Bear Lake

Last week I went to Bear Lake with Shawn and Kris and Cade and Makae and Ethan and Jace and my dad. Ed was in Nebraska and Iowa so he couldn't come.

As we came down out of the hills West of Evanston and saw that gorgeous blue of the lake it was marvelous. I don't there is a lake anywhere that is prettier than Bear Lake. They should have called it Blue Lake!! We got there early afternoon and got the whole camp set up and then just relaxed. I fixed Taco Salad for dinner that night and Kris had brought enough nummies to last two weeks so we were well set. I think the hardest thing we did all that evening was try to decide which flavor of the crispy cremes we wanted to eat. My diet went out the window.

The boys slept out in the tent, and the rest of us were in the trailer. The first night was peaceful and other than a couple of Betty's kids up at the cabin we had the place to ourselves.

Kristanne made us a nummy breakfast the next morning. Lunch all the days were easy - sandwiches or hot dogs.

Thursday the day was warm and clear and just plain wonderful. It was a lazy day - except for the kids who had discovered some previous sand castles and built upon them. Ethan was the main architect although, as you see from the pictures all of the kids helped. I went down to the beach in the early afternoon with them and read and relaxed and simply enjoyed the beach.

Here we have Jace and Cade working - or at least Jace was working and Cade was supervising?

These pictures were actually taken friday morning before the winds started whipping up - so you can see that the sand castles kept them busy for two days!!


Makae is hard at work here while Ethan takes a breather!
As you can see (maybe) mighty ditches were dug to create a moat around the main 'building'...at least until they all realized that the water was dropping so fast that their ditches were being left high and dry!
Here again, is Jace and Cade, We had the beach pretty much to ourselves - Shawn, Kris and Dad didn't even come down to the beach. True it was a llllloooooonnnnngggggg walk out there but we had two four wheelers for heaven sakes. ;-)

I think if we had realized that Thursday was going to be our only good day we all would have spent more time at the beach that day. But actually we adults went up thinking we were going to relax and we did.

Makae and I had a particularly lovely time - since Ed was not around she gotto share my soft comfy bed. It is the most comfortable bed in the trailer - I guess I ought to buy an egg crate mattress for the other queen sized bed and it would be just as nice ...but I didn't hear Shawn or Kris complain about the hard mattress. Makae and I also enjoyed our time on the beach just visiting too. I was thankful for such a fun weekend with the whole family.

There were a couple of fun (!) memories at the beach that day. Cade and Ethan headed out into the water to play and all of a sudden they were way way out - I said to Makae - they are too far out there, they need to come back. I'm sure its getting deep. Makae said 'yeah, ethan keeps going under'. I jumped up and hollared for them to come back. Then reason returned and I hollared for them to stand up. They did - they water came up to their knees!!!!

The even funnier thing was when Makae and I were sitting on the beach and the four wheeler was between us and the boys. Makae went over to see what they were making and she screamed "I'm branded for life...a sight no sister wants to see - Ethan running buck naked down the beach after his brother yelling 'give me my swimming suit back!!!' Evidently Cade had dumped a handful of sand down Ethan's swim trunks and he couldn't get it out so he pulled them off under water and was rinsing the sand out when big brother grabbed the suit and took off.

Thursday night Kris made dinner again - actually Shawn and Kris - they dutch ovened a delicious meal. The winds and rain came up during the night and in the middle of the night we had three scared boys come into the trailer saying that the winds broke their tent. So we put Ethan and Jace in bags under Shawn and Kris's bed, and we folded out the table 'bed' and Cade slept there. (Grandpa Merritt was on the couch bed). That worked great for everyone except Kristanne who knew she could get down out of her bed, but wouldn't be able to get back up since there was no room to put the ladder!!

Friday dawned bright and beautiful. We looked at the boys' tent and teased them about telling tales so they could come in the trailer to sleep. The tents looked fine! Anna Lisa and Ed Smith arrived for the weekend, to police the grounds. She and her husband have been protecting Marjories property for a long long time.

She tried to give me a bad time about having my mat down on the grass in front of the trailer and I told her it would NOT damage the grass - it was open weaved and the grass could breathe through it. I think it kind of surprised her that I would stand my ground but she can be such a warden!!! She gave Kris a bad time for having fire wood on the grass!!

