Grand Canyon: South Rim

When Chuck and I traveled to our new home in Virginia in 1972, we stopped to see the Grand Canyon. However, for the 20 hours that we were there, it was filled with fog, which is probably normal in late winter months. So 40+ years later, we decided to see it again (and really for the first time).

Driving from Albuquerque, we reached the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in the early afternoon and spent daylight hours there. It was beautiful, even though the view was hazy with smoke from major forest fires south of there.

Our first stop was the viewpoint where the 70-ft. high Watchtower is situated.

We ooh-ad and ahh-ed at the beautiful views and took some pictures. Then, I decided I wanted to climb the tower, while Chuck said he would wait for me below. That must have taken at least 30 minutes, because I had to look and take pictures at every window!

The first level of windows has a round room with paintings of Indians on the walls. These are in the Hopi Room which presents paintings by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie, who took the room's theme from the Hopi Snake Dance.

Viewpoint from the Watchtower

 The walkways up are narrow, with people trying to both ascend and descend. It got tight with me trying to make myself smaller than I am for people passing by! A few parts seemed very steep to me, so I was glad that Chuck had not attempted the climb.

The magnificence of the rock formations overwhelmed us, just as they have for centuries. It is hard to imagine early people seeing this, exploring and trying to find their ways with all these canyons and cliffs.  The tribes who have lived here are many, including the Haulapi, Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Paiute, and Havasupai. Go here for information about them.

Due to the smoky conditions, we decided not to stay late or to come back early in the morning before we drove off to Las Vegas.

Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico

I loved visiting the Acoma Pueblo so much with my friend Nancy almost ten years ago that I wanted Chuck to see it, too. He patiently took me there, which goes against his nature for back-tracking on any trip: We had to drive 55 miles west of Albuquerque (that night's destination) to go to Acoma before checking in to our hotel (and then drive back to Albuquerque).

View of Acoma Pueblo with Sky City Visitor's Center below

One must purchase a ticket to visit Acoma Pueblo and access to it is only allowed via their mini-buses. Dark clouds were approaching, and we were glad that we wore our windbreakers and brought an umbrella because rain started after our arrival on top.

From Wikipedia:
"The Pueblo lies on a 365-foot mesa, about 60 miles west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The isolation and location of the Pueblo has sheltered the community for more than 1,200 years, which sought to avoid conflict with neighboring Navajos and Apaches.


"Today, about 300 two- and three-story adobe buildings reside on the mesa, with exterior ladders used to access the upper levels where residents live. Access to the mesa is by a road blasted into the rock face during the 1950s. Approximately 30 or so people live permanently on the mesa, with the population increasing on the weekends as family members come to visit and tourists, some 55,000 annually, visit for the day."

It is a little disappointing to find homes that do not appear to be old still standing there, but the designs are similar to the originals. During the tourist season, more people live there, because tables with Acoma pottery are out for sale with the artists' and their families selling them.  

I found it very interesting that the houses are passed on through mothers and daughters, on and on. That is also how people know which family they belong to--through their mothers.

Only living tree on Acoma Pueblo

We were lucky to arrive at the church, where no picture-taking is allowed with its cemetery in front, before the downpour began.

When the rain had lessened, most of the people went back to the bus. About five ladies, including me, went back to some tables with a guide because we wanted to buy some pottery. I went all out, mostly because this was my second trip there, and bought a large pot from Terrance Chino, Sr. He made the other pots pictured, and the one I got is in the front.

Pots by Terrance M. Chino, Sr.

While it rained, I wrote him a check and we arranged for him to mail it to me. A week had passed after our return home, and it had not come. Last Friday I was surprised by a phone call from Terrance Chino, himself; asking me if the pot had arrived. In fact, it was delivered that very afternoon! I was surprised at how well he had wrapped it--triple wrapped in bubble wrap, taped together, and in two boxes with styrofoam pellets for protection. Plus, I was astounded at how it was more beautiful (and bigger!) than I had remembered. Amazingly, the artist enclosed a piece of notebook paper, with the different symbols drawn and described. I am thrilled with this personal connection with the artist.

 Poor Chuck had a stressful drive back to Albuquerque, because the thunderstorm accompanied us along the way.

Still, we were/are both glad that we visited Acoma (Sky City) Pueblo on May 23, 2014.

Las Cruces, New Mexico

On our trip, we followed Marfa and Fort Davis, TX with a stop in Las Cruces, NM to meet Sherry, a long time blogging friend.

