Before boarding the tender to return to the ship, Ted and I had some time to explore a small area of Kona.

Quinn’s couldn’t get beachfront property, so they named their restaurant accordingly–“Quinn’s Almost by the Sea.”

Wal-Mart isn’t within walking distance of the dock, but there’s money to be made from the tourists.  To capture that market, the store provides a free shuttle from the dock to its retail site.  We saw a similar K-Mart shuttle at another port.

This is Ted’s destination birthday trip, so the girls gave him gift money for his birthday with instructions to spend it in Hawai’i.  Today, he bought some aloha shirts. This is Shirt #1 . . .

. . . and this is Shirt #2.  Jeff also bought aloha shirts on his Hawaiian vacation in August.  Now he and Ted can break them out together next summer.

 

The onboard entertainment this evening was a comedian who kept us laughing constantly for an hour.  Did you know that people in Dubai don’t like the Flintstones?  But people in Abu Dhabi do.  (Hee hee!)  In one part of the program, the comedian mocked the stateroom bathrooms.  He commented on how small the shower stall is and mimicked trying to move his arms upward, turning around, and bending over, while muttering, “Hmm, this is going to call for some decision-making.  Aww, I’ll just wash that part when I get home.”  He followed up by saying this is the first time he’s been able to take a shower, brush his teeth, and use the toilet–all at the same time.  When we returned to our stateroom after the show, Ted and I decided to take some photos to illustrate this.

Here’s the shower stall. Ted has about an inch to spare for moving his arms.  Luckily, neither of us dropped anything while showering, because bending over would indeed be tricky.

It looks like it’s true that you could shower at least part of your body while brushing your teeth and, if necessity required it, you might be able to use the toilet at the same time.

 

Yes, we’re having fun, fun, fun.

Kealakekua Bay (pronounce each vowel), is about 20 miles south of Kona on the Big Island, and is believed to be the place where Captain James Cook arrived in 1778.  He was searching for a northwest passage to England and stopped in Hawai’i, seeking shelter from the winter months.  I can tell you from experience that Hawai’i in the winter has a much nicer climate than England in the summer!

Yesterday, our excursion took us to four of the five volcanoes that formed Hawai’i; today, we were on the fifth one.  We were able to see vog–volcanic smog.  It makes sense if you think about it:  the active volcanoes on Hawai’i are always spewing smoke that contains ash so, logically, there are a lot of ash particles in the air, making the mountaintops look hazy.  Kona is most famous for its coffee.  It has the perfect climate to produce eight million pounds of coffee per year.

Hawai’i’s beaches have a variety of sand colors, including white, black, and green.  I liked the black sand beach on Maui, and wanted to see a rare green sand beach, but it wasn’t on our excursion itinerary.  Green sand beaches exist only on Hawai’i and in the Galapagos Islands, Guam, and Norway.  Ted and I will have to see a green sand beach on our next trip to the islands.  In the Hawaiian Islands, nearly all the shoreline is public.  Isn’t that a great idea?  I hate that, on the U.S. mainland, hotels, resorts, and beachfront property owners can claim beaches as their private property!

Kona means “leeward side” in Hawaiian, meaning it’s on the west side of the island.  (Remember the easterly trades.)  While Volcanoes National Park on the east side of the island gets over 100 inches of rain/year, Kona gets fewer than 10 inches.  Although Hawai’i is more than twice the size of all the other Hawaiian Islands combined, it is the least populated island per square mile.  Most people on Hawai’i live in Hilo and along the Kona coast (properly called the Kohala-Kona coast because Kona is technically a district, not a city).  Kona’s harbor was too small and shallow for our ship, so we had to dock offshore and take a tender to the city.

The tender was launched from our ship.  As a tender (aka shuttle), it can carry 97 people; as a lifeboat, it can carry 150 people.  It is stocked with food and survival items, and feels a lot safer and more comfortable than the lifeboats in the “Titanic” movie.

 

Anyone with some knowledge of Hawai’i has heard of King Kamehameha.  Kamehameha was born as Halley’s Comet passed over.  The comet was interpreted as a sign that a boy child of great power would be born and that he would be a “slayer of chiefs.”  To protect him from assassination by other less powerful chiefs, Kamehameha was sent as a child to live in isolation with his aunt and uncle on another island.  Meha means “lonely.”  The Hawaiian language repeats words for emphasis, so Kamehameha means “very lonely”–a description of his childhood.  Kamehameha was an imposing person.  His actual shoe size is known and, from that, he is estimated to have been at least seven feet tall.

