We're Home

Well, we're home. We got back yesterday afternoon. The kitties were happy to see us - BL meowed at us for awhile, and Snooze hid for a bit, but they were happy in the end.

Coming into Washington, we wanted to stop in Sunnyside to try out the ice cream at the Dairygold Dairy Bar, but they had a fire alarm going off and were closed.

Over the I-90 pass, we were greeted with the beautiful rain and clouds. It was a welcome relief after being in record high 90's and 100's lately.

We returned the car today, and Ray goes back to work on Wednesday. So below, are a few of pics of the weather on I-90 as we came home:






Ah....beautiful rain!

Salt Lake City, UT

Today, we went to Temple Square, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Museum of Church History and Art, and the Beehive House in downtown Salt Lake City. Above is a pic of the Salt Lake Temple and the Tabernacle. This was taken from the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

As we were walking by the temple, there was a wedding about to take place. You can see the tiny bride and groom (not really tiny, but you get an idea of scale) in the doorway posing for their pictures.

Above is the Beehive House, home of Brigham Young. The tour included history of the house and family, and was given by two young missionaries. One was from Mexico, and one was from Tonga. They were very enthusiastic, and even sang a song for us at the end.


Above is a picture of the lobby of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was once a hotel, The Hotel Utah, and is really grand. The lobby is amazing and HUGE!

We also got to go into a part of the Tabernacle. They had someone practicing on the organ, so we were able to hear that, too.

The Museum of Church History and Art was pretty cool, too. They had a lot of displays of the early pioneers, and a special exhibition on women in the church that I enjoyed.

After touring downtown, we decided we wanted to get going home. We made it to La Grande, OR tonight, and are going home tomorrow. Traveling has been fun, but I'm ready to go home. I want to see the kitties and do some laundry!

Nighttime in Salt Lake City, UT

This is the view at night from the balcony in our room at the Plaza.

Pleasant Grove & Salt Lake City, UT

We drove up to Pleasant Grove this afternoon to see my aunt and uncle. Above are pics of the canyon on the way there...love the pretty colors!

My Aunt Maggie and Uncle Art have two whippets, Sadie and Patch. They are so adorable! Sadie got to come in and visit with us (Patch got to visit a little later, too). Above is a pic of Sadie. She was cold, so Art put the pillow on her so she could snuggle and get warm. I wanted to take her home with me!

It was good to see my relatives again, I haven't seen them in years. The house was just as I remembered it, and Art and Maggie are as young as ever (I always thought of them as my "cool" aunt and uncle!)

On the way out, they told us about the Purple Turtle, which is *the* place for milkshakes and ice cream in Pleasant Grove. As it was 99 degrees outside (with humidity!), we decided to stop and get some milkshakes. I could not decide...there were so many flavors. I finally got one fresh peach (real chunks of fresh peach! mmmm!) and one licorice one, and Chloe and I shared them. They give you one cup with the milkshake, and one cup with the "leftover" from the blender. They were heaven! Thanks for the tip!

After visiting my family, we went to University Mall in Orem so I could go to the Archiver's there. I've only been to one other Archivers (in the Mall of America), and was looking forward to doing a little looking around. Ray and Chloe let me have an hour in there, and I found some stamp sets that I've been looking for, so I was pretty happy.

We ate at the Chick-fil-A in the mall after we met up again, since we had never been to one, but have heard good things about them. Well, we decided that the chicken strips were the BEST chicken strips we have ever had (and you all know that Chloe KNOWS her chicken strips!) The Chick-fil-A sauce was pretty tasty, too.

We wanted to visit Salt Lake City tomorrow, so Ray checked Travelocity and scored an excellent room a block over from Temple Square.

So we're in the Plaza Hotel on Temple Square tonight. Below are the pics from our balcony:

Arches National Park, UT

After dinner tonight, we went up to Arches National Park. Above is a pic that Ray took of "Delicate Arch", the famous one that is used on the Utah State license plates.

The park is amazing - all of the colors (which don't show well in photographs), the humongous chunks of rock towering above you, the shapes of the stones. We were pointing out shapes in the rocks, saying: "that one looks like Nefertiti", or "that one looks like a dragon".