In the early afternoon John Sabin and his wife showed up with their boat ready to take anyone that wanted to go out skiing. For John's whole life grandpa merritt took him skiing summer after summer after summer so it was it turn for pay back. Dad did come down to the beach but just then the wind started up and we sat out there trying to keep the sun off of him and keep from being blown away (it did ruin my old beach umbrella) and finally he gave up and says - this just isn't fun anymore. I talked to kecia that evening and we decided that it would probably be too cold for them to come up and camp...we didn't want their first camp out with Emma to be the one where they got snowed on!! Of course it didn't get that cold but it was not fun Bear Lake weather at all.

What was fun was that they had a pair of ski skimmers - for little kids - it was like one large U shaped ski with handles coming up from the skis! Jace got up skiing!!! the rope was attached to the post with the handle on it so Jace didn't have to worry about controlling the skiis or the pull of the rope - all he had to concentrate on was to stay standing up! He went down once and then got back up and stayed up. The other kids tried to ski but the lake was just getting too rough with white caps and all but they had fun anyway riding the tube or whatever you call it. All we know is that the boat took off with all on it, pulling Jace and they didn't come back for an hour and a half!! But they had fun!

The weather went from bad to worse that night - but the boys didn't have any trouble out in the tent Friday night. Jace got so excited when we told him that Skye was coming that night. Of course when she arrived with her dad, all he wanted to do was play his game boy. Kids!!! So she attached herself to Makae. We decided to let Jeff and Skye sleep in the big tent we had put up the first day for Kecia and Glenn. We had used it for a storage tent for all the nummies. I'm sure Jeff didn't have to go very far for a midnight snack!!

While we were eating some of Kristanne's fantastic spagetti dinner Kris got a call from Lillianne. It seems that they had packed up the truck and trailer and were going to camp on top of Monte Crisco. But there were no camp sites available. So by the time they got down the other side of the mountain to Randolf, she called Kris to see if they could come to Thatcher's property. So we said come. Courtney was not especially friendly to Makae when she got there - in fact not until the middle of the next day, but Makae handled it very gracefully. Like my dad said - whenever mickie got upset she would head down to the beach on the 4 wheeler and when she came back she was fine. The lake did settle down Friday evening but Sabins were no where to be found - it was really too cold for too much water sports.

Saturday was definitely cold. It was 42 outside when we got up about 8:30 am. I cooked a big breakfast for all of us (but not Lilliannes family) I turned into a bit of a grouch and Shawn said later that Kris almost called me Wanda!! I don't do mornings well when I have to get up and get moving fast. Sorry guys.

Anna lisa walked over to our trailer to tell us that Marjorie had passed away that morning at 4:30 am. It was totally expected. She has been going down hill for several months although the kids said that she recognized them up to the end. She was 94 years old. Her oldest daughter Valerie came up to stay at the cabin later on that afternoon and we had a couple of good chances to get together to visit. She is such a beautiful woman.

It had warmed clear up to 53 by noon!! So we decided it would be a good day to go to the caves. We all piled into three cars (all of us except dad and I think by then he was just craving peace and quiet - to go from living alone to sharing a 26 foot trailer with 4-7 other people!!).

We drove into St Charles and headed up the canyon and got halfway up there and there was this terrific traffic jam. EVERY one else at Bear Lake thought the same thing. The word came back that they were selling tickets for the 2:30 tour through the cave ...and it was only 11:30 in the morning.

We voted not to stay and we turned around and headed back down the mtn...and came face to face with another car that had decided to go up the mtn in the wrong lane!!! IDIOTS!! the black car backed back into place and we headed down. Darin and Lillieann were able to do the same. But poor Shawn and Kris were in our truck and the road was simply not wide enough to turn around. So HE had to go up the mtn to the parking lot and then come back down.

So we called each other and decided to go into Garden City for a Raspberry shake. We called dad at the camp and told him to meet us at the road and he could come with us. The shakes were nummy - Garden City was sooo packed it reminded me of West Yellowstone or Jackson Hole - way too many people for a small space. Lots and lots of shakes being sold. Raspberry shakes taste better when it is hot outside though!

