The sun shone for the glorious 4th celebrations.

For those who have never experienced the 4th of July celebrations here in the US, there is always a town parade. Literally anyone from the town can take part from the youngest to the oldest and they are always very colourful and very noisy.

The Bar Harbour parade was no exception. It went right past our B&B (Stone Throw Cottage, Bar Harbor) so together with our fellow guests, all Americans, we had a superb view from our seats at the edge of the drive. As the floats pass by the people throw sweets (candy) into the watching crowd. By the time the floats reached us some had already given their supplies away but we still managed to grab a few. For one of our group, Mary, sweet collecting is one of the highlights of her day, she was quite successful.

Taking part in the parade

The Parade

In the parade

We’ve made some wonderful new friends at the B&B, they are all lovely people, very friendly (even on July 4th!) and together, the eight of us have put the world to rights. Here we all are enjoying the parade.

The Gang watching the parade

From the left we have, Mike, wife Cathy, me! Mary, husband Wayne, Chris and wife Kathy. Mike and Chris are brothers who just happened to both marry gals with the same name! Good job they are spelt differently or there could be some confusion.

After the parade we decided a hike was in order and went off in search of beavers at Witch Hole Pond on Mount Desert Island. It was a three mile hike and although the beavers were sleeping and didn’t appear we did see a turtle, lots of people on bicycles and people running (mad fools, it was rather hot).

Selfie at Witch Hole Pond!

We took our first ‘selfie’ today, shame we didn’t have a ‘selfie’ stick, this photo is full of our faces!

Turtle in Witch Hole Pond

Acadia River

Sand at Witch Hole Pond

Being a Saturday and a holiday, you can imagine what the crowds were like in town and trying to get something to eat was more difficult than usual. We had wanted to go back to ‘Fathom’ but when we tried to book an early table we had been beaten to it by all the locals. The hostess said she would call the B&B if there was a cancellation. Anyway, we didn’t hear anything so decided to make our way into town to try there.

What we didn’t know until later was that five minutes after we left the B&B, Fathom called and said they had a cancellation. Our dear host, Jerry, jumped on his daughter’s bike after realising he couldn’t use the car and his own bike had a flat tyre and chased us into town to give us the good news but alas, he couldn’t find us. Jerry deserves a medal, Bless him!

We ended up in a restaurant called Blaze. I was very impressed because the first thing I noticed after sitting down was the Plymouth Gin. Well, those who know me well know that Plymouth is my ‘tipple’ but alas, not very common in US hostelries, so this one already had a five star rating as far as I was concerned. Secondly, I noticed Frangelica sitting on another shelf! Well, this place should now be rated as 10 stars. Si, get on to Trip Adviser immediately! I love Frangelica with my coffee. The food was good too!!

People who have followed our blog since 2013 will know that invariably we need to purchase an extra suitcase to take home all the goodies we’ve bought. This time I was determined that would not be the case and made sure that the three suitcases we did bring, had plenty of room for ‘purchases’ on the way home. Alas, I’m now starting to worry a little as the ‘purchases’ are mounting up, especially after a walk along Bar Harbour shops. I dread to think what Si will say if I tell him we need to invest in a fourth suitcase!! Watch this space ………………

It was our intention to go and watch the firework display but after our shopping trip we settled in on the B&B’s porch with a couple or three, bottles of wine and stayed there for the rest of the evening with some of ‘the gang’ putting the world to rights instead. It was a real hoot, just ‘lovely’, we laughed and laughed with our new buddies.

We thought, ‘hey we’ve seen Disney’s 4th’s fireworks’ can Bar Harbour’s be any better? We were assured later that they were magnificent so that’s a lesson learned. The next time we visit on the 4th we’ll make sure to go and watch the display.

Stone Throw Cottage

Our blog for today, 4th of July will be 24 hours late! We’ve been enjoying the company of our fellow residents here at the B&B and consequently, it’s too late to write anything!

I’ll catch up tomorrow!

Hope all our American friends have had a lovely day today!

Before I write about today’s adventures, I must congratulate our resident photographer on his latest achievement …………… he has won the Caxton FX June Photographic Competition and will receive the grand prize of £100 for his photograph of Sunrise at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park in Utah. For those who have not seen the photo before, here it is:

Mesa Arch with the reflection of the rising sun

After I did the blog yesterday we decided to stroll into the village to get a ‘little something’ and ended up back at McKays. I certainly had a ‘little something’ a crab cake ……….. Si’s ‘little something’ turned out to be fish and chips!!

On the way back to the B&B we discovered that the Bar Harbour Band were playing in the park so we stopped to listen and enjoyed them playing “When the Saints go marching in” which is very apt for us as we are Southampton F.C. supporters!

The Bar Harbour Band

Si at McKays with his fish and chips!

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours this morning having breakfast and chatting with some of the other guests here at the B&B. It’s amazing what we all find to talk about!

Our first port of call today was a visit to The Wild Gardens of Acadia at the Sieur de Monts Spring in Acadia National Park together with the Abbe Museum. The Wild Gardens reflect the typical habitats as found on Mount Desert Island. More than 300 native species are labeled to make identification easy in nine separate display areas.

A butterfly at the Wild Gardens

Bugs at the Wild Gardens!

Symbolically speaking, Sieur de Monts Spring is perhaps the most significant and meaningful place on Mount Desert Island. It is ground that honors the vision, passion, and dedication of a private citizen who devoted his adult life to the fulfillment of the dream that became known as Acadia National Park. George B. Dorr (1855 – 1944), even though from a life of privilege himself, worked incessantly to preserve and protect the land and waters of Acadia for all future generations to enjoy.

Sieur de Monts Spring (an official photo)

The Abbe Museum has a wonderful collection of early Native American artefacts. The collections now represent 10,000 years of Native American culture and history in Maine.

We then travelled on to see the Bass Harbour Head lighthouse (apparently, it’s well know to photographers) and taking a photo required a fair amount of agility! The best way to get a good shot is out to sea in a boat) but as we didn’t have a boat with us this morning it meant climbing over rocks, along with many others, all trying to get the best shot possible.

Bass Harbour Head Lighthouse

Si at Bass Harbour Head Lighthouse

Sand at Bass Harbour Head Lighthouse

After the lighthouse it was time for lunch so we headed for Thurstons Lobster Pound, it’s a well known eatery for the locals and was recommended to us by our host, Jerry, here at the B&B. Well, the intention was to eat lobster but sadly, when we walked in and saw the poor live lobsters being weighed before cooking. we just could not condemn those poor creatures so instead we had lobster and cheese toasted sandwiches!! At least we didn’t have to see the poor thing staring at us before eating!

Sand and Pineapple Gimlet at Thurstons Lobster Pound

Maine Floats

Talking of food, which I always seem to be, dinner tonight was at a restaurant called Fathoms. Si thought he’d died and gone to Heaven when the waitress said one of their specials of the day was pork belly! Well, you know how he feels about that, said it was delicious and followed it with scallops. One of these days he will turn into pork belly and scallops!!

Si at Fathoms

So, tomorrow is the 4th of July! There will be big celebrations all around. Si and I will probably be hiding somewhere inside the B&B ………….. just in case the natives don’t take too kindly to us Brits being present at their celebrations!!!!!

We watched the England Ladies football last night, how disappointing for all concerned. Still, today is another day and I’m pleased to report that the sun came out …… hooray! It’s been very hot.

After a lovely breakfast of fruit, eggs benedict and a nice chat with some new guests here at the B&B we set out for our second day of adventure in Acadia National Park.

Stone Throw Cottage Garden

It was our intention today to visit the Parkman Mountain waterfall and this we did. We started out sure of foot but suddenly realised we were heading in the wrong direction! The map was very poorly printed! Turned around and went back and in the opposite direction only to find we were wrong again. Eventually we saw a trail and took that, it got us to where we wanted to go but alas, it was a very steep climb. The waterfall was lovely and well worth the walk.

No, it’s this way!!!!

Parkman Mountain Waterfall

Parkman Mountain Waterfall

Us at the waterfall

We were told about a rather lovely garden nearby that was worth a visit so we did that next.

The Asticou Azalea Garden was created by lifelong resident of the village, Charles K. Savage, in 1956, with the financial assistance of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. It features a selection of rhododendrons and azaleas, including the Rhododendron Canadense, Maine’s native azalea. Styled after a Japanese stroll garden, the fine-gravel paths are raked regularly in a manner that suggests flowing water. There is also a sand garden, where this effect is repeated but with the addition of stones, which are meant to represent islands.

Sadly, the rhododendrons and azaleas had all finished flowering but the garden was still a magnificent sight to see.

Asticou Gardens

Savage was also the owner of the nearby Asticou Inn, so after visiting his gardens it seemed only polite to visit his Inn for some hard-earned lunch!

As you can imagine, lobster is one of the main foods in this part of the world so today we partook of lobster quiche with garden salad …………….. absolutely delicious, especially when accompanied by a glass of vino! Dessert also seemed the order of the day so Si decided to try the popovers!! He described it as a rather large profiterole and I agreed, the popover itself was rich tasting. I indulged in flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce.

Si’s Popover!

Needless to say, after that lot we were ready for a nap!

Sand’s Pud!

However, before we did that, we stopped off on the way back to take another look at Cadillac Mountain to see how it looked in the sunshine after yesterday’s disappointment when it clouded over and rained. Today the sea was bluer and the islands greener.

Cadillac Mountain in the sunshine!

We also called in at Seal Beach on the way back to the B&B to see if we would be lucky and see some but sadly it wasn’t to be.

I’m now being told we need to go for a walk after our lunchtime indulgence so I’d better hop to it ……………… catch you all tomorrow!

So, after a lovely breakfast of fresh fruit, blueberry pancakes and bacon we set off for day one of our adventures in Acadia National Park. Our B&B is literally on the edge of the Park so not too far for us to travel.

The day started cloudy but not too bad but thunderstorms were forecast for later. Not quite as nice as the weather you are all having back home!! Luckily, we are carrying most of our home in the back of our vehicle so we are prepared for all weathers!!

Now for a little history …………….

Acadia National Park was originally created as Lafayette National Park in 1919 but was renamed in 1929.  It is the oldest National Park east of the Mississippi River.

The area was originally inhabited by the Wabanaki people. While he was sailing down the coast of what is now Maine in the fall of 1604, that well know chap, Samuel de Champlain observed a large inshore island. He wrote:

“That same day we also passed near an island about four or five leagues [19 to 24 km] in length, off which we were almost lost on a little rock, level with the surface of the water, which made a hole in our pinnace close to the keel. The distance from this island to the mainland on the north is not a hundred paces. It is very high and cleft in places, giving it the appearance from the sea of seven or eight mountains one alongside the other. The tops of them are bare of trees, because there is nothing there but rocks. The woods consist only of pines, firs, and birches.” He named it Mount Desert island.

Over four centuries later, the area remains essentially the same.

Looking back at Sand Beach

Unlike Yellowstone, Yosemite etc we are told there are no ‘wild’ beasts to be found here ……… however we have been told that we may be able to see some beaver …………. so watch this space! Today we visited Otter Cove but alas didn’t see any. There is a place called Seal Harbour so perhaps we will have some luck there later in the week. Even though there’s a lack of creature sightings the Park does not disappoint and is very beautiful, very green with some dramatic coastline.

Acadia Sea Shore

Otter Cove

We drove up to the top of Cadillac Mountain and passed many cyclists breathlessly making their way to the top, it’s 1530 feet (466 metres) above sea level. When we reached the top it was blowing a hooley and was very cold. I expect some of you are asking why Si didn’t hire a bike and cycle to the top just like those other brave souls …. I did ask that question myself but sadly am unable to print his reply!!!!!

Us two on top of Cadillac Mountain

This afternoon it did start to rain but no thunderstorm yet but it should clear by late afternoon. Lucky for us we were ensconced in a restaurant having lunch when the bad weather hit.

Sand at Acadia Sea Shore

Si at Acadia Sea Shore

Jerry our host here at the B&B was telling us this morning about Popovers! Well, we thought they sound familiar and guess what, they turn out to be basically our Yorkshire Puds but butter is added to the mixture. They bake them in either muffin tins or tins that make them stand up straight then eat them for afternoon tea with butter and jam!! Okay, eating cold Yorkshire Puds, may be not quite our cup of tea. They even add cheese to the mixture. However, at the restaurant this lunchtime there were loads of people doing just that. This is the description of a Popover:

‘A popover is a light, hollow roll made from an egg batter similar to that of Yorkshire pudding, typically baked in muffin tins or dedicated popover pans, which have straight-walled sides rather than angled.’

Perhaps I’m missing something here but I’ve never considered eating a Yorkshire Pud with jam ………….. have any of you?  I think I need to test this out on some of my friends ………. anyone free for afternoon tea?

Today was a driving day as we were moving from Concord in Massachusetts to Bar Harbour, Maine. It’s been a sunny, warm day and the drive took us about 4.5 hours.

There were a lot of places along the way that were familiar to us, namely:

Chelmsford, Tewksbury, Andover, Haverhill, Portsmouth, Middleton!, Bradford, Salisbury, Amesbury, Kingston, Durham, Dover, Scarborough, Portland, Falmouth, Bath, Plymouth and Newport to name but a few! It made us feel as though we were back in the U.K.

My brother, Tony, will be interested to see a photo of Portland as he’s due to dock there on his forthcoming cruise to the U.S. and Canada. Bro, We didn’t see a lot of Portland but what we did see looks lovely.

Portland

Roundabouts are not a common site in the U.S., but where they do have them, they are mostly called ‘circles’ but this was a new one, ‘rotary’.

Rotary or Roundabout

We were warned to keep a look out for Moose in the road but sadly we didn’t see any.

Beware the Moose

I have to say that the historic B&B we are staying at is a gem, it’s right in the middle of Bar Harbour and is true to its name, the Stone Throw Cottage B&B. It literally is a stones throw from everything!  It was built in the 1860s and while the exterior is original the interior has been beautifully restored. Our room is the right hand corner one.

