Happy Blogiversary to Me! :)

Sea Lions at San Simeon - California Coast

Well, today was my 2nd year blogiversary. . . . my how time flies!  (How many times have we heard/said that?)  But, dang, it is so true!  This is just a quick post to acknowledge the milestone (and get a quick birthday wish in here)!

Big Sur Coast - California

It sure doesn't seem like it has been that long!  And, I am still not posting very regularly, but I am ok with that!  There are far too many things to take care of to worry about that!  I very much appreciate all of you who have been following along!  Thank you!  And, welcome to my newest followers! ! !

Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, California

I am planning a few posts to chronicle the trip I took up the California, Oregon and Washington coasts right on up to Vancouver Island, Canada.  What a gorgeous drive!  I can HIGHLY recommend doing this if you ever get the chance and to do it right, try to take a minimum of 3 weeks (more if you can do it!).  It was a few years back, but I think you might enjoy the pics!  Stay tuned!  (These pics are a little teaser from that trip!)

Northern California Coastline

Also, it is that time of year to wish a happy birthday to D!  Another year older!  Happy Birthday! ! !   Stay outta the strip clubs and bars this time around!  ;)   . . . oh, and I suppose I should put in a little reminder to NOT go scuba diving again.  LOL!  :D

Oregon Coast Sand Dunes

I was hoping to get a peach pie all baked up tonight to celebrate and share with you here, but . . . things got away from me and as it turns out, this is about as much as I am going to get done tonight!  It's getting late and I'm tired!  I have the filling all mixed up and the pie dough resting in the fridge, but I don't have quite enough steam to roll it out and wait for it to bake tonight before I want to hit the sack . . . so-o-o-o-o-o-o, I have fresh peach pie to look forward to tomorrow!  I'll eat 2 pieces to make up for it!  OK?  ;)  One for my blogiversary and one in honor of D's birthday!  YUMMM!  I think I still have some vanilla ice cream to go with it!  Yay!  I can't wait!  Deb's recipe looks fantastic and I can't wait to try it!  NONE of her recipes that I have tried have failed to delight!  Look through her site for kitchen inspiration any time you need it!  I can't wait for her cookbook to come out!

Butchart Gardens - Vancouver Island, Canada

Ok, that's it from me for now!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, D! ! !  Grab a fork!  ;D

Capilano Suspension Bridge - Vancouver, Canada

Zion National Park

Well, finally . . . here is the second part of my December trip!  My little quick romp through Zion!  

I drove through on the highway through the park on my way to Bryce, but didn't stop except to snap some shots from the highway.  I didn't drive through the the park "proper" until on the way back.

On my way to Bryce, I first saw the frozen waterfall and screeched to a halt.  Grabbed my camera and jumped out of the car.

Then I saw the wall of icicles!  Some of these babies were about 2 feet long or longer.  Holy guacamole, batman!  I got as close as I dared. But, it was starting to warm up, and they were beginning to fall.  I had one fall right in front of me so I really had to keep an eye on where the pieces were heading to keep from getting a chuck flung into my shins! That would have hurt!  :)

Along the way you drive through arches . . .

and tunnels . . .

and are treated to some very scenic eye candy.

You turn a corner and come face to face with this . . .

or this . . .

When you see formations like this, you can't help but wonder at the forces, the time and types of changes that were required to create such beauty.  It was tilted this way and that like one of those sand paintings you tilt to one side and then the other to create layers of beauty. Except these took eons to create instead of a few seconds!

On the way home, I did drive through the part of the park that usually requires that you take a tram.  

Even though it was off season, there were still enough traffic that I was not able to stop at some of the spots because there just weren't any parking spots left. 

It made me appreciate that the trams are available during peak times, otherwise, you would never be able to stop and get out to enjoy and take pics.  I was grumbling about having to take a tram in October, but, this certainly cured me of that!

I really didn't spend a lot of time there, but I did do a quick drive through and did do the little hike back to the Temple of Sinawava.  But, one day, I am going to go prepared and actually hike further than the spot where the trail hits the river.  I really would like to see the narrows sometime!

