The Gateway Arch, St Louis, Missouri

We have traveled the last few days from Kansas to Kentucky, where we are spending our last night in Louisville. We stopped off in Norton, Ks., Don's hometown to look around and show Bubs the house Grandpa Don grew up in, where he went to school, and other interesting things about the town, including the wheat silos. Then we headed to Beloit, Ks to visit with Don's mother who is in a nursing home because of alzhiemers. On our way we got a call that Grandma was showing signs of an infection, so while we were in Beloit ,she had to be admitted to the hospital. The nurses and doctors think it will take about a week for her to recover. We were glad we were able to see her, just wish she had not been sick while we were there.

Today we stopped at the Gateway Arch in St Louis to look at the museum and ride to the top of the Arch. Here are some interesting facts about the Arch:
It was built as a monument to the pioneers who traveled westward
It is 630 feet tall
It is the tallest man made monument in the US
Luther Smith, a civic leader of St Louis, invisioned the Arch
In 1945, a design contest was announced and 172 people submitted designs
A Finnish American, Eero Saarinen, won the contests and designed the Arch
It cost 2.49 million to build

Bubs and I rode up to the top today where it felt like we could see all of St Louis. The shuttles are small with 5 seats, and it takes 4 minutes to get to the top. The visitors center had a museum, gift shop and bakery/ novelty store.

Tomorrow we head out early for home. The past 3 weeks have gone really fast, but we have been able to see some amazing sites. We have some new ideas and plans for our next trip out west, but it will be good to be home.

Utah to Colorado

We drove from Zion to Grand Junction, Colorado yesterday and again saw some beautiful scenery. Grand Junction was very hot. We left early today and drove to Vail and spent about half a day there looking around and riding the gondola. The weather was so cool, ranging from the high 70's to low 80's. On the way we stopped at a rest stop right on the Colorado River and watched some white water rafters. When we got to Vail we walked around the village, ate lunch at The Blue Moose Pizza Restaurant, and rode the gondola up from an elevation of 8,120 feet to 11, 570 ft. Vail is the second largest ski mountain in North America. It was really beautiful in the summer, and I am sure it is in the winter as well. We saw a lot of bike trails and wished we had time to ride, but we had to get on the road again. Tonight we are spending the night in Goodland, Ks and will be in Norton, Ks tomorrow to show Bubs around his grandpa's hometown.

A few more Zion pictures

Zion National Park, Utah

Zion National Park is incredible. I have been to many national parks, and it is definitely one of my two favoites(the other being Yellowstone). The canyons are huge, with gigantic red, pink and cream colored rock sandstone jutting up to the sky.We saw mountain goats on the cliffs as we were coming in to the park, but mountain lions, deer,bears, squirrels and others creatures inhabit the park as well.
 We stayed right at the bottom of  the canyon at a beautiful condo for two nights with an outdoor pool and jacuzzi. Across from us was a creek which you could either tube or swim in, and next door was the Zion Visitors Center, shuttle buses to take you to/from your destination, an Imax theater, grocery store, cafe and hiking trails. We took the shuttlebus and hiked two trails yesterday. The first was the Emerald Pool trails, taking you up to three emerald ponds with waterfalls. http://www.zionnational-park.com/zion-emerald-pools-trail.htm. The second hike was to the Narrows. http://www.zionnational-park.com/zion-narrows.htm. Both were very popular hikes so we encountered a lot of people. When you hike the Narrows, part of the hike is through swift moving water. Bubs and I hiked part of the way through the water but didn't go to the deep part where he would have had to swim(the water would have been over his head). There were people swimming in both parts, and we even saw a woman with a baby on her back.The river is so fast that it is hard to balance on the rocks so we both had to take a long hiking stick with us to be able to navigate. He was a little scared at first, but made it through three river crosses. The water was very cold and your feet get numb at first, but eventually you get used to it. After our hike we went out to eat at a cool restaurant downtown called Oscars. Last night we went to the Imax theater and watched The Green Lantern in 3D. There were parts of the movie that were a little scary for Bubs, especially with the 3 D views, but he thought the glasses were really fun.
Today we are in Grand Junction, Colorado for the night. So far we have been in 11 states.