Stone Throw Cottage

Our bedroom

Our bathroom with whirlpool tub and shower

We ate at McKays tonight, it was recommended by Jerry, the owner of Stone Throw Cottage and the meal was fantastic. For all of you who take an interest in what we consume on our holidays, and I know some of you do, Si had the grill which consisted of ribs, pork belly, sausage and something akin to corn bread! I had the Bistro Steak (no fillet tonight) with mash and beans. We had an interesting desert of whisky ice cream with candied bacon!! The candied bacon is not recommended but the ice cream was delicious!!

Si at McKays

Sand at McKays

Sand’s Steak at McKays

While we ate we were entertained by a local guy called Bob Bowman

Bob Bowman

who played lovely tunes on his electric guitar. All in all a very lovely evening!!

Tomorrow we explore Acadia National Park!

We had an exciting start to the day! We were just getting dressed when the fire alarm here in the hotel went off. What do we do on these occasions? Well, like most people we stand and wait to see if it will stop and then question if there really is a fire and should we leave the building! Well, as it continued and no one told us otherwise, we collected up what we considered to be the important things, bag with money, cards, passports, air tickets etc, my phone and of course my Apple Watch! There was no way I was going to leave that behind!

Sand saving the Apple Watch!!

Fire Engine!

The fire brigade turned up en-masse but it seemed to be a false alarm, we were only outside for about 10 minutes and then they let us back in and we headed for breakfast.

Here begins today’s history lesson!! I do love a little bit of history!

So, after all the excitement we headed to Lexington. Lexington is a town located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Settled in 1641, this town is prominent for being the site of the first shot of the American Revolutionary War, in the Battle of Lexington and Concord at dawn on 19th April 1775, colloquially known as the “Shot heard around the world” when news spread about the revolution.

Having received word that the regular army (the British troops) had left Boston in force to seize and destroy military supplies in Concord, several dozen militiamen gathered on the town common, and then eventually went to Buckman Tavern to await the arrival of the troops. Definite word reached them just before sunrise, and Captain Parker’s company of militia left the tavern to assemble in two ranks on the common. Following the arrival of the army, a single shot was fired, by whom, is still not known. With this shot, the American Revolutionary War began.

Buckman Tavern

Sand at the Minuteman memorial at Battle Green

The Hancock-Clarke House played a prominent role in the Battle of Lexington and Concord as both Hancock and Samuel Adams, leaders of the colonials, were staying in the house before the battle.

It was to this house that Paul Revere, an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist and a patriot in the American Revolution rode from Boston to alert the Colonial militia to the approach of British forces before the battle began.

Hancock-Clarke House

Then it was on to Concord. After the battle at Lexington the British troops marched on to Concord to confront five companies of Minutemen and five of non-Minuteman militia who occupied a hill near North Bridge, they totalled about 400 against the British light infantry companies from the 4th, 10th, and 43rd Regiments of Foot under Captain Walter Laurie, a force totaling about 90-95 men. The British retreated across the river and the two sides faced each other across the North Bridge.

North Bridge

A brief exchange of fire ensued which saw the first instance of Americans firing to deadly effect on British regulars, after which the British retreated. Ralph Waldo Emerson, positing that world history pivoted at that moment (an assertion that is disputed, as earlier events at Lexington Battle Green could be termed the true opening of the battle), called the first shot of this skirmish the “shot heard around the world” in his 1837 poem “Concord Hymn”.

And so it was that things would never be the same again. The American Revolutionary War or American War of Independence was fought in the United States between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen of its former North American colonies, which had declared themselves the independent United States of American. Although the war lasted from 1775 until 1783, independence was formally declared in July 1776.

Here ends today’s lesson!

I thought I’d post some photos that missed yesterday’s post.

Last night we went to The Colonial Inn for dinner. We last went there 23 years ago! It was just the same. The food was lovely and my mimosa was just heavenly! The film ‘House Sitter’ with Steve Martin and Goldie Horn was filmed in and around Concord and one scene was actually filmed at the Inn. Most of you won’t have heard of the film, it was filmed in 1992!! We actually arrived in Concord back in 1992 the day after they had filmed at the Inn. What a shame, if we had arrived a day earlier we may have been famous!!

Sand at The Colonial Inn

Si with his lobster at The Colonial Inn

Tomorrow we move on to Bar Harbour, Maine and Arcadia National Park. We will be staying at a lovely historic B&B. The breakfasts look divine!!

What a dreadful night we had in Hyannis last night! It poured with rain all night and the wind was blowing a hooley!

We thought this morning what a good job it was supposed to be a driving day today because the inclement weather wasn’t going to let us do much outdoors. However, I’m pleased to say that by the time we reached Plimouth (it is spelt like that because in the 17th Century they spelt everything phonetically) Plantation the rain had stopped and the weather improved a little and we were able to walk around without getting wet.

We last visited the Plantation about 20 years ago!! Where does the time go? In the meantime they’ve built a lovely visitor’s centre and museum. The actual plantation is just as we remembered it.

Plimoth Plantation with Cape Cod in the distance

The Pilgrims’ (the name given to those who had travelled on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England to a new life in America) landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and the Plantation depicts how the colony may have looked and the people who actually lived there during 1627.

Plimoth Rock 1620

Once you enter the actual plantation all the ‘inhabitants’ remain in character and will only converse as if it’s still the 17th Century when they arrived. It makes for very interesting conversation and I have to say they are so believable that it feels as though you are actually talking to people who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 and settled in Plimouth.

An inhabitant of Plimouth Plantation in the year 1627

An inhabitant of Plimouth Plantation in the year 1627

Before entering the Plantation there is the Wampanoag Homesite to visit. This is a recreation of the homesite of Hobbamock – a Pokonoket man who lived in Patuxet/Plimoth  Colony in the 1620s. Hobbamock and his extended family lived across the brook on the south side of the Pilgrims’ fortified town.

Summer home of the Wampanoag

A Native American of the Wampanoag Nation

Sand learning about the Wampanoag way of life in the 17th Century

A Native American of the Wampanoag Nation

We have now arrived in Concord (home of the first shot of the American Revolution and Louisa M. Alcott, author of the novel Little Women). Fingers crossed that the weather is kind to us tomorrow!

The day started cloudy and cool, turned sunny and hot and now it’s cloudy and cool again!! Very strange!! Good job we threw those jeans in the cases at the last moment!

We drove to Provincetown (P-town) this morning, it’s a small coastal resort town located right on the tip of Cape Cod. It’s a quaint little town with narrow streets and is known for its beaches, harbour, artists and tourist industry. It has loads of tourist shops and restaurants, has a huge Portuguese population and is known as a vacation destination for the LGBT community.

The year-round population is just under 3,000 with a summer population of as high as 60,000! Being a weekend it was packed, lucky we arrived early to secure a parking spot.

A gentleman called Bartholomew Gosnold  named Cape Cod in Provincetown Harbor in 1602. In 1620, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact when they arrived at the harbor. They agreed to settle and build a self-governing community, and came ashore in the West End.

Though the Pilgrims chose to settle across the bay in Plymouth, the outermost portion of Cape Cod enjoyed an early reputation for its valuable fishing grounds. The harbor was considered the best along the coast.  In 1654, the Governor of the Plymouth colony purchased this land from the Chief of the Nausets, for a selling price of two brass kettles, six coats, 12 hoes, 12 axes, 12 knives and a box!! If only land was as cheap to buy today!!

Provincetown House with both U.S. and Portuguese flags

Provincetown House

This guy’s a little cheeky!

Scavanger!!

Provincetown Beach

Provincetown Kayaks

Seamans Bank!

Seamans Bank!! There’s not a lot to be said about this bank!! We decided not to stop to make a deposit or a withdrawal!!!!!

Sand in Provincetown Harbour

How does the song go? …………… “What a difference a day makes?” That is so true! We went to breakfast this morning in shorts and tops and then came back from breakfast and changed into jeans and wet coats!! Yesterday was a fabulous hot, sunny day ………. today it’s cloudy, raining, windy and cold!!

But being British, did we let that ruin our day? Of course we didn’t, we drove to Chatham, the US one not the English one and had a lovely time looking around the town with its very quaint houses and wonderful shops. We must thank our gym buddy, Janet, for this recommendation and also for the loan of her book all about New England!

Chatham House and matching Playhouse

Chatham house

Sand Structures in Chatham

We managed to find a few lovely things to buy. We visited one shop that was called Pentimento for the ‘discerning lady shopper’ …….. that’s me apparently, for I purchased the most fabulous dark navy top imaginable. I must surely now book a trip to Las Vegas for a very fine dining experience because that’s the kind of place it would be appreciated. The clothes were just fabulous and the dresses for weddings, well, they made me want to get married all over again!

After the shopping was done we made a trip to the ‘grist mill’, that’s a windmill to you and me! The windmill was the Col. Benjamin Godfrey Windmill built in 1797. It operated continuously for 100 years. It’s had many owners during its long life. It stands 30 feet tall, has an octagonal diameter and three floors. It was fully restored in 2010-2012 and now grinds grain in just the same way it did two centuries ago.

Si at Grist Mill

Whilst we were there we discovered the Chatham Labyrinth. This was constructed in 2012 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the town of Chatham and was a gift for the people of and visitors to Chatham from the clergy of seven churches in Chatham and is often considered to be a symbol of our human journey.

Sand at the Chatham labyrinth

We also visited the site of the Chatham lighthouse (I think you can expect to see a few more lighthouses before our trip is over!!).

Chatham Lighthouse

It was along the shoreline of the lighthouse that the ‘Mayflower’ sailed. On the 6th September, 1620 the Mayflower left Plymouth, England to sail to America with 120 passengers. After 66 days on the 9th November, they sighted the coast of Cape Cod, turned south and sailed past in an attempt to reach their original destination of the Hudson River. However, the shoals of Pollock Rip forced them to turn back and head north passing the same spot again. The ship continued north in search of a safe harbour and on the 11th November came around the tip of Cape Cod and anchored in now what is known as Provincetown Harbour. In December 1620, after staying in Provincetown for five weeks the Pilgrims sailed across Cape Cod and made a permanent settlement in Plymouth.

If the Pilgrims had managed to continue their original journey to the Hudson River area there would be no Cape Cod, Plymouth or New England story today.

After visiting the lighthouse and although the weather was rather inclement, we decided to make a visit to the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Its goal is to provide habitat for migratory birds. The size of the refuge is 7,604 acres (31 km²) with varied habitats of oceans, salt and freshwater marshes, dunes and freshwater ponds. It was a lovely walk along the sands, the tide was out so we were able to walk quite a distance and I took the opportunity to collect some more sea shells. We don’t mind that our trainers are now full of sand and so is the car!!

Monomoy Refuge

As we drove back from Monomoy we discovered this birds’ nest sat atop the electrical wires!! Still, it must be warm and cosy up there!

Birds’ Nest

Speaking of the ‘car’, it occurs to me that we haven’t published a photo of the current ‘beast’ so here it is.

The ‘Beast’ 2015

On our way to Chatham this morning I was rather overcome with delight when, as we sped along the highway, I suddenly spied one of my old favourite shopping haunts, Talbots!! They used to have outlets in England but due to the economic turndown of some years ago they suddenly and without notice, closed all the UK stores! I was totally overcome with grief as they were the one outlet where there ‘petite’ range always brought me great pleasure. Needless to say, on the way back from Chatham we stopped off and took a look at the store and I managed to find something very pleasing to the eye and commiserated with the sales lady about happy days gone by.

We’ve finished our day of site seeing with a wonderful meal at a restaurant here in Hyannis called Schooners. Wonderful food and wine. It was my intention to take a photo of Si enjoying his coconut shrimp but by the time they arrived I’d had a glass or two of the vino and completely forgot! Hey ho, there’s always tomorrow ………………. see you then!!

I mentioned yesterday that we would be visiting Nantucket today and that’s just what we did, by way of Hy-Line’s Fast Ferry, the ‘Lady Grey’ (Nantucket’s nickname is, “The Little Grey Lady of the Sea”, which refers to the island as it appears from the ocean when it is fog-bound.) I’m pleased to report that I wore Carol’s bracelet and was not troubled at all by the dreaded travel sickness so I think it’s safe to say that it’s a winner!!

The ‘Lady Grey”

Sadly, just as we were about to board the ferry a poor young lady in front of us fainted!! Just like that, she went down just like a sack of spuds, smashed her face and knee on the concrete and she was out cold.  Luckily there was a doctor and a paramedic waiting in the crowd to board the ferry too so they took care of her until an ambulance arrived, which I have to say was very quickly. It was rather a shocking start to the day and sadly for the poor young lady, she was taken off to the hospital and so didn’t make it to Nantucket today after all.

On a lighter note, I’m sure her Mum will be pleased that she took her advice and was wearing nice underwear!! Oh my!!

Nantucket is an island 30 miles (50 km) south of Cape Cod, in the state of Massachusetts. According to the 2010 census, the population at that time was 10,172. It is a tourist destination and summer colony and during the summer months, the population of the island increases to about 50,000, due to tourists and seasonal residents!!

Nantucket Brick House

The houses on the island are wonderful and in 2008, Forbes magazine cited Nantucket as having home values among the highest in the US. Looking at some of the houses today you can understand why! The National Park Service cites Nantucket, designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1966, as being the “finest surviving architectural and environmental example of a late 18th- and early 19th-century New England seaport town”. All the houses on the island have to be built from either brick or wooden shingles. Wooden shingles is definitely the favourite but the shingles usually have to be replaced about every 10 years.

There are loads of little shops full of the kind of things that you ‘have to buy’ because you can’t possibly live without them!! We managed to find a few of those things today!

Nantucket’s cobbled Main Street

The boats are magnificent too! Just wait until we win the £120 million on the Euro Lottery …………… chandlery here we come!!!