Since there wasn't any snow to speak of, and I had just been there a couple of months ago, there wasn't really a lot more that I could add to those pics I had already taken in October.  Still enjoyed it.  It was still beautiful, but the pics would just have been pretty much duplicates of what I had already done.

And, since the time of day was approximately the same as well, I just felt like I was being repetitious.

But, still, just to be able to spend time in natural cathedrals such as these, is well worth the time and effort to do so!

So, I hope you enjoyed this little trip through Zion!  I am thinking one of these days I might share some of the photos I took on a trip up highway 1 to Victoria/Vancouver Canada that I took several years ago.  It is a beautiful drive!  I wish I could do it again, soon!

I'll leave you at this peaceful little spot on the Virgin river for now. Hope to see you back here again soon! ! !

Happy New Year and Bryce Canyon National Park

I hope everyone had a safe and happy start to the New Year!  I had a couple of weeks off for the holidays . . . Yayyy!

I got my living room painted and now need to go through and have a good clean out of everything to try to get more organized.  This could take a while!  ;)

I needed a little break after getting the painting done; both from the paint fumes and the mess.  I rewarded myself with a quick little trip to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.  I have been to both places a couple of times before (most recently just a couple of months ago - see previous post here); in the summer and in the fall.  I was anxious to see them in the winter with their pretty, dainty little lacy white shawls, looking more like they were dusted with confectioner's sugar than anything else.

I was so lucky to have such beautiful weather both days I was there.  It was relatively warm during the day, but got really chilly during the nights.  I mostly kept bundled up and tucked safely in my room at night!  Though now that I'm safely warm, I do regret not taking advantage of being in one of the few places in the US with so little ambient light at night that the skies are lit with millions of twinkly, sparkly little stars and getting in a little stargazing while I was there.

My friend Trang made some lovely crocheted fingerless gloves for me for Christmas.  (You might remember her from the guest post she did for me here.)  They sure came in handy (no pun intended) while I was there trying to keep my hands warm while still trying to take pictures.  They truly kept me quite cozy!  I really appreciated them even more on this trip for that reason!  I wanted to show them off for you.  You can see a little of them in the shot above!  Thank you, thank you,Trang!

I stayed at Ruby's Inn at the entrance to Bryce Canyon and really enjoyed it.  The room was large, clean and had a microwave, refrigerator, coffee maker, hair dryer and iron and ironing board.  It wasn't anything fancy-smancy, but it was very nice for a relatively small price.  

I can't say much for the motel restaurant, though, it was definitely geared towards meat eaters and offered almost no options for vegetarians; no pastas, a sad little salad bar (fresh ingredients, but not much more than iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes, carrots, broccoli and a few toppings, such as shredded cheese, croutons, chopped eggs, sunflower seeds and a few dressing choices).  There was one lone offering of roasted veggies on the menu, but they were a little overdone and barely enticing.  **sigh**  

The couple in the next booth were also a bit puzzled by the menu as well!  Fellow vegetarians!  They asked the waitress twice, as if they couldn't quite believe there weren't any pasta options on the menu.  The second night I didn't even bother . . . but, I had hoped to at least find a cheese pizza in the little store they had there.  No luck on the cheese pizza - every one of them had meat on it, but I did finally find a frozen bean and cheese burrito that turned out to actually be better than the food in the restaurant!  Again, I'm sure if I could have eaten the other things on the menu, my review would be much different!  :)  But, it's something for me to keep in mind for future visits . . . bring food!  I would have starved if I stayed there much longer!

But, the food wasn't the main reason for the visit . . . it was the scenery.  The colors were gorgeous!  Deep blue skies, red and golden rock accented with little caps of snow and the green of the trees.  It is always just so amazing to see all the variations in the rock formations and the layers upon layers of color.  It is just mesmerizing watching how the changing light and shadows transform the view. 