That afternoon Carl and Pat Sabin came over and visited with dad for a good couple of hours. I think that was the highlight of his trip. I think he was missing having his own truck and tools, and isn't as steady on his feet as he should be to walk over much of that ground. I did see him scouting out the lay of the land on his four wheeler though. The weather stayed cold and windy that whole day. Skye thoroughly enjoyed playing in that cold bear lake water though. She doesn't feel the cold at all I guess. I am glad someone enjoyed it.

this picture was taken on Sunday - when we looked up there was Jace leaning back against the back packs half tipped over sound asleep. By the time I got my camera from the trailer he had woken up and shifted position but still wasn't really with it.

Sometime - Saturday afternoon probably, I invited Courtney and Makae and Darony to make ankle bracelets. It was a good chance to run through what it would take to teach a class like that. Their bracelets turned out really pretty. Each one was totally different. Such fun. they enjoyed it too.

Sunday morning after sharing some of Lillianne and Darin's pancakes and eggs (Jeff helped cook them!) it was decided to make another attempt at going up to the cave. This time Lillianne and Shawn went alone and bought tickets and then came back and gathered up everyone that wanted to go. I stayed back with grandpa this time because I knew Dirk and Da were on their way and didn't want to be gone when they got there.
Sunday about 2 or 3 oclock Dirk and Melinda and Ben and Simon showed up, It was so fun to see them. As you can see, none of us were in swim suits ...rather long jeans and sweatshirts although Sunday afternoon warmed up nicely.
Here we are sitting in the sun in front of the trailer - feeding our faces as we did the whole weekend. Ethan wasn't sure he wanted to try my zuchini bread...he thought it was like Jamaica food -- cooked bananas and such. Finally his mom told him it was like banana bread...and I added 'with lots more cinnemon'. So he got brave and tasted it and loved it!!! Yeah for trying new things!
Just a cute picture of a little family keeping busy.

Ben was not sure about this whole thing, but he was cute
That afternoon Melinda and I decided that if they were going to drive all the way to Bear Lake and the sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing (too bad) we could take the boys and the big yellow blow up raft and pull them around the lake for 15-20 minutes just to say we did it. We headed down to the beach and Da and Ben headed out into the water with the big boat and Ben did NOT want to get in it. He liked the water, that is until the wind pushed him down twice into the water and he got scared. So we scooped him up and put him in the boat and he thought that was great fun.

Simon wanted to walk to hanging onto two of my fingers we walked and walked and walked through this three inch deep water and he was loving it when all of a sudden he just sat down. And he LOVED that - the waves lapping gently around him. Great fun!!

What was not fun was telling them mama and grandma were tired (Shawn and Dirk had stood and talked the whole time) ...they did NOT want to get out. But simon settled down once we had the towel around him and he was getting warm again. Ben we promised he could go up and play throwing rocks for the dog to fetch. Yep - a dog that only wanted to fetch rocks. It was so funny to watch him scoop up the rock with the side of his head against the ground - he would scoop up the rock with his teeth and then run back to you. He would then hold the rock in his mouth until you tossed another for him to go after. Hey, Dirk and Da, maybe this is where Simon learned the golf ball trick.

Dirk and Da left about 6pm and we all got on the road about 7 pm stopping in Evanston for a late dinner.

We all traveled to and from the lake safely and had a wonderful time. Hopefully Shawn and Jeff will share the GOOD pictures they took. I didn't take many - should have taken more - in fact I broke my camera somehow coming home...it still takes pictures, but the view screen is broken!!

Grand Visit with Wonderful Friends

Jewel and Andy standing by the last remaining wagon from the Hole in the Rock

I was going to title this "Great Visit with Old Friends" but that was just a little bit too literal!! Where did the years go? Jewel and I decided it had been about 35 years since we had seen each other!!! She still looks like Jewel...I would have recognized her anywhere - she couldn't say the same about me. Nor Andy - and he hasn't put on weight - just the gray hair. When he grinned I finally saw the old (young) Andy.

I guess a little bit of history here -Jewel was my first roommate in College in 1965 - I remember she and Pat moved in with me about the first day of school that fall quarter. Pat didn't come back after Fall quarter and Linda and Sally moved out of the dorms and in with us and the four of us roomed together for two years after which we ALL got married - first Sally, then Ed and I , then Linda and then Jewel. I helped do the decorations for her wedding. Jewel and I are third cousins!! Through Lars Nielson on my dad's side and on her mother's side. We had never met before becoming roommates. She grew up in Oak City - just 14 miles from Leamington!