Nantucket is full of beautiful houses from the 18th and 19th Centuries but the oldest one on the island was built in 1686 and is the Jethro Coffin House. The house still stands today on the original foundations with the four fireplaces just as they were when it was built. There were various items that the lady of the house used for cooking and one we saw was a metal waffle press that had to be imported from Holland!! A waffle press from the 17th Century, I think we’ve seen it all now!! I didn’t know they were even making waffles back then.

It’s still the case today as it was back in the 17th Century that because Nantucket is an island and is mainly a tourist area, that everything has to be brought over from the mainland.

Nantucket’s Oldest House

Brant Point Lighthouse

Brant Point

It was very hot today but that didn’t deter us from walking to Brant Point to see the lighthouse. I took the opportunity to have a paddle in the sea, the water was lovely but the photo of me doing it, not so!

Sand at Brant Point

Here are some pics that we took last night on our way to Baxter’s for dinner.

The lighthouse at Hyannis

Hyannis Harbour

The Sea Coast Inn (our ‘home’ for our stay in Cape Cod)

We will be exploring more of Cape Cod tomorrow, fingers crossed the weather plays its part!!

Today’s really been a driving day getting us to our first site seeing destination, Cape Cod. The day started nicely enough, lovely breakfast at the Marriott, then we went to collect the hire car from Hertz! We were upgraded to a Prestige car, an Infinity, (I shall post a photo tomorrow) it takes seven people, so plenty of room for two plus luggage, even the Barrett’s luggage!!

Then, we discovered that Margaret (sat nav) was living in this car too!! I’m sure you remember her from our previous trips. She sent us round Newark Airport twice including the ‘u’ turns, before we managed to find our way out and on to the Interstate and heading towards Cape Cod. The drive down was very stressful, the traffic was horrendous but we arrived in one piece.

We forgot to get the camera out before we started our trip this morning so I must apologise for the lack of good photos. This should be remedied tomorrow when we start our site-seeing properly with a ferry trip to Nantucket (some of you know that I suffer from travel sickness quite badly, so I must remember to take my travel pills before we set out). Although, I have to say that my dear friend and neighbour, Carol, has been very kind and given me her special bracelet that seems to cure such awful things as travel sickness and apparently, falling over too!  I shall report back after our trip to Nantucket!!

This is one photo I managed to snap on my phone during the trip ……………. you sure do see some strange things on the sides of bridges ……..

Is that Tin Tin?

I have to say that Cape Cod is very prettyl. We’ve just enjoyed a wonderful meal at Baxter’s Fish and Chip restaurant. Si, as usual, had his scallops, at least 12 and I had fish bites.  Needless to say I couldn’t finish them all even though they were supposed to be an appetiser!!

Si and his scallops!

Sand with her fish bites and wine!

We were served by the lovely Kate, aka Princess. She’s studied in London, South Kensington no less and loves it so much that she intends to return very soon with her family. This is Kate with Si.

Si with his coffee

Sand with her Cafe Baxter’s …. rum, Baileys, Frangelico and coffee …. boy was it strong!

It’s a miracle that I can actually type this blog whilst under the influence of the Cafe Baxter’s!!  Kate tells us that Baxter’s are famous for their strong drinks!! I can certainly agree with that statement!!

On our drive today from Newark to Cape Cod, it was obvious that the earliest settlers in this part of the U.S. came from England because many of the places were very familiar to us  …………… Swansea, Taunton, Somerset, London, Tiverton, Newport, Warwick, Coventry and Bedford to name but a few!

Tomorrow morning we catch the fast ferry to Nantucket for the first serious site seeing of our trip. So catch up with us later tomorrow, Thursday, when hopefully, Si will have ‘done the business’ got his camera out and taken some decent photographs!!

Well, here I am at 4.30 in the morning (it’s now Wednesday 24th here), wide awake, writing this blog! Of course my poor old bones thinks it’s 9.30 and I should be at the gym working out and waiting for Bex’s spin class to start at 10.00!! Sue, Nicky or John, I trust you will be taking care of my bike while I’m away!!

We started our holiday at Heathrow with lunch and cocktails then on to Duty Free (well, it would be rude not too) and then proceeded to while away the time waiting for our flight to leave by taking ourselves off to one the airport lounges. I had forgotten that when I booked the lounge they said we would get a free bottle of Prosecco. Well, you can imagine, what with the cocktails and the free Prosecco we felt quite happy flying ‘across the pond.’

Si with the Prosecco!

Sand with her Prosecco too!

We flew over on one of Virgin’s new Dreamliner planes. It still had that ‘new’ smell to it. It was very comfortable. They ‘made’ us eat lots of food and drink alcohol too!! For all the techies out there, here’s a video of the first Dreamliner being built.

It has electronically lit windows which means the old window blinds have gone and instead you press a button until the window starts to darken but you can still see out and it has more oxygen and moisture in the air so you feel fresher when you arrive at your destination. It’s all about comfort and health monitoring. It even had wifi!  ‘Boring’ I can hear some of you saying but I find all this ‘stuff’ interesting.

The only downside to our trip was on the approach to Newark Airport when we came across some very black clouds and a little lightening too!!! But it all worked out okay.

Well, I guess I’d better see if I can get some more sleep before breakfast or it’s going to be a very long day.

Our first port of call on this trip is Cape Cod so we’ll ‘catch you there’ later on today.

As we were at the airport and then sat on a plane for nearly ten hours I was unable to complete the blog yesterday.

We finished our holiday in the casino of course and once again, left on a high note. If ever you’re there make sure to check out the Monopoly machines. Besides us, we saw lots of people having lots of luck on those machine, they are fun to play.

We are now back in Blighty, reminiscing about our great vacation. We saw so many wonderful things, met so many wonderful people and learnt lots of things along the way and the weather was a mixture of snow, sun and heat.

Our flight was uneventful and we were very glad to see the car waiting to bring us home. The flight was full, 475 people! I didn’t know a ‘jumbo’ held that many. When we checked in we were told the flight was full and overweight! That was a little disturbing.

As you can imagine, a flight leaving Vegas on a Sunday was full of the young, beautiful and single making their way home after a rather lively stay!! Most of them were not interested in having an alcoholic drink, they’d had enough during their stay.

All I have to do now is unpack the cases! We had two bags overweight but the kind lady at check-in just charged us for one bag so $60. Unfortunately for us, our three cases were chosen to be opened and searched by security. I always pack them the way Homeland Security tell us too but still they pick on us. I think they must think we are a couple of scoundrels or some such!!

We were just working out how long we’ve actually been awake and it’s 31 hours! Mind you I did sleep for a couple of hours on the plane, Si never sleeps, and we’ve had a little nod or two this afternoon but all in all we don’t feel too bad.

I think the World Cup has kept Si going and I’ve been catching up with my soaps plus we’ve watched the season finale of Game of Thrones!! Roll on next year and Season 5.

For me, I think the one thing I will never, ever forget is driving up the 14,000 mountain, Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs. It was more hairy than driving the Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Si’s favourite place was the Grand Tetons. In particular, seeing the Moulton Barn and of course the great privilege of having five photos featured on Flickr’s Explore.

Alas, it saddens me to have to say, once again, ‘farewell’ to all our loyal followers. To thank you for your interest and for the comments you posted. It’s nice to know we are not just ‘talking’ to ourselves.

So, until we all meet again, we would just like to say ………………..

(I do not own the video or its content)

arrivederci, adeus, hejdå, 再见, zoi geen, zai jian, tot ziens, au revoir, tschüss, shalom, ciao, じゃね, anyeonghi gasyeo, poka/Пока, adios, hejdå, tạm biệt, vΘleft, farvel, ya sas, tókša akhé,

Well, the ‘wind down’ is almost complete!

We’ve said ‘farewell’ to the pool. It was very windy this morning and only 84ºF but the wind ceased and it warmed up somewhat.

England’s playing Italy on the television so that’s keeping Si occupied and I’ve been re-packing the bags. Fingers crossed, we should only have to pay excess baggage on one. The lady at check-in may be kind to us, they don’t always worry so much about baggage weight on the way back!

Oh dear, England lost, not good. Let’s hope they can make amends when they play Uruguay next Thursday!

Goodness, good job we are ‘suited and booted’ as they say, ready for dinner, as the lights in the bathroom have just fused ……………… the maintenance brigade are on their way!!

Some time later:

We’ve been to our ‘farewell Vegas’ dinner. We went to Sensi again here at the Bellagio as we love it there. We had a superb meal. I had just about the best filet mignon I’ve ever tasted, it just melted in my mouth and the mash potato made with wasabi and cream was out of this world. Si had his favourite (no, not ribs) but crispy shrimp and then diver scallops. We both shared the chocolate soufflé for dessert. We won’t need to eat for a week!!

Sand outside Sensi

Flowers outside Sensi

Our Chocolate soufflé

Si at Sensi!!!!!! Not the best photo in the world!

Sand inside Sensi!

The evening finished on a high note gambling-wise, so no complaints there!

Tomorrow afternoon we fly home and land on Monday morning so our final post will be from good ol’ Blighty!!

See you ‘across the pond.’

It’s busier here today, the ‘weekenders’ have arrived ………. the young, beautiful and unattached!!!!

It’s a cooler day, only in the 90’s, there’s a breeze but it’s not until you come indoors you realise just how hot the sun still is. Shade and lots of suncream still required! We don’t want to come home looking like a couple of leather chamois!!

After time round the pool and food, we went back to the Aria Cafe again,

Si at the Aria Cafe

we went to see Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil. They describe the show as a spirited voyage through an abandoned theater where an extraordinary circus comes back to life. Populated by a motley collection of off-the-wall characters and incomparable acrobats, Zarkana is a visual vortex set in a twisted acrobatic fantasy universe where, little by little, chaos and craziness give way to a true celebration. Zarkana™ is a quintessential Cirque du Soleil spectacular featuring an international cast of 70 world class acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, high wire and trapeze artists.

Sand at Zarkana

One of the Zarkana performers

One of the Zarkana performers

It was great and probably the best Cirque du Soleil show we’ve seen. We had fantastic seats and were very close to the stage. There were times when our hearts were in our mouths. One trapeze artist missed his partner’s hands and fell but luckily they had a safety net!!

Tomorrow is our last full day so I will need to start sorting out the suitcases. We are overweight (the cases that is, not us!!) so excess baggage will probably have to be paid!!

I’ve been meaning to say that although it’s very hot here in Vegas, even from early in the morning, it’s surprising how chilly/cold the water is in the Bellagio Pool!!!

Anyway, as usual, we started the day around the pool. True to human form, we are sitting in the same place around the pool each day. Si goes down about 9 a.m. to get us a shady spot, that way we can stay out longer. It’s brave souls who can lie out in that hot sun for any length of time!

We’ve had some lovely photographs taken by a professional photographer. We were having dinner at Sensi the other evening and she came round and asked if we wanted our photographs taken. As it’s always difficult to get any decent photos of the two of us when we are on holiday we decided it would be a good idea.

One other piece of news! You remember I said that we had progressed up the reward card ladder after just a couple of days? Well, we have progressed again, we are now at Gold level. One of the perks is that we can go straight to the head of any queue for food!! Hooray! We also get 20% off purchases ……….. what a shame the suitcases are already full up!!

We had lunch at a new venue today, the Aria Cafe at the Aria Hotel. As usual, here’s a photo of Si enjoying his eats.

Aria Cafe

Si enjoying lunch at the Aria Cafe

We have decided which show to go and see. There’s a new Cirque du Soleil in town, Zarkana, so we will be going to see that tomorrow evening.

Here are some more photos of the Bellagio Reception and Atrium and an interesting sight on the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas showgirls.

Bellagio Reception

Bellagio Atrium

Las Vegas showgirls

Well, thank  goodness normal service has been resumed! I don’t know what the problem was last night with the wifi.

Yesterday’s question of should I be drinking alcohol in the morning has been answered! We both had the cucumber French 75 just after midday, they were delicious.

French 75 is a cocktail made from gin, Champagne, lemon juice, and sugar. The drink was created in 1915 at the New York Bar in Paris—later Harry’s New York Bar—by barman Harry MacElhone. The combination was said to have such a kick that it felt like being shelled with the powerful French 75mm field gun, also called a “75 Cocktail”, or “Soixante Quinze” in French. The French 75 was popularised in America at the Stork club in New York.

The drink’s recipe was first recorded in The Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930. The recipe in the Savoy Cocktail Book uses gin. A later cocktail book, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, by David Embury, claims that the French 75 is a Cognac-based drink but being a gin drinker myself, I’ll go with the gin. All the French 75’s I had have called for Plymouth gin to be used and that, as some of you know, is my most favourite gin of all time!

Whenever we stay at the Bellagio there’s one thing we just have to do and that is to go to the Petrossian Bar for their nibbles, cheese plate and cocktails. The cheese plate is the Chef’s selection of seven cheeses, several of which we haven’t even heard of, together with two types of apple, fig, apricots, raisins, two types of bread and a delicious type of crisp bread.

The Petrossian Bar at the Bellagio

Si at the Petrossian Bar

Sand enjoying her French 75 at the Petrossian Bar

Marta playing at the Petrossian Bar

Petrossian has been named one of America’s best hotel bars by the hospitality industry’s Santé Magazine. These mixologists are the most seasoned professionals in their field. It is open 24 hours a day and has live music in the form of a pianist, today a lady called Marta was playing the Steinway grand piano.

I think the cocktails must have had an good effect on our gambling as we’ve had another very successful day, again with Mr Monopoly at the Aria hotel being very kind to us!!

Sand’s a winner (I think she’s had one too many French 75’s!)

Some of our winnings – not bad for a $20 stake!

We’ve taken a few photos of the Bellagio Atrium. The Atrium is a big draw for tourists. Every season is recreated with exceptionally gorgeous plants, flowers and trees thoughtfully arranged to inspire full splendor. Specially designed lighting spotlights every flower to accentuate its best features. To ensure the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens maintains magnificence 365 days a year, 140 expert horticulturists theatrically arrange gazebos, bridges, ponds, and water features uniquely for the Holidays, Chinese New Year, spring, summer, and fall!