Like all young Hawaiian men of his time, Kamehameha trained to become a warrior.  He witnessed Captain Cook being clubbed to death and saw the British Brown Bess muskets in action.  He decided to master the use of the British modern weaponry, unite the islands, and prevent any other foreign power from conquering them in the future.  He was the first chief/king to unite the islands, each of which previously had its own chief and government, but it was not a peaceful unification–he defeated the other chiefs in battles, beginning with his cousin who was also a chief.

We had a wonderful excursion today to the Secret Falls of Kohala.  (Of course, if there are excursions to the falls, they are no longer a secret.)  It was over an hour’s drive to the trailhead, so we had a chance to see some of the evolving landscape of Hawai’i.  It reminded Ted and me of Iceland–another “new” landscape that is visibly evolving.

This is an area that has been “recently” covered by fresh lava, so it is nearly completely barren.

This lava surface is older.  Grasses and plants are becoming more prolific.

This is an “old” part of Hawai’i and has real soil that can support trees and shrubs.

 

The first part of our ride to the trailhead was on paved roads in a nice, 15-passenger van (there were only 12 people in our group, plus the guide).  The first hint of change was when we parked at a rest stop and the guide handed out backpacks, water, trekking poles, and sunscreen.  (Ted and I already had all of those things–except the trekking poles–with us, and so did a few of the other people.)  Then he directed us to a 6-wheel drive vehicle that we’d need for the off-road part of the drive.

My first ride in an OTR vehicle.

Here’s our cozy group, ready for adventure.

There were dangers as we drove first on a gravel path, then on mud tracks, and then across open land, including pastures.

Part of the gravel path.  The driver had to get out to open and close some gates along the way.

The hike included this bridge over a part of Alexander and Baldwin’s aqueduct.

Later on, there was a narrow suspension bridge.

This is a level part of the trail we hiked.  The forest became denser and the trail became steeper as we worked our way upward to the Secret Falls of Kohana.

You can see that this area of the trail would become overgrown rapidly if it weren’t cut back regularly for hiking groups.

Here are the Secret Falls.  There were several waterfalls along the trail, but this one was my favorite.  It is also called Ohana Falls.  “Ohana” means family.  The falls begin as one, then branch into many–like children and grandchildren.  At the bottom, all the members re-unite in a single stream, and the family cycle is repeated.

The next waterfall included a nice pool for swimming.  About half of our group got in the water, but I abstained.  I wasn’t eager to swim in water colder than 65 degrees.  I’ll do it if Ted and I come back in the summer.

Our reward for the hike was a hilltop picnic.

It’s hard to imagine a better lunchtime view.  In the movie “The Descendants,” this is the pristine piece of land the family considered selling.

When we returned to the ship after a wonderful day outdoors, Ted and I enjoyed the sunset over the Pacific from our stateroom balcony.

Getting ready for our excursion

Today was the first of our two days on Hawai’i, the Big Island.  Surprisingly, Hawai’i is only 36 miles from Maui and you can easily see Maui from the northwest shore of Hawai’i.  Our excursion today took us to Volcanoes National Park, and to a rainforest, an orchid nursery, and a macadamia nut plantation.  We were hoping to see Kilauea’s flowing lava in the park, but learned that a large part of the park is currently closed.  Kilauea is Hawai’i’s biggest tourist attraction.  Its name means “The Spewing,” and it has erupted every day since 1983.  The volcano is currently acting like it might produce a major eruption, so the flowing lava can only be viewed from a distance at sea right now.  The rainforest, orchids, and nuts were safe for visitors.

Before leaving for the park, we had to gather in the ship’s theater to get our transportation instructions, etc.  The lady telling us what to do was pretty amusing, considering it was 8:00 a.m.  We were cautioned that Hawai’i has very strict agricultural rules.  If we want to take macadamia nuts (or any other food purchase) home, we cannot open the packaging (seriously).  The speaker warned us that if we are buying nuts as a gift for someone at home, it might be safer to have them shipped, since no one wants to receive a nut that used to be chocolate-covered.  She told us that, except for those who requested a vegetarian lunch, the box lunches are all the same–last night’s leftovers.  We were told that we’d be back at the ship around 3:30–except for those who signed up for the Volcano Sacrifice Tour.