Before meeting them at their new home, we walked around old Mesilla, NM, which began around 1848 and was the location for Billie the Kid's trial. It was fun to look in little shops and walk around the plaza. I took some pictures of doorways, reminding me of my friend Nancy doing this when we came to NM to celebrate our 55th birthdays.

It was fun to find a little bookstore packed with books, where I had to purchase a book, of course. I decided that I would purchase a book at every independent bookstore we visited. This time I found one that I probably would never have found anywhere else, entitled The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky by Ellen Maloy, who is an artist/naturalist. Her essays on nature, beauty and color from her travels around the southwest are lovely.

Mesilla Bookstore

I loved the store's decorations and its unique ceiling.

Further along our walk, I found a small church store, the Basilica of San Albino Gift Shop, where I found a unique nativity scene, which remains in the box they put it in when I purchased it. We took pictures of its entryway with the statue of Mary.

If you go to the link for the gift shop, you will see pictures of some of the items they sell, which range from the usual Roman Catholic gift shop products to works of local artists. Quite lovely.

Chuck took a picture of me there, which shows a nice smile but also the bulges that I have gained in the past months, especially on this most recent trip.








Then we had a nice visit with our new friends, followed by dinner they treated us with at a Mexican restaurant. They also took a really nice picture of Chuck and me.

Chuck and Jan

What a good beginning to our vacation!

Cat on the Rug

Our cat Gracie found the only rug on our new wooden floors today. We keep looking at rugs but haven't been able to find the area carpet for the living and dining rooms that we like and will fit within our budget!

Hot, Hotter, Hottest!

It's still only June, but Corpus Christi, TX has broken its record high temperatures for the past three days. Both on Monday and Tuesday, high temperatures were 105 degrees F.! On Monday, that temperature was 6 degrees hotter than the former record high temperature set. Today was another record, though slightly cooler--101 degrees F.. . . . . Even our dogs do not want to be outside in this heat.

(The heat must be throughout the mid-center of the USA, because my husband just told me that it is forecast to be 101 degrees in Chicago tomorrow!)

About a month ago our mesquite trees were radically trimmed. They shaded our driveway, and so the heat seems more intense without their bountiful greenery. You may recall that a bird made its nest in one of them in the spring; look here and you can see how abundantly green mesquite trees usually are. When I was shocked to see the stunted trees, husband CB blithely told me that they would grow back.

And now we are starting to see some leaves sprouting on those bare branches. Shade will eventually return, though probably not for this summer season.

This reminds me of the scripture I used when I was Lay Director for an Emmaus Walk in July 2001:

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green;
In the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 17: 7-8

I chose those verses because of the extreme Texas heat in the summer, when the Walk was scheduled. Those words remind me that we trust in God, despite what we see or experience. Like those bare mesquite branches pictured above, the future holds growth and renewal--all of which was occurring while I could not see it.

As I have written before, the absence of God is actually the presence of God. Reframing my interpretation of reality changes my outlook. Faith in growth/love/God brings me through the arid landscape to glimpses of greenery, which will continue to increase.

Literally, our mesquite trees are helped by our watering them and their familiar habitat of south Texas--and of course, the bright Texas sunshine! I am grateful for this and even more, for our air conditioning in our home!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And at RevGalPrayer Pals: A Place for Prayer today:

"Above all, trust in the slow work of God.  We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.  We would like to skip the intermediate stages.  We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.  And yet, it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability - and that it may take a very long time.  Above all, trust in the slow work of God, our loving vine-dresser."

- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The Nest in the Mesquite Tree

I was surprised that I could get such a good picture of the mother bird sitting on her nest in the mesquite tree that is on the side of our house. It is hard to see her and the nest, with all the leafy branches obstructing the view of her well-hidden abode.The nest is 10-12 feet high. We think she may be a kind of dove, though not one with the plumage of the doves I saw at Lebh Shomea.

Doves at Lebh Shomea Retreat Center

Lebh Shomea is a silent retreat center south of Corpus Christi where I live--in Sarita, TX. "Lebh Shomea" means "listening heart." Since 1973 it has been a retreat center with single dwellings and rooms available in the old Sarita Kennedy mansion, all managed by Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) order, with Father Kelly Nemeck being the main representative of OMI there.


I spent three days (Monday-Thursday) there this week; two with friends from my Renovare Group and one on my own. I came home yesterday afternoon.