After college Jewel and Andy moved to California for a short while until he was drafted and went to Vietnam. Jewel finished college and then went to Blanding to teach. Andy had been born and raised in Blanding and Jewel lived with her in-laws and taught school there. A few years after he got out of the Army Andy got a job in Kayenta Arizona (about 80 miles South of Blanding) and he stayed there for 35 years until the job closed - he retired from that company in 2008 and he and Jewel returned to Blanding. They had bought a nice piece of property in 1982 just North of the city and that is where they are now living. They have a lovely home and are really enjoying it. I didn't realize that Monticello is over 7000 feet in elevation and Blanding is over 6000 feet. When I asked Jewel about their winters - she just said "IT IS WINTER!!" After 35 years in Kayenta I would imagine it would be hard getting used to cold winters again!

Jewel and Andy have three children, two daughters and one son, and one grandson. When we arrived Tuesday afternoon we talked and talked and talked. We went to the Monticello Temple Tuesday night. Then we talked and talked an talked some more the whole week! We enjoyed our visit with them so very much. It is amazing that after 35 years we could feel so comfortable with virtual strangers at this point!

Wednesday we went four wheeling out of Bluff Utah through some of the same areas that our ancestors traveled over. We got to see and climb up to some Anasazi ruins from 900 AD - 1200 AD!! We could see their sleeping areas and their storage areas and were amazed that the mortar in their bricked up areas was still so solid after a thousand and more years!


We ATV'd to San Juan Hill which is a rough rocky hill that couldn't be traversed around - they had to go over it and they still tell how they would hitch 7-9 horses, oxen and mules to each wagon to pull them up and over that horrible hill. They said that as one horse would start to founder others would be getting back to their knees and still others would be pulling...then another would go down and on and on and on. They said that by the time they got all of the wagons up and over the hill it was covered in the blood and hair of the animals knees(?) ... this was the Hole in the Rock group who had already spent six months trying to find a way to the Bluff area. I think the main 'climb' of the hill is farther to the left. I will have to see if Ed has a better picture of it on his computer.

This is the one wagon still 'living' after all these years that was part of the Hole in the Rock Expedition.

We went into Bluff and went to the museum there - they had a fascinating movie that told about the trials of the pioneers who went through the Hole in the Rock

They are in the process of rebuilding the fort there - the descendants of each family group that had a home in the fort is invited to donate about $15,000 and a couple of weekends to go in and rebuilt the cabins where their family lived. I wonder if the Lillywhites will do that. (Ed's great Aunt Mary Ellen Willden Lillywhite was part of that group with her husband and five children, one little boy less than six months old! She would have been a sister to Feargus).

After we left the museum we went to a fun restaurant called The Trading Post - I believe it is run by Indians, and had some Indian Fry Bread. I THOUGHT I had had Indian fry bread before but that was always served with butter and honey. Imagine a delicious taco salad served on fry bread instead of taco chips!! Wow! It was so good. I wonder if there is anywhere here in Northern Utah that you could find it! Jewel and I had little ones and they were huge but sooo good to the very last bite.


The next day we went out towards Bridges National Monument and four wheeled all over - saw lots of lizards and a rabbit. The cactus are in bloom right now and they were beautiful. We saw yellow blossoms and pink blossoms and red blossoms.

This is a view half way up the mtn that we traversed - very dry desert

We were looking for an arch that we never found but we did find slick rock (ugh) and drove through mud and sand and water and found some horrible ATV roads and some pretty good ones. We drove up the old road from Bluff to Hite and it is no longer used for a road but I wouldn't have wanted to pass another vehicle on it when it was in use - it is kind of like Farmington Canyon but alot narrower. The guys both had their Garmin's but neither had any maps loaded into it so we were lost a good part of the time but that just adds to the fun! (Ed left his computer at home by accident, and he called Jamie from Beaver worried that he had left it under the carport but not loaded into the truck. Jamie made Kelly go over and break into the house and make sure that it was still in the house. It was - it had never made its way out of the basement! Thanks Jamie and Kelly!) Thus no maps on Ed's Garmin. We NOW know where we were and where we should have gone!!! But that is what makes four wheeling so fun. Andy felt bad that he couldn't remember the way to the Arch but we had a great time looking for it!! And that is what it is all about.


