Almost Home!!

Well, we're almost at the end of our first big RV adventure. We're already planning our next trip and trying to figure out if we can and why we want to stay home for 1 1/2 months! In one place for a whole month!! We're in Bakersfield now for the night and will be back home tomorrow afternoon.

Our last night in Petaluma was spent with two overnight guests... yeah, Tess and Rennie. We went to Train Town and Fun-ky Monkey yesterday. It was a busy day! We're in our 60's and they are 4 and 6... but we all ended up the same... tired!! We met Kate and handed over the kids about 10am and hit the road home!! Some pictures of our last day in Petaluma.....

Opa didn't mind the carousel, but, oh, then we have the ferris wheel! John and I hate heights! I get out of these things by volunteering to be photographer. Hey, somebody has to do it!

And, the perfect end to a perfect day - fun rides and pizza!

It's been a great ride!

Long Holiday Weekend

This has been pretty much a kids' holiday. Thanksgiving Day, Opa stood watched while Tess and Rennie rode their bikes....Please note Tess' finery. She dresses herself. I love the pearls! Perfect for bike riding.

Friday we 4 went to a farm for pony rides. Well, Tess & Rennie rode. I was kinda jealous. I wanted to ride, too! They also got to meet and pet guinea pigs, bunnies, a rooster named Jack, goats and Pepper the donkey who loves to have the inside of his ears rubbed. A Noah's Ark farmland version!

Oh, and a cat named Garfield and he is absolutely the fattest cat you'll ever see! HUGE!!! Then we stopped and picked up some freshly caught, steamed crab for supper. Yum! And headed back home.

Visiting in Northern CA

After a beautiful trip over the Sierras from Nevada into California, we are spending this Thanksgiving week with John's son Chris and his family.

Today John went to school with grandson Rennie and we both went to "lunch" at Tess' pre-school. John told Rennie's class about being at his grandparents' in Texas and catching fireflies in a jar at night. Other grandparents told about their jobs, etc.

At Tess' pre-school we were treated to a songfest... "Itsy Bitsey Spider", etc. There are a lot of different ethnic backgrounds at the school which made for an interesting buffet.

In between our visits with Chris, Kate and the 2 grandkids, we've hit Safeway and Trader Joe's. Tomorrow we start cooking. We're going the ham and several side dishes here while Chris and Kate do the turkey and the main dishes. Of course, we will have too much food. But, that's the holiday!

HEADING OUT

We head out today for Santa Rosa, CA, on the last leg of our journey home. We had a wonderful day yesterday with Ned and Heather driving around Lake Tahoe - Incline Village, Emerald Bay, etc. We stopped in Incline for lunch and to look up a bakery that is run by a girl that Hans and Ned went to school with... her brothers, actually. Unfortunately it is not opened on weekends. Also, Ned & Heather were married at Lake Tahoe, Zephry Cove. When I was here for the wedding I didn't have time to see the lake. It is gorgeous!!

On our drive around the lake we found these crazy scuba divers! Can you imagine how cold that lake is!!!

We just so enjoyed our visit to Sparks and are looking forward to seeing Ned and Heather at Christmas. One of the best parts of being "retired" and "on the road" is getting to spend time with those we love - especially our kids. We've got to spend time with Philip and his family, Hans and Andrea, Ned and Heather. Now on to Petaluma, CA and spending time with Chris and his family. Some last views of beautiful Tahoe....

Sparks, NV

We're in Sparks visiting Ned and Heather. John has met their menagarie (Yeager the dog, Nefrititi the black cat and Tigger, the yellow cat aka Devil Cat). We all had dinner together last night and will meet Heather for lunch today. Indian! Yeah, haven't had that since we left CA. Since it is a very busy work period for both Ned and Heather, we'll just hang out daytimes and then join up with them in the evening. Saturday we plan to drive to Lake Tahoe.

I have grown increasingly frustrated with trying to do photos for this blog. It takes forever to get them where I want them only to publish and have them nowhere near where Preview says they'll be placed. So I will not be trying to be artistic anymore. Maybe I'll get caught up with the posts. Trying to touch up the photos, frame them and then post them is WORK! That's a 4-letter word we don't use anymore!

Fremont Indian Park, UT

Today was a beautiful day! Sunny! Clear blue, blue sky! Just gorgeous! The perfect day to enjoy one of Utah's many, many wonders!! We went to Fremont Indian Park to see the petroglyphs. It is a beautiful place and, like most of Utah, not crowded. We hiked (with the 3 fur balls) about 1.5 miles up the hill and back. The trip up the hill was somewhat difficult. We all had to scramble up the rocks. Thank heavens we were only about 6000+ feet above sea level. Ahh, smell the fresh air. Oops, is that cat we smell - like big cat? Tiger was the first to decide to get back down the hill and FAST!!

Sometimes the petroglyphs are hard to spot and some have been damaged. (Why would someone do that!! Like we care about "Mike"!)

Another place on our return visit list!!! The views and petroglyphs are truly amazing. Utah is amazing.

Bryce Canyon, UT

Today was spent at Bryce Canyon National Park. What's the saying, "Half the fun is getting there." Well, John takes that seriously and asked Google for the scenic route. We wound up on an ATV trail on a somewhat iffy "road". Gotta say that little Prius takes whatever it is handed to do and just goes. (This was not our 1st backroad adventure!) Since our intent was to take a horseback tour of the park and the horses were out to pasture for the season, I guess the jostling up and down on the "trail" in the Prius was a fitting replacement.

The is no way we can describe the beauty of Bryce Canyon. It is spectacular! It is huge! No camera can convey how vast the views or how large the formations are!! It is something you have to see yourself to truly appreciate. So now some pictures....just look!

And, if you want to visit, but want to fly, not drive, this is the Bryce Canyon Airport!












And, then on our way home, we stopped at Red Canyon!!

Hill AFB, Clearfield, UT

Today is 'Catch our breath, and run errands', but it is still a breathtakingly beautiful area. This is the view of the Rockies from our campsite. Last night, we could see the snow faintly reflecting the light from the full moon, but it wasn't enough to capture in a picture.

New Geography, Utah

John

Fossil Butte, WY

Wow! Hard to believe this was ever a tropical paradise! We're here on a cloudy, very cool day.

Actually we are about the only people around. The Park Ranger was surprised when we walked in. It is worth the trip! The photo shows what the place looked like millions of years ago and what it was today. We took a short hike up the hill after our "picnic" lunch in the car, but the "kids" weren't too thrilled with it all. Oh, did we mention the mountain lion tracks in the snow?

The fossil photo is the fossil of a crocodile that lived here millions of years ago. And, it's scary even if it is only bones! The visitors' center had a lot of really interesting fossil finds of turtles, fish, etc. But, only 2 snake fossils have been found. (I liked that. Hate snakes!!)

The selections for shopping at the visitors' center were very limited; so John and I headed into town (pop. 400+) and a local fossil shop. Met up with a nice, knowledgeable man (George) who loves what he does! We spent a looonnng time there and bought us our Christmas present. And promised each other we will be back next year to go fossil digging with George. It is so awesome!! As George says, you know when you find you are the first/only person to see it and that there is no duplicate anywhere. Each fossil is one of a kind!

See you next year, Wyoming!!! Onto Utah!!! And hopefully a lot less wind.... 50mph during the night!