Proud Grandpa and Siren

Got to have a picture of Grandpa and his new granddaughter, Siren.

Family dance

Guy and Joahnna had a fun dance with Luc and Siren. unfortunately my camera was not quite up to the task of capturing them in motion, but you can get the idea.

Playground fun

Luc and his Dad had a great time at the playground yesterday.

A 3 generation truck wash

Phil and Guy embarked on washing Guys truck, and again Luc was the helper. Initially a little overawed by the hose, Luc soon adapted and gave his best.

Juicing with a little helper

We are enjoying our stay in Santa Clara, especially catching up with the developmental skills of our two grandchildren. Luc had a great time helping his mom juice a bunch of fruits and vegetables, and enjoying the end results. This child eats and drinks EVERYTHING!

Charmed again in Naples

I've missed a few days of posting and now we are homeward bound, so time to catch up. We spent the middle days of last week in the community of Naples, tucked inside of Long Beach, visiting our friends Ken and Jean Frost. I always enjoy our time there because of the charming setting of houses alongside curved canals. Here is a picture of the canals and also of Ken and Jean.

In Maricopa with Ed and Helen Dolan

We enjoyed a lovely two days with Ed and Helen Dolan, who lived in an oasis in the desert, named Province, in the city of Maricopa. We had our own little "casita" to sleep in, a separate bedroom/bath unit not part of the house. The grounds were lovely to explore on my morning walks. I've included a picture of the man built lake by the clubhouse (they use reclaimed water to fill it), the casita, and Ed and Helen.

Maricopa, Phoenix and the Heard Museum

Sunday afternoon we arrived in Maricopa, AZ, a bit southwest of Phoenix, to visit with Ed and Helen Dolan. Ed was my boss at Bellevue community College for several years, and has remained a friend. He and Helen spend their winters in Arizona and return home for summers in their original home of Chicago, where we also have visited them. Today Phil and I spent a wonderful day at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, with its superb collection of southwest Indian arts. Phil said it was the first time he'd spent an entire day in a museum that didn't have any weapons. And he enjoyed it!

Picture include the courtyard of the original Heard Museum (now greatly expanded), an enchanting sculpture of a woman "floating" titled "Woman in Love" and a pair of sculptures from the museums current entry courtyard.

Bisbee--Canyon Mining Town

Way south, at the border between Mexico and Arizona, is the small town (population 6000) of Bisbee. A mining town, it now hosts a combination of artists, people still involved in mining, and tourists. It is a town of steep hills and LOTS of stairs. We stayed in a charming small hotel called the Bisbee Grand. Nice room, far enough back in the hotel that the band playing in the bar below did not keep us awake. We also did a tour of the underground Queen City mine that is no long in production. My stepbrother Gregg and his partner Laurie were there for a month, so we joined them for a couple days and had a great time. One visit is enough, however.

The pictures include me outfitted for the underground mining tour, Gregg, Laurie and Phil at breakfast on our parting day, and a shot of the open pit mine just outside of town.

Gila Cliff Dwellings

Today's interesting adventure was in New Mexico, north of Silver City, where we arrived after a four hour drive from Van Horn. After depositing our gear in our hotel, we negotiated our way up the narrow, twisting Highway 15, which is the road that leads to the Gila Cliff Dwelling monument. If you were behind anyone at all slow, it takes from 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get there. With our Ford
Focus rental car helping out by being good on corners, we managed to make it in a little over an hour. The foot path up to the caves takes about an hour--not long, and that includes time to stop and explore through the caves a bit. These cave dwelling were constructed around 1280, dated from some of the wood poles holding up roofs that have disappeared, but the poles managed to survive. A couple of the caves are very large, and probably held dwellings for several families. I have included three pictures that show the caves from outside with some of the exterior walls, some of the interior, and one of a ladder showing how the cave dwellers accessed their homes.
Fascinating, and well worth the twisty drive up.

