Photo Album 2 - Vacations

VACATION PICS

Updated 10/6/12

2012 (In no particular order)

We spent two weeks at my son's house in Missouri. Charlie, my hubby, was helping put in the new front doors. Termite damage and dry rot created a much bigger project.	It took most of those two weeks to get the front of the house put back together and the front doors installed. I varnished the doors. I was in a sealed room to keep the dust out. It was HOT HOT HOT in there.


We visited with my brother, his wife, and my two great-nephews.	Some old bricks are stamped with the place they were made.


We went to Fort Supply Military Park in Oklahoma. We found some tiny red fruit. We weren't sure what they were, but they were a bit tart.	Here's a cicada that just climbed out of his old skin.


Clayton Lake State Park in New Mexico has the best-preserved dinosaur footprints in the world.	Of course we had to go see our grandson! Here's Grumpa, Evan, and Mimi.


I got to meet my second cousin. We found each other on ancestry.com.	My nephew and my husband comparing the fish they caught in Mississippi. The joke is that my nephew competes in fishing tournaments and is very good at it but my husband caught a bigger bass.


This was at Pea Ridge National Military Park in Arkansas.	This was at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Missouri.


I'm in the bedroom of Jim Thorpe's home in Stillwater, Oklahoma.	I'm in a cliff dwelling at Tonto National Monument in Arizona.


The town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, was not on our sightseeing list, but we stopped anyway. It is a very cool looking town with interesting buildings. Many of the houses are built on tiny lots that butt up to the main road going through town.	Guess which one is me and which one is a cactus!


We took a trolley tour of the town of Fort Scott, Kansas. This house has the most beautiful and interesting architecture.	My nephew's son doing a back flip while his other son and wife watch.


My niece and I rode her horses. I love horses. I think they are the most beautiful animals in the world.	We went to a restaurant that had an appetizer I had to try just to say I did. It was called the Nut Trio. It was fried buffalo, bull, and turkey man-parts. LOL! How does one word it delicately? Were they edible? Yes. Will I do it again? No.


Oregon had a great Oregon Trail museum. We ended up following along the path of the Oregon trail for a lot of our trip. Very interesting!	In San Francisco we met up with my long-lost cousin. We hadn't seen each other for 42 years!


We went through the Giant Redwoods. They were awesome! I wanted to hug them all!	When we were visiting my husband's aunt we saw a giant sea lion hop up on a neighbor's dock to sun himself. I walked out as close as I could to get a picture. When he turned and growled at me I went back.

2011
(In no particular order)

This is an osprey taking off with the fish he just caught at Ashurst Lake in Arizona. Unfortunately, none of the people were catching anything while we were there.

Did you know that bees recycle? This bee was all over the honey bottle. Maybe he was going to take it back to the hive and make more.

Here's Charlie and me at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona have some gorgeous formations in beautiful colors.

Here's our camper and tow vehicle at Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. We unhitched the smaller truck to tour the park.

El Morro National Monument in New Mexico. They have inscriptions from Puebloan Indians, Spanish travelers, and people moving out west.

At the top of El Morro is an old Pueblo village. It was quite a hike to the top. We had to laugh. A man younger than us turned around to take the easy road down.

We traveled a long dirt road to get to Castle Gardens State Park in Wyoming. There they had what are supposed to be the finest "shield" type petroglyphs anywhere.

Petroglyph National Park in New Mexico has a bunch of petroglyphs. It was hot, though, and a very long walk to see them all.

Independence Rock in Wyoming was a stopping place for people on the Oregon Trail. They tried to time their trip to be there on the Fourth of July, hence the name "Independence Rock." Many people inscribed their names there.

Firehole Canyon State Park Campground at Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in Wyoming. We tried to camp at as many state and national parks as we could. They are usually worth it.

The prison at Ft. Laramie in Wyoming. Following the Oregon Trail, we got a great history lesson. The forts were there to protect the people that were traveling.

We went on a jeep tour at Ft. Robinson, Nebraska. It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot from our tour guide. They look like they are playing "statues", don't they?

I'm standing in Oregon Trail Ruts at Rock Creek Station State Park in Nebraska. They had a trading post there and it had the hardest river crossing of them all due to the steep banks. Some guy ended up building a bridge and charging everyone to cross it.

Charlie (on the right) is golfing at Trail Ruts Golf Course in Guerney, Wyoming. The golf course has Oregon Trail wagon ruts running through it. I'm taking the picture from just outside our camper at a campground right next to the golf course. About 25 feet behind me was the Platte River. We had other plans or we would have spent a couple of days there so Charlie could golf and fish, fish and golf.

This was the view from a campground in Hatch, Utah. The campground also had the only golf course for miles around. I happened across their web site. I'm glad we went there. The people are very nice, the campground is quiet, and the view is nice.

Here's another view of the campground in Hatch showing a double rainbow in the distance.. Charlie and I had been sitting outside talking when we noticed the rainbows. The name of the campground is Cherokee Springs RV and Golf.

I put Charlie in jail in Dodge City, Kansas.

I guess I enjoy putting him in jail. Here he is at High Plains Homestead in Nebraska. That place is privately owned. A man had antiques, old buildings, and more that he wanted to display. So, he bought land north of Ft. Robinson and lets people visit. They have a restaurant and gift shop. Other than that, it's free.

Pathfinder Reservoir in Wyoming. We were camped right next to the water. Very cool.

Pomona State Park in Kansas. Again, we weren't far from the water. That was a nice place to be. The people were friendly and it was very pretty.

Here's Charlie and me at Homolovi Ruins State Park in Arizona. You can see broken pottery and dwellings left behind by Pueblo Indians.

Here's a kiva at Homolovi. One thing we noticed while looking at petroglyphs and ruins was that many people have no respect for historical things. Some people scratch their names over ancient petroglyphs. The Homolovi Ruins site was vandalized before it became a state park by people wanting to find things they could sell. Shame shame shame!

Pony Express station in Hollenberg, Kansas. It was repaired, but basically is the way it was back then.

Only original Pony Express station in Marysville, Kansas. This is one of the horse stalls. Did you know the Pony Express only lasted for 18 months? Once the cross-country telegraph was completed they became an over-priced unneeded commodity.

This was a very cool state park in Wyoming, Sinks Canyon. The Popo Agie River (pronounced po-po-shuh) River takes a detour into the mountain through a cave.

It comes back out a quarter mile downstream bubbling out under another part of the mountain. It's amazing.

What do you see? I see four donkeys. Oh, wait, one of those donkeys is my husband. (Santa Fe, New Mexico)

We went on top of Sandia Mountain in Albuquerque, New Mexico via the longest tram ride in the world. Here we are at the top looking at the tram coming up.

This is Hell's Half Acre in Wyoming. I had to take the photo through a chain link fence. The terrain there is crazy!

A view of Devil's Gate, Wyoming, from a distance. That was one of the markers for the Oregon Trail, not very far from Independence Rock. They didn't go through that gap in the mountain because it is very narrow at the bottom and a river runs through it.

Here I am. I'm standing on a corner. It's a special corner. I could sing about it.....

"Well, I'm a standing on a corner
in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see...."

My husband thought I was crazy.

Here are pictures of critters I took at my son's house in Missouri.

Cicada	Grasshopper	Mystery amphibians or reptiles doing synchronized swimming	Dragonfly
Bullfrog	Crawdads	We thought it was a beaver but it is a muskrat.	Snapping Turtle