Day 28--June 30--Monument Valley to Zion National Park

We got up early to see the sun rise, and we were not disappointed.  

We had breakfast overlooking this view in Monument Valley with the sun streaming in the windows.  

We left soon after breakfast for Zion's National Park.  Again, God's creation is a wonder to behold.  The pictures below are just a sample.  Be sure and check the pictures on 'Our Pictures 2'.

We're now in St. George, UT.  Tomorrow--Bryce's Canyon. Now it's time for bed.  I'm all tuckered out.
Night all.

Day 27—June 29th—Grand Canyon to Monument Valley

Today was another day of mostly driving and riding.  We had a very nice breakfast at the El Tovar before we left that served as our lunch also.  But, oh, that was the best French toast I’ve ever had!  As Charlotte O’Hara says, “I’ll think about that (all the calories) tomorrow.”  We had to have one last look at the Grand Canyon before we left, though.  Then, as we drove out in the opposite direction we came in, we saw views from the car at the lookouts that we didn’t see yesterday. 

The drive to Four Corners was beautiful as well.  Most of it was mountainous, but still some places had long stretches of road.  We should be use to that by now, but every road and every sight is different.

Four Corners is exactly what it says and not much more.  It’s where Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet in a perfect square corner.  Around the perimeter the Navaho have booths set up to sell their wares.  The porta-potties made up the rest of it, along with the parking lot, which was just rock, not pavement.   But there was one very important thing there—the saying that was surrounding the four state seals engraved in the cement.  It read, “Here Meet—Four States—In Freedom—Under God”.  How cool is that!!

But when you look at how the Navaho live, you might understand better why there isn’t much else there.  They are evidently used to a more primitive way of life.  Their houses (mostly trailers) are just stuck out in the middle of all this openness.  Once in a while we saw some houses backed up to a mountain, but that was unusual.  It made a lot more sense to me to put a house behind a mountain after we drove through a dust storm.  If you look closely at this picture you’ll see the sand blowing all over the road.

Monument Valley is almost unbelievable!  We could again see God’s creative hand at work here.  As you look at these pictures some of them may look a little familiar to you.  John Wayne made a lot of movies here, along with actors like Jimmy Stuart and Clint Eastwood.  (If you’re a ‘young whipper-snapper’ you may not know who these actors are.  If you don’t, just don’t tell me you don’t!  lol

I almost like this place better than the Grand Canyon because we can get so much closer to it.  There are trails that we could take to get us right up to the rock formations.  But even without taking the trails, we feel like we’re right in the middle of them.  I guess that’s because we are!  This hotel is called ‘The View’ for a reason.  All the rooms face the east so that we can see the sun shining on the formations as it goes down.  When we come out of our room and walk down the hall, there are huge windows so we can see the formations on the backside of the hotel.  When we get in the elevator, there’s a huge window in it so we can watch the view as we go up and down.  

When we went to dinner we walked around the terrace to the restaurant and… you guessed it…the view completely surrounded us.  Then, our hostess seated us right up to the huge windows in the restaurant where, again, we could see so many of the rock formations, or ‘the view’!  Even the ‘trading post’ had big windows.  (I bought another piece of authentic Navaho pottery.  It was HALF PRICE!  Woo Hoo!)

Our room (huge compared to the one at the El Tovar) has a terrace out front, as do all the rooms so we can sit out there and just take it all in.  We’re on the top floor, so that makes it even better.  We took some beautiful pictures until another dust storm blew in and obscured the monuments.  Paul then went out into the hall and took pictures from the big windows there of the sun setting.

The simplest thing I can say about Monument Valley is—it’s just breathtaking!  What an amazing place to be.  We plan to get up early enough tomorrow morning to see the sun rise.  After that—on to more adventures!

Day 26--June 28th--The Grand Canyon

We got up very early this morning because Tim had to be at work at 5:00.  We didn't wake up the kids, but we had to get last kisses and look at them while they slept before we left.  We had such a good time just being with them that we hated to leave.  But we knew we had to in order to keep to our schedule to be home on time.

The day welcomed us with a beautiful sky to look at as we drove from Tucson to Phoenix.

The ride to the Grand Canyon was very pleasant.  We stopped in Flagstaff for.... yep, a thrift store.  I bought a beautiful Nativity figurine. 

This is the third time I've seen the Grand Canyon and the second time Paul has seen it. It's always beautiful and awe inspiring.  The pictures in our album are just a 'taste' of what it's like.  And the pictures just can't capture all that your eye can see. 

We walked around part of the rim when we got here because our room at the El Tovar wasn't ready.  Then we decided to go ahead and hike down part of Bright Angel Trail.  We knew we couldn't do the whole thing.  It takes two days and staying overnight at the bottom to do that!  It's almost nine miles down to the bottom of this trail into the Grand Canyon. 

Paul says we hiked about a half mile down and back up.  I think it was at LEAST a mile and a half down and back up!  At least my feet think so!  Look closely at the pictures below and you can see parts of the trail.

Yep, we actually hiked down this thing!  It was GREAT!  By the time we got back up, we could check into our hotel.  It was a good thing, too.  We both needed showers BADLY!  In other words, we stunk!!
Even though it wasn't extremely hot here today and the wind was blowing nicely, we did a lot of sweating.  The Bright Angel Trail is the one the mules take when they carry people down into the canyon.