Charming Oasis in West Texas--El Capitan Hotel

Tonight we have stopped at Van Horn Texas, a small town of 2000 which was established at the crossroads of serval highways leading to national parks, including the well known Carlsbad Caverns. it is about 120 east of El Paso and the Texas border. The primary reason for stopping is a charming, small hotel, the El Capitan, that a friend has recommended. Originally built in 1930, one of five beautifully designed hotels intended to attract people to the parks in this area, it fell into disrepair in the 1970's and was used for an auto parts store and a bank for several decades. In 2007 it was bought by a man who restored the hotel, and now provides a great way station in the midst of pretty barren offerings. The rooms are small, but nicely furnished, and the restaurant serves quite good food. We are glad that we stopped and can support this nice hotel.

My pictures below include the lobby with lovely Spanish tiles on the floor, the front with the fountain court, and our room with doors opening onto a small balcony above the courtyard.

Friends and Family

Our trip to Austin was really "made" by our meeting up with Koko Kishi and Paul Hsbib, friends of Phil's brother Howard. We have met them a couple times in Escalante while visiting Howard, but on their own turf they were able to steer us to (and join us at) a couple of excellent restaurants' as ll as give us tips on what to see in Austin. The four of us are pictured at the brew pub North by Northwest in Austin.

This evening we are in Euless TX, just east of Fort Worth, to see my brother Bob. We joined Bob's son Steve and his wife Tanya, and their four children, for a delicious dinner at an upscale Mexican restaurant with the peculiar name of "Mi Dia-From Scratch." My brother's hobby is collecting baseball and football cards (with a few basketball cards thrown in for good measure.) My pictures include one of Bob surrounded by boxes full of cards, and one of Steve, Tanya and their kids. Really nice family--we enjoyed getting to know them.

My valuable traveling assistant

My iPhone is proving to be one of the most significant helpers as We travel. I use the Maps function multiple times every day. I use it to double check the GPS, to get a broader picture or a more close up picture of where we are while we are driving, to figure distance from one place to the other, and often when walking around cities to help us navigate. I also use it to find specific sights or restaurants. I am still using the Google maps program because the new Apple maps program is still pretty inaccurate in figuring distances--over an hours difference on part of a route that I was looking at yesterday. I also don't trust it's accuracy for finding specific things.

The second most-used function? "Siri, where is the nearest Starbucks?" We use this to refresh ourselves with a latte, or on hot afternoons to cool down with a grande frappucino! Picture below shows Siri helping me find a Starbucks.

Austin

Yesterday afternoon and today were devoted to Austin, the Capitol city for Texas. Late yesterday afternoon I was able to slip into the Blanton Museum of Art on the University of Texas campus. I was able to view their contemporary collection plus an exhibit of works from the collections of UT alumni. A beautiful museum with some very interesting pieces.

Today Phil and I visited the LBJ presidential library, also on the UT campus and also an impressive building. It was an interesting tour back through the 50's and 60's. We were a little startled to be reminded of the amount of civil unrest we experienced in that decade of the 60's, with the assassination of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, along with the Watts riots, the shootings at Kent State and the marches against the Vietnam war. Johnson was an impressive man and consummate politician. Nice to remember a time when things could actually get done in Congress!

After we enjoyed some Texas BBQ ribs at Stubbs, then walked through the Capitol building. The best feature of our visit has been connecting with friends of Phil's brother, Howard--Koko Kishi and Paul Habib, who live here. They have guided us to great restaurants and sites.

Pictures include an interesting sculpture from the Blanton Museum, Phil being given the "Johnson treatment" as the Presients intimidating presence was called and the state Capitol.

San Antonio

Sunday morning was devoted to San Antonio. We got an early start, arriving downtown around 8am, to be greeted by temperatures in the 50's and an icy, 20 knot wind. Not an ideal day for walking around. We almost abandoned our plans, but then discovered that by using the beautiful river walk, which is below e grade of the streets, were able to get out of the wind somewhat. the River Walk was created after the city dammed the rice that flows through town to pent flooding. That seems to have left a bend in the river that might have become a dry ditch or been paved over, but some clever people decided to control it and run water through it, creating walks along the sides and having restaurants and shopping areas build adjacent to it. It looks like a shallow canal, with concrete sides, but is quite lovely to walk.