The Bellagio Atrium

Snail flowers in the Bellagio Atrium

Frog flowers at the Bellagio Antrium

Flower art in the Bellagio Atrium

Hi everyone, I’m having trouble with the laptop at the moment so can’t log on to the Blog. Everything I typed yesterday has disappeared so I’ll have to start again later. I’m typing this on the iPad but the photos are not on here of course!!

Hope to get back to normal later!!

Hooray, normal service has been resumed!!

All this ‘winding down’ is very tiring! We are up and at the pool by about 9 a.m., have some breakfast, spend about three hours there, in and out of the pool and then it’s off gambling, shopping and dining. When is a person supposed to rest!!??

Bellagio Pool Area

Bellagio Pool Area

As you would expect, it was very hot again this morning.  It’s 8.00 p.m. now and it’s still 100ºF.

Bellagio Pool Area

Bellagio Pool Area

Just like yesterday we were up and round the pool bright and early and had granola parfaits for breakfast. There is a pool service so we don’t even have to move off our beds, we just order what we want from the ‘pool waitress.’ I’ve discovered today that they serve a cucumber French 75!! Would it be wrong to be drinking alcohol before midday? Decisions, decisions!

Bellagio Pool Waitress

It was time to return ‘the beast’ and Margaret to the rental company today. So we took them back before heading off for dining, gambling and shopping. This year in three weeks we travelled 3,712 miles.

Even though Margaret had her ‘moments’ it was still sad to say goodbye. When we had dropped the car off we went round to the rental office to speak to Fred. You will remember he was so helpful when we collected the car three weeks ago and heard of the trouble we had last year.

Well, he was serving someone but as soon as he saw us he rushed over and shook hands and wanted to know how our holiday had been and if the car had been okay. We thanked him and said everything had been wonderful. He was so pleased that we had taken the time to speak to him.

We were supposed to have gone to see Mac King, the magician, this afternoon but the show was cancelled due to unexpected circumstances which was a shame. We had VIP seating and Si was terrified that he would be asked to go on the stage so I think he was secretly pleased it was cancelled.

So, as our afternoon was ‘free’ after all, we went to have lunch and check out the shops at The Venetian and Palazzo hotels. We ate at another one of our favourite Wolfgang Puck restaurants, Postrio in  St. Mark’s Square of The Venetian. As usual, the food was delicious. When a restaurant serves Plymouth gin you know it’s something special and Postrio serves Plymouth, enough said!

Postrio restaurant

Si enjoying his lunch at Postrio

Well, at the shops in the Palazzo Hotel they have a Jimmy Choo shoe shop and JC had started their season sale today! How can anyone who knows me well expect me to walk past a JC shop with a sale on! Well, of course I couldn’t, I just had to go in and take a look. It wasn’t my intention to buy shoes on this trip but when a girl is confronted with a 50% shoe sale what is she expected to do? Well, buy, buy, buy of course!! Due to a shortage of suitcase space I only bought one pair of summer shoes.

Sand’s new choo’s!

You can also take a gondola ride at The Venetian. We’ve done that previously, it’s very pleasant as the Gondolier sings as he rows!

Gondola at The Venetian Hotel

We had great gambling success at the hotels, we tripled our money! Let’s hope it continues.

We got a cab back to Bellagio as it was rather too hot and too far to walk and when we told the cab driver where we were going he said “oh, going home then.” That’s just how we feel about the Bellagio. We’ve been coming here a long time and every time we walk into the lobby we feel as though we’ve come home. Everything’s so comfortable here, it’s like putting on a pair of old slippers!

Well, now we are in Las Vegas I’m afraid the photos will not be as spectacular as they have been but we will try and take some interesting ones for you and fill you in on what we are up to.

The temperature today started at 95ºF and rose to 105ºF so it’s been a tad hot!! We started the day by spending time at one of the pools here at the Bellagio. The pool area is beautiful and tomorrow we will take my small camera down with us to take some better photos for you to enjoy. In the meantime, here are two I took on my phone today. The sparrow came to enjoy breakfast with us!

One of the Bellagio Pools

Sparrow comes for breakfast at the pool!

The MGM Group, of which Bellagio is part, runs a reward scheme called MLife. You get rewarded for hotel stays, dining, gambling and shopping and we found out today that although we’ve only been here one day we’ve already progressed to the next level!! Crumbs, I don’t look forward to getting the hotel bill at the end of the week!!

The Bellagio Atrium is one of the most beautiful places to see and we will be posting some photos later. We need to go down early to take photos before it gets busy with visitors. Each day for an hour they have live music for everyone to enjoy and today it was a guy playing an electric harp. It was very lovely.

A musician playing in the Bellagio Atrium

Sand at Caesers Palace

We dined early today at one of our favourite restaurants over at the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace, it’s a Wolfgang Puck restaurant, Spago. The food is always excellent.

Spago

Si drinking ……… not eating for a change!

Sand at Spago enjoying a cocktail

We didn’t exactly excel at our gambling tonight. I did have a rather good spell playing a Monopoly machine but eventually the little man and his dog took all my winnings. We kept our spirits up though by enjoying some cakes, hot chocolate and coffee. Perhaps our luck will be better tomorrow!

Sand losing all her money on the Monopoly machine at the Aria hotel – no, the drink and ash tray are not mine!

Well, we left Moab under cloudy skies and it had been raining! Raining in Moab in the summer, unusual! We only had to travel 50 miles and blue skies were back again and the temperature started to rise. By the time we reached Vegas it was 108ºF, so a little warm!!

We had a very disturbed night’s sleep because for some reason we kept getting rattles around our room. One was coming from the fridge, so in the end we had to get up, pull it out and unplug it. We never found where the other one was coming from so it continued to drive us crazy all night.

If that wasn’t bad enough, this morning we lost Margaret!! Got into the car ready to set our route for Las Vegas and wait ………. where’s Margaret? She wasn’t with us. Now I’m usually a very organised person and I always check the hotel room before we leave but somehow she had been left behind. I returned to our room and just couldn’t find her, panic ensued. I eventually found her hiding in a ‘safe place’ where I’d hidden her the night before when we went to dinner. Relief all round, especially on Margaret’s part. She knew she was heading home and there was no way she wanted to be left behind in Moab!

I must report on last night’s meal at Jeffrey’s Steakhouse. It was, once again fantastic. I had the French 75, gin and tonic and enjoyed a great steak with the largest jacket potato I’ve ever seen. Si had the ‘special’ which consisted of a ribeye steak with shrimp and soft-shell crab. It was my intention to photograph the meal but we got talking to a lovely couple on the next table and all thought of photography went right out of my mind! I think the French 75 had a lot to do with it!

The drive from Moab to Las Vegas was quite boring and very uninteresting but the photographer’s apprentice did manage to photograph a few things along the way.

From Moab to Las Vegas

Water Tower on the road from Moab to Las Vegas

From Moab to Las Vegas

The inevitable road works on the way from Moab to Las Vegas

One interesting thing we saw at a place called Hurricane, about 131 miles from Vegas but couldn’t manage to photograph as it was on the opposite side of the road, was the largest Walmart (Asda) distribution centre we have ever seen. There must have been 500 trailers ready to be loaded up with goodies!

Well, we’ve had a lovely dinner, fish and chicken for a change and managed to actually win a little in the casino. Let’s hope we don’t have any rattles in our room tonight and can get a good night’s sleep!

So, today begins our holiday ‘wind down’. We came to Moab as we needed a halfway point on our return trip to Las Vegas. Although this is our third visit to Moab we have still managed to find a couple of places we had never visited before and as usual, have not been disappointed.

It has been very hot here today, 95ºF and we think that the mosquitoes must have hatched  because they seem to be everywhere! We have decided that we would much rather hike in temperatures of 70ºF rather than the 90’s. Because it’s so hot we cut our day short but we managed to see all we wanted to.

We started off visiting Landscape Arch in Arches National Park. The hike is just 1.6 miles, with gradual slopes, but it did seem rather longer than that to us but it was well worth the effort.

Sand on the walk to Landscape Arch

Landscape Arch

Si at Landscape Arch

Sand at Landscape Arch

Desert Bouquet on the walk to Landscape Arch

Landscape Arch is the longest of the many natural rock arches located in the Arches National Park. The arch is among many in the area known as Devil’s Garden in the north area of the park. It was named by Frank Beckwith, leader of the Arches National Monument Scientific Expedition, who explored the area in the winter of 1933–1934, and can be reached by short walk/hike of about 1.5 miles along a maintained trail.

The Natural Arch and Bridge Society (NABS) considers the Landscape Arch to be the longest natural arch in the world, having measured the span in 2004 at 290.1 ± 0.8 feet (88.4 m), which is slightly longer than a measurement made by the Society in 2006 of Kolob Arch in Zion National Park.  Since 1991, three slabs of sandstone measuring 30, 47, and 70 feet (9.1, 14, and 21 m) long have fallen from the thinnest section of Landscape Arch, prompting the Park Service to close the trail that once passed beneath it.

On 1st September 1991 hikers were actually sitting beneath the arch and thought they heard thunder cracks but in fact it was a 60 foot rock slab breaking off above them. When the dust settled 180 tonnes of fresh rock debris lie on the ground. Luckily, no-one was hurt. It is thought that unseasonably heavy rains for ten days before the incident had filled pore spaces within the sandstone and the the added weight may have finally overwhelmed the rock slab in its timeless struggle with gravity.

Then, we visited Dead Horse Point State Park (that’s where Si went to last night) so that I could see for myself how beautiful it is.

Panorama shot of Dead Horse Point

Dead Horse Point

The Park features a dramatic overlook of the Colorado River and Canyonlands National Park. The park is so named because of its use as a natural corral by cowboys in the 19th century. The park covers 5,362 acres (2,170 ha) of high desert at an altitude of 5,900 feet (1,800 m).

The plateau is surrounded by sheer cliffs 2,000 feet (610 m) high with only a narrow neck of land 30 yards (27 m) wide connecting the mesa to the main plateau. Thus it was easy for cowboys to simply fence off this narrow neck, and keep rounded up wild horses from running away.

The Legend of Dead Horse Point: There are many stories about how this high promontory of land received its name.

According to one legend, around the turn of the century the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30-yards-wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush.

This created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs straight down on all sides, affording no escape. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and let the culls or broomtails go free. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

One useless fact: The area was also used in the final ‘Grand Canyon’ scene of the 1991 film Thelma & Louise.

One of the fun things about driving around the parks is looking for faces in the rocks, this is one the ‘photographer’s apprentice’ saw!

A face in the rock!

Tonight we will be dining at Jeffrey’s Steakhouse. We ate there on our trip last year and it was fantastic so we thought what better way to end our visit here than by eating there again. I will once again be sampling the French 75! That’s a very special gin and tonic. Good job I’m writing this blog before dinner!!

Tomorrow we leave Moab and have another long drive (we seem to be doing a lot of them lately!) to Las Vegas where we will be spending the last week of our holiday lying in the sun, eating fine food and drinking fine wine!!

It occurred to me that in yesterday’s ‘Special Post’ I forgot to tell you what Si’s name is on Flickr, It’s ‘simonsaint’ and also that it might be a good idea to give you a link to his actual Flickr page so you can have a look around if you’d like to. Click here to visit his page.

I think you will agree that some of the photos Si’s been taking on our trip have been stunning. Some of you know he’s a member of Flickr and in 2013 on average per day, 1.6 million photos were uploaded to Flickr from people all around the world. I don’t know what the average for 2014 is but you can bet it’s around that figure.

Well everyday Flickr choose 500 of the most interesting photos of all those uploaded and put them on to what they call ‘Explore’. It’s hard enough to get one photo on Explore but our Si in the past three weeks, ever since we arrived in the U.S., has had the honour of having five of his photos shown on there. The highest position for one of the photos being number six.

He already had another three featured on Explore, two from 2012 and one this year.

This is the link to Flickr Explore for all those who may be interested in taking a look.

These are the photos from the past three weeks:

Adam on the Trail Ridge Road

Lone Tree on Lake Yellowstone – got to number 6 on Explore

The John Moulton Barn

Bear Lake

String Lake

Today has been another long driving day, seven hours in all. We did stop for some lunch at the ………….. Rib Grill!! Well, where else would you expect us to stop! Here’s a photo of ‘his nibs’ enjoying a few. I had chicken, much healthier ………… well maybe not, they were fried chicken sliders with fries and garlic bread!

Si at the Rib Grill!

We left our hotel in Colorado Springs and said goodbye to Patrick. He’s a young man with a  photographic degree but at the moment he’s working there doing just about everything it seems from valeting the cars to checking people in. A very pleasant young man.

I have to say that Colorado Springs turned out to be quite a surprise. I just wanted to go there because I used to watch Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and wanted to go up Pikes Peak. Si wasn’t convinced any of it would be any good. We were both very pleasantly surprised how lovely it was and how many places to see there were. We hope to return one day.

Colorado is probably the most beautiful of all the U.S. States we have seen, it is absolutely stunning.

Today we travelled through a range of temperatures, we had to cross the mountains to get to Moab and were travelling up hill and down dale, we went from 6,035 feet above sea level in Colorado Springs to 10,600 feet and then down to 5,200 feet here in Moab. The temperatures ranged from 57ºF to 95ºF here in Moab. Crazy!!

Here are some photos of our trip today taken by our photographer’s apprentice!

Road Trip to Moab

Road Trip to Moab

A place with ‘No Name’ on the way to Moab!

Road Trip to Moab

Entering Moab

Tonight, Si went out to Dead Horse Point State Park to take photos at sundown. Here’s one.

Dead Horse Point

First of all a big shout out of “Happy Birthday” to my niece Karen whose birthday it is today 5th June. Hope you’ve had a great day!

