2015 Year in Review

Although we have done a few hikes and Ron has so many projects he had to make a list, winter is my downtime for blogging.  However, I do want to post my 2015 year-in-review, using pictures from the calendar I always create.  If there's too big of a gap, I might add a picture or two.

Before we left Mesa in early April, I took a late afternoon picture of the Superstition Mountains just to the east of our metropolitan area..

Our plan was to slowly make our way up the west coast beginning in San Diego.  We explored several of the Spanish missions, including the beautifully restored  San Luis de Francia.

I'm always distracted by the flora and fauna.

The famous town of Capistrano had pretty water lilies, but no swallows.

We spent two months hugging the coast on our way through California, enjoying the spectacular views of places like Crescent Bay,

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park,

And the gorgeous coastline of Big Sur.

We paid the $10 fee to drive the private road through swanky Pebble Beach and saw the iconic Lone Cypress.  At over 250 years old, it's barely hanging on.

The West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz was pretty.

Eventually, the coastal route 1 turns inland to US 101 where the redwoods are the splendid attraction.

Although we spent a month driving up the coast of Oregon, my next calendar picture is two months later in Washington, so I'll have to add a couple.

We had quite a bit of fog along the Oregon coast, but we saw a lot of lighthouses.

And didn't see others.

And enjoyed seeing all the unique bridges including this one north of Coos Bay.

After three weeks along the Washington coast, we made it to the northwestern point in the continental United States, Cape Flattery.  Here we are with Karen, Ernie and Wanda who we met up with for several days.

(Alright, I guess little Tatoosh Island over our shoulders is really the northwestern point, but we refused to swim.)

Back to the calendar pictures.  When we left the coast, we headed inland to route 20 through the North Cascades National Park.  I've wanted to go this route for years and was really excited.  At first, it was everything I had imagined.  Mount Baker was splendid.

But then the smoke took over when Washington and Oregon were inundated with wildfires.  At that point, we hurried through Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to Colorado where we visited with Ron's family in the Denver area.

On our way back to Arizona, we stopped in Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument where the campgrounds are right along the rim.

We arrived back in Mesa in late September, but weren't done traveling yet.  In early October, we flew to Pennsylvania to visit my father, then drove to the Catskill Mountains in New York.  We met up with Diana and Phil for some touring and sister time.  Here's Stone Arch Bridge, built in 1880.

That's it for 2015.  I hope you had fun following along on our travels.  See you in 2016!

2014 Year in Review

As is my custom, I'm going to attempt a review of our travels for the year, supported by the pictures I chose to create my calendar for 2015.  This always results in some huge gaps, but I'm going with it anyway.

When we left Mesa in April, we joined our WIN friends in beautiful Sedona.

Although the WINs had a couple of traveling circuits planned, we had our own itinerary in mind. Once again, those plans included a stop in Denver area to visit Ron's daughters and their families. We headed north through the Four-corners area and stopped at Mesa Verde National Park.

Where we encountered this colorful guy.

Continuing toward Denver, we stopped at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Once in Denver, we embarked on a trip within a trip.  Leaving the RV at the Elks, we flew to Anchorage, Alaska, to begin a cruise/tour.  Highlights included a train ride to Denali in an observation car . . .

And seeing the Alaskan wildlife.

(Although to be candid, the bear and the baby moose were not actually in the wild.)

After a wonderful inland passage cruise south to Vancouver and our flight back to Denver, we enjoyed a couple of weeks visiting Ron's family.  Then we were off again in the RV.  We headed east through Nebraska, stopping at North Platte where we found this pure white peacock.

We continued east through Nebraska, Iowa, and northern Illinois, traveling the back roads, instead of the Interstate.  We attended Ron's high school reunion, where he commented there were a lot of old people.

We bought a state parks pass for Wisconsin and utilized it quite a bit during our three weeks in Wisconsin.  We enjoyed the local flora . . .

And fauna.

We also checked out some light houses.  This one is in Algoma.

And this is one of several we scouted out in Door County.

Returning through Iowa and Nebraska, we stayed close to the northern border of both states.  In Effigy Mounds National Monument, I was mysteriously drawn to this alien growth.

While the RV had some TLC at the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa, we enjoyed this garden in nearby Clear Lake.

Then it was back to Denver for another visit and to welcome Ron's new granddaughter Elsie.  All too soon, we tore ourselves away and traveled south through Colorado enjoying the golden aspen trees.

And we continued south through New Mexico, hitting a couple of little known national recreation sites and ending at pretty Oliver Lee State Park.  Sunset there reminded me of a watercolor painting.

Although this is certainly not all we did during our 2014 travels, it is all the pictures from the calendar, so this concludes my wrap-up.  Who knows where we'll be exploring in 2015.

2013 Year in Review

Once again I put together a calendar of my favorite pictures from our travels during the past year.  I thought I would just post the pictures I used, but in order to make this a 'year in review', I'll have to add a few other pictures.  This could get pretty long, so I apologize in advance.

We began our travels in March when we joined Diana and Phil on a trip to Hawaii.  We had an amazing cruise around the islands, then an additonal week on the Big Island near Kona.  Phil took this picture of us at Rainbow Falls, which we used as our Christmas card and our new blog picture.

Our RVing adventures began the end of April when we departed Mesa for southeastern Arizona.  I was excited to spend some time hiking in Chiricahua National Monument.

We made our way east to New Mexico, then north on I25, staying at some of the state parks along the way.  Tent Rocks National Monument is well worth a visit.

Continuing north, we enjoyed some gorgeous Colorado scenery and some time with family in Denver.  We found a perfect spot in a National Forest campground where we stayed the two week limit.  The campground was close to this quintessential mountain cabin . . .

And the Chapel on the Rock.

We took day trips into and around Rocky Mountain National Park, but our highlight was seeing the elk calves on the golf course in Estes Park.  They were just a few days old.

We continued north and enjoyed an Escapees rally in Gillette, Wyoming and explored the Bighorn Mountains outside of Sheridan.

The lupine were in full bloom.

 

On we went through Montana, stopping at Little Bighorn National Monument, Billings, Bozeman, Canyon Ferry Lake, and Great Falls, before meeting up with Diana in Glacier National Park.  She took us on a great hike in the Many Glacier area of the park.

And I had to get the famous shot of Wild Goose Island in St. Mary Lake.

We spent time with our WIN friends in Kalispell and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho with its beautiful lake.

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And joined them to bike the Hiawatha Trail on the border of Idaho and Montana.  With its tunnels and trestles, this is an amazing 'rails-to-trails' route.

Leaving our friends, we headed south through Idaho and into central Oregon.  We finally made it to one unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.  In addition to fossils, the monument has colorful geologic features.

Then we turned south along the eastern side of California.  We enjoyed a day at Lassen Volcanic National Park.

After meeting back up with Diana and Phil, we headed down US395.  We visited Bodie State Historic Park, one of my father's favorite places.

We stayed for several days near spooky-looking Mono Lake.

US395 runs along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains with lots of gorgeous hikes and National Forest campgrounds.  Unfortunately, the government shutdown shut us out of the campgrounds and we didn't spend as much time as we would have liked.

We were searching for that nice autumn color, but it was rather scarce.

But the Alabama Hills in the foothills outside of Lone Pine are always fun.

We drove through Death Valley on our way back to Arizona, but couldn't stop and explore because of the shutdown.  That was really unfortunate because the weather was perfect.  How many times does that happen in Death Valley?

We arrived back in Mesa the end of October having put 5168 miles on the RV.  Ron figures we spent $3734 on gas and $916.50 in overnight fees.  Yikes!  This is why I never add these things up!