Only one year since her last visit, and Jutta was already coming back. I’m surprised, as I was a bit uncertain how she felt about spending the two weeks with me and my needling ways. My feelings were that Jutta’s trip to America was short and expensive, so she’d better get all she could from it. Jet lag could be dealt with when she returned to Germany. As this visit was planned between Stephanie and Klaus in Germany and us, we learned that Jutta had had a great time and was looking forward to a return. We invited her to stay longer; how long is now lost in time.

Speaking of things lost, we are not even certain that the photos being shared from this and the 1996 vacation are sorted correctly, as none of the images were dated, and I cannot find any notes or itineraries to verify any details. Maybe after we get back the photo albums that returned to Germany with Jutta, we’ll be able to return to these ancient blog entries and repair them. Those albums include notes on every photo. But for now, here goes into trying to yank memories from a brain that experienced these days nearly 24 years ago. The first thing to note is that my mother-in-law and I have a new rapport, as I figure if she wanted to come back, I couldn’t be all that bad. I’m guessing that this was a day trip to Sedona while Jutta was recovering from jetlag. Seeing she’d be here longer, I was going to cut her a break before we headed out on some multi-thousand-mile road adventure.

Back in 1994, when Caroline and I were married at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on a visit from Germany, Jutta did not accompany us. So, on this trip, we did the next best thing and took her to Vegas, stayed in the pyramid at the Luxor, and visited the place we were married.

From there, we headed up to Utah to bring Jutta to yet another National Park; this time, it was Zion. As you can tell, the ice is fully thawed between Jutta and me.

I cannot tell you what they are pointing to with certainty, but I’d guess it’s The Narrows due to the next image.

In the Zion Narrows, walking as far as we could before we reached deeper water, we were not prepared to wade through.

This photo of Jutta looking at Caroline is, on one hand, iconic. There were things (habits) that were difficult to break Jutta of; looking in admiration at her daughter when I was trying to take their photo was one of them. I think it was the third or fourth visit to America when I kind of freaked out at her barking “CAHroline!” when she felt that my wife was doing or saying something not ladylike. Finally, I really needed her to stop the mom-thing of wetting a finger and cleaning something off Caroline’s face, I had to kiss that thing, and I didn’t want a layer of mother-in-law spit between us.

Behind Jutta is one of the Mittens in Monument Valley. We stayed over at Gouldings Lodge during this visit.

Back into Arizona and heading south.

But first, a stop at Canyon de Chelly for Jutta to have a look into another canyon. On a subsequent visit, we’d all take a Jeep tour down on the canyon floor.

Seeing we’re up north on our way home, why not stop at Petrified National Park and introduce Jutta to some fossilized trees?

This Zion National Park sweater was on its way to becoming an emblem of Jutta’s visits to America for the next 15 years; I can’t say she ever didn’t arrive with it in her bags. We are over in Los Angeles at the La Brea Tarpits on a rainy day.

And although it was raining, that didn’t stop Caroline from jumping into the ocean to the surprise of her mom, followed by Jutta trying to help warm her up.

There was no way a visit to Arizona was going to go by without a return trip up to the Grand Canyon National Park. Jutta was astonished that she was able to visit this park twice in a lifetime.

[This post was written in April 2021]