It occurred to me today that in my post yesterday I forgot to mention the one big thing about being up at the summit of Pikes Peak ……………. the doughnuts! The one thing you just have to do when you get there is have the world-famous and yummy doughnuts, the only ones made at an altitude of over 14,000 feet and of course we did. They were delicious.

Doughnuts at Pikes Peak summit

Well, so much beauty to see and so little time!

Today, we started our day with a visit to Manitou Springs. General William Jackson Palmer and Dr. William Abraham Bell founded Manitou Springs in 1872, intending the town to be a “scenic health resort.” It has been the quintessential tourist town since the 1870s, when visitors discovered the healing waters the Ute Indians had been drinking for years. Many of the town’s mineral springs still function today and the water is free.

Manitou Springs

Manitou’s original cog railway

After a walk through the town we moved on to the Garden of the Gods.

The Garden of the Gods’ red rock formations were created during a geological upheaval along a natural fault line millions of years ago. Archaeological evidence shows that prehistoric people visited Garden of the Gods about 1330 BC. At about 250 BC Native American people camped in the park. They are believed to have been attracted to wildlife and plant life in the area and used overhangs created by the rocks for shelter. There are many native peoples who have reported a connection to Garden of the Gods, including Ute, Comanche, Apache, Kiowa, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Pawnee and Lakota people.

The Utes’ oral traditions tell of their creation at the Garden of the Gods. Petroglyphs have been found in the park that are typical of early Utes. They found red rocks to have a spiritual connection and camped near Manitou Springs and the creek near Rock Ledge Ranch bordering Garden of the Gods. Other tribes traveled through Garden of the Gods. The Old Ute Trail went past Garden of the Gods to Ute Pass and led later explorers through Manitou Springs. Starting in the 16th century, Spanish explorers and later European American explorers and trappers travelled through the area, including Lt. John C. Freemont and and Lt. George Frederick Ruxton who recorded their visits in their journals.

The area was first called Red Rock Corral. Then, in August 1859, two surveyors who helped to set up Colorado City explored the site. One of the surveyors, M. S. Beach, suggested that it would be a “capital place for a beer garden.” His companion, the young Rufus Cable, awestruck by the impressive rock formations, exclaimed, “Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods.”

Well, I think the sign says it all!

Si in the Garden of the Gods

Sand in the Garden of the Gods

Rock formation in the Garden of the Gods

Rock formation in the Garden of the Gods

The Garden of the Gods

The Garden of the Gods

Balancing rock in the Garden of the Gods

The Garden of the Gods

Kissing Camels rock in the Garden of the Gods

Amish Girls visiting the Garden of the Gods

Panorama shot of the Garden of the Gods

Cliff hanger at the Garden of the Gods

Busker in the Garden of the Gods

Tomorrow we leave our lovely hotel and Colorado Springs for Moab, Utah where even more wonderful sights await us. We have visited Moab many times but it never fails to delight!

We have been staying at The Mining Exchange. It was constructed in 1902 by civic benefactor Winfield Scott Stratton who made his fortune in the Cripple Creek gold boom of the 1890’s. The building’s purpose was to house the Colorado Springs Mining Exchange and promote regional mining companies and their stock. It was, and still is regarded as the most substantial and intact building associated with Stratton that remains. It was the first structure in the city to rise above four stories and housed Colorado Springs’ Mining Stock Exchange in the 1920’s. The building had several steel vaults, preserved to this day, they are used to house hotel supplies.

The building was purchased three years ago by Perry Sanders who then set out to build The Mining Exchange. Extensive and elaborate renovations were made, with a very conscious approach to restore the building to its original grandeur, preserving the magnificent piece of architecture that it presents to the landscape of Colorado Springs. In 1900 a Colorado Springs’ Resident said it was “The handsomest, the largest and most substantial structure in the city.”

The Mining Exchange

So, today we decided to ‘do’ Pikes Peak. We set off in what we thought was the right direction, heading north out of Colorado Springs and quickly realised we were going in the wrong direction! I have to say that it wasn’t Margaret’s fault this time because we hadn’t plugged her in. It was human error.

But, all was not lost because when we realised our mistake we were going to turn around when we noticed we were at a place called Briargate and Si suddenly realised that we wanted to go there anyway because we wanted to visit the Apple store that was located there. We needed to buy another portable drive because the one we’d brought with us to back-up the laptop has thrown a wobbly and won’t work! Amazon, expect an email from me when we return!

We headed back south and soon found Pikes Peak Highway. Pikes Peak is known as America’s Mountain. The Highway is 19 miles long, is a two-lane road ascending more than 6,000 feet in elevation to 14,115 and we were going to drive it. The Ranger said the 19 miles would take us one hour to drive.

Crystal Reservoir on Pikes Peak Highway

Panorama shot of Crystal Reservoir

Some people travel to the summit by cog railway. It was first built in 1891 and runs continually today.

Cog Railway

Well, goodness me, it was one hairy drive. I thought the Trail Ridge Road was scary, this was much, much worse. There were sheer drops round hairpin bends, it was like being on a switchback! I dread to think what my blood pressure reading must have been. Si was okay because he was on the ‘safe’ side. At times I just couldn’t look over the edge and was holding on to the car door handle for dear life. Some of the drop offs are 1,000 feet down! We were told to turn off the air-conditioning going up and when driving back down to use low gear.

Winding Roads on Pikes Peak Highway

The views of course were stunning. We were way above the tree line and as we turned each corner and looked up you could see the cars above just getting higher and higher.

Pikes Peak Highway with Pikes Peak in the distance

Half way up the road we stopped to change into jeans as we were told it would be really cold at the summit but when we got there it wasn’t too bad even though there was some snow and we didn’t need thick jackets.

Can you imagine racing up this road to the summit. Well, daring drivers have been doing just that since the first race in 1916. The race continues today. Mining magnet Spencer Penrose arranged the race to advertise his new mountain auto highway. The first winner, Rea Lentz, sped to the summit in just 20 minutes and 55.6 seconds. Can you imagine driving at speed on a dirt road. It was only fully paved in 2011! The hill climb is the second oldest race in the US behind only the Indianapolis 500.

At the summit is a memorial dedicated o Katherine Lee Bates (August 12th 1859 to March 28th 1929). She was an American songwriter and was the author of the words to the anthem ‘America the Beautiful’.

The first draft of “America the Beautiful” was hastily jotted down in a notebook during the summer of 1893, which Bates spent teaching English at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Later she remembered:

One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.

About half-way up stands the Historic Glen-Cove Inn built in the late teens early 1920s. It has always been somewhere for travellers to stop and refresh themselves.

The Glen Cove Inn

Photos from the summit.

Pikes Peak Summit

Pikes Peak Summit

Panorama of Pikes Peak Summit

Si at the Summit

Sand at the Summit

On the way back down there is a compulsory brake check by a ranger. This is because if the breaks overheat they will stop working and no-one wants to be without breaks at this height. Our’s measured 8% so we were given a ‘well done’ because Si was driving down correctly. Well done Si!

Almost back to Earth!

It suddenly occurred to me that I’ve taken a couple of photos of Si at dinner but have forgotten to post them. So this is me righting a wrong! I decided to have a nice healthy salad …………. this one would last me a week!

Sand with her healthy salad!

Si with his short ribs!

Si with his Po’ Boy shrimp sandwich!

Well, that Margaret (sat-nav), she definitely needs to go back to sat-nav training school. We plugged her in this morning for our drive to Colorado Springs and she said there were no hold-ups and the drive would take just over two hours.

Wrong! We had only been driving for 20 minutes when we came across road works that held us up for 45 minutes!!!! Work was being done to widen a road and it entailed rock blasting! When we eventually managed to drive through I actually saw the man attaching the wires to the plunger to blow up the next lot of rock. I said, “Punch it Margaret” to get our car moving. Didn’t fancy being under that lot of rock when it came tumbling down.

The queue!

Following the Pilot Car

Then, we drive ten minutes down the road and there’s another set of road works. Luckily, we arrived just as our traffic was being let through so we didn’t have to wait.

One sad thing we saw en-route was more flood damage to homes along the river. The homes had just been abandoned with appliances as they were when the waters hit. Very sad!

Flood damage!

It was quite a pleasant drive until we reached Denver!! I don’t know if it’s because we’ve been driving on little quiet roads for the past two weeks but I was scared to death!! At least four lanes of traffic all the way through Denver, drivers swopping lanes like maniacs and even through road works they didn’t slow down to the required speed. It was worse than driving in London! I just wanted to sit on the floor of the car and hide until we were out the other side!

We did see the ‘Mile High Stadium’ the Denver Bronco’s stadium.

Mile High Stadium

Still, it was all worth it in the end because we’ve arrived at our hotel and they must have known the trauma we had been through because we were given a complimentary upgrade and are now residing in the grandest of suites.  It’s also the hottest we’ve had on our trip so far. When we arrived it was 91 degrees, so nice and warm!!

Tomorrow we start our adventures here in Colorado Springs by visiting Pikes Peak. We now have to go and try out the award-winning restaurant they have here. Bon appetite!!

We’ve had a very full day and managed to see a lot of wildlife for a change.

We started out with the sight of Mr and Mrs Duck crossing a main road together but unfortunately didn’t have the camera handy.

At Milner Pass we again crossed the Continental Divide!

Continental Divide

We decided to go back to the Trail Ridge Road today, to the valley, to look at the Holzwarth Historic Site. As we passed over the summit It wasn’t quite so cold and it didn’t snow.

In 1917, John Holzwarth Sr. staked a homestead claim in the valley with the intent of building a cattle ranch. After the Fall River Road through the park opened in 1920, the ranch was re-developed  into a popular resort known as the Holzwarth Trout Lodge. The Lodge is now part of the park and preserved as a historic site. The Holzwarth homestead depicts the rustic, unpretentious dude ranching of the 1920s.

Buildings from the Holzwarth Ranch

Buildings from the Holzwarth Ranch

A summer National Park project to restore the ice house

Prior to the homestead another valley settler, a miner Joseph Fleshuts, homesteaded 160 acres with the intent to live on the land for at least five years. Life must have been hard because in 1911 he abruptly abandoned his cabin and was not heard of again.

Sand at Joseph Fleshuts’ Cabin

Homesteaders, miners and trappers were not the first people to inhabit the valley. Ute Indians have hunted game and gathered plants there for more than 6000 years. The Arapaho came later in the 1800s. Members of both tribes still return to a place that was once their home.

On the way to the Homestead we passed over a raging river which we discovered was the Colorado River headwaters.

Sand at the Colorado River headwaters

Si at the Colorado River headwaters

After that we visited Sprague Lake as the Ranger we met yesterday had told us that a moose and her calf had been seen there. The Lake stands at 8,710 feet and is just a 0.5 mile walk round the lake in very easy conditions and it was beautiful. The lake was built early in the early 20th century to provide trout fishing for guests at a resort owned by local pioneer Abner E. Sprague. The lakeside retreat is long gone but visitors still flock to this beautiful place. We saw a young girl of about seven having a fishing lesson from her father.

Sprague Lake

We were very lucky to see a moose but alas no calf. He didn’t seem bothered by the hordes of humans taking his photo as he enjoyed his lunch.

Moose at Sprague Lake

Moose at Sprague Lake

Our last port of call for the day was Bear Lake. The Bear Lake area stands at 9,475 feet and is only a 0.6 miles hike. It has jewel-like lakes with breathtaking back-drops, ice-cold crystal-clear streams that cascade down spectacular waterfalls, great forests of pine, spruce, fir and aspen, soaring mountains summits, amazing wildlife and colourful plant life.

Bear Lake

As Sprague Lake had been an easy walk we thought Bear Lake would be the same but alas it wasn’t. Most of the trail was covered in very deep snow. Lucky for us we had taken our walking sticks with us.

We met some ladies on our walk and one of them was was telling us how her sons went to the college in the very town we live in! The world is very small indeed.

Here are some other photos we’ve taken today of the Park.

No recycling today!

Road Works ahead!

Rocky Mountain National Park panorama

Rocky Mountain National Park panorama

Rocky Mountain National Park

Holzwarth Valley and the Colorado River

On the way back we rounded a corner and there in the middle of the road was a fawn, without its mother. It looked lost and wasn’t sure which way to go. We sat and waited for it to make up its mind. In the end it went back into the forest to find its mother. We also saw another Marmot clinging on to a rock at about 11,000 feet. He seemed very at home. We also saw mature elk.

Marmot

Buck elk

Buck elk

We were very lucky to be able to visit the Estes Park and Rocky Mountain Park area because last September the whole area was devastated by historic floods. Homes and roads were just washed away and businesses devastated and although everything is more or less back to ‘business as normal’ there are still signs of the devastation to be seen.

Tomorrow we leave Estes Park and make for Colorado Springs. A fairly short drive for a change, just 2.5 hours. For those who may remember the television show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, it is our intention to climb Pikes Peak but luckily for us we won’t have to climb it as she did, by foot, we can either drive up or go on a cog railway. As our previous experience of a cog railway was not that pleasant, I think it’s safe to say we will be driving!

We started the day by driving into the Park to drive Trail Ridge Road to experience the stunning scenic vistas, vast alpine landscapes and hopefully some wildlife.. It is considered to be one of America’s premier outdoor adventures. The drive is approximately 40 miles long rising to an elevation of 12,183 feet above sea level, where climatic donations, plants and animals are similar to those found near the Arctic Circle. For every 1,000 feet driven the temperature drops 3-5F, just as if you had driven 600 miles north.

We arrived at the first stop-off point, Sheep Lake, where we met and chatted with three Rangers, all volunteers. As you would expect, their knowledge of all things RMNP (Rocky Mountain National Park) was second to none. I have to say, the wind was blowing a hooley and it was very cold. We were so pleased we decided to wear our jeans today instead of shorts.

Sand chatting with one of the Volunteer Rangers

Apparently, there was a 10-year dry spell but the last two years it has been wet again meaning that Sheep Lake in particular again has lakes with water and lots of wild flowers have returned.