We also visited the Alamo, and relearned some early Texas history about the territory that originally Spanish, then Mexican, then an independent republic and finally a state in the U.S. Pictures show the river walk and the Alamo.

King Ranch--Texas Size BIG!

Last Saturday we visited the King Ranch, largest ranch in the U.S, located in southwest Texas in Kingsville, not far from Corpus Christi. We had an interesting two hour tour of the ranch where we learned how they manage the land to keep it producing for agriculture, cattle grazing and conservation, a real challenge in the dry southwest part of Texas. they farm without irrigation. the ranch has 825,000 acres. They grow cotton and sugar cane. They have oil wells. They raise cattle and quarter horses and have developed their own breeds of each, particularly well suited to surviving the hot, dry climate. In addition to their operations at the ranch, they are also the biggest citrus grower in Florida, and the largest pecan processor in the country. it's a privately owned corporation, with many generations of the founding King family still involved. Quite an operation, all started by an immigrant Irishman in the mid-1800's.

Pictures show their Santa Gertrudis breed of cattle, the "running W" brand, developed because it cannot be altered (should someone try to steal their cows), and finally a shot of the grounds around their main ranch house.

Disappointment at Houston Space Center

Our stop today at the Houston Space proved a disappointment, from approach to exit. Our GPS guided us faithfully there but with not a single sign indicating we were getting near the center, we didn't believe it. It was right, and the signing was terrible. Even when we reach the space center, we ended up going into the wrong entrance (not too many yards from the correct one) because there was no sign indicating we should proceed a little further to the visitors center.

The best part of the visit was that we were given half price tickets while waiting in the line to get in (at $21.95 regular price for seniors, that was significant). That was after paying $6 to park. Once in, even with the aid of a map, we found it difficult to find the displays we had some interest in. The primary thing I was looking to do, taking a tram tour of the facilities, turned out to be first come, first served, necessitating over an hours wait in line to take it. We scratched that idea. As a whole, the center seemed to be organized for children rather than for adults, and there were lots of them. We felt like we were in a kiddie park. After wandering around for about an hour, we left. Better to watch the movies on different discoveries some other way.

We scooted out of Houston to make our way southwest, heading towards Kings Ranch tomorrow.
We are bedded down in Victoria TX for the evening.

Longfellow-Evangeline State Park

One of the great things about travel is how it helps you refresh things you learned long ago and forgot. Yesterday's lesson was to renew and expand our knowledge of Longfellows poem Evangeline and its connection to the Acadian culture in Louisiana. Apparently Longfellow heard the possibly mythical story of a young woman displaced from Canada as part of the deportation of the Acadian settlers from Nova Scotia by the British government, which feared them as an unstable (Catholic and French speaking) influence as they took over Canada. Many of them ended up in this part of Louisiana, an area of bayous to the northwest of New Orleans. Though Longfellow was never here, the story caught on and there is now a state park named after him and his lead character, which features Acadian (often termed Cajun) history in the area. We saw a plantation house where the landowner lived (not huge, like the Nottoway), and smaller houses that the farmers lived in. The larger red house is the plantation house, the weathered wood house is the smaller one. In one picture you see Spanish moss hanging out to dry. It was an important commodity, pulled from the trees and processed to be used to stuff chairs, mattresses and even horse collars! Finally there is a large old oak tree that legend says is where Evangeline met her love.

On to The Johnson space center in Houston today.

Nottoway Plantation

We headed northwest from New Orleans to spend a couple hours at the Nottoway Plantation, one of what used to be many plantations along the Mississippi River. This was owned by John Randolph, built just before the Civil War, and was one of the largest, growing mostly sugar cane. Due to intercession by a Northern soldier who had visited the plantation, it was spared the destruction that happened to so many of them ( though not the usurping of all the food it produced). It now operates as a boutique hotel and is a favored spot for weddings, and is also available for tours, which is what we did. It's walls, columns and many of the interior arches of wood are all of cypress. There is also gorgeous plaster work in the interior. Mr Rnadolph hid and bought the best! Here is a photo of the exterior, and two of the interior room called the ballroom--all painted in white the better to show off the ladies dresses!