Anasazi State Park Museum

We planned to follow more trails deep into these parks but the weather changed our mind.  We had a bit of lightening and thunder, rain and wind and these pea-size hail stones as we drove along. 

The rain brought out even more color in the rocks.

Instead of driving muddy roads, we spent time at the Anasazi State Park Museum.  This small museum explains the creation myth of the Anasazi, a Navaho word for ancient enemy, now used as a collective name for the Native Americans who began living here about 1100 A.D.  Many of them believe that man came up from another world climbing a ladder through a hole called a Sipapu and migrated in the four directions living on and developing the land as they were instructed to do.

The University of Utah has excavated this are called the Coombs site and has some excellent artifacts on display in the museum.  This spear point is the oldest known artifact found in this area.

 This ancestral pueblo McElmo black-on-white mug dates back over 500 years.

After viewing a movie about the Hopi culture, we went to see the ruins.  The people who lived here were about 5"4", just like Anna Lee.  They had to duck down to enter the rooms. 

 The buildings represent sipapu with ladders through the roof reminding the people of their origins. 

 Both living quarters and store rooms make up the L-shaped buildings.

The walls were made in two types, Kayenta with slabs of shale and jacal with mud plastered onto pole frames.

While some buildings were erected above ground, there were others that were excavated so that the roof was at ground level.  These were easier to heat and cool therefore considered more comfortable to live in.

This hawk is now in residence at the museum and is being trained to hunt.

The rain continued to put on a spectacular show and continued into the evening.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

A big name for a huge (1.9 million acres) and gorgeous park accessible primarily by foot.  By driving paved and gravel roads we did find places we could enjoy and took wonderful photos.  Established by Presidential Proclamation by Pres. Clinton, this park is celebrating its 20th anniversary.  Some of the formations look like tall cakes topped with frosting just waiting for the party to begin (yes, it is easy to anthropomorphize these amazing formations.)

 We walked up to Mossy Cave following alongside Tropic Ditch.  The ditch was dug by hand by early Mormon settlers in 1892.  It follows the natural course of dry wash Water Canyon.

Mossy Cave Falls cascades behind us.  The cave was just a dark cave.

This striated rock cleaved cleanly in two.

Jerry has been wanting to photograph a slot canyon but usually the hikes are too arduous for either of us.  This one was nice and easy and the sun cooperated in glowing onto the steep rock sides.

Anna Lee made it over the rocks.

The road to this area had features that were hard to describe but beautiful to see.

 We bumped and bounced and avoided traffic obstacles

 

along the ten-mile road to find Grosvenor Arch.  It was well worth the shaking ride. 

 

Southern Utah

In this the century anniversary of the National Parks, we have enjoyed several during our travels.  In the East we went to Acadia and in the west, Crater Lake and Lassen.  We have also been to several national monuments, lakes, etc., all part of the National Park System.  We have returned to Southern Utah to visit two favorites of ours and find some new ones to see.

We are staying in Panguitch, a small town east of Bryce Canyon NP.  The parks here are so popular now that we could not get reservations to stay in any of them.  This private park is a good place from which to explore this area. 

On our way to Bryce Canyon NP, we were waylaid by the beautiful formations along the road.  We had never heard of Red Canyon but we found many stops from which to photograph these striking formations.  We had to see more, so we took two short trails through the park enjoying taking pictures from every angle.  All of this is a hint as to what we will be seeing over the next days.  Enjoy the view.

San Diego sans Bennett

Bennett and his dad flew home so one could go to school and the other work.  His mom went to the LA Zoo as part of her conference, so we “grands” were on our own.

We start this post with a flashback.  Decades ago when Jerry worked for Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, our family took a camping trip in our tent trailer through California ending in San Diego.  We arrived dusty and dirty from hiking in Yosemite, etc and camping without our own necessary facilities.  Jerry had made reservations at a hotel in San Diego.  What we didn’t know was what kind of hotel.  It was The Del, formally known as the Del Coronado on Coraoado Island, a VERY nice hotel.  He got a great rate because the Fund was affiliated with American Express, the agency he dealt with and he got an employee discount. 

The hotel was truly grand and, fortunately, we had the children practice their best restaurant and hotel manners before we left.  All was wonderful except for the evening, after a long day at the zoo, when we went to the Prince of Wales Grille.  The “e” matters, this was not a diner type restaurant but even grander than the chandeliered Crown Room from the night before.  The children’s manners were fine but they fell sound asleep on the bench seats without eating any dinner and had to be dragged out to our room. 

Our return to The Del was via an 11K volksmarch.  The start was in an old repurposed bank building, now a tourist information office. 

 We learned that there are three different kinds of residents on the island, the wealthy, the working people and the military.  The Naval Air Station is on the north end of the island.  Our walk took us through all of these areas and along the beaches. 

We enjoyed delicious tacos in a little sidewalk café. It was $2 taco Tuesday and we got more than our moneys worth.

We stopped along the way to look at some gorgeous homes with magnificent ocean and bay views. 

It wasn’t the multi-million dollar price tag that deterred us from offering a bid; it was the constant bombardment of military aircraft flying overhead.  Just too much noise for the dollar.

The next day we spent wandering with Cheryl through Liberty Public Market. 

It is the former Naval Training Center now nicely repurposed for commercial and artistic use.  After a delicious lunch topped off with ice cream and a cookie, we wandered some of the shops.  Artists share space with small museums and quality gift shops and contribute to the scene with decorated benches. 

We took time to see a documentary “Four Thousand Paperclips and One Skype Call” about Somali refugees who escaped to Israel and were then returned to Africa.  It was excellent.

We ended our day at Old Town San Diego, a mostly Mexican shopping area.  Then we all hugged good-bye to set off on our own adventures.

The San Diego Zoo

While Dave, Lauren and Howard went to a baseball game, we enjoyed the zoo with Bennett and Cheryl.  We all found the zoo a much more enjoyable experience than the Safari Park.   

The real koala’s hung out in the tree,

 and Bennett climbed with bronze koalas.

We wandered the trails finding

pandas

parrots

penguins

and a sleeping polar bear..

Bennett practiced his climbing skills

and rode a hippo with his mommy.

Honestly, the turtle was not going to buck him off.

He played hide and seek with the seal lions.

We ended the day with a ride on the tram, seeing animals we had missed on our walk.  This tour guide also talked about saving our environment and conservation but he made sure to stop so we could get close up views of the animals and he explained more about them.

We greatly enjoyed our day at the zoo (and the food was better too).