The views along the 40 miles are just spectacular, although some are rather scary. There are times where it’s just a shear drop over the side. They only opened the road after the winter snows last week and it takes six weeks to clear the snow to enable visitors to drive the route.

The Trail Ridge Road

The Trail Ridge Road

On the Trail Ridge Road

I took this photo through the windscreen so it’s not perfect!

Simon took a video on the way up the mountain.

On the way up we saw many brave souls actually cycling up!! Rather them than me! This is Adam, one such brave soul. It had taken him four hours to reach the highest point on the road. I wouldn’t like to be cycling down in the strong wind blowing today. One false move and it’s ‘goodbye Trail Ridge Road’ and ‘hello, 12,000 feet below’.

When we stopped at Horseshoe Park there was a family of three, the parents and a little girl of about five and she was stood on top of a short wall, just one easy jump before falling 10,000 feet to the valley below. I can tell you I felt sick. The parents didn’t have hold of her and she actually climbed over the wall and was stood on the rough terrain the other side. The wind could so easily have pushed her over.

Well, not one to hold back, I asked the Dad if he was happy that his young daughter was stood so close to the edge and he just shrugged it off. I also voiced my concerns to the Mum but I don’t think she understood English, let alone my concerns!

Horseshoe Park

Si at Horseshoe Park

When we were up at 11,000 feet Si tried to get out of the car to take some photos but the wind at that point was so bad he couldn’t open the door so had to give up.

On the way up we saw a snow plough and on the way down and a little further up the road saw this ice cutter (a Sandra ‘special’ photo, taken on the move).

By the time we reached the Alpine Visitor Centre at 11,796 it was bitterly cold. We had actually packed winter jackets and gloves for our trip but where were they when we needed them the most ………….. back at the Inn of course!! Luckily, Si had a jumper, I had a fleece and we both had rain jackets so we were warm enough and we did have our wet shoes on. Another example of not enough planning on our part!!

It’s cold up here!

This is how deep the snow is in places. Also, when we were leaving it started to snow so we thought we should make a quick exit back down before we were snowed in!

Sand in snow drift!

Sand in snow storm!

We decided to have some lunch at the Visitor Centre and Si was very pleased with his German sausage and I with my chicken noodle soup …………… until that is I decided to pour the remains of my soup all over my jeans! I tell you, the older I get the more stupid I get.

We were surprised to find that even at 12,000 it’s possible to encounter road works! Luckily, as it’s Sunday today, they were not working. The pole next to the traffic light sign is the snow pole they use to measure the depth. You can see this one is very tall indeed.

It suddenly occurred to us that as we were driving in the Rocky Mountains now would be a good time to listen to some John Denver so that’s what we did, listened to and sang along with his famous song, Rocky Mountain High. This is JD in Australia in 1974.

(I do not own the video or it’s content. Thanks goes to oicurapns for the video)

We didn’t see much wildlife on the drive, just this Clark’s Nutcracker and a Marmont.

Here are some other views of the Park. This first photo is of Long’s Peak, a squared-top mountain standing at 14,259. It can be seen from just about anywhere in the Park. For thousands of years it has been used as a navigational aid to travellers from prehistoric hunters to Ute people who also saw it as a sacred place.

Major Stephen H. Long led an Army topographic expedition to the region in 1802 and the peak is named after him.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park

Just a last special note to Sam at the Mammoth Springs Hotel!

Sam, if you read this, you will remember what happened with our bread plates? Well we had a similar incident last night but this time with our salad bowls! What is it about us that makes waiters want to remove our china before we’ve finished with it!! We thought of you and had to laugh.

So, today was a long driving day of eight hours. It turned out to be a much easier drive than we were anticipating. We just turned onto the road and hey ho off we went. It was more or less, one long continuous road. Some of the scenery was stunning, some boring!

As we spent most of today sitting in the car, we are rather short on action and photos, but here are a few we did take during the drive.

This is the Hoback River. also called the Fall River. It is an approximately 55-mile (89 km)-long tributary of the Snake River. It rises in the southern Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and flows northeast through the Teton National Forest, before turning northwest to join the Snake just downstream of Jackson Hole, near the head of the Snake River Canyon near the town of Hoback.

Hoback River

Our car by the Hoback River

You sure can see some strange things when out on the road and this was just one of them! A horse with his head out of the trailer window taking in the scenery.

Well, the things you see on the road!

I expect you would like to know what we do to pass the time on a long trip like today. Well, today we plugged Simon’s phone into the car USB and exercised our vocal cords by singing along to many of the songs he has on there, especially Holiday Road by Lindsay Buckingham of Feetwood Mac fame. It was used as the theme song for the film ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’.

(I don’t own the rights or anything to the video).

As we are short on action, here’s a little history lesson!

I’m sure some you will have heard of the Oregon Trail. It is a 2,200-mile (3,500 km) historic east-west large wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of the future state of Kansas and nearly all of what are now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. The western half of the trail spanned most of the future states of Idaho and Oregon. The Oregon Trail was laid by fur trappers and traders from about 1811 to 1840 and was only passable on foot or by horseback. This is part of that trail.

The Oregon Trail

I wonder how many of our older followers remember the television cowboy series, Laramie? Well, we drove through it today. Didn’t see any cowboys though!

On the way to Rocky Mountain National Park

We are staying at The Maxwell Inn in Estes Park, on the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park and it’s lovely. A young couple took it over last year and have been upgrading and renovating. They are now rated number one on Trip Advisor out of 29 hotels in Estes Park. They have done a great job, it’s lovely.

As we hadn’t eaten anything all day we went for dinner to a steakhouse and the steaks were great but even though we were hungry we couldn’t finish them. Simon’s was the size of a house ………….. I should have taken a photo. He could only eat half of it!

Thoughts for the day:

1. If we drove for eight hours in the UK we would drive off the edge of Scotland!

2. Just about every American we speak to say they would love to come to England.

3. It seems as though just about every American lady watches Downton Abbey and would love to visit the house. They are really impressed when we we tell them we live about thirty minutes from there.

4. What a shame that blogging wasn’t around in 1988 when we first started visiting the U.S. as we would have had a really big blog by now and a wonderful record of all our visits.

Tomorrow we visit the Rocky Mountain National Park for the first time. Join us then for what we hope will be some stunning photos.

So, today was our last day here at the Grand Tetons. We’ve seen so many wonderful things and most of this is thanks to Shaun who works here at our hotel. When we first arrived he took the time to mark out a map for us showing all the best places to visit and photograph.

It was our intention to visit Phelps Lake on Death Canyon Road today (Shaun told us not worry about the name!) but when we arrived we saw a sign that said 4×4 vehicles recommended and sure enough when we set off down the road it was full of pot holes and was in the most dreadful state. It was a totally wooded area and we noted that there was no one else were around it was just us. This made us a little uneasy given the prevalence of bears in the area so eventually decided to give it a miss!

After our hike yesterday, today we were fully prepared for anything! We had our hiking shoes on, had purchased ‘bear bells’ and walking sticks and boy were we pleased we bought those sticks.

Sand with ‘bear bells’ and walking stick!

So, fully equipped we set out to see String and Leigh Lakes instead. It’s been a bright beautiful sunny day but up in the Lakes there’s still tons of snow. We were told that this was due to the snows coming late this year.

As soon as we set out it was obvious this hike was going to be more challenging than yesterday’s. Beside the very deep snow a lot of the trail was flooded. We were glad of our walking sticks to get us over the snow. Our ‘bear bells’ were jingling nicely but we still yelled out now and again just to make sure that any critters present would be aware of us.

String Lake

Simon at String Lake

On the String Lake Trail

String Lake

Poor Si managed to scrape his leg on a tree branch and it was at this point that my handy medical kit that I always carry on holiday and especially when we are out hiking, came into it’s own. Nurse Sandra to the rescue, moping up blood, cleaning the wound and dressing it. I think I’ve found a new profession!!! The patient will live!

We saw this family out in a canoe on the lake. There were two babies on board as well as a young boy!

Pioneers on String Lake

Sadly, after a while, due to the large amounts of snow the trail became hidden and it wasn’t clear which way to go so we decided to abandon the hike and go and have lunch instead, but what we did manage to see of the lake was beautiful and hopefully one day we will return and complete the hike.

On the way back to the car we were fortunate to see two yellow-bellied Marmots.

Yellow Bellied Marmot

After a great lunch, again at the Trapper Grill and served again by Kevin, of soup,  sandwiches and apple pie, we drove to the summit of Signal Mountain. The road to the summit is a very narrow one so a bit hairy at times when traffic was coming the other way but we eventually made it to the top okay.

Signal Mountain is an isolated summit standing 7,720 feet (2,350 m) above sea level. The next closest higher summit is more than 10 miles (16 km) distant, and this isolation provides sweeping views of the Teton Range, much of the northern Jackson Hole area as well as the Snake River. Though located adjacent to the Tetons, Signal Mountain was not formed in the same manner or period. The mountain originally was formed by volcanic ashfall from one of the eruptions of the Yellowstone hotspot. The peak is also partially a glacial moraine formed by a receding glacier that came south out of the Yellowstone icecap. This same glacier also created neighbouring Jackson Lake.

The views as you will see from the photos, were magnificent.

View from Signal Mountain

View from Signal Mountain

View from Signal Mountain

On the way back to our hotel we stopped off at Jenny Lake where a lady was meditating in the sun overlooking the lake. Whatever rocks your boat!!

Meditating by Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake

Tomorrow we move on to the Rocky Mountain National Park. It will be a long drive of eight hours so an early start will be in order!

See you there!

When we awoke this morning we were already concerned on how the day would turn out because it was cloudy and thunderstorms had been predicted. Then, when we went to breakfast we were told that today was the first day of buffet breakfast and we could not order off the menu. We were not impressed because we both wanted the banana bread french toast with strawberries. Anyway,  I’m pleased to report that the clouds cleared, the sun appeared and we have had a glorious day hiking, taking lots of beautiful photos and meeting some very lovely people.

We started with a 3.2 mile round trip to see Taggart Lake. We didn’t do our research very well and were rather taken by surprise when, first of all, it was all up-hill but not too steep and then we were confronted by snow and muddy patches! Needless to say, both of us did not have our wet boots on. On the way back down Simon stood on snow that gave way and he ended up with rather wet shoes and socks and I fell over and got my trousers wet!!

Start of the Taggart Lake hike

Sand on the Taggart Trail

Sand on the muddy trail to Taggart Lake

Sand on the way to Taggart Lake

The Taggart Trail

Simon at Taggart Lake

After being constantly advised to be ‘Bear Aware’ the whole way up we were, as advised, making lots of human noises and clapping our hands. Simon had seen some programme on television where a guy said to keep calling out ‘Hey Bear’ so the critter would not be surprised to see humans, so the whole way up he was repeating it over and over! We took the rather expensive bear spray but thankfully did not need to use it.

Si with that bear spray

En-route to the top we passed the most amazing rapid water, at one point being the closest we’ve ever been, apart from when we did white water rafting. Si took a video.

Taggart Lake is a natural lake standing at 6902 feet above sea level and a 2005 study of the water quality of the lakes in Grand Teton National Park indicated that the lakes in the park were still considered pristine and that they had not been impacted by air or water pollution. This was very obvious to us when we arrived and saw how crystal clear the water was.

We meet a few people on our way to the top and must give a special mention to Terry from Oregon and her niece Traci, from Irvine, California. They were visiting the Tetons and then travelling on to Yellowstone before Traci had to fly home. Traci’s husband had arranged the trip for her as a Mother’s Day present. He’s obviously one very thoughtful husband. It was great meeting and talking with you both. Enjoy Yellowstone!

Traci and Terry

After our ‘work out’ we decided it was time for some lunch so went to the Trapper Grill at the Lodge at Signal Mountain where we were served by Kevin. He had spent some time studying in London so when we ordered sandwiches with chips he asked us if we knew that chips in the US were crisps and not fries. Bless! We told him we did indeed know that and he went on to tell us a story of how, when in London, he ordered fish and chips expecting fish and crisps and got …… fries. He laughed and said he then realised how so culturally unaware he was.

In the car park of the Lodge we saw some rather lovely vintage cars and after speaking to some of the owners we were told that they were part of a vintage car rally of 25 cars.

Historic Mercedes Gull Wing

Historic 50’s Jaguar

Historic Corvette

On our way to see Oxbow Bend, a haven for wildlife apparently, we stopped off at the Jackson Lake Dam and had the added bonus of seeing a moose in the trees. He was enormous and didn’t seem at all bothered by all the people taking photos of him. He just sat there munching away.

Moose

Moose

The Jackson Lake Dam is a concrete and earth-filled dam at the outlet of Jackson Lake. The Snake River emerges from the dam and flows about 800 miles (1,287 km) through Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington State to its mouth on the Columbia River in eastern Washington. The chief purpose of the dam is to provide water storage for irrigation in the Snake River basin in the state of Idaho as part of the Minidoka Project. Jackson Lake is a natural lake but its depth was increased by the dam to provide water storage.

The first Jackson Lake Dam was a log-crib dam constructed in 1906–7 across the outlet of Jackson Lake, a natural lake. That dam raised the lake level by 22 feet (6.7 m), but the dam failed in 1910. A new concrete and earthen dam was constructed in stages between 1911 and 1916, raising the maximum lake level to 30 feet (9.1 m) above the lake’s natural elevation, providing a storage capacity of 847,000 acre feet).

It was lucky that we saw the Moose at the dam because when we got to Oxbow Bend, there was no wildlife at all! In fact, we haven’t seen a whole lot of wildlife here, even though we’ve been told there is lots about. Hey ho, we can’t be lucky every time.

Sand at Oxbow Bend

This is a photo of the complete Teton range. It’s 17 photos stitched together.

The Grand Teton Range

It’s been a rather long exhausting day so you will excuse me if I sign off now and go and enjoy a lovely meal and a couple of glasses of vino!!