I thought this was a fun picture of Jewel, Andy and Ed all looking out and taking pictures of the Anasazi ruins near one of the 'bridges of Bridges National Park"

You will have to enlarge this picture to see the ruins - they were across a big gully but fascinating to study. They are tucked into the cliff with a small living or storage area at the far left, a bunch of 'homes' in the middle. To the far right we could see even more ruins. The climb down to the water was not an easy one - but the Indians would have been very protected from their enemies when they pulled up the ladders or whatever helped them up and down the cliff side.

The experts think that the people that lived here only did so in the winter and moved up onto the high plateau areas in the summer where they farmed! There was a natural bridge here but you could only see it 'sideways' so I didn't even take a picture of it!!!

This was the third of the three bridges in Bridges National Monument. This is actually the smallest of the three but it is also the most famous - There are pictures from the early 1900's of men on horses posed on top of it! It is called 'landscape arch'.

These are some friends at Landscape arch - I have a picture with all four little chipmunks out at the same time but I pulled in the wrong picture. I set the raisins there on the rock thinking they might want to eat them, but they just sniffed them. It will take them a while to decide they are safe!

At this point we headed back to Jewel and Andy's for a delicious meal. Jewel is a great cook and she fed us well the whole time we were there. Both Wednesday evening and Thursday evening I worked on jewelry while we set and visited. I gave her one of my copper illusion necklaces to say thanks for such a fun week- I hope she enjoys it.
Finally - it was time to head back home. We packed up and told Jewel and Andy good bye and headed out - we headed back North through Monticello and on to Moab. Arches National Monument sits just North of Moab and we thought we would just drive through and look. Hah!! We ended up spending several hours hiking and looking and enjoying the beautiful arches. We hiked about a quarter of a mile to see this...as we were taking pictures I told Ed that we were dumb!! We see this arch on our license plates every day!! But again - seeing it in person is really special. We took the short trail - there was a 3.5 mile hike we could have taken and gone right out under the arch. If you enlarge this picture and look closely you can see the tiny ants - those are people out there taking pictures and walking up to and around the arch.

We did walk up to this arch - it was only a few hundred feet away and it was gorgeous. It is actually three arches in one. I climbed right up in it. It was so beautiful - an totally amazing when you think that it started out to be solid rock but through thousands and thousands of years of wind and rain and freezing opening were literally carved out of rock.

We got home late Friday evening - tired but so glad we made the trip. Thanks again Andy and Jewel for a wonderful week and some great memories. You are still wonderful, old friends!!

Santa Fe and the Buffalo Thunder Trail Resort and Casino

Finally - after FOUR weeks I have created another post! WOW! Miracles never cease to exist. Its been a wild and busy four weeks though. I am going to share some of it with you starting with Santa Fe, New Mexico.

First of all - we took the picture of Ed and Friend(that graces the front pages of my blog above) for Grandma Bea - we were in the Old Town Plaza of Santa Fe and there were art studios and fancy shops everywhere but we loved the huge sculptures found here at this little shop. We got to talking with the ladies that had come with us in our van about how much Ed's mom loved pigs. So they decided we needed to get a picture of Ed with this one. Isn't he cute? I'm going to have a picture made up and mail it to Grandma Bea. She will love it!

The Buffalo Thunder Trail Hilton Resort and Casino was a beautiful collection of open airiness and Indian decor. This is the main lobby.
nThis is the resort from the back side - they are combining a desert decor with some grassy areas but it was so new they don't have the grass in yet - it will go to the left of the sidewalk. I loved the combinations of different levels and the different natural colors of stucco. Huge pots sat on the tops of the flat roofs with wooden ladders leaning up and out at various places to give you the Mesa Verde feel.

This is a picture from the ground looking up at our two patio balcony's.

If you follow the far left windows all the way up on the gold stucco, we are just two floors above them on the top level.
Just a view of the pool - it was a warm day in the mid 60's (I think this is the day you guys were getting clobbered with the snow storm) but not warm enough to go swimming outside.
This is the indoor pool - that's me over there in the chair - there was a large hot tub here and also one outside.

