Dreams, Moments, Travels
With Caroline’s mom back in Germany and the passing of my father this past February, my Aunt and Uncle Burns in Santa Barbara needed some family to pay them a visit, and so we did. We headed out late yesterday to spend the night. Love visiting these guys.
Late afternoon drive out of Arizona on our way to Santa Barbara and taking our very first selfie with the new Olympus C5050z camera with 5MP I bought just yesterday and I take a blurry photo.
It’s barely light out here on the edge of the Grand Canyon National Park. We stayed the night at El Tovar, ensuring we’d be close to the rim in the morning.
It’s a bit cold out here, even in May, though not so cold as on previous visits when we had to bundle up in blankets from our room to stay a little warm.
We’ve all seen these images before, maybe 100s of times, but when you are standing here in person, they take on an entirely new meaning. So, while my photos are not award-winning masterpieces of dramatic art, they serve us perfectly as reminders of the moments we were here to witness yet another sunrise over the Grand Canyon for ourselves.
The Canyon fills with light rapidly once the sun is fully over the horizon though pockets of dark linger deep within.
The dream catcher at the very center of this photo is destined for Jutta’s friend Linda back in Germany.
Having accomplished what we set out to do at the Canyon we visited Walnut Canyon National Monument near Flagstaff to bring Jutta to yet one more place of Native American history.
Within a couple of days, Jutta was on her way back to Frankfurt, Germany, and once again, I am simultaneously happy to have my time and privacy back and sad that someone who enjoys the United States as much as my mother-in-law can’t just hang out with us and see even more of the magnificence that defines the natural beauty of our country.
So Jutta may have strolled the streets of New Orleans, snorkeled in the Florida Keys, sped over the Everglades on a fan boat, ate Southern-style cuisine, walked a short bit on the Appalachian Trail, visited Graceland, and a bunch of other things on this trip to the United States, but a vacation in America without a stop in the Grand Canyon wouldn’t be a proper visit, and so here we go.
It’s late in the day, almost evening here on Saturday, when we decide that we’ll race up the Grand Canyon so Jutta can let everyone know back home in Germany that once again she has been to this National Park that intrigues her so deeply. We obviously won’t make sunset in the park, but we’ll be there bright and early for sunrise.
After a few days off to recuperate, Jutta and I took a day trip down south to visit Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Coolidge.
Followed by a stop at Mission San Xavier del Bac in Tucson further south.
And then, finally we stopped in at the Titan Missile Museum in Green Valley. I think my mother-in-law wears the hard hat better than I do; she looks like a serious engineer in that thing.
The Farm at South Mountain was the setting for Jutta and me to have lunch, as Caroline was back at work this week after our long vacation across the Southern United States.