On our way to the buses, I asked a driver if Hawaiians actually wear aloha shirts or if that’s part of the uniform for those who work with tourists.  He told me he retired to Hawai’i with two dozen business suits and quickly learned that an aloha shirt is considered dressy; if it’s tucked in and accompanied by a lei, it’s formal.

Things I learned today

(1) If there is a tsunami, we should return to the ship.  We are safest at sea during a tsunami.  (2) The Hawaiian Island chain is 1,500 miles long, and extends to Midway Island.  Kaua’i is old and in the erosion phase; Hawai’i is young and still growing.  The entire chain is moving northward.  At one time, Kaua’i was located where Hawai’i now exists.  (3) Captain Cook was killed and cooked on Hawai’i.  Hawai’i is geologically young and its scarce soil must be used for food.  It’s impossible to dig a grave in lava rock, so bodies are cremated.  (4) The “cleaner fish” is endemic to Hawai’i.  It has an extra fin on its belly that acts as a suction cup.  The fish uses the fin to clean other fish and will do the same to people in the water.  These fish are sometimes used in spas for pedicures, etc.  (5) Breadfruit can be cooked just like potatoes–boiled, fried, mashed, etc.  I had some with my lunch one day and it tastes like potatoes, but just a little sweeter and creamier.  (6) Macadamia nuts ripen at different times on the trees, then fall to the ground when they are ripe.  They must be picked up by hand before they begin to rot on the ground, and that’s what makes them so expensive.  (7) Five volcanoes built Hawai’i.  Kilauea is the most active; Mauna Loa is the most massive; and Mauna Kea is the tallest–in Hawai’i and on earth.  It rises 33,476 feet above its ocean floor base.

Photo gallery

This is a breadfruit tree.  Breadfruit are a little larger than grapefruit.

Some of the orchids at the orchid nursery.  Hawai’i is well-known as the Big Island, but all the islands also have nicknames.  Hawai’i’s nickname is The Orchid Island.

These orchids are huge.  I should have included my hand in the picture for scale.  They are gorgeous!

We were allowed to view this crater.  Look closely–it’s a crater within a crater.

The Hawaiian Islands were built by shield volcanoes.  Shield volcanoes have more flowing lava, rather than the kind that shoots rocks high into the sky.  That’s why this lava looks smooth.  It’s not–it’s like glass and will scrape your skin if you fall on it.

Plants are beginning to erode this lava to form soil.

This is the beginning of a lava tube.  During eruptions, lava repeatedly flows in this path, cutting away the bottom and sides and leaving residue at the top.  Eventually, the residue meets on the top and forms a tube.  Eruptions can send multiple plumes of lava upward through a lava tube to the surface.

Here’s an entrance to a quarter-mile long lava tube.  The longest known lava tube on Hawai’i is 32 miles in length.

This lava tube is lighted inside, so we could find our way through it.

Hilo is on the east side of Hawai’i, so it’s in the rainy part and gets 120 inches of rain annually.  We walked through a rainforest during our excursion today.

This tree can move itself if it doesn’t like where it’s growing or if conditions change. The large brown lumps indicated by the arrows are roots.  Eventually, the branch to which they are attached will fall, and the roots will begin to grow a tree where they land.  The process can be repeated by the tree as needed.

You have to be at a distance to see Mauna Loa (“Long Mountain”), so this picture isn’t great, but–hey!–it’s Mauna Loa, the world’s densest and most massive mountain, comprised of 10,000 cubic miles of iron-hard lava.  It rises 30,085 feet from its ocean floor base–not quite as high as Mauna Kea.

Ted and I wanted to take the excursion to Lahaina (the city of royalty) today, but the ticket agent told us she’d sold the last two tickets just five minutes before we came to her desk.  We took that to be a sign that we should have a vacation day today, so we spent the day relaxing.  Lahaina translates to “hot sun” because it is always very hot there.  We stayed cool(er) instead.

