The summer of grandkids

What a marvelously delightful summer this has been, with extended visits by our remote grandchildren.

In June Teresa and Paisley came to visit for nearly six weeks. We got to know Paisley a lot better and saw her start walking and gain many new skills just in the time she was here. She is such a pleasant baby with a very agreeable personality.



At the end of the summer we hosted Bridget and Jeremy for a fun filled two weeks, and enjoyed the company of Magdalena and Miriam. Miriam is such an introspective and intelligent girl, and Magdalena is outgoing and fearless. I think Magdalena had an oft used expression that summed up the summer very well: "So fun!"



We are fortunate to have Blair and Emily's kids in town: Brooklyn, Jonah, and Eli. Brooklyn nearly drove us to the poor house with her extensive reading this summer with our two cents per page incentive. Jonah is all boy, and Eli so polite.



All of these cousins love playing together and get along so well. And what a great blessing to us grandparents!

Mt. St. Helens Climb

(View of Mt. St. Helens from our camp)

Yesterday a group of us climbed Mt. St. Helens. This was my fourth time, the first being a glorious experience about a decade ago, with perfect weather. Each time, being exhausted at the finish, I assure myself that I won't do it again. But, time has a way of softening the hardship and bringing the exhiliration and accomplishment into the foreground.

Bridget and Jeremy are visiting and they wanted to do the climb, so we got a group of 13 together, including family and friends. We drove up the night before and camped at Climber's Bivouac. We sat around the campfire telling stories and keeping warm. Some were up and on the trail at 5:30AM, and others (including me) at 7:45.

The wind was blowing a bit at the camp, so that was a concern for the mountain. As usual, it was a pleasant start, with two miles of gentle climbing through a forest. Then we emerged at timberline and started climbing through and over a long stretch of boulder fields.

Towards the top of the boulder field we could see our destination, the crater rim.

It got very windy at this section of the climb, and it appeared iffy whether we could finish. But once we got up on the final stretch it subsided a bit.

The views at the top are amazing, with Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and other volcanic peaks all over the horizons.

This is looking to the north into the crater, with Spirit Lake and Mt. Rainier.

The descent is always agonizing, and goes on forever. The footing is treacherous for much of it, due to loose sand/gravel. I actually prefer the climbing part. What a welcome sight the forest trail is emerging from the final boulder section.

Now, I have completed my last Mt. St. Helens climb. And it was another marvelous experience, especially to climb with Suzanne, Bridget, Jeremy, Emily, and others.

Altima -- R.I.P.

Sorry about all the car and travel posts lately. When Steven went away to college early this summer I took over the '94 Nissan Altima, cleaning it all up and buying new tires for it. It was looking so sharp and I was definitely feeling pride of ownership.


I composed a blog post previously about the Altima:

http://acraigwalker.blogspot.com/2009/11/driving-stick.html

Well, yesterday Steven was driving the Altima and it overheated on him. Last night I replenished all its fluids and after it cooled down I nursed it over to the auto repair shop. Today they took a look at it and the preliminary diagnosis is a blown gasket or cracked cylinder, so $1000 best case to fix it, with $1500 or so more likely.

I have been agonizing over whether to invest more in the car. It has served us so well and so economically the past 2.5 years. Emotionally I want to fix it, but rationally it doesn't make sense, as we really don't need the car anymore.

We'll take another day or two to decide, but it is almost like losing a member of the family.

Update: Indeed we decided to scrap the car. I was pleased to get $280 for it from a salvage yard. I swapped the original steel wheels and winter tires back onto it so I can sell the nicer alloy wheels and almost new tires on craigslist. Still sad to see it go.

Swagger Wagon

Our trusty Toyota Sienna minivan carted us all over Utah and did a swell job of it.



Nice having all that room in the back.

This picture actually inspired this post, as it kind of looks like a shot you might see in the product brochure. (Near the Colorado River crossing.)

And for those men who feel emasculated owning a minivan, here's a hip video about the Sienna "Swagger Wagon". You can feel proud.

Utah Road Trip -- Part 4

Our campsite in Bryce Canyon was the most primitive on our trip. No internet, no showers, no grass. But it was very convenient, and we were glad to have it. And we loved the refreshing cool temperatures at 7000 ft. elevation or more.

