Watching the Stars Move

Once I gave up on battling the computer last night, I went back up to our room.  I am so glad I did!  The moon had just risen over the rock formations right outside our balcony.  Full moon too!  It was so beautiful. 

We sat on the balcony for a long time, with Alan taking long exposure photos. So we could actually see the stars move!  Or at least that is the way we felt at the time. 

View from our balcony

I forgot to mention yesterday that there is a sandstorm going on around Monument Valley.   As we drove in yesterday we noticed it and it has obscured visibility a bit. Which is a big disappointment.  It is very interesting to see though.  And the sensation of being covered in fine red dirt is really odd.  In fact, once I took my shoes off last night and also today, it looked like I had done a very bad self tan! 

I am finally adjusting to the time change and actually slept through the whole night last night!  Luckily I woke up in time to see sunrise from our balcony though.  What an experience to observe sunrise over the Mittens!

Sunrise from our balcony

Our Navajo Guide had advised us to go on the guided tour as early as possible, so he picked us up at 8am.  The wind was not bad at that time so the sand storm did not ruin the trip. It was such an amazing experience that I would recommend anyone visiting Monument Valley to give Jerome a call.  I will be happy to give a contact email for him if anyone wants it.  He was born in Monument Valley in a Hogan.  A Hogan is the traditional round house I mentioned yesterday.    I ended up buying a book about them, so now I know the hogans around people's houses are actually there for ceremonies like birth and marraige.  Groups of  Navajo families live close together and there is usually a hogan around their homes.  Jerome took us into one where one of his grandmothers was carding and spinning wool.  (it was his grandmother's sister, so we could call her a Great Aunt probably)  She was 97 years old and has been in a few of the westerns filmed around here.

The Hogan inside looks very similar to a Kiva, the roof is the same pattern of wood and the hole in the roof lets in the same amount of light. However, you enter through a door on the ground instead of climbing down from the roof! 

Jerome also took us to see "pictographs". These look like cave drawings, but are on the outside of the rocks. 

We also went to John Ford point where I lost my hat for the first time.  Thankfully, I did not feel like a silly tourist becuase Jerome lost his on the same gust of wind. Alan caught up with both of them.  I was not so lucky the second time, when we were almost climbing over sand dunes with no apparent track in the road.  Another gust grabbed my hat and it went out of the vehicle and was lost forever.  It was a straw cowboy style hat with beads on the string around the top.  I can only hope someone finds the hat and uses the beads for jewelry one day!

I feel like we got a very special tour, we did see other tours go by and none seemed to get the special attention we got from Jerome.  Topping off the tour with a visit to the big Hogan, which is the name of a rock formation.  After being shown what looked like an eagle up in the rock formation, Jerome had his Navajo drum and sang two lovely songs, he said his grandfather had taught him.  I was actually in tears with the wave of emotion, standing in the midst of such natural beauty and being able to experience traditional Navajo music and singing.

Our Navajo Guide - Jerome

It is just about time for the moon to appear again, so I better close for now.  I know I still owe photos from yesterday, but the downloads are still very slow, so I will try again some other time.

"Whether a horse turns out to be a good cow horse or a poor one pretty much depends on the intelligence of the handler."

Monument Valley

This is only the end of our first week away! I cannot believe what we have done, seen and accomplished so far!  And none of us seem worse for wear (yet anyway!).

We left Cortez, Colorado this morning, after a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese!  Shiprock, New Mexico was close so we thought we would go there.  As we entered New Mexico the sign said "Entering the Navajo Nation".  And it was all Navajo from the look of it. In addition to regular family homes, they also had little round/octagonal houses around.  I was wondering if this was the sort of modern day Kiva!  Don't know who to ask about that.

Our main destination enroute to Monument Valley was to see Four Corners. This is the only place where four states meet:  Colorado, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.  It is a National Monument.  When we got there, the gates were padlocked shut, well, actually the padlock was open but the monument was closed and security was watching so no one could go in.  The sign said it was "under construction". In addition to the 4 or 5 cars and RVs driving in and being disappointed, three motorcyclists came in.  I offered to take a photo of them together and then asked them if I could take one of them. ( this photo is really good and I will make sure I can add it another time)

We drove on to Valley of the Gods, which is a minitiature Monument Valley.  I have pictures, but the computer seems to not want to download them for this blog tonight. So I will add in photos later.