We took some time to explore the ship and found out there is an “upscale” restaurant upstairs from the restaurant where we ate dinner last night.  The stairway to the upstairs restaurant is inside the downstairs restaurant, so you have to enter one to get to the other.  The downstairs restaurant is casual and allows shorts; the upstairs restaurant requires trousers and button-down shirts for men and dresses for women.  The dress code upstairs doesn’t seem to be enforced, because we saw men eating in shorts and women wearing jeans.  The most surprising thing was that the menu in both restaurants is exactly the same!  We even recognized some of the staff from the downstairs restaurant working in the upstairs one.  I don’t get the “upscale” part about wearing different clothes to eat the same food served by the same people.

The ship’s dock site was a five-minute walk from downtown Kahului, so we walked to the mall for lunch and checked out the area a little bit.  Then it was back to relaxing poolside.  We enjoyed live music, beverages, and ice cream, and had a pleasant afternoon in the warm Maui sunshine.

Here’s the main pool area on the ship.

The band and singer are onstage at the left.  The arrow shows where Ted is taking it easy today.  The empty chair at his side is mine.

We were told it was a good day because the clouds lifted enough to see Mt. Pu’u Kukui, one of Maui’s volcanoes.

A bit of Maui weather

Hawai’i is called the “rainbow state” and it’s easy to see why.  I lost count of rainbows sometime after seven today.  I think nearly every place on earth claims that “if you don’t like the weather, wait a day and it will change.”  In Hawai’i, change “a day” to “five minutes.”  The rain comes and goes quickly and repeatedly throughout the day.  Annual rainfall on Maui ranges from 10 inches to over 400 inches–and that’s within a 15-minute drive!

The Hawaiian Islands were formed by a north-south range of volcanic mountains.  Weather in Hawai’i is influenced by the eastern trade winds, so storms approach from the east and move westward.  As a result, more rain falls on the eastern side of the islands as the clouds move westward over the mountains, making the western side of the islands much drier.  It looked odd to see trees leaning to the west as a result of constant winds.  In the Midwest, the wind blows them to the east.

A few Maui facts

(1) The Apollo astronauts trained on Maui’s Haleakala Volcano because it is high, cold, and resembles the surface of the moon.  (2) Maui is indeed the home of “Maui wowee.”  (3) Until 1926, there was only ship access to Maui.  Motor vehicles were rare on the island before the 1940s.  (4) Hana is a very important shipping port for pineapple.  The Maui Gold pineapple is trademarked and very sweet.  I don’t like pineapple very much, but Maui Gold is unbelievably good!  (5) The yellow bamboo that grows in the Hawai’ian islands is so strong, the Chinese use it for scaffolding.  (6) Few people live on Maui, and most of the island has no electricity or water system.  The “shopping area” in one part of Maui is a single fruit stand.  Conditions are even more primitive deeper in the rainforest.  There are not enough children on the island to support a school, so children are home-schooled or they board on another island.

A bamboo house in the rainforest.

 

A little Maui history

[This is a long story, so I’m going to greatly condense it.]  The chief of Maui was good buddies with a sugar cane plantation owner (I forgot his name).  As a result, that plantation owner got a lot of political favors from the king and had the biggest sugar cane plantation on the island.  Alexander and Baldwin (yes, of Baldwin pianos) had the second and third largest sugar cane plantations, but no political favors.  Alexander and Baldwin looked at all the rain in the mountains and at their dry sugar fields in the lowlands (see the first paragraph, above) and decided they could use gravity to bring water down both sides of the mountains to supply water for people and for sugar cane everywhere on the island.

In 1876, Alexander and Baldwin proposed a plan to the king:  they would build a 17-mile-long aqueduct to move the water and they would complete it in 18 months.  If they were successful, all other plantation owners would pay them for water rights.  The king and his buddy agreed to the plan because they didn’t think this could be done in 18 months.  When Alexander and Baldwin failed to meet the deadline, the king would confiscate whatever was completed, finish it, and collect the water rights himself.  Surprise!  Alexander and Baldwin completed the aqueduct with about a week to spare, collected the water rights money, and then became the richest sugar cane plantation owners on Maui.  Today, no sugar cane is grown in the Hawaiian Islands.  Sugar beets replaced cane, and the last sugar cane was harvested two years ago.

Why is this story important?  Because the Road to Hana–a popular tourist attraction–was the original path Alexander and Baldwin cut through the jungle and rainforest to build their aqueducts.  The aqueducts are visible all along the Road to Hana and still carry water down from the mountains.