After we got our showers, we walked to the bus stop and started our ride/hike around the rim.  We rode the bus to each lookout, got out, walked down to the point of each lookout, took pictures, climbed back up to the road to catch the next bus to the next lookout.  The last stop was at Hermit's Rest.  We got a quick snack there and then walked all the way to the last lookout on the point. A sign on the old building there caught Paul's eye as we rested and ate our snack.  I was absolutely amazed and filled with thankfulness.  Here is what it says.                        

With all the campaigns going on in our nation to silence the voice of Christians, this speaks loudly to millions of visitors from every nation on the Earth that God is the creator of all the beauty their eyes are feasting on.

Then we rode the bus all the way back to the village stop.

We stopped at the Bright Angel Lodge for dinner and had a very nice leisurely meal.  We could see the sun go down over the canyon while we ate.

Such an absolutely beautiful day!

Night, all!  We're tired!

Days 24 & 25—June 26 & 27 Time with the Mobleys

Well, Patsy said it correctly.  We’ve been having too much fun at Tim’s and Maryann’s to write a blog!  So, I’ll try to catch you up before I write today’s blog.  

Here are some of the ways we spent our days.

Kate and Natalie had a good time in their pool.

 They also enjoyed playing on their swing set.

We all enjoyed the play room as well.

Kate loves to dress up as a princess!

One day we went to the park.  This is the angel in honor of the little girl who was killed in Tucson when Rep. Gabby Gifford was shot.

 We watched Natalie at her swim lesson.

 Kate, Granddaddy, and Tim watch and play while they wait for Natalie.  

(I'm sitting in the shade taking photos. Smart, huh?)

Ethan also practices laps for his race this coming Saturday.

We took a 'family' photo to remember our time together, but we couldn't sit still too long.

We had a blast!

Make sure to check out all the pictures on 'Our Pictures 2'.  We have some more pictures to add later, we just can't find them right now.  We had a very nice lunch with Tim and Maryann at an old ranch turned into a 'tea room' and nature walk.  I'll post those when we find them.

Day 22 & 23--June 24 & 25--CA to AZ to Tim's

The ride from California to Arizona was mostly uneventful.  The traffic wasn't too bad, so I didn't knit a lot.  Just watched the mountains, and the desert, and the mountains, and the desert......  It got to 111 degrees again today.  Yep, that's HOT! 

Here's a pictures of all my 'traffic therapy' accomplishments since we began our trip.

We arrived at Tim's house a little after lunch, and then the fun began!  Ethan met us at the van because he had been watching out the window for us.  It was so nice to be met at the van by Ethan hugs!!  Natalie and Kate were still taking a nap.  I gave Ethan his pirate's hook, and he actually knew what it was without me having to tell him.  WooHoo!  I was doubtful that he'd know since I had a hard time actually making it look like it was supposed to.  At least Ethan will have the one-and-only because I won't do another one!

Natalie and Kate got up from their naps shortly afterwards, but it took them a few minutes to actually wake up.  Once they did, we got some really good hugs from them, too.  They were so sweet!  They look really cute in the crowns I made them.  For those of you who don't know, Tim made them a 'princess' bed.  That's the reason I made crowns for them.  Every princess needs a crown, and these actually match the blankets I made for them before they were even born.

 We had a good time playing and looking at the pictures from the zoo.

We went to Ethan's Vacation Bible School closing ceremony last night, and he was so cute doing all the actions to the songs.

We were all very tired by the time we got home, so it was off to bed for everyone!

This morning started out with 'Micky Mouse' pancakes and blueberry bread.  Maryann did a great job.
Now we're just 'chillin', if there's such a thing in Arizona.  Timmy just hooked up the Kinects, so things might 'heat' up.  I'll probably just watch for a while.  Maybe this afternoon we'll get in their pool. (after a nap, maybe?)
Until later.....

Day 20 & 21--June 22 & 23--San Diego and Palm Desert

Yesterday we took a different route to get to San Diego than we did to get to Huntington Beach.  Yep, you guessed it.  Up and down, and around and around!  But it was another beautiful drive and well worth the Dramamine.

The Zoo is a beautiful place.  San Diego has really made a great effort to provide a beautiful place, not only for their animals but for their human visitors as well.

We did a lot of walking, which was a good thing, but by the end of our time there, my feet and legs were very tired.  We were supposed to meet Ray (Paul's nephew for those of you who don't know) at the harbor for dinner at 6:00.  By 4:00 we had had enough of walking around the zoo, so we left early just to go sit on the dock and watch the water and the boats and ships. The harbor is another beautiful place, very relaxing.  We saw all sorts of water craft:  a big aircraft carrier, fishing boats, sail boats, etc.  We also saw lots of helicopter coming over from Camp Pendleton.  We saw statues of Bob Hope and different troops listening to his funny stories. There was also an audio that was playing continuously with Bob Hope telling his funny stories to the troops.   The coolest statue, though, was the sailor kissing his girlfriend.

Ray was a little late due to traffic on the interstate. (I can believe it!)  Paul saw him drive in, and we all were so excited to see each other.  I don't think Ray has too many family members to come visit him. lol  At least, not many that drive all the way across country!  We had a delightful dinner at the Fish Market Restaurant right on the harbor.  Again, we were able to get a table over-looking the water.  God is so good to work out even the smallest details just for our enjoyment.

Today we stay in Palm Desert to rest, do laundry, & pack up.

Tomorrow we'll be in Tucson (Marana)!  Timmy, Maryann, Ethan, Natalie & Kate, Here we come!!!!