Then we went to Goosenecks State Park. We had been here two years ago and Alan just loves it!  None of the rest of us was bothered to see it again, but it was no big deal for us to go back. The only reason Alan needed to go back - he had the wrong camera lens last time!!!  I made the most of it though, there was a Navajo woman selling jewelry and I bought myself a gorgeous necklace!

We are now staying at The View in Monument Valley and they view is spectacular!  This hotel was just built and designed so that every room over looks the Mittens.  Alan took sunset photos right from our balcony. 

It seems all really nice hotels make getting on the internet difficult. The View offers free internet access, but only in the lobby and dining room. So I am sitting in the lobby, freezing while doing this. But the view out the window is magnificent so it is not all bad. 

We are going on a tour tomorrow with our very own Navajo Guide: Jerome Richards.  When he gave me his card, I was disappointed he did not have a more "Indian" sounding name. But I am really looking forward to our trip and will let you know all about it.

Until then, I will do battle with this computer and try to get some photos downloaded!

 It took 7 minutes and still the first picture would not download.  Very sorry!  I will make sure I add these in at a later date.  If not on this blog, on another one.  I might have to wait til we get to a less nice hotel though!

"Life is a journey and you have the only map"

Visiting the Ancient Puebloan dwellings

Today was an incredible day!  We left Moab in the morning and went straight to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.  I have always been intrigued by the cliff dwellings of the ancient Puebloan people but never thought I would be lucky enough to actually see them!

Cliff Palace

It is very lucky that I read somewhere this park takes a full day to see.  It takes almost one hour to drive from the entrance to the cliff dwellings! The mountain just seems to go on and on. We booked a Ranger guided tour of the Cliff Palace, which is the biggest dwelling in the park.  There are over 600 settlements in the park!! This gives an idea of how big this park is.  To get to the Cliff Palace, you have to be brave, not afraid of heights, ladders and slippery, uneven stone steps.  You go down and down until you are standing where people raised their families (and turkeys) over 900 years ago.  There are also rooms under the ground called Kivas. These were probably used for religous ceremonies.  It was hard to visualize how they worked until we went to see a different settlement called Spruce Tree House. 

After visiting Cliff Palace, you then have to climb more slippery, uneven stairs and 3 10 feet ladders!  I do not like ladders at all, but the whole effort was worth climbing even scarier ladders if I had to!

Alan and I in a Kiva

Alan and I then went to see Spruce Tree House, which is a bit misleading, as it is not in a tree and not a single house, but another settlement!  The Rangers there have reconstructed a Kiva and Alan and I climbed the ladder through the tiny whole in the roof to get to the floor.  It was beautiful, if a bit claustrophobic!

Spruce Tree House, the ladder goes to a Kiva

view from the bottom of the Kiva's ladder!

We asked about how the original inhabitants got in and out of their dwelling place and the Ranger told us they had hand and footholds all the way up.  In essence, they rock climbed to get in and out of their homes.  Their doors started 2 feet above the floor, possibly to keep babies and toddlers from toppling out. But once they were old enough, they had to rock climb in and out themselves!  I cannot imagine telling my 16 month old grandson now that he can walk, he will have to start climbing without help! 

I will end this now with a saying I noticed in a shop window in Salina, Arizona

"Important parts of every journey are when we stay still"

Eating my way through 6 states

We are still in Moab, checking out tomorrow to unknown territory again. Hoping to stay in Cortez and visit Mesa Verde National Park.  We are a bit worried about this though, because we actually hit hurdles in our obstacle course last night when we arrived in Moab and hope it does not happen again! 

I already mentioned that it was quite a journey from Las Vegas to Moab. The reason we put ourselves through that torture was to have a good starting point. We had no reservations booked and did not anticipate this to be a problem, it never has been before. However, two major problems: we forgot the time change so we got into Moab around 7 instead of 6. This is quite late to find a room. And we never realized this was such a popular area. There is so much to do here, hike, whitewater raft, rock climb, jeeping and many other really fun things. So the place is absolutely booming with people! We went to every single hotel in Moab. It was getting really scary because Moab is not close to anywhere and we would have real problems. The very last one had two rooms and we grabbed them for 2 nights!