A lot of Maui pictures

The rainbow eucalyptus shows its colors especially well when it’s wet (every day).

Twin waterfalls.  There are so many waterfalls in Hawai’i, they’re not locally remarkable.

A black sand beach, formed by eroded black volcanic rock.  Look!  It’s warm enough for people to swim in the ocean in January!

Hawai’i was formed by shield volcanoes.  Shield volcanoes form lava tubes.  Here’s the entrance to a lava tube at the black sand beach.

Inside the lava tube.

The other end of the lava tube at the black sand beach.

Because ship’s masts often broke in storms, Captain James Cook introduced the Cook (Norfolk) pine to the coasts of the islands, where they would be accessible to ships’ crews.  Cook pines grow very straight and tall, so they could be used as replacement masts.  Unfortunately, they tend to break near the joints where the branches grow, so they are only a temporary fix.  These Cook pines are all leaning toward the west.

Unbelievably thick vegetation everywhere!

Beautiful rainforest plants.

The red flowers on the trees are African tulips.  In some places, there are so many, it looks like red leaves in the fall in the Midwest.

Vegetation that grows wild enough to cover cars.  I verified three cars in varying stages of overgrowth.  (You can barely see the front wheel cover of the third car.)  There might be a fourth car on the far right.

A beautiful overlook and the next shower (and resulting rainbow) moving toward us–from the east, of course.

The waves thunder when they come into this cove.

Wind surfers on the north shore of Maui.

Waking up to Hawai’i

Ted and I have finally checked off our 50th state.  We’ve talked about going to Hawai’i for about five years and we’re here at last.  It’s January, there’s a winter weather advisory out for St. Peters, and we’re wearing shorts and sandals.  Life is definitely good.

It’s Diamond Head!  We’re really in Hawai’i!

Beach umbrellas in the warm sunshine of Waikiki.

Ted’s and my feet in the Pacific Ocean at Waikiki Beach.  Aaahhh!  (Mine are the shaved legs.)

 

All aboard!

After lunch, we had a little time to explore the resort and then we needed to board the ship for our Hawaiian cruise.  The cruise offers two days on each of four islands–Maui, Hawai’i, Kaua’i, and O’ahu–and seemed like an easier way to travel between islands than spending time at airports.  We’ll only need to unpack once, and the captain will transport us in the evenings while we enjoy onboard entertainment and sleep.

It’s Hawai’i, so it’s time for a piña colada while we wait to set sail.

Poolside entertainment to amuse us before we leave port.

A hula lesson onboard to get us in a Hawaiian mood.

Leaving Honolulu and heading for Maui.

Ready to relax and to live on “island time.”

The airport

Because of our flight delay to Honolulu, Ted and I had time to explore the DFW terminal.  We found some interesting things.

Hungry?  Have some bacon.

 

This guy stood at the door of a store that sold “dermatologist approved” cosmetics.  If this is the dermatologist who approved them, choose a different brand.

 

We ate lunch at a 60s retro restaurant.  Our tabletop advertised Pan Am’s new Strato Clipper planes and bed-length “Sleeperette” easy chairs that allowed all passengers to recline and sleep on long night flights–at no additional charge.  For an extra $10, you could have a sleeping berth.  There were also complimentary cocktails, a midnight snack bar, and a “hearty hot breakfast” onboard.  Those were the days!

 

The flight

The initial information about our flight delay to Honolulu was sketchy.  After we finally boarded our plane at 4:00 pm–five hours later than scheduled–the pilot gave us a more detailed version over the intercom.  Because of the bomb cyclone on the East Coast, there was only one Boeing 777 plane at DFW–and that plane had a major maintenance problem that could not be fixed in a single day.  All the other available 777s were delayed at East Coast airports.  As a result, we had to wait until the flight from Miami arrived in Dallas.  Not only did we have to wait until the plane was cleaned after its flight to Dallas, but because we were going to fly over the Pacific, the plane needed an additional safety inspection.  It’s always something, isn’t it?  At least we had a safe plane, but that’s about all I can say that was good about the flight.