PS: We went to dinner and ordered Kobe steaks. Well, once again we had to complain. Si’s steak was too salty (the chief agreed) and my ‘well done’ one was ‘medium rare” so once again we got a free dinner!

Well, here we are at the Teton Village staying in a ski-lodge which I have to say is wonderful. We once again have all the comforts of home.

Our day started with a lovely breakfast and for the benefit of and as requested Steve, here’s a photo of Simon eating his banana bread french toast with strawberries and another one of him at dinner tonight with his short rib. He said both meals were delicious!

Simon at dinner

Our first full day here has confirmed what we already knew, the Tetons are magnificent. No matter where you are you can see the mountains.

Grand Teton, at 13,775 feet (4,199 m), is the highest point of the Teton Range and the send highest peak in the state of Wyoming. The Teton Range is a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains, which extend from southern Alaska to northern New Mexico.

Grand Tetons

We visited the site of the ‘John Moulton Barn’. This is very famous and anyone who comes to the Tetons stops to take a photograph hoping to replicate the classic view of the barn. It sits in Mormon Row where 33 homesteaders from Salt Lake City first started a community at the turn of the 19th Century and clustered their farms to share labour and community. Some of the homes and barns still remain today as do some of the ditches they dug by hand to water their crops.

The John Moulton Barn

One of the original homesteaders was John Moulton and his grandson and family still own the homestead he built and it really is a beautiful place. We were lucky enough to meet Iola Moulton who showed us around and was obviously very proud of how the property has remained in the family all these years. The surrounding area is owned by the National Park Service.

Simon at the John Moulton Barn

Mormon Row Outhouse

Mormon Row Barn

Mormon Row

Ground squirrels live underground near the barns and they may be small but the noise they make when warning others of impending danger is amazing. They are like very small meerkats, they even sit bolt upright on top of their burrows to warn others of danger.

Ground Squirrel

We are hoping to see lots of moose here but just in case we don’t Simon took a picture of me with this one at the Visitors Centre!

Sand and Moose!

We then visited Jenny Lake. It was formed approximately 12,000 years ago by glacier activity. It is estimated to be 423 feet (129 m) deep and encompasses 1,191 acres. Jenny Lake is considered to be a major focal point in Grand Teton National Park, with many hiking trails, scenic boat rides, and quick access to the major climbing routes onto the tallest peaks of the Teton Range.

Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake

By the way …………… does anyone now the cost of bear spray? We paid nearly $50 dollars for a can that they say will last for about seven seconds!!!!! Still, one can’t put a price on safety! Let’s just hope we won’t need to use it.

Today was a driving day. We left Yellowstone for the Grand Tetons. It was a very pleasant drive, mostly through forests still with winter snow. We had a lovely lunch near Colter Bay eating Teton cheesesteak. We first had cheesesteak in the form of a pizza when we visited with our dear friend Nat in Pennsylvania many moons ago and have loved it ever since.

Lone Tree on Lake Yellowstone

Leaving Yellowstone

At one point, Simon looked in his rear-view mirror and there crossing the road was a bear! We quickly turned the car around but we couldn’t see where he’d gone to in the forest. If we had been just a few seconds later we would have come face to face!

Entering Grand Tetons

Grand Tetons

Tetons from Signal Mountain

From what we have seen on our drive into the Tetons, it’s going to be a wonderful stay.

Today we are going to finish off our tour of Yellowstone. I think it’s fair to say that after today we will have seen just about all we can see on a driving tour. We have some great photos for you to see.

First of all however, it’s breakfast! I must say that the Dining Room does a fabulous granola strawberry parfait which I’ve had a few times. Simon was into omelettes and a bowl of fruit. Steve B. this is for you. Sorry I don’t have photos!!!

Our start was somewhat delayed because two bison thought it would be good fun to stroll and then run along the roadway to find a suitable place for breakfast and in so doing did a grand job of holding up the traffic for quite some time. Great patience is need when visiting Yellowstone.

We eventually arrived at our first port of call, the geothermal features known as Artist’s Paint Pots. There are colourful hot springs, two large mud pots, a fumarole (an opening in the planet’s crust, often in the neighbourhood of volcanoes, which emits steam and gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulphide ………… this is the lesson for today folks!!) and a couple of geysers. The mud pots were fascinating so Simon took a video which I hope captures the wonder of it all.

Artist’s Paint Pots

Artist’s Paint Pots

Mud Pool at Artist’s Paint Pot

Sand at Artist’s Paint Pots

At Fountain Paint Pots in Lower Geyser Basin we and about 500 Japanese tourists were lucky to see Clepsydra Geyser erupting.

Simon at Clepsydra Geyser

Sand at Clepsydra Geyser

Next we visited Biscuit Basin Loop to see more hot springs but we first of all saw two pretty blue birds (haven’t been able to find out their real names) who had made a nest inside a tree. For small birds they were making rather a lot of noise.

Black Opal Spring at Biscuit Basin Loop

Blue Birds

One of the most magnificent and famous sights in Yellowstone is Grand Prismatic Spring in Midway Geyser Basin. Simon took photos last year but was disappointed with how they turned out. Photos of Grand Prismatic are best taken from above in a helicopter but alas our’s wasn’t available today!! The colours are out of this world.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Onward to West Thumb Geyser Basin one of the smallest geyser basins in Yellowstone yet its location along the shore of Yellowstone Lake ranks it as the most scenic. It derived its name from the thumb-like projection of Yellowstone Lake and the name was given by the 1870 Washburn Expedition. It has less geyser activity than other basins but for its size, has it all, hot springs, pools, mud pots, fumaroles and lake shore geysers.

Fishing Cone at West Thumb

Bluebell Pool at West Thumb

We also saw two Japanese tourists who had gotten married and then were visiting the Basin. How wonderful.

Wedding Couple at West Thumb

We called into Grant Village for refreshments and ended up having pizzas!! They were delicious but again Steve sorry, I don’t have any photos! This will be rectified very soon! I did however, take a photo of Simon enjoying a few moments in a rocking chair while he waited for me to complete my shopping. He’s still not wearing a hat and I’m afraid you can still see his little ‘lilly whites!!’

Si enjoying his rocker!

On the way back to our hotel I was looking at the map when something caught my eye and I knew immediately we would have to stop off to visit and take photos of …………… Mystic Falls!!!! To all the Vampire Diary fans reading this, and you know who you are, you will appreciate my excitement. We had to do a two-mile round trek to get there and back but when we arrived a most magnificent sight greeted us. No, it wasn’t Damon or Stefan and in fact the Mystic Grill was missing too but we did have a magnificent waterfall to look at!!!!!!

Mystic Falls

Sand holding up a tree trunk on the way back from Mystic Falls!

Last but not least on our travels today we came across signs for the Continental Divide. The Continental Divide of the Americas is the principal and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellen and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from (1) those river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean (including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea and (2) along the northernmost reaches of the Divide, those river systems that drain into the Arctic Ocean.

Though there are many other hydrological divides in the Americas, the Great Divide is by far the most prominent of these because it tends to follow a line of high peaks along the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains and Andes, at a generally much higher elevation than the other hydrological divisions.

Do I sound as though I’ve swallowed Wikipedia? It’s such a good source of information! Anyway, taking all that into account we of course had to stop off for a photo opportunity.

Sand and Simon at the Continental Divide

One interesting thing we’ve seen whilst travelling around the Park are snow sticks. These are poles that measure the snowfall during the winter. They are all along the side of the road and some we saw in the southern part of Yellowstone were about 12-15 feet tall! They sure do have some magnificent snow during the winter months.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention is that we are again doing the Licence Plate Game. Some of you will remember we did this on our trip last year and for those who don’t know it involves a board with every state of the US on it and we have to try and see all the licence plates of the 50 States and mark this off on the board. Last year we got down to needing just two, Hawaii and Delaware, but were told the chances of seeing those States was very unlikely.

Licence Plate Game from 2013

Well, I’m pleased to report that as of today, only eleven days into our holiday, we already have 44 of the States!! All we need now is the board to mark them off on as we are writing them down on a piece of paper!

We started the day by taking the opportunity to do a horse ride in the back country of the Park. Three million people visit the Park every year but less than 1% actually get to see ‘behind the scenes’ and we can now say we are two of the 1%.

Simon rode Logan and I had Crockett, two very lovely animals. They were very gentle and we were lucky enough to see bison and elk on our ride plus quite a few elk bones! You will see from the photos that we decided to wear safety helmets. After listening to the safety talk where we were told that ‘death’ was a real possibility due to the wild life and terrain so we thought the insurance company would take more kindly to paying any bills that may have occurred from the ride if we wore helmets. Here we are looking every ounce the riding professionals that we are!!!!! Don’t you just love those helmets!!

One suggestion for the wranglers would be to provide mounting blocks for the ‘vertically challenged’ among us!! It’s a shame someone didn’t get a video of me trying to mount Crockett, it would have made a very good YouTube video!!!!!

Sand on Crockett

Simon on Logan

On the way to our next destination we passed one of the hot springs and lovely waterfall near Mammoth where we are staying.

One of the hot springs at Mammoth

Waterfall near Mammoth

After our very enjoyable ride we made our way to Norris Geyser Basin where probably the biggest collection of geysers in the Park can be found. We spent a couple of hours doing the complete 2.2 miles circuit. This place is really something to see and smell!!!! The smell of rotten eggs makes me gag every time (I know, too much information). We were lucky enough to see one of the geysers, Vixen Geyser, erupting, showering three children with water. They were very excited indeed and were running around telling everyone what had happened, giggling all the time.

Vixen Geyser

Geyser at Norris Geyser Basin

Echinus Geyser at Norris Geyser Basin

We then drove up to Canyon Village, which sits more or less in the centre of the Park, through the Dunraven Pass which only re-opened yesterday after the winter snows and en-route saw snow drifts of between 8-10 feet. Simon decided he would find out how deep the snow really was ………….. it was deep. We were rather taken by surprise when we looked up at the mountain and there was a skier coming down towards us complete with his back pack …. I think he must have been going to do his shopping and taking the quick route!

Simon enjoying the snow at Dunraven Pass

Skier at Dunraven Pass

It was a beautiful drive but when we arrived at the Village it rained and got really quite cold but after refreshing ourselves at the Yellowstone Grill where we partook of a burger (nicely cooked) for Si and a grilled cheese sandwich for me, (I have to post what we ate because there are those among you who like to know the tiniest little detail) we really didn’t care!

In one of my earlier posts I told you about the hotel we are staying at, but didn’t mention that it has just one dining room which means there is usually a wait for a table. All the staff are very friendly and always willing to have a chat about your day.

Today, we had just arrived for dinner when a rather large coach party arrived and it seems that there was immediately a shortage of bread plates for the incoming diners. We were just enjoying our pre-dinner bread (always a favourite with me, I would rather have the bread than the meal!) when a waiter came and asked us if we had finished with our plates, we said we hadn’t which was pretty obvious as there was still bread on them. He went away and five minutes later was back again asking if he could take them away. We again told him ‘no’ and from then on every time we saw approaching we took hold of the plates with both hands just in case he was coming to steal them from us. Needless to say, I had hysterics and just couldn’t stop laughing.

The food has been excellent, but tonight it was necessary to complain about Simon’s bison steak (I do hope it wasn’t one of those we saw earlier in the day), sorry to all vegetarians reading this!! He ordered it as ‘medium’ but when it arrived was swimming in blood, even the mashed potato couldn’t soak it up! Now anyone who has watched MasterChef will know that red meat has to be left to rest before serving it or the end result is a plate swimming in blood.

Nevertheless, he ate it and then complained, well he did say that regardless it was actually rather delicious. I did advise the manager, Lauren, of what MasterChef had taught me and she was obviously very impressed with my knowledge as she kindly took the cost of the steak off the bill and even treated us to two free desserts!! The poor waiter who served us had only been working there a week and the next morning he had the pleasure of serving us again for breakfast and this time we had to complain about the fact that we had to wait 25 minutes before we were even served coffee and tea, let alone our breakfast. I think he was rather pleased to see the back of us!

Some of you reading the blog will know that we were here last year on our ‘big’ tour of the USA and so loved the Park decided to comeback again to spend more time seeing the things we missed. We are not disappointed as it is just as lovely as we remembered it.

We were told it would be cold and to expect snow but here at Mammoth it is warm and there’s no snow in sight, except on the surrounding mountains, so those thick winter jackets we packed probably won’t be needed after all! Just glad I didn’t bring the snow boots I bought!!

Today we visited the Lamar Valley and Black Tail Deer Creek and stopped to take a photo of two bison crossing the road. Imagine our surprise when we turned to walk back to our car and saw a man motioning to us to get out of the way because a huge herd was making its way straight towards us. Needless to say we hurried back to the refuge of our car. There were baby bison among the herd and this makes the parents very nervous when confronted with humans and vehicles.

Bison herd that took us by surprise!

We were also lucky enough to see two moose or is that mooses? This was a first as we didn’t manage that last year.

Two Moose

Here are a few of the hundreds of photos Simon has taken of our trip around the Park today. Hope you enjoy them!

Elk

Sand in the Lamar Valley by the Yellowstone River

Bison enjoying a dust bath

A flower in the Lamar Valley

Mummy bison with babies

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Sand looking out over Yellowstone

Another mummy bison and baby

The Lamar Valley

A yellow bellied Marmot

Well, we have to say that Salt Lake City has taken us by surprise. We’ve enjoyed our visit here a lot. It’s a lovely city, well laid out and very clean.

We started the day by visiting the Saltair. First built in 1893, it is now a concert venue situated right on the edge of the Great Salt Lake. It sits all alone with nothing surrounding it. In its heyday, at the turn of the century, trainloads of pleasure seekers arrived regularly at Saltair to sit or lie down, relax and float in the waters just like a cork because it was impossible to sink as it was so buoyant due to the high levels of salt in the water. Even now, thousands of people flock to the Lake to enjoy the experience. No swimming skills are necessary to enjoy the Lake, you just float.