The silence was deep and wonderful. Days seemed longer, with more opportunity to pay attention to God. I sat in silence much more frequently. On Monday and Tuesday nights, my friends and I sat together in centering prayer in the community center, which is near the dovecote. It was lovely sitting in silence, with the coos of doves in the background. I am grateful that I was newly invited into daily meditation by the Holy One.

One morning I was trying to take pictures of the doves through the screen of the dovecote, when one of the workers there approached me and asked if I would like to go in with the doves! He (Joe) found the key and let me go in and see them more closely in the environs that a former hermit Sister Maria had planned and cared for.

Formerly, Sister Maria was my spiritual director, but when she came down with Alzheimer's, that was discontinued. Then she disappeared, and I wondered what had happened to her. . . .but I never asked anyone. I asked Joe, and he told me that Sister Maria is in a nursing home in Kingsville and is very happy. He and his wife visit her, and she remembers them. She has formed a friendship with two other older ladies, and they do everything together, even sometimes getting intro trouble!

The news and the surprising opportunity to enter the dovecote were gifts, all because Joe took the time to notice and pay attention just as I had the time be present to those moments. How each of us wants to be noticed!

Here are some of my pictures of the doves:

Moscow, Russia

Painting on the wall of the Russian United Methodist Seminary in Moscow.

With only one day to tour Moscow, we visited the Methodist Seminary in Moscow and toured the city on a bus on Nov. 3, 2011. Read about the seminary here.

This building is the Russian United Methodist Seminary.

This was right before a holiday (Unity Day) and so the traffic was quite congested. It turned out that Red Square was closed to the public, because groups were rehearsing for the upcoming military parade for the following Monday:

I later learned that:
"Thousands of Russian soldiers and military cadets marched across Red Square to mark the 70th anniversary of a historic World War II parade.The show honored the participants of the Nov. 7 1941 parade who then headed directly to the front to defend Moscow from the Nazi forces. The parade Monday involved about 6,000 people, many of them dressed in World War II-era uniforms."

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Russia-marks-anniversary-of-1941-military-parade-2256020.php#ixzz1dp7k1Rfc

We took the metro (subway) to the train station where we met our bus and got our luggage. The artistry of the metro stations was amazing, with statues, mosaics, interesting ceilings. In the Revolution Square metro station, there are bronze statues depicting Soviet workers. One has a dog that is reputed to give you good luck if you rub its nose, which we all did:

Then we boarded a train from Moscow to Vologda, a trip that took us almost 8 hours. We slept in cars which had four bunk beds and arrived at 5:30 am the next day.

Another Dog Adventure!

Here is the higher and improved gate for our driveway, which CB built yesterday. Notice the gap on the right, so I can easily reach the latch from the outside!


Although CB boarded up the bottom of our backyard fence back in July 2010 (pictured here) , he did not do that behind the bushes. This morning, Cisco disappeared--and when I went to investigate where he had been spending a lot of time recently, I found the missing board as pictured below. Cisco loves to dig and discover rotten boards that can be chewed and pushed away. Luckily, Maisie could not fit through that hole. Plus, Cisco comes when he is called, so he did not go far.

Now CB is outside, repairing this part of the fence. I'm glad he is so handy at fixing and building things.

Over the Fence!

This is just a random funny picture of dogs jumping a fence, but it gives you an idea of the way Maisie jumped over our gate two days ago. Ever since we moved into this house, we've had a rolling 4-ft. high fence across the driveway--to keep our young children and their dogs safe. Now it's just to keep our three dogs in the backyard.

On Thursday CB and I came home to find Maisie gone. Remember she's the yellow lab mix (with hound!) that was left in our yard the day after Christmas two years ago? There was a message on the answering machine from our postman, telling us that he'd found our dog some blocks away. Finally, we got her back and learned that she had leaped the fence after Cisco had gotten through a hole nearby--Maisie couldn't fit through that opening and so followed Cisco running off!

The quick remedy CB found was to nail boards on top of the gate so it would deter Maisie from jumping until today, when he began building a newer and higher gate.

Today CB is building the new gate in this wonderful weather that a cold front brought to us--it is only 68 degrees F. (on Thursday it got up to 92!).

Yellowstone!

Bison walking towards our car on a road at Yellowstone on Sunday!

The only wild animals we saw during our two days at Yellowstone National Park were bison, a few elk, and some ducks. It was a little scary to have this bison walk towards our car though. Luckily, he walked right past it on the driver's side.