I remember how much I liked Bryce Canyon from our brief family visit there in 1993. So I was looking forward to this stop. The hiking brochure from the visitor center recommended the most scenic three mile hike in the world (Queen's Garden and Wall Street loop), so off we went. At the overlook to start the hike we were greeted with these other wordly views.

And we got the obligatory photo of us. Are we enjoying our vacation or what!

I wish we had more time to hike more trails, but we were anxious to get back on the road to Provo and home. We'll definitely make another trip to Bryce Canyon.

We drove up through Provo, taking Steven out for an early dinner and bidding farewell once again. We spent the night at a campground in Snowville, UT. The following morning I hit some complimentary golf balls on their driving range.

We encountered so much green landscape all along our trip. Areas that are normally rather brown and arid were pleasantly green. I think all that spring rain made a difference.

We arrived home around 6:30PM Wednesday, June 23, and it was back to the grindstone. But what marvelous memories!

Utah Road Trip, Part 3

We departed Hanksville and drove 40-some miles to Capitol Reef National Park. The scenery was fantastic once again, though perhaps a step down from the previous two days. We decided on a hike up to Cassidy Arch, and started up a fairly steep canyon wall.



We got a good view of what we thought must be the arch.



But somehow we hiked on and on, well past the 0.5 miles a previous sign indicated. We did enter a scenic valley on the other side before turning around.

We encountered another couple hiking up on our way back, and warned them it must be the wrong trail, so we weren't the only ones who went astray. We studied the sign and the fork in the trail on our way back. You can see a trail on each side of the sign, and we took the left trail. However, the correct trail was actually behind my left shoulder. (We gave feedback to the park ranger later that they should improve the signage.) So I figure we got a bonus two miles added to our hike of around five miles.

We hiked over some interesting rocks out to the arch. In fact, it reminded me a lot of some of the Yosemite domes we hiked on. It was a bit windy and precarious looking down into the arch. I walked out on the top of the arch for this picture--it wasn't as scarey as it might appear.

We did another short hike out to some ancient petroglyphs and some pioneer autographs. Then we headed south on highway 12 towards Escalante and Bryce Canyon. I had heard this highway was spectacular, and it was indeed. It was only completed within the last few decades and traverses some seemingly impossible terrain. At one point I felt like we were driving on one of those canyon blades. There was a steep drop off on either side of the road. We also reached pretty high elevations (9,000 feet plus or minus), and the air temperature was in the 60's (so refreshing!).

In Escalante we ate a steak dinner at the only restaurant in town, and got some groceries at the only store, then headed on into Bryce Canyon National Park, and were fortunate to snag the 2nd to last campsite in the park just before dark.

Next up, Bryce Canyon!

Utah Road Trip, Part 2

Here is a picture looking out the "front yard" of our campsite near Moab.



We headed south from Moab towards the southern entrance of Canyonlands National Park. I was thinking Canyonlands would be a step down from Arches, but the scenery began its buildup soon after entering the park.


We then got recommendations at the visitor's center for hikes and chose one from Elephant Hill Trailhead, which we reached after driving a while on a gravel road. The hike was through varied terrain in the Needles area, and about 4 or 5 miles in length. Temperature was about 80 with a little wind, so very pleasant. In fact, the combination of outstanding scenery and interesting trail made me think this hike was about as good as it gets. It inspired a blog post I will write soon on my top ten hikes (this one makes the list, and ranks right up with Yosemite hikes).

Here is a photo of a very narrow canyon we hiked through.


More photos of needles and canyons.








We continued on driving through Monticello (pleasant, high altitude town in a green setting) and Blanding before turning east and driving through Natural Bridges National Monument. I have to say the outstanding scenery was unrelenting the entire drive today. Even outside the parks on the normal highway the views and colors were interesting and remarkable.

This picture is after crossing the Colorado River/Lake Powell at the end of the day.


We drove on to Hanksville to get some elevation and cooler temperatures for our camp (it was 90's near Lake Powell), arriving before dark around 8:00 or 8:30. We quickly set up our tent, checked the internet, read for a while, and then early to bed.

Next stop Capitol Reef National Park, some hiking trail misadventures, and scenic Highway 12.