More Grand Canyon Pictures

The Grand Canyon National Park

We left Phoenix on Wednesday heading for Flagstaff to spend a night on the way to the Grand Canyon. On the way we stopped at Monteauma's Castle which is a national monument where native american cliff dwellers lived. The castle has three levels and is in the rocks on the side of a cliff.
 Phoenix is hot but Flagstaff was cool. It is a ski resort  town and you see a lot of pine and aspen trees.. to me it is not how I picture Arizona. It was a very cute town  where we walked around and had dinner at a Pizza restaurant. At 8 p.m we went to the Lowell Observatory to look at the planets. Lowell was where Pluto was discovered in the 1930's. We viewed the moon and saturn through two huge telescopes.

On Thursday we headed to the Grand Canyon and stayed one night at the Maswick Lodge right in the park. It was very nice and we were able to walk over next door to the cafeteria and eat our meals. We went to the south rim of the canyon and hiked a ways down the Bright Angel trail which is where the mules travel daily. You have to get reservations for mule rides about a year in advance. The mules come from Tennessee and are a very safe way to travel the trail. In fact, there has never been an episode of a mule falling or injuring a rider. You can also backpack down the trail to the bottom..( it's about 10 miles) spend the night and then hike back up after 4 p.m. the next day. Hiking up and down the same day usually results in a visit to the hospital because the temperature rises the farther down you go. We hiked a ways down the trail to watch the sunset over the Grand Canyon which was amazing. We also visited the Geology center and the gift shop where Bubs bought several gifts for his family.
Today we toured more of the canyon, this time the east end called Desert View. We walked up to the Watch tower which gives you a panoramic view of the canyon. After Desert View we headed out of the canyon towards Zion National Park where we will spend two days. On the way to Zion we toured the Glen Canyon Bridge and ate lunch on the lawn. We arrived in Zion around 3 p.m. I think it  is the most beautiful national park I have ever visited.

Arizona

We arrived in Az. on Saturday and have been having a great time visiting Kathleen and family. On the way to Az. we stopped at the Saguaro National Forest to look at the giant cacti. It was really interesting and it  reminded me of the  terrain of the cowboy films of the old west.
We've gone swimming and  to the Children's Museum with the children. We've gone to Kathleen's gym,. Lifetime Fitness, every day. The place is huge.. it has an enormous workout room with over 100 different weight machines, 55 elipticals, 20 bicycles and stairsteppers, several rooms for classes, a children's huge play area, tennis courts, a water park, a spa and a cafe. You could spend the whole day there. I've never seen anything like it. It's as big as Walmart with 2 floors.
Phoenix is a beautiful city. It's very clean and  surrounded by mountains. It's hot here right now with  100 plus degree temperatures, but there is a  slight wind and we had a rainstorm last night which cooled things off a  bit. Kathleen says during the other seasons the weather is so nice.. temps in the 70's and 80's in the fall and 60's in the winter.
Bubba is having a great time with his cousins and they are getting along really well. Mason and Rowen want to do everything big Cousin Bubba does. We went to Ikea tonight to look around and got cinnamon buns and ice cream. Bubba has been wanting to go to Sonic to treat everybody to icies so we will probably go tomorrow night.

On Wed. we are heading to Flagstaff and then on Thurs. to the Grand Canyon. Kathleen and the boys are going with us and all the kids can't wait to see the canyon. We are planning to visit the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff where they have 4 large telescopes to view the solar system. That should  be really interesting outing for all of us .

Carlsbad, New Mexico

We had a great time touring Carlsbad Caverns. Last night we watched the bat exodus from the bat cave. It happens around dusk. The bats start swarming out of the cave, and they fly off to feed on insects. We went early to hear the ranger give his presentation, which told a lot of information about the Mexican free tailed bats. Only one percent of bats carry rabies. They are helpful for our environment because they pollenate, eat a lot of insects(half their weight), and spread seeds. They are migratory and spend winters in Mexico and summers in New Mexico. The females have one baby  a year, which usually occurs in June. They are mammals and nurse their young, by hanging by their toes from the ceiling of the cave.
Today we went on the most popular self guiding tour of the caverns, the tour of the big room. It took us two hours to walk and see all of that section of the cave. We saw a lot of interesting formations, including some that looked like cones, straws, pillars, villages, temples, doll theaters and much more. At one time we were 750 feet underground. There are  over110 caves in the Carlsbad system.

Today we traveled though west Texas and east New Mexico. We stopped at the Guadalupe Mountain National Park and took pictures.We went through El Paso and saw on the other side of the road the Mexican border and a Mexican village. We are staying in Las Cruces, New Mexico and are eating Mexican food tonight since all the towns here have a Mexican flair. Bubba can't wait!