It is sheer heaven to stay on one place for two whole days!

Today we went to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. We saw lots and lots of rock formations and pretty desert flowers.  Sadly I was really not in the mood to enjoy the beauty of the area.  I think yesterday's trip just took the energy away for awhile.

Alan and I at the Arches National Park

Another arch

This prickly pear was in Canyonlands, the ones blooming at the Arches were yellow!

However, I am still enjoying my food! When we were in San Fransisco, I saw another of Mark Twain's sayings: "A cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education".

I realized last night that I am probably ruined for life about pizza.  On our last night in San Fransisco, after the night loop bus tour, when we were chilled to the bone because we sat on the top wrapped in Ikea blankets, we were really hungry.  We stopped at the first place we saw, which did not look very impressive. Ordered pizza and a pitcher of beer.  That was such a wonderful pizza! I did not know how that pizza would change my life though until I ate pizza again last night. I now know it will be a long time til I eat pizza again. I will have to wait for the memory of pizza perfection to fade!  I have no idea what the name of the place is though.

This morning, Alan and I decided to just eat the fruit we bought, it was perfect.  We have really been eating too much.  then we went on the journey to the canyons and ended up missing lunch!  Not good. But we ate at the Moab Brewery tonight and that made up for it.  I had hot cheese soup and a stuffed potato.  It was really good!

It is also much warmer now, thank goodness!  The temperatures got up to 70 degrees.  And it felt wonderful!

Tomorrow is another day and another town, don't know if we will have internet access, but if we do, I will try to keep this blog up.  I am actually enjoying doing this and hope it is enjoyable to read!

Driving through snow in Arizona in May!

This has been such a busy 3 days, I don't know if I can get it all down before I collapse in a heap!  I am still not adjusted to jet lag. But I do seem to enjoy the odd sleep patterns I develop and the lonely times in late evenings and early mornings where I have to entertain myself quietly.  Such as now.

After only sleeping in LA, we caught another plane and travelled to San Fransisco for two nights, staying at the Hilton on O'Farrell Street.  It was a beautiful hotel, dangerously close to a huge Macy's!  We bought an all loops sightseeing bus trip and did the downtown, Golden Gate Bridge/Sausolito, Nob Hill and Night tours.  Although we learned an incredible amount about this vibrant and cultured city, by the end of our two days, we could practically recite the main lines!  Even singing along every time we passed the Hotel California! 

I love coincidences and this one was amazing.  I started a book called The Sacred Bones by Michael Byrnes the day after going to Sausolito and there is a line in the introduction I would never have fully appreciated without having been on this trip.  The strange thing is this book is about antiquities in Jerusalem, similar to the Da Vinci Code.  The line was:  "he swore he could smell the perfume of its sweet eucaplytus trees".  Just after driving over the Golden Gate Bridge, we passed a grove of Eucaplytus trees and the beautiful perfume followed us for the longest time.


We caught a streetcar to get to Pier 39 for breakfast and to see the Sea Lions that have made Fishermans' Wharf their home since the 1989 earthquake!  There seem to be almost 100 of them, all shapes and sizes and completely at home with all the people looking over them.  When they first arrived, (the assumption is the earthquake scared them and they looked for refuge at the wharf), the city tried to scare them away.  But nothing worked and now they are a tourist attraction!

On our second day, we visited Alcatraz. We all had to by extra clothes because it is much colder than it should be here. I thought I was prepared and remember a saying of Mark Twain's: "the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Fransisco".

To go on a boat in this cold weather, I bought a pink hoody and a pink pashmina to wear with a cardigan, and my reversable black and green fleece. I also have no closed toed shoes and wore my wool socks with my sandals!

Alcatraz is amazing and it is difficult to put into words, but I would recommend anyone visiting the area to make this a priority. 