The Buffalo Thunder Trail Resort and Casino is brand new. It just opened on 08-08-08 - that's august 8, 08 - and it is gorgeous. The casino itself was in the basement of this huge gorgeous Hilton hotel so we didn't even notice it or hear it which was nice. We wandered through it one night but didn't even bother to stick a couple of quarters in the machine...I mean HOW DO YOU THINK THEY PAID for all this beauty? -

As we were checking in, the gal at the desk told us she had us in two queen sized beds, and I spoke up and said, one king sized bed works better if you have that available. She said let me look. Ed spoke up and said "I'm a diamond, so you could upgrade us too". No comment as she busily typed stuff into the computer. When she had everything organized she turned back to us and said: I've upgraded you to a suite!" As we walked away I told Ed "WOW, a suite at the Hilton - that's pretty good! I'll travel with you more often!"

So I took a few pictures - it was a large one bedroom suite with two bathrooms, two fireplaces and two balconies and very very comfortable.
Main bathroom with tub on this side

The shower was on the other side of this huge bathroom.




I loved the wooden ceilings - they were so beautiful - the wood was like tongue in groove but rounded not flat like a floor or wall. Fascinating. This is the fireplace in our bedroom. The switch on the wall turned it on and off

Notice the wooden headboard - it was so gorgeous. The bed was so comfy. In this picture you are looking towards the bathroom door at the right.

Now I've taken a step or two past the bed and am shooting the camera towards the other side of the room. I should have opened the curtains so you could see the patio out there. It was one of the two balcony's we had to enjoy in our room.


This is the living room - the window on the left is actually the doors to the balcony. The blue chair is in the center of the room with a lovely table and chairs and countertop behind. Of course there is another fireplace in this room too.
We went into old town Santa Fe all three nights - the first time with a van full of ladies and Ed and I as everyone didn't have cars assigned to them and we were 15 miles from downtown Santa Fe. We headed in to tour old Santa Fe - but since everyone in our group works for Job Corps we looked for the 'cheap' spots. We wandered through lots of eclectic little shops but just oohed and ahhed over everything but gagged at the prices. Finally we found a little five and dime (haven't seen one of those for a long time and I found this cute pot for $8.95 - its almost as pretty as the one Wendy bought for $140!!

I worked on necklaces and Etsy.com (it takes FOREVER to download one necklace!) , went for long walks and read. Nice quiet week while Ed was in meetings. He got out by two oclock every day and so we had a nice vacation together. We went back to Santa Fe for dinner on Wednesday by ourselves and ended up back at the Plaza in old Santa Fe at t he Orehouse - and I had the most delicious halibut EVER!!!! YUM!

Thursday Ed took me downstairs to the gift shop and told me I got to spend BOTH of our $40 gift certificates and we looked and looked and looked and found a bunch of cheap stuff (that was awfully expensive) but I kept going back to this one doll - She is almost two feet tall - Indian maiden in a white buckskin dress and moccasins with lots of bead work - I loved her and Ed thought she was gorgeous too! I almost bought a $74 sweatshirt!!

Finally I told him instead of buying lots of cheap stuff lets blow it all on the doll - she was $115 so we had to add some $$, but I love her.


Ed hand carried her on the airplane and her box just barely fit in the overhead bin cause it was so long but she traveled well.

See how gorgeous her hands and face are.

The last night we were there they had a dinner at The Shed on the plaza in Old Santa Fe again. So we rode in with a bunch of others for a fun dinner and night out - I love these kinds of meetings - I know most of the people and their spouses from other conferences through the years so it makes it very enjoyable.

Friday morning we headed back to the airport in Albuquerque early so that we could drop Anita and Jacque off - our flight was later. We headed over to Ed's Aunt Miriam Lowe's house and had a fun visit with her. She is 87 years old and living alone since Uncle Lynn died two years ago.
We visited with her for about an hour and then took her out to dinner at the Olive Garden - after that we drove out to see the Albuquerque Temple and then took her back to her house to drop her off so that we could make our flight. She was so thankful that we stopped in to visit with her - she is a sweety and we thoroughly enjoyed our time spent with her.

That was our week - it was a fun one.

Quartzsite

WOW!! there are sooooo many people here right now. But the weather is nice - it has been in the 70's almost every day although a little too windy. It rained off and on yesterday but still is warm. We have had fun shopping in the open bazaars - all the booths are crazy...and they are selling all sorts of fun stuff.

We bought a propane campfire that I am going to love. You can expect to get to roast marshmellows and hot dogs at grandma's house from now on.