If you haven't been there, you need to put these places on your list of places you must visit at some point in your life!  Push come to shove, if you had to pick between the two, I would go with Bryce Canyon over Zion.  But, they are close enough together that if you get to one, you may as well try to do both!

I hope to be back soon with some pictures from Zion National Park.  I took so many of both places and the space in between, it is hard to sort through them all and try to select just a few to share and then get them ready to publish!  So, I decided to try to put them in a slideshow to share with you.  This pics and videos in this post one are from Bryce.  I hope you enjoy them!

That's it for now!  I hope to see you again soon!  Happy New Year, my friends!  :)

Beautiful Places Part 6

I ended up needing to extend my vacation by a day.  I spent a little too much time at Arches and although I had already planned that I would get back very late, with the extra time there, miles and miles of unexpected road work narrowing down the interstate to just one lane, the rain, etc, it was all adding up to making for a very, very late (or a very, very early the next morning) arrival home.

As I was getting tired, I decided I'd better get a room for the night instead of trying to push through.  So, I stopped for the night before I left Utah.  It was raining when I stopped.

The next morning I looked out the window to see what the weather was like to help me decide what to wear and was delighted to see it was snowing!  Big, fat fluffy flakes drifting silently down.  The ground was covered in about an inch or so of snow!  I was so excited!  I'm not sure I'm ready to move back to somewhere that gets snow.  I'm so used to being able to just visit it now and then if I need a snow fix, but I do miss being in the snow while it is snowing.  It is so beautiful and quiet when it snows.  It is such a treat now as it is a bit difficult to time visits to coincide with a good snowfall.  :)

But, by the time I got around and got out there, it had almost stopped.  This was my car with it's new white sweater!  It didn't last long and I drove out of it pretty quickly, but before I did, there was a brief time when it was starting to come down again and I was able to get a little video of it.  (Sorry about the noise from the interstate!)

Beautiful Places Part 5

Moving on from the highway following the Colorado River, here are a few shots from Arches National Park.  I didn't get to spend much time there, pretty much just a quick drive through and grabbing shots of things close to the road.  Still not much sun, but it was still gorgeous!  

It seems a lot of the formations were in groups of threes.  I think this one looks like a group of bystanders, huddled together waiting for the parade to begin, with the lizard king there on the right keeping watch for the first entry in the procession.  :)

I would love to go back when the sun is shining and take a few of the short hikes back to some of the other arches you can't see from your car.

There is still a lot you can see even on a rushed tour through like I did.

I think this looks like an elephant!  :)

This reminds me of the Three Wise Men, except these three look like they would be more at home in Chalmun's Cantina on Tatooine (from Star Wars fame).   And, instead of frankincense and myrrh,  the one on the left is bringing a stuffed elephant.  And, instead of lambs and cows milling about around the manger there's a lion sleeping on a stack of pancakes.  (See his cute little tail hanging down the side?)  Hmmmm . . hope there aren't any psychoanalysts reading this post . . .  ;)

This is their "signature" arch, the one they use on all their promotional materials.

And, through the miracle of Photoshop, a bit more of a close up of said arch!

I did have to hike a teeny way to get this one!  You have to shimmy through a narrow passageway through the rocks, and then trek a little way through dunes of really fine red sand.  I finally ended up taking my shoes off to walk through it and it felt simply delightful!  Cool, silky sand between the toes . .  oh, boy!  (But, I did find quite a pile of it in my shoes when I got home!  I didn't mean to steal anything from the park, but . . . I was glad to find it!  I was wishing I had taken some, it was so pretty!  I think I may have to start a little collection of sand from places I visit!  I'll have to stay on the lookout for some pretty way to display it!)

There is a campground allllll the way at the end of the park.  I think it would be absolutely fantastic to be able to stay there sometime and explore more of the park at a more leisurely pace.  It is within walking distance of several of the arches, some I didn't have time to hike back to!  Maybe one of these days!

Next up . . . will be just a quick post . . . I sure hope you'll stop back by to check it out!  More of the trip!  And after that, the final installation of this series will be of the critters I ran into along the way!