We drove through the park, stopping to take the small hikes up to the view points. Below is what they call "Park Avenue", as it looks like a row of buildings.

Below is in the "Windows" section. We got there as the sun was going down, so there was some spectacular color.

The one below is called the "Balanced Rock".

Chloe and Ray help out the Parks Dept. to keep the rock balanced:

Dead Horse Point State Park, UT

Today we went to Dead Horse Point State Park. There are several view points along the way up to the state park, and also after you go into the park. The website says the fee is $7, but it was $10 - don't know if it's summer rates, or what.

Above is a pic of the "Monitor and the Merrimac Buttes" (the Merrimac is the rock on the left), named after civil war ships of the same name. Although the war has been over for many years, the buttes here are still locked in battle.

Below is a pic of Chloe and me taken by Ray. That edge was scary! You can't really see it in the picture, but there is a sandstone edge that drops off...no guard rails here! In the lower left of the picture, you can see the road that we came in on.

Below are pictures of the view from the top of Dead Horse Point. It was truly amazing. Ray compared it to the Grand Canyon, and said it was very much like it.

You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.


While we were hiking around the trail at the top, we saw lizards and evidence of small mammals. Not much else as far as wildlife goes, but we were told that most of the wildlife is nocturnal.

It was also very hot today, but it didn't seem that hot. Ray asked me what temperature I thought it was, I said about 80 degrees. He told me it was in the 90's, and was expected to get up to 98 degrees today.

We're staying here another night in Moab, and are going to take a trip up to Pleasant Grove tomorrow afternoon to visit with my Aunt Maggie and Uncle Art.

Moab, UT

We traveled from Four Corners to Moab, UT today. The scenery was amazing...and of course, pictures just don't do it justice. We were constantly saying "Oooh, look at that!" and "Wow!" on our way through the canyons.

Above is a picture of Wilson's Arch, one of the many pictures I got of the landscape.



Bunny!

We are staying at the River Canyon Lodge in Moab tonight. Moab seems to be a mecca for sporty europeans, judging by the people we saw in town and in the lodge today! This town has a lot of outdoor equipment rentals, and it looks like there's a lot to do here.

Four Corners, NM, AZ, CO, UT

We got to Four Corners today around 3:30 pm, then stood in line and took turns getting our picture taken standing on the "spot". It's a very small place, filled mostly with vendors from the Navajo Nation, selling fry bread and souvenirs.

Below is the platform in between the states:

Little Rock, AR to Amarillo, TX

Today was a travel day, as we want to get to Albuquerque tomorrow. We stayed in Little Rock, AR, last night, and we're staying in Amarillo, TX tonight.

ps - "Everything's bigger in Texas" is apparently not true, as all of the hotels we looked at around here only have full size beds, not queen size.

Above is a pic of some of the scenery as we were going through Oklahoma.

The pic above is of some wind power generators we passed in Oklahoma. They were HUGE! You could see them from far away. Some were right up near the freeway.


THIS is not something you want to see coming at you while driving on the freeway! It was disconcerting, at the least, to see this rig coming right at you, only to realize it is being towed by another. That'll wake you up!

Graceland - Memphis, TN

We drove to Memphis, TN, today and stopped at Graceland. We had to wait a long time in the heat for the tour, but I think it was worth it. Above is the mansion as you go in. Graceland was built in 1939 by a newly married couple, Dr. Tom Moore and his wife, Ruth, whose Aunt Grace gave them the land for their wedding.

It was bought by Elvis in 1957 for $100,000. He lived there until his death in 1977, and is buried on the estate, along with his parents and grandmother.

I didn't realize that he was only 42 when he died, and that he was only married to Priscilla for about 5 years.

The house has 23 rooms, but not all are open to the public. There is also a racquetball court, meditation garden where the Presley family is buried, and some other outside areas to tour.

Above is the living room, with its 15-foot white sofa.

This is the "jungle room" which has green shag carpeting on the floor, and on the ceiling.