We have tried all week to get online - the local library has Wi-Fi and we go and get the code and then can't get on because there are way too many all ready on line. I was lucky today.

I have taken time to read and comment on everyone's blogs and they were so fun. I am not even going to take the time to read my emails today. I've been here almost an hour just reading the blogs!

My Aunt Bonnie passed away - she is the one that lives in Littlefield AZ and we knew the end was near. We stopped on the way down and visited with her a little bit. She has had emphysema for years and now her poor heart simply gave out. Dad and I will drive up for the graveside services while Ed heads to Dayton Ohio. Littlefield is about 15 minutes from Mesquite.

Your cousin Sheena has thyroid cancer. I know very little about that cancer. Tbey removed part of her thyroid and when it was discovered that it was malignant they have set up another surgery to remove the rest of the thyroid. We will try and keep you all updated on it. SCARY and she is only 34! Same age as Mauri. Also, I just heard that Misty had a miscarriage on Monday and is broken hearted. Kevin's family are really suffering right now. Keep them in your prayers

I ran into a friend at Church Sunday that I worked with at Job Corps just before I quit in 04. Jana and her husband Jimmie also have 4 wheelers and we all went for a LONG ride on Wednesday. IT was great fun. Your poor grandpa was so totally exhausted - we were gone for five hours although we did stop at dripping springs for lunch and stayed about an hour there. So only four hours of riding. (He wasn't sure he could handle two!!) He was a trooper though and seemed to enjoy it all.

Well - I've been gone for almost four hours doing laundry, shopping and blogging. I better close and head back to the trailer.

We love you all and wish you could come down and enjoy the warmth for a few days with us. Take care - I love you all.

mom

North to Alaska - Thursday, Friday and Saturday

I've mentioned the cooler temps on this cruise compared to the other two cruises we have taken. It was not cold but it wasn't warm either. This is a picture Ed got of me on Thursday afternoon before we arrived in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The ship docked at 4 pm and left at ten that night. So about 1 or 2 in the afternoon we decided to sit and relax and enjoy the sun a little bit.
No swim suits here, thank you - socks, shoes, long pants, and coat all helped to make it a cozy sunning session! It was probably in the low sixties but when you are on a moving ship that is making about 20 plus knots the wind chill cools things down. Of course, Ed was in his shirt sleeves!! I don't have a sweater on under that coat so I wasn't tooo bundled!! We stopped in and saw the doctor one more time to get enough antibiotics to last until he could get back to our doctor at HAFB. We explained to the doctor that we wouldn't have access to Dr Anderson for another ten days at least as we were headed to Boise the week after we got home. So at $15 per pill we got ten more pills to make sure Ed wasn't gonna get sick again. Actually that was the only time the costs were high - everything else they did for us was a quite reasonable charge - everything on those cruise ships are so expensive and we were quite impressed with the medical care Ed got.

Prince Rupert was another small town on the edge of the continent between the mountains and the sea. As you can see, it was a colorful little town. It only gets 94 inches of rain annually so they weren't surprised at the sunshine, although it does hold the title of the rainiest citgy in Canada! We saw this canoe nestled up next to a dock when we were unloading and thought it was fun. 25% of the population are indigenous peoples, but the majority of the inhabitants are of British descent. We had to show our passports to exit the ship today as we were no longer in the United States. But they didn't stamp them for us!! :-(



We watched the ship dock (one of the few times we docked when we were awake !!) and I thought I wouldn't want to be one of those men standing on the dock as this huge behemouth got closer and closer to that flimsy little dock!! But the captain sidled right up to it, maybe 2 feet away and stopped !! What control!







We didn't have any outings or tours planned for this day and we had been running poor dad nonstop for days so he opted to stay onboard while Ed and I headed into town.

When we got off the ship I had Ed take this picture of our staterooms. The four square windows above the star was our deck. Dad was in the one on the far right and we were right next to him (3rd from the left). Just to the right of Dads room you can see a 'door' - when the tides were right we were able to exit and enter at that door.
This picture was taken from the ship as we were docking. We got off the ship and walked up the sidewalk (where the long line of cars are) and around the corner and down the whole grassy area looking for the shopping district.

