FALL COLORS AT OAK CREEK CANYON

Our annual fall trip to view the turning of the leaves was timed just right. Friends Kay and Asghar Shariff accompanied us for the day trip up the canyon.

Birthday Cake

Ellen made Larry's favorite chocolate cake with fluffy icing. We had a delicious dinner at Howard and Jennifer's house. We kept relighting the candles and I tried my best to get the right moment with the candles lit but.....I think Brayden was a little puzzled by that.

LARRY WILL DO THE BIRTHDAY DANCE TODAY!

Happy Birthday Larry! Here we can see what a great sense of humor you have. But here you are in Pennysylvania about 1968 on Blue Mountain with that little curl and those dreamy eyes, um um.


Brothers Bill on the left and Bob on the right, cousin CJ under the hat.

I love the picture of you and brothers Bob and Bill with you on the pony. The middle photo is 1946 and Bill wasn't born until December. Here you are in the yard at the Canterbury house.

Now you are at the beach with grandmother Ella and aren't you cute in the sailor outfit?

ROTC was a big part of your life and once again Mr. McDreamy! I love you!

Tomorrow I'll add birthday party pictures.

Riparian trek and October fun

It's been great fun getting out the old Halloween costumes I made for our kids so long ago. The grand kids tried them on and I could not resist getting Bruce involved. The kids have been making witches, pumpkins and spiders to take home.

We re-visited the Gilbert park only to discover the area is much more extensive than we knew. I think Larry did walk all paths this time but I got bogged down waiting for the right photographic moment.

A cormorant bird rewarded me by popping up out of the water with a fish in his beak. His appearance was a great surprise. Larry's photo of an egret family is great!

I did see a greater variety of birds this time. The pair of lovebirds were not as skittish as others. They were fun to watch. A few blossoms were still around even though it's October. The purple prickly pear cacti always catch my attention.

This hummer isn't very colorful but he sure posed pretty for me. The dragonflies were abundant that day. It's hard for me to capture their picture but this one kept coming back to this stalk, allowing me to get "ready"!

CAMPING AT TOROWEAP IN OCTOBER

This experience was both successful and disappointing at the same time. Toroweap at GCNP is on the north rim west of the popular visitor location. It is 400 miles from home as opposed to the 240 mile trip to the south rim where we usually go. The extra miles result from having to cross the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry north of Flagstaff. This is the bridge across and head west and when you get to Fredonia you head south on a 60 mile dirt road. The last 7 miles are marked "primitive" on the park's signpost.

Our last trip to this remote location was in our minivan and the door open bell malfunctioned and ding donged the whole 60 miles in and out. So this time we have the 4 wheel drive vehicle Larry has always envisioned but the road is poorer so...the trip in took the same 2 hours! We got there at the tail end of sunset and were hoping for sunset the next day to catch the whole thing.

I love the natural vegetation at the park and never tire of seeing the views. There is a volcano which erupted 4 times and blocked the river. The photo on the left shows the smooth looking result of the lava flows.

The camping area has 9 campsites, first come, first serve. We needed to get past this rock formation to get to the next available. I abandoned Larry, chicken that I was. Another camper played traffic controller and the Honda came through.

The next morning was beautiful and we spent time on the rim which has no guardrail. You can stand on the edge and look down 3000 feet.

While waiting for Larry to finish his photo session I amused myself farther back from the rim. Remember, I'm a chicken! This Canyon Wren sat down beside me and brushed my sleeve but he realized I had no food. He did stay close by just in case. Then he explored the inside of our car through the open window. I found a bird soaring over his domain. "get out of here, you humans" he squawked.

Now we come to the sad part of our trip. Clouds had gathered and looked threatening. After the first sprinkling of raindrops we start to wonder what it would be like trying to drive out tomorrow if there were a deluge this afternoon. Would driving out be possible? After all, one spot of the road was 2 feet of loose sand which was fun dry but wet? Then the clay dirt sections which when dry are okay, but wet? And....now it's raining on our tent...we must be getting elderly...no sense of adventure by living on the edge.

We packed up and headed out. The misty landscape is still another beautiful sight. That's the beauty of the Canyon. What you see is always changing but always beautiful. We met a camper while we were there who worked as a mule wrangler on the trail down the canyon about 30 years ago. (Ha! He looked older than us). Then I remembered we rode down the canyon 40 years ago on the mules and it was the experience of a lifetime. I remember many details of that ride as if it were yesterday. Hmmm, we'd really have to work on ourselves to do that again!