Simple Pilgrimage

I am writing this blog on July 4. We left home June 28 at 4:30AM and returned July 4 at 2:30AM. It was a great trip with our friends Jim and Rosemary Kestle. Donna and I took more than 700 pictures which we will gladly show to anyone willing to watch them. We also have a number of videos to watch, including a herd of Elk grazing along side the road, the float trip on the Colorado River, and the helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.

To paraphrase John Wesley Powell, an early explorer and writer about the Grand Canyon, words cannot express and pictures cannot portray the beauty and grandeur of the Grand Canyon - it is something that has to be seen. The following pictures are offered to share special highlights of the visit.

First, the proof we were there and didn’t buy all these pictures, which would have cost a lot less money by the way - but not been nearly the fun!

Next, the canyon just before sundown on the first day of the visit. The picture was taken from Grandview Point, which is near the east end of the National Park.

We liked Grandview Point (the name says it all) so much, we returned at sunrise (5AM) on day two.

Our next great adventure was a float trip down the Colorado River from the base of the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona. This was not in the Grand Canyon but the Glen Canyon has its own grandeur. The air temperature at the bottom of the canyon was 103F where we stopped for lunch, with hardly a cloud in the sky. The water was 47F, which was refreshing for a short time when wading but painful quickly thereafter.

So far, we have shared pictures from ground level and on the river - now we have the canyon from the air in a helicopter! Most of the flight was at 7,500 feet elevation, which is about 1,000 feet above the elevation of the canyon rim. The following picture is of the east end of the canyon where the river enters the National Park area.

The final two days of the trip were spent visiting Sedona, AZ, which is famous for the red rocks and the beauty of the desert. The rock formations are right in your face. This picture was taken from a neighborhood street right at the base of the formation.

The trip was to see the Grand Canyon but it turned out to be so much more. Phoenix lived up to its reputation - the outside temperature reading on the car computer read 112F when we returned to the airport to come home. About 50 miles south of the Grand Canyon South Rim is the town of Williams. Bob Robertson had spoken highly of it so we stopped there going and coming back. The bus trip to Page to take the float trip took us through the Navajo Indian Reservation, which was empty desert. The bus stopped at a neat trading post in the middle of no where - lots of native crafts. Sedona has great restaurants (unlike the Grand Canyon area) and places to shop, as well as the beautiful sights to see. On the way to Phoenix to come home, we visited the town of Jerome - a booming copper mining town in the 1950’s that became a ghost town until hippies and artists moved in. It is now the home of artists and was a neat place to visit.

This was a great trip - we’d love to show and tell you more about it!

Posted on Friday, July 4, 2008 at 11:18 AM

I don’t have any big travel plans for this summer. I made a trip to Baltimore, will head to Narrows for a weekend or two and if I’m lucky I’ll get to go to the beach for a day. But, while I’m spending most of my summer in my inflatable kiddie pool in my backyard, my friends, family & co-workers are traveling the world. Here is a list of some places they are visiting or have visited this summer:

Ireland

London

Italy

Paris

Spain

California

Seattle

Vegas

Milwaukee

OBX

Va Beach

Cancun

Grand Canyon

Canada

Belize

Texas

Savannah

Smoky Mountains

Posted on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 10:14 AM

Along with some friends, I took Friday off of work and we all headed up to Baltimore for a fun-filled weekend. We ate good food, drank, went to a concert, shopped, played in a pool, drank some more and spent more time playing in the pool. We treated each other to dinner, and made each other breakfast. We laughed a lot and also talked about uncertainties we have about our future. It was a wonderful weekend that left me wanting a little more time with my friends.

Sadly, it was the last full weekend we will have before our friends Anne & Nate (aka Nanne) move away. Lately they have become a very important part of my life. In the past I have struggled with recognizing the characteristics of people around me that are positively impacting me. But, with Anne & Nate it is impossible for me not to see their influence on me. Genuine and secure in who they are, I long for more time with them. More time to create memories with them, and to selfishly see how the friendship I have with them will fashion me into a better person/friend.

We have one more week with them before they leave Richmond. One more week to create some more memories. One more week to submerge myself in a friendship that I can never imagine not having.

Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 at 7:42 PM

For several months we have been hosting a weekly potluck dinner on Thursdays. Each week we pick a theme and friends come over to sometimes cook, and then devour food and drink. We share recipes with each other, introduce each other to new foods and friends, we drink, we laugh, we share life’s struggles and we eat a lot of dessert. As a group we’ve celebrated a lot of birthdays, marriages, job changes, and many other happy life moments together. In less than a year our potluck dinners have formed a family.

Last night our potluck family showed their extreme kindness and generosity by giving us a composter! I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to get a composter! For months we’ve been saving up stinky food scraps in a tupperware container and then transferring them to a trash can outside. I don’t know how they did it. For weeks they have secretly been planning this, pooling their money and waiting for it to be shipped. I’m not surprised that they would do something like this because they are some of the kindest people I have ever met. What started out as a weekly dinner has grown into something much more - we are a family.

UPDATE:

I have a few minutes to share with you some details about the amazing NatureMill Automatic Indoor Composter we received. Let me use some pictures to describe it.

This is what it looks like, note the cute tray that it dumps the miracle dirt into:

This amazing composter can create fresh fertilizer in 2 weeks :

This is what it can look like in a cabinet, but we don’t have white cabinets and our kitchen will never be this clean.

And, this is what my garden will look like after the composter creates the most amazing dirt known to man, and a cute little gardening lady:

Posted on Friday, June 27, 2008 at 4:51 AM

Our good friends Scott and Jan had their baby last night! Lucy Janelle Wiese was born last night at 6:05 pm weighing 6 pounds 9 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. We went to see them tonight and she is adorable. Mom was a champ and was doing great. That is a picture of the happy new parents. Seriously, have you ever seen a couple look better after just having a baby?!?! And here is one of me holding her:

Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 at 6:26 PM

One of the cutest, and sweetest couples I know had their first child yesterday. I got to meet Lucy tonight. She slept most of the time I held her, but woke up just in time for a few family pictures.

As you can tell from the picture, Momma Jan is doing great. I don’t understand how Jan looks so “fresh” after having a baby.

Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 at 6:21 PM

A few weeks ago I went to Narrows to watch history in the making….Landon started playing sports. Here are a couple shots from his first t-ball game.

Of course his sisters were there to support him….and look stylish.

Posted on Sunday, June 22, 2008 at 3:42 PM

For those of you on the edge of your seats waiting for more information about birds in our backyard in Reisterstown, MD, here’s what you’ve been waiting so patiently for…

The Bluebirds built a nest and laid 5 eggs but abandoned the nest - none of them hatched. Why? We have no idea but here are the eggs.

The birds moved to another birdhouse in the front yard but it’s hard to tell what they are doing. We think they are newlyweds and haven’t learned what they should be doing. We are watching them as time goes by…

The biggest surprise this year are the hummingbirds. Usually we have one feeder that works pretty well. This year we put out several and we have hummingbirds everywhere. It’s been fun to watch.

We also see Baltimore Orioles in the trees but we haven’t had any luck attracting them close enough to get good pictures.

Posted on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 3:45 PM

My good friend Nate has been on me for a little while to get out on the court with him. So yesterday we went down to the court here on the hill and played some ball. I didn’t embarrass myself too bad so I guess it was a successful first couple games back. I haven’t played a game of basketball in quite a few years, maybe even since we got married(almost 6 years now for those counting).

I was amazed that my body still thought it could do the stuff it used to be able to do. My vertical leap is a foot or more less than it used to be. I’d still get over to the correct spot on help defense but when I jumped to contest the shot it always made it’s way over my hand. That was a sad thing for someone who once blocked 26 shots in a game. And my jump shot was horribly inconsistent. For every one I knocked down there was two that weren’t even close.

But overall it felt good to get to play a game I used to love and obsess over. Once my body recovers from yesterday I think I’ll try to get out there again. Hopefully I’ll slowly be able to work my way back into form. Stay tuned for further recaps.

Posted on Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 5:35 AM

I can’t believe it’s been 14 months since I’ve seen him or heard his voice. Even harder to believe is that I still have years left without him.

Posted on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 11:53 AM