Monday, June 29, 2009

Thank you Paul and Charlie

Photo by Lewis Pond.

Casa del Toro has been a delightful place to decompress, clean up and organize and enjoy some great times on the front porch with new friends drinking wine, telling stories, playing the guitar and singing James Taylor songs. Paul, the proprietor and Charlie the handyman were gracious and genuine. Mike and Carolyn from Irvine CA, Greg from Texas and Trish from Long Beach added to the fun. Good people. Thanks friends!

What a fabulous wedding!

Lauren and David were married on Saturday at the Lorretto Chappel in Santa Fe, a beautiful couple. The reception was held in an historic resort hotel named La Fonda on the rooftop La Terrazza.

It was a fabulous event. The location was fabulous. The people were fabulous. Wayne and Holly were FABULOUS!! Here are some pictures...

Saint Francis of Assisi
Loretto Chappel.



The happy Dad...A reflection of the ceiling stained glass at La Terrazza in a very nice glass of red wine...

The fathers...
Santa Fe sunsets are spectacular...

Wendy and Peter.

Gail and Roland.

The Road Warriors... The Mainers represented well.

Connie gets on a plane today for some Katie, Ryan and Tina time and I strike out for Maine with Sampson and Delilah. This has been a wonderful, happy capstone occasion for this leg of the journey.

Life is the journey, not the destination.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

40 days tenting in the desert


We haven't slept in a bed for 40 days so when we found a sweet little bed and breakfast near the Square in Santa Fe we got excited. Indoor plumbing and everything! Good cell phone connection, great internet access sitting out back under a tree. Time to wind down.

Gail, Pete, Gail and Roland are a 5 minute walk away. Getting ready for the wedding on Saturday. Enjoying some laughs and a dinner at Wayne and Holly's last night.

Paul is the proprietor and has been so kind. He gave us a half price fare and showed us the sweet little accomodations in an adobe casetta. Beautiful paintings, tile floors, bunches of red chili peppers hung outside our door.We walked in his office and there was a copy of Broken Open on the desk. Serendipity? Me thinks not...


We went out to dinner with Gail, Wendy, Pete and Roland tonight and left the dogs in the room after telling Paul to call us if they got noisy. When we got home there was a note on the door... "The puppies are with me in the office". Guess Lulu did her whinny thing and woke up the neighbors. She is a lulu all right. Casa del Torro is the most pet friendly place on the planet!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Canyon de Chelly


Navajo country... so different. Lots to see... ruins, cliff dwellers, redrock spires, flowers, packs of wild dogs howling in the middle of the night, 10s of thousands of bats at dusk.... hand made Navajo silver and turquoise jewelry (Connie's birthday is coming up and the girl deserves whatever she wants!).

So many stories of people; Jack, the 78 year old widdowed campgroup volunteer. Ted, the Navajo jeweler (the picture in the Ansel Adams book "Navajo Woman and Child" is his mother and brother). Clarence the alcoholic old man at the grocery store. Roger, the Indian stone carver... So much poverty, so much pride in their heritage. They remember the "Trail of Tears" like it was yesterday.


Look closely below, at the photo of his mother, Rose, who passed away recently at the age of 103.


Camping here, 3rd night. Working our way to Santa Fe. Can't wait to see the family.

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Burr Trail


Incredible drive from Escalante through Long Canyon into Capitol Reef... through the back door. 75 miles, half of it dirt... we met 2 cars... and one was a couple wide eyed Germans who were lost. Driving through the canyon was surreal... as was driving down a 1500 ft switchback cliff face.


The sunset over Capitol Reef was spectacular and we continued the road until we ran into yet another National Park... Glen Canyon (how appropriate for father's day) for a couple days of camping on Lake Powell. Swimming in the desert...

Beauty surrounds us.

All for now... we are camping in the Navajo Nation, Canyon de Chelly. Can't seem to get enough of it...

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Calf Creek






6 mile hike along the canyon floor... desert; beavertail cactus in full loom, whiptail lizards, snakes, sand. Navajo Sandstone rock formations, sheer cliffs, red rock and white, petroglyphs and ancient ruins. And at the end of the trail a 126 foot high waterfall. Green moss, columbine growing along the walls. The colors are so vivid.

Magical. Massive. It's impossible to convey the majesty and scale of this nature. Pictures don't do it. Words don't come close.

Utah




We've been camping in Utah for the past few weeks. Incredible country. Hiked Angels Landing (top pic ). Pa-Rus, Watchman, Bryce Navaho Trail, Queen's Garden, Wall Trail, Cape Royal... awesome.

Zion, North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Escalantes... on to Arches and Canyonlands. Then into AZ for a couple spots recommended by Leslie and Jerry. Santa Fe for Wayne and Holly's wedding of their daughter Lauren next weekend in the Loretto Chapel and some time with Gail, Roland, Wendy and Pete.

We are presently camped out at Calf Creek off Rte 12. Hiked 6 miles to an unbelievable waterfall way back in the canyons. Absolutely unbelievable. Will post pictures later.

Zion was wonderful. Connie was the surrogate grandmother for all the campground kids. It was a blast meeting people from everywhere. Young people. older folks, foreigners, newly weds, kids...



Internet and phone access is spotty right now. We are sitting in a gas station in Boulder Utah watching the thunder storm rip across the expanse. Later kids...

Thursday, June 4, 2009

A walk in the redwoods with Leslie & Jerry

We drove along the coast to get to a beautiful redwood grove way up in the hills beyong Occidental. Almost the entire California coast is open and public. So unlike Maine where only the money people "own" the coast and the rest of us are herded into small enclaves. California did this right. We in Maine might know better next time... Naw, what was I thinking.

The 1965 Volvo struggled up the hills, but what we lost in speed, we made up in STYLE. Sweet!




Everything seemed giant; the trees, the ferns ...the clover?

Beauty abounds. The sun through the trees was beautiful.