On Sunday, we flew back to LA to pick up our Chrysler Town &  Country and drive to Las Vegas.  This was just a one night stopover at the Golden Nugget.  Wow, what a huge hotel!  We were in the Carson Tower and went up and down to dinner and to the Fremont Experience and I still have no idea how to find our room!

The Fremont Experience is another event that is impossible to describe.  They closed off the streets between the Golden Nugget and the other iconic casinos at this intersection, built  a sort of roof/movie screen over the street and every hour they do sort of a musical laser show tribute that is breathtaking!  We saw the Queen and Kiss ones.  Anyone visiting Vegas should NOT miss this and it is free!

Now we are on today, when we checked out of this beautiful and huge hotel, got in the car and travelled ten hours! This was the most horrible day of our trip because we had to do alot of miles to get to the position to accomplish everything else we want to do this trip.  As far as I am concerned, we have already done enough for a two week vacation, and we have only been gone 5 days! 

And it is still so cold!!  It has been in the 40's most days and the layers of clothes keep getting piled on.  It does give me an excuse to buy a few heavier items, but I have never required an excuse to shop so I don't really appreciate this!

We are now staying in Moab, right in the middle of Canyonlands for two nights. It is a really cute place and we walked up the main street and looked at shops. I even bought a Christmas present today!  The lady at the shop told us it should be in the 100's just now, not in the 40's.  This cold cannot last the entire time we are over here, but then I guess I will have to complain about how hot it will be!!

The Stick and Stein

Once in LA, we went to the Travelodge at LAX South.  You would think after eating all day that we would not be hungry?  Well, you would be wrong!  There was an IHOP just behind the Travelodge, but I like IHOP for breakfast, not dinner.  So we asked and were told just beyond the IHOP was the Stick and Stein.

This looks like a sports bar, with loads of tv's and pool tables. But the best bit was the early bird specials:  sirloin steak and prime rib!  My stomach will always prefer American restaurants, it is amazing what you miss when you live in a different country.  So I was really excited about getting Prime Rib, and the meal did not disappoint!

First was salad bar, then the main course, complete with sour cream for the baked potato and loads of horseradish for the Prime Rib.  And lots and lots of raspberry iced tea!!  I knew I was home again!

Had a real scare in London!

Whew! We made it to Los Angeles!  So far we have been up 22 hours and are just about to go get something to eat.  But I need to tell you the story of today from the beginning -

Alan and I picked up Jim and Jennifer and checked in no problem in Glasgow to fly to London Heathrow.  At Heathrow, Alan and I were pulled aside because there was a question about our ESTA's.  An ESTA is a US government requirement for all non US citizens to submit prior to flying to the US.  Alan had done his last year, but somehow it had not registered and they were concerned about me not having one.  Turned out, Alan's was ok and they finally realized I was American.

So we settled ourselves down to wait for our flight, when suddenly, Alan gets a phone call from Colin at British Airways who says his reservations have been flagged up and our seats are cancelled!  the other 3 of us were listening to this conversation, that just seemed to go on and on.  Alan was very cool about it, didn't get loud or angry or anything, just quietly desperate.  but it was going nowhere, so I asked to speak and I immediately began to grovel to this Colin guy, baring my soul and begging shamelessly to let us get on the plane.  Jim and Jennifer were horrified because they were not bumped.  It was awful.  then while I was talking to "Colin", he confessed that it was really Craig and he works with Alan at Cowcaddens Fire Brigade Training Centre!  Boy was I not amused! 

I gave the phone to Alan and Craig confessed that this was a wind up! Firefighters are renowned for their practical jokes and this was a very good one.  Craig could not have known we had already been flagged and this was so perfectly timed after that.

Although I did appreciate the quality of the practical joke in general, all three of us had to have chocolate following this conversation!



 
View over Greenland, we did not see Iceland and the famous ash cloud.  We never expected to see this view today either.  Not only did we have the cancelled seats scare, minutes before boarding, it was announced the British Airways strike could go on, it had been challenged in the courts. 
 
However, we did board and things were different than normal, no duty free sales, no service apart from meals.  That was actually really good because we could just get up and help ourselves, like going into your own kitchen!
 
!We are not even going to wonder about how we get back, we are just going to focus on the present.