We sprung for the tickets that included a tour of the car museum. Above was his Mother's favorite car - he called it "Gladys' car", even though she didn't drive.


And here is a pic that Ray took of me and Chloe, with our tickets to Graceland, waiting for our tour number to be called. I think Chloe enjoyed the tour, too, even though she is looking a little smirky here. LOL!

Such Cuteness

Ray took over the driving today, so I was able to turn around and get a pic of Chloe sleeping in the back seat with her puppy, Gold. Awwwww!

Frontier Airlines...Paging Passenger Morris Day...

We met up with Ray today at our hotel in Nashville. While on the way here, he met up with Morris Day and the Time (I love that band!) at SeaTac airport. Pic left of Morris Day (center) was sent by Ray on his iPhone this morning.

Check out the tall man (barely in the pic) on the left of the pic - he was in the entourage, and Ray gave him his exit row seat so he could have more leg room.

Ray said he was very impressed with Frontier, and had a nice flight over.

Rest Areas - VA and TN

The rest areas in Virginia are very nice (above). I had to take a pic of them because they were just so much prettier than the ones in other states. They have picnic areas, pet walking areas, and of course, the restrooms are in a little brick building with nice architectural detail.

Not to be outdone, the first rest area we came to in Tennessee was pretty nice, too (below):


We stopped for the night in Kingsport, TN, in a little Best Western. Tomorrow we meet up with Ray (yay!), who is flying into Nashville. I'm so excited!

Vera Bradley

Yesterday, Chloe and I stopped for a McD's break, and the McD's happened to be WAY off the freeway. No problem... we wanted to get some canned pop at the local grocery store for Chloe too, and hey! there was a Hallmark store nearby so we stopped in to see what Webkinz they have out here.

In this Hallmark in Berks County, PA, they had a TON of these Vera Bradley bags. I had heard of them, but they're not popular in Seattle, so I had never seen one (that I know of). Certainly had never seen a bunch of them for sale.

The saleslady said they are VERY popular around there. In fact, while I was standing there, looking at the 40% off shelves, a family came in and the Mom bought a bag for herself, and her two girls got something too.

The saleslady and I looked around for something that would work as a laptop bag, since I've been looking for one that doesn't "look like a laptop bag". We found this messenger bag, and it was 40% off (discontinued print). I was very happy with it, and have started actually just using it for a purse. Some of the best souvenirs are ones that you can actually use every day.

Below is a pics of the shelves and shelves full of the Vera Bradley bags:

Martinsburg, WV

We took a short break along the way to stop off and do a little (very little - it was HOT) sightseeing. We ended up in Martinsburg, WV and took a little walking tour before getting back on the road.

The building is the former courthouse and post office, it's now an Arts Center. The town was gorgeous with old brick and stone buildings, I wish we would have been able to take more time to see it. As it was, it was pretty exhausting trying to get around in the muggy heat.

After doing the traveling today, we ended up in Harrisonburg, VA, and are staying overnight in a Hampton Inn.

Chocolate World - Hershey, PA

We went early this morning to Chocolate World, in Hershey, PA. Got there before they even opened. There was a walking KitKat bar that Chloe hid from (she does NOT like character mascots now that she's not 4 years old), and it was getting warm (got up in the 90's today). But finally, they opened and we took the chocolate tour and got in some shopping.

Here are the singing cows that help make the milk that Hershey uses in their production of milk chocolate. They said on the tour that one of the reasons that Milton Hershey picked this area was because of the abundance of farms with cows.

Cows are always funny.

Chloe and I both thought this was cool - the readerboard of the day's production so far. Keep in mind that this was about 9:40 am!


Chloe and I went shopping in their little marketplace and got some souvenirs for her Dad and Tina, along with a Hershey pillow for her and some *magnets* (!) for Tj at work. LOL. Chloe also got a really cool mikshake, it was vanilla with Reese's bits. She really liked it.

I enjoyed the tour, and it wasn't too much for us to do. I've been really tired the last 2 days, and this was nice to get out, see some stuff, but then get back on the road.