipping Austin because KMO's plans were so uncertain. Then this arrangement came up where I would fly from Albuquerque to Greenville, SC and help with the move. On plan #1, my return flight was going to be on June 18. Then, KMO found out that the Austin Symphonic Band was giving a concert in the park on June 19 and I knew when Plan #3 came up, that I would have to leave after the concert and not before. Why? Because the director of the Austin Symphonic Band for the past 26 years is none other than the amazing Mr. Richard Floyd, our band director at Pearce High School in Richardson back in the 1970's. So tonight was the icing on my cake--the fabulous treat on top of all the fun.

Apparently, these concerts are usually packed and you have to get to the park extra early to get a seat (though, on their Web site, they request you not come more than 90 minutes early). But with the heat the way it's been, I believe their audience was a bit smaller than usual. We were not, however, going to let a little heat (okay, a lot of heat) deter us. It turned out though, that it was quite breezy and we were up on the hill, so it was pretty bearable. The program included a lot of patriotic songs as well as classics like Gershwyn and songs associated with Bob Hope (my favorite was the Texas medley, Spirit of Texas).

Not very long after we sat down, I went to get paper copies of the program and right after I sat down, someone came up behind me and said, "Hi Theresa!" It was SB, daughter of L O N G time Girl Scout friend, Cathy. Then she pointed up the hill to where her parents were sitting. Months ago when we contacted her when plan #1 was in place she said we would miss getting to see her because she was going to be out of town. But it turns out, she got home a day early (2 hours prior to the concert in fact) and they made the last minute decision to attend the concert. So obviously we had no idea she would be there. How fun is that that we run into one of the only people I know in Austin at a concert in the park? Cathy knows KMO as well. Our Girl Scout memories are much intertwined. We were last all together in Washington DC for the Girl Scout Singalong on the Mall in honor of Girl Scouts' 90th birthday. And we'll all be together again next year for the 100th birthday celebration.

After the concert, we hovered near the podium and finally got our turn to say, "Hello!" to Mr. Floyd. It was great. He was most gracious and even let us take a photo to capture the memory of the noteworthy occasion. He always was a gentleman.

6/7/08 Saturday Breakfast at Millie's

Breakfast at Millie's is a Saturday morning tradition for my parents and their walking friends. You'd think after walking together Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings that they would see enough of each other, but they obviously don't 'cuz they get together on Saturdays, too (and often go to the theatre or dinner or other fun things as well). Everyone on staff at the restaurant knows all of them by name and all of the walkers know each of the staff by name. I'm not sure who enjoys whom more but they all have a great time.

One of the things that cracks me up about this group is when they walk, the women go one way and the men go another. Then they all meet up at the coffee shop in the local grocery store and visit (a well-deserved reward) and the men sit together and the women sit together. When they go to Millie's they sit the same way. It's almost like junior high when boys sat on one side of the dance floor and boys on the other. But it works. They all have a great time and truly enjoy each other's company.

4/23/08 I want s'more spring break in Long Island!

Well, if you can't go camping, at least make some s'mores. This is the second visit to the Godfamily when we had an evening of s'mores. I like that plan! Look, the grocery store even had a special display just for s'mores. There was even a t-shirt offer but it wasn't really a free t-shirt 'cuz you had to pay $2.99 for shipping and handling.