Bison on the Lake

The Lake has been created due to the influx of water from three different rivers.  With no exit point it means the water just evaporates leaving salt behind. The ratio of salt in the sea is three percent whereas in the Great Salt Lake it is thirty percent.

We then visited Antelope Island State Park, the largest island in Great Salt Lake. The Lake is a remnant of pre-historic Lake Bonneville, which covered more than 20,000 square miles during the Ice Age. The Lake is currently 75 miles long by 28 miles wide, covering 1,700 square miles and the maximum depth is about 33 feet. The Park is home to bison, bighorn sheep, mule deer and pronghorn antelope and were lucky to come across a

New Born Twins!

pronghorn antelope who had just given birth to two babies!

Artifacts reveal prehistoric people inhabited the island more than 6,000 years ago with John C. Fremont and Kit Carson making the first known Anglo Exploration of the Island in 1845.

The first permanent resident was Fielding Garr in 1848 and the ranch house he built was continually inhabited until 1981 and the building still stands today. While we were there we tried our hand at wrangling and needless to say, Simon was the winner,

Si the wrangler

managing to get his lasso round one of the ‘cows’ horns! All I got for my failed attempts was a stint in the jail!

Help!

On our way to the Great Salt Lake this morning we found ourselves in Syracuse!! Well, how could this be, had we taken a wrong turn because we know that Syracuse is in the northern part of New York State? Well, you learn something every day and we now know that there are two towns called Syracuse in the U.S.

The Syracuse Fire Engine!

Note to my good friend Dot: make sure you take the right road or you could find yourself in Syracuse, Utah!!!!

No visit to Salt Lake City would be complete without a visit to Temple Square, home of the Morman Church. The buildings are magnificent.

Tomorrow we travel to Yellowstone National Park and unfortunately, they don’t have the internet there so we will be out of contact with the rest of the human race until the 27th of May when we will, once again, regale you of all the great things we will have seen and the wonderful pictures Simon will have taken! Well he hopes!

As we are visiting Yellowstone earlier than last year, we are hoping for lots of different photos. It will be much colder and there may even be a touch of snow!!

See you next week!!

Hi Everyone, we are back!

Our trip will last four weeks from 18th May to 16th June.

Days 1 and 2 (18th and 19th June):

We, well I, didn’t have a very good start to our new adventure, after enjoying a very nice breakfast before our flight at Gatwick Airport, I had the misfortune to lose my footing in the restaurant, landed very heavily on my derriere and in the process managed to hurt my hand. One of my fingers is now a lovely shade of blue! My hand’s a little sore and painful but I’ll survive. I thank you in advance for your encouragement and support!

So, our first ‘port of call on this trip was Las Vegas. It was 95 degrees when we arrived so lovely and warm and we’ve tried a new hotel too, the Vdara, it’s a non-smoking, non-casino hotel and we were on the 51st floor.  Well, to say the view was magnificent is an understatement. Hopefully, Simon’s photo will show you just how good it was.

On our first gambling outing, Simon managed to win $800 (£500) on a Super Monopoly machine, so all in all, a good start. We will return here in three week’s time to complete our holiday. Let’s hope our winning streak continues then.

Day 3 (20th May):

We left Las Vegas this morning and at just the right time as the weather had cooled to 75 degrees and went to collect our hire car.  Those who followed us last year will remember that we didn’t have a very good time with our car hire!! Well, to cut a long story short, when we arrived at the car hire facility in Las Vegas we informed the agent that we didn’t want a repeat of last year’s fiasco and are now very pleased to report that Fred, the agent, went out of his way to ensure that we received the very best treatment and that we were given the best vehicle available to make up for their shortcomings last year and we are now driving a rather luxurious vehicle, a GMC Acadia. For those who are geeky about cars, just click on the link! Our Acadia is a black one.

En-route to Yellowstone National Park we’ve stopped over in Salt Lake City. This is our first visit here and the weather’s a little cooler than Las Vegas but first impressions are very favourable. Tomorrow we will be ‘doing the sights’.

We are home!

So, we are home, our adventures are at an end.

Our flight was uneventful and we arrived home to a beautiful sunny, hot day.

Natalie

Carol and Allan

Sue and Tim

We would like say a big ‘thank you’ to all of you who have faithfully followed our great adventure. Thank you to all those who left comments and let us know that we were not just here talking to ourselves. Our champion commenter was Nat (my Twilight buddy) who left a comment most days! Another ten points to you Nat for not getting bored with our gibber gabber. We had over 6,000 views of the blog, many, many more than we ever expected.

A big “thank you” to Carol and Allan for taking care of the homestead while we were away enjoying ourselves and another big “thank you” to Sue and Tim for taking us to and collecting us from, Heathrow. It was so lovely to see familiar faces when we landed.

We’ve met so many lovely people along the way and we look forward to the next time when we all meet again. So, until then, “it’s goodnight from me and it’s goodnight from him.” That will mean more to the Brits than to the Americans, so just so that you don’t feel left out, here’s a little video for you so you understand what I’m talking about.

So, until we meet again, ‘thanks’, and ‘goodbye’, it’s been a blast!

arrivederci, adeus, hejdå, 再见, zoi geen, zai jian, tot ziens, au revoir, tschüss, shalom, ciao, じゃね, anyeonghi gasyeo, poka/Пока, adios, hejdå, tạm biệt, vΘleft, farvel, ya sas, tókša akhé,

Well here we are, at the end of our great adventures! We’ve had the most fabulous time travelling the highways and byways of the great U.S.A.

The view of Newark Airport from our room at the Marriott Hotel

The cases!

We drove 13,183 miles in three different cars (you all know the story of Beasts 1, 2 and 3) and have seen things that will remain with us forever. When we think back over the amazing things we’ve seen it seems like we’ve been here forever, but on a daily basis, we feel as though we arrived only yesterday.

We are going home with two extra suitcases!! I don’t know what we have in those extra suitcases (well, I do really), but we don’t really remember buying half of it! I’m sure when we unpack back home there will be a few surprises in store.

We will post once more on the blog, tomorrow once we reach home, so join us then for the grand ‘farewell’.

So, today was the last ‘adventure’ day for us as tomorrow we fly home.

The South Pool

The Freedom Tower and South Pool

The Freedom Tower

Simon and Sandra

The North Pool

The Survivor Tree

St. Paul’s Chapel

Some of the tributes inside St. Paul’s Chapel

The ‘Bell of Hope’ at St. Paul’s Chapel

Two of New York’s finest

We visited the 9/11 Memorial also known as Ground Zero, in New York City. We travelled by AirTrain from the airport, then travelled on a double-decker overland train and last of all on a subway. It was different and with the help of one or two people we actually managed to buy the train tickets too!!

We expected it to be an emotional visit to Ground Zero and it certainly was. Because the area is still under construction we had to book tickets beforehand (Nat, big thanks for the info, without that we may not have been able to go into the Memorial today) and the organisation, as with all things American, was excellent.

There were people from all over the world and after all the adventures we have had on this trip, this was very sobering.

The Memorial consists of two pools set in the footprints of the original Twin Towers. Thirty-foot waterfalls, the largest in North America, cascade into the pools, each then descending into a centre void. The name of the victims are inscribed in bronze parapets around the pools.

Every day a white rose is placed in the names of those whose birthday it would have been that day.

For the 1000 people who do not have a final resting place, there are paving bricks set between the two pools and each one is dedicated to one of those people.

Reading all the names was very emotional but one of the things we found particularly upsetting was reading the names of some of the ladies who lost their lives that day and who were pregnant. Next to each of the ladies names was added “and her unborn child’.

The master plan for the site calls for a spiral of new towers around the eight-acre Memorial and will also include a Museum (due to open in 2014). In the atrium of the Museum stands two steel tridents – forked columns from the original North Tower.

On the site is a Callery pear tree known as the ‘Survivor Tree’. This tree was planted in the 1970s and stood on the original World Trade Centre plaza. After September 11th, workers found the damaged tree, reduced to an eight-foot-tall stump, in the wreckage of Ground Zero. It was nursed back to health in a New York City park and grew to be 30 feet tall, sprouting new branches and flowering in the springtime. In March 2010 the tree was uprooted by severe storms, but true to its name, it survived.

In December 2010, the tree was returned to the World Trade Centre site. It embodies the story of survival and resilience that is so important to the history of September 11th.

We then went on to St. Paul’s Chapel that stands very near to the 9/11 Memorial. The Chapel first opened in 1766 and survived ‘The Great Fire’ of 1776. President George Washington in 1789 attended service there on his Inauguration Day and it survived the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre while the buildings around the Chapel were either destroyed or very badly damaged.

During 2001 and 2002 it became home to an extraordinary round-the-clock volunteer relief ministry for recovery works at Ground Zero. Family and friends of those missing in the attack went to the chapel and left photographs and stories about their loved ones and people from all over America and the world visited the chapel to leave tributes and a lot remain their today.

Outside of the Chapel is a bell called the ‘Bell of Hope’. Accompanied by an honour guard of British police offers it was presented to the people of New York by the Lord Mayor of London and the Archbishop of Centerbury on September 11th 2002. It was created by the famous  Whitechapel Foundry in London which also cast America’s Liberty Bell and London’s Big Ben.

The bell is rung every September 11th, was rung on March 11th 2004, when trains were bombed in Madrid and on July 7th 2005 after the London tube (subway) and bus attacks. The ringing of the bell symbolises the triumph of hope over tragedy.

The house on the hill

I’ve been trying to get a shot of a Coca Cola truck all holiday – and here it is at last!

The Gang 2

Well, today we said our sad farewells to Dot, John and Kasha and travelled down to Palmerton to see our other great friends, Nat, Terry and Ty and we had the added bonus of also seeing Terry’s Mum, Judy and her husband Terry.

After a lovely dinner with Nat, Terry and Ty, (no, Si did not have ribs tonight, he had crab and shrimp cakes!) we have driven to Newark Airport to stay here in a hotel until we fly home on Wednesday.

Tomorrow we return Beast 3 to the rental company and our plan then is to go into New York City for the last item on our agenda, to visit the memorial at Ground Zero.

That pesky squirrel up at camp – he’s trouble!!

Dot and John’s Flag of Freedom

Dot and John’s dog, Kasha, she’s a sweetie

Home from home!! Dot and I on-line – wonder what we are looking at!!

We started off the day at camp where it rained again this morning but we have now travelled back to Dot and John’s home to prepare for our departure tomorrow when we head back to Newark, New Jersey.

On the way we will be stopping off to have dinner with our other great friends, Nat, her husband Terry and little son Ty who live in Pennsylvania. Nat completes our Twilight trio with myself and Dot.

I’ve spent part of today sorting and repacking the four suitcases we now have to take home and am pleased to report that we just about meet the weight requirements. I think it will take a few days when we get home to unpack them and sort everything out!!

House Finch

Red Cardinal

The Farm on the way to Hammondsport

Curtiss V8

Restoration project at the Curtiss Museum

Life on the lake

Racing on the lake (is that Si Smith we see?)

Life on the lake (again, is that Si Smith?)

Hammondsport church

The bandstand at Hammondsport

The monsoon!

The monsoon!

The day started cloudy and warm but this afternoon we’ve had rain. Luckily, we had just finished lunch and were back in the car before it started. We so enjoyed dinner last night at the Waterfront Restaurant that we went there for lunch again today. There was racing on the lake, Si Smith we think we saw you there!!

Our first visit of the day was to The Glenn H. Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. The museum covers local history with a focus on Glenn Curtis and boasts a large collection of Curtiss’ airplanes, motorcycles and many other items pertaining to the local Finger Lakes area such as boats and wine culture. Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation pioneer and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early as 1904, he began to manufacture engines for airships. In 1908 Curtiss joined the Aerial Experiment Association  (AEA), a pioneering research group, founded by Alexander Graham Bell at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia to build flying machines.

Curtiss made the first officially witnessed flight in North America, won a race at the world’s first international air meet in France, and made the first long-distance flight in the United States. His contributions in designing and building aircraft led to the formation of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, now part of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. His company built aircraft for the U.S. Army and Navy, and, during the years leading up to World War I, his experiments with seaplanes led to advances in naval aviation. Curtiss civil and military aircraft were predominant in the inter-war and World War II eras.

After visiting the Museum we went into Hammondsport, a small town that in 2011 had a population of 662 and in 2012 was voted ‘America’s Coolest Small Town’. Dot and I found two lovely small gift shops to spend some money in while Si spent time taking photographs.

We are currently trapped indoors as we are experiencing near monsoon rain! Have we been transported back to the Mother country?

I’m happy to report that Dot managed to ‘get her act together’ this morning and the hummingbirds are again enjoying their special water.

We had a camp fire last night (sadly the resident photographer didn’t take photos!) and were going to have another one tonight and eat s’mores (a traditional nighttime campfire treat consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two cracker pieces) but I don’t think that’s going happen as it looks as though the rains’s set in for the night.

Blue Jay

Blue Jay

Blue Jay

Mourning Dove

The Gang at the Waterfront Restaurant

Flaming Hurricanes

Sea Plane

Sea Plane landing on the lake

We’ve had a lazy day today! We’ve travelled up to Dot and John’s summer camp where the weather was beautiful and we were treated to Blue Jays and Mourning Doves. We would have seen the wonderful sight of Hummingbirds feeding but unfortunately, Dot slacked off this morning and didn’t prepare their special water. Dot’s response to that was that she was being the perfect hostess and taking care of Si and myself before looking after the needs of the wildllife!! Tonight, John treated us to a lovely dinner at the Waterfront Restaurant on Keuka Lake and we had most delicious cocktail, Flaming Hurricanes. The waitress surprised us all when she actually set light to the sugar cubes on top of the cocktails. People on the lake are able to pilot their boat and tie up to the dock, come in to the restaurant, eat and then sail off down the lake again. When we win the Lottery that’s what we are going to do. We also had one exciting moment when a sea plane landed just on the lake in front of us.