Since the only time I had been to Yellowstone before was in 1959, I only remembered Old Faithful. I don't think we saw much else, probably because 50+ years ago there had not been so much construction and attention to tourists' access to the many geysers and hot spots.
I took over 200 pictures during my two days there and hope to post about some of the amazing and weird sites when I get home to a regular computer. (AND I still have to post about my April/May trip to Spain!)

On our long drive to northern Montana, we had the first rain on this entire trip. Going along Swan Lake, we were reminded of the drives in northwest WA state, with the gray, close skies and drizzle. Tomorrow we will drive through Glacier National Park to reach Canada for the next two days.

By Friday we will be in Bellingham, WA to visit CB's parents and family.

Spring in Corpus Christi, Texas

Bright, bright green leaves on the mesquite trees herald spring here.

Spring in south Texas is short and sweet; it is almost over already. The temperatures are so much like summer-days in Bellingham, WA that I feel deja vu. But now the humidity keeps rising, as do the temperatures; sadly, few cold fronts are getting through--soon they won't at all.

So before going to Spain tomorrow, I wanted to post some Texas spring pictures, which I have now deleted from my camera (along with Avery's) so I'll have a lot of room for all the images I record in Spain!

New green leaves on my live oak tree 2010 Christmas present from my kids!

Another sign of spring here is live oak pollen.
It piles up on roads, sidewalks, driveways, and
other places like the angel statue friends gave me for my 50th birthday.

My Christmas poinsettia is also going to be my "Easter poinsettia."

Soon it will be too hot for pansies to grow here.
They are spring/winter plants in south Texas.

Maisie excitedly looks for birds and squirrels,
as well as geckos in the other direction.

CB's tomato plants, which are the new ones, proteced by two fences.
Maisie kept digging them up.

Rare icicles in Corpus Christi, TX

This is the observable ice in our yard at noon today. Highly unusual for Corpus Christi, TX! My son in Austin and friends of his in Fort Worth have posted pictures of inches of snow on Facebook, but we only had ice and some sleet here.

The sun has just come out, so it seems warmer, even with the temperature at 31 degrees F. When the wind was blowing and the skies were gray yesterday, it seemed much colder at the same temperature.

Yes, Texans are wimps. Even though we lived in NJ and RI in the 1990's, those cold temperatures are long-ago and faint memories. It is nice to see the sun out again, knowing there will be only a few more days of freezing temperatures--and way too soon I will be complaining about the HEAT!

Gracie, all warm and cozy, on my winter coat today.

Getting old is no fun

Baillie by the new couch

Baillie is 14+ years old. She is blind and deaf and gets confused at times. In the past few days she has gotten lost in our backyard. One day she was wandering around in a corner, bumping into a tree stump. I finally had to pull her back to the deck, where she realized her location and could navigate herself to the backdoor. However, today she went in the wrong direction from the backdoor and fell off the (low) deck. I had to guide her back.

Usually Baillie walks tentatively and slowly around. She also sleeps a great deal of each day. She still seems happy, unlike our last cocker spaniel Bagel who whimpered in one place all day in the kitchen, because she could not see or hear. Bagel was put to sleep as she could not cope with her blindness and deafness. I am glad that Baillie is more cheerful.

A BIG Mistake!

Today the sectional couch we ordered on Sept. 24 was delivered.
Look at it!

We needed it to fit 68 inches of wall space, and it was 10 inches too long! The images we were given to fit into our space on paper indicated that those two pieces would be 26 + 42 inches. We were never told that those were the inside measurements.

Much waiting and many phone calls ensued, with the two delivery men standing around, chatting amiably with us, for 1 1/2 hours. It was finally determined that the end piece would be returned and a new long piece equaling 68 inches in total will be manufactured. We just hope it will not take another two months. . . .

This is what we have now, which looks much better than it did.

Cisco and Maisie sniffing the new couch

The dogs have been sniffing the couch and the various cushions. We hope that Maisie will not climb up on the sofa, as she did with the old love seat.

Here is guilty looking Maisie, who is trying to get down before I see her.

My mother helped me pick out that love seat when we moved into this house in 1987. It is now sitting in BJ's old room, awaiting MJ having her own apartment in fall 2011. (Trinity University requires its students to live on-campus for the first three years of college.)

We also hope that Maisie will not chew and rip the new couch as she did with the above pictured love seat. Go here if you want to see what damage she inflicted upon it.