This Canadian Mountie was there to welcome us all as we got off the ship and so Ed got a picture of me. He was very friendly and greeted us warmly with a very British accent!
Just past the grassy area they had some lovely flower gardens - we really didn't know where we were going but decided to just follow the people. We didn't find any cutesy tourist traps in downtown Prince Rupert but after about 1/2 mile we did find a grocery store!!! HOW FUN!! We went in and compared prices to our stores and the items on sale were about what our prices are normally ($3.33 for a 12 pack of pepsi) Milk was four something a gallon and we bought me a pint container of orange juice for my nightly medicine that I had been gagging down with water that cost us $1.49 and we bought some herb pills that the doctor suggested Ed take to help his body not suffer with another episode of prostate infection. When we priced the same stuff here in America it was about $3 cheaper. So the prices weren't to bad for being in the middle of nowhere. The people in Prince Rupert aren't totally dependant on shipping by sea or air to get their supplies like the people in Ketchikan were. There is a major Canadian highway that links to Prince Rupert. We asked where the tourist stores were and she had to think... she said at Cow Bay and told us how to get there. I had also heard there was a farmer's market in town that day and she told us how to get there too. She was really helpful. So we walked several more blocks up and over and found the farmers' market only it was mainly homemade jewelry that was really quite expensive. They hold this on Thursday's when the cruise ship comes to town!

So we headed back over to Cow's bay which was near where we disembarked in the beginning and sure enough there were several fun little stores that we wandered through but I didn't see anything I wanted to buy. There were several English pubs up and around the corner but we didn't stop at them.

This telephone booth is soooooo English. Around the corner there was a plain old American Telephone booth but it was so boring. This one has class!

Across the street from one of the pubs was a huge pine tree with two eagles just sitting there way up high. Ed got some great pictures of them. I think its funny - we went all the way to Alaska to see eagles and don't see a one until we get to Canada!!

We got back to the ship by 6pm and picked up dad and headed for dinner. Ed and I went out to the Star crew show at 10:00 - and then we went to the big fantastic chocoholic buffet afterwards. They held the chocaholic buffet at the Versailles Restaurant and they had gorgeous ice sculptures and fantastic chocolate sculptures. I googled this picture as we didn't think to take a camera to the buffet!! It was a feast and I was amazed at how many people heaped chocolate cakes on top of chocolate pies on top of chocolate ice cream on top of chocolate bon bons and ate it ALL!! The Japanese were the most amazing. Here are these little short skinny people and if I ate like that I would be 400 pounds!! They even took all the sugar free treats!! The very best stuff was the chocolate fountain with all the nummy dippers.

Friday was an at sea day as we traveled back down through the inside passage to Seattle. We sent Ed to the meeting on disembarkation in Seattle - and then we all three went to a really interesting digital slide show on the 'behind the scenes of the norwegian star'. It was held in the Spinnaker lounge which was one of our favorite spots on the ship. We would sneak in there all week long when they didn't ruin it with bingo games and sit in the comfy seats with a view off the front of the ship on the 12th deck - it was a great place to watch where we were sailing (plus a lot warmer than out on deck in the rainy weather.)

That evening after dinner we went to the Cirque Pacific with acrobates and some beautiful dancers. After the show we headed back to our staterooms to pack. Since we were hauling our own luggage off as soon as we docked the next morning we didn't set anything out for them to haul for us. We had a flight to catch at 11:10 Saturday morning back home. It was kind of sad to leave the ship and the excitement of the week behind. It seemed like we had to hike a full mile to get off the ship and through customs and outside and over where the cabs were.

We got back to the airport and again - walked and stood forever until we finally got checked in and checked out and up to the gate.

Shortly after the plane took off the captain announced that he had received permission to do a fly by Mt Rainier as it was a sunny day and clear...but of course that was on the opposite side of the plane and so we didn't get to see if. Five minutes later though I saw another beautiful mountain out of our side of the plane and so I took a picture of it.
I don't know what mtn this is but I snapped it through my little window out of the plane - and I was tickled at how clear it turned out. When we landed in Utah the heat hit us hard - after a week of high 50's it was in the mid 90's at the airport in Salt Lake. Welcome HOME!!

Ed and I were home for 24 hours - long enough to load the trailer and go to church and hit the road again. After a wonderful week in Boise we were glad to get back home though. Ed says he is out of vacation days until our trip to Arizona in January so I guess I'm home to stay for a while!!