[Whining section here]  I’m pretty sure American Airlines squeezes in several additional rows of seats on their 777s, because I barely had room for my legs between my seat cushion and the seat back ahead of me.  The section of the main cabin in which Ted and I were seated was very cold–so cold that, every time a flight attendant walked past our seats, the attendant said “Whew!  It’s cold over here!” and kept on walking, presumably to a warmer section of the plane.  When a passenger asked if the temperature could be raised, the flight attendant said it would warm up in a couple hours.  Gee, thanks (and no, it didn’t).  We needed our jackets and the airline blankets to prevent frostbite and I was still shivering.  Eventually, it was mealtime and we were offered a “snack meal”–the soggiest, coldest wrap I’ve ever seen.  The dough on my wrap was disintegrating because it was so wet!  It came with a cookie and a cold beverage.  We were not even offered additional food for purchase (not that it would have been any tastier).  This was our sustenance while we were in the air for 8.5 hours.  Compare this to our overseas experience on KLM where we had lots of leg room, were served a choice of three delicious hot meals and an additional large snack, were offered three beverage runs that included free wine, and enjoyed it all in a comfortable cabin.  Ted and I decided we will never never never fly American again, except to use up the miles we’ve accrued on some short flights.  [End of whining section]  

I nearly forgot to mention that Ted and I had a comparatively good experience on the flight.  About three hours into the flight, the flight crew issued an intercom request for anyone with “medical training” to please report to a crew member.  A few minutes later, the request was changed to “We need someone with an M.D. or an O.D.”  Someone on the flight was feeling worse than cold, cramped and hungry.

 

The happy ending

It was 75 degrees when we got off the plane in Hawai’i.  We felt like zombies after our 3-4 hours of sleep and the long, uncomfortable day of travel, so we checked in at the resort, ordered a meal at a resort restaurant (it was only 8:30 in Hawai’i), and went to bed.  Tomorrow will be a better day.

Ted set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. today so that we would have time to purchase a beverage at the airport before boarding our 8:00 a.m. flight to Dallas.  After getting through security and the 20-minute beverage line, we took our hot chocolate (me) and coffee (Ted) to the gate, waited 15 minutes, and boarded our plane.

The flight was uneventful and on time, which was good, because we only had 45 minutes to get to the gate for our flight to Honolulu.  Our first priority was to find a schedule board to get the gate number.  Good news:  we were only two gates away.  Bad news:  our 10:55 connecting flight is delayed until 3:00 p.m.!!!  There was an apparently major mechanical problem with our plane.  The working plane will leave the hangar at 1:00 and will arrive at the gate at 2:00.  We’ll board at 2:30, leave at 3:00, and arrive in Honolulu at 7:30, Honolulu time.

 

Allowing for the time zone change, this will be 15.5 hours after we left St. Louis and 18.5 hours after we got up with only a few hours of sleep.  Then we’ll have to claim our baggage, take the shuttle to the resort, and check into our room.

It’s good that we’ll be on a safe plane, and it’s good that it will be warm in Honolulu, but I don’t think we’ll be using Plan A–spend the afternoon at the beach.

We’re under another wind chill advisory in the St. Louis area through tomorrow morning.  Tonight’s low is forecast to be about one degree.  We are expecting one more day of temperatures below freezing before our thermometer hits a forecast high of 34 degrees on Sunday.  Before the temperature goes above freezing, however, the forecast says there is an 80 percent chance that Sunday morning will bring “snow, sleet, and rain, possibly mixed with freezing rain.”

As Ted and I were driving this afternoon, we were amazed to see that, in spite of the fact that the temperature hasn’t been above freezing in the past 12 days, a fountain is still spewing water upward.  When plumbers drive by this ice cone, do they flinch?

The top of the cone is liquid water, still spouting upward.

I can’t help mentioning that, right now, it’s 15 degrees in St. Peters, with a wind chill effect of -7 degrees.  In Honolulu, it’s 75 degrees.  No wind chill.  Let me add that our boarding passes are already printed.

Last night, as Ted and I were putting things together for our trip to Hawai’i tomorrow, we came across the term “water shoes.”  We didn’t know what they were, so we looked them up on Google.  A quick glance told us they would be perfect for several of the day excursions we’ve planned in Hawai’i.

The next step was to Google “water shoes st louis mo.”  This morning, I called the indicated sporting goods and shoe stores.  Only REI had water shoes in January.  Even better, they had a pair in Ted’s size and one in my size.  Jenny apologized for not having any of the second brand they carry for us to look at.  Don’t worry, Jenny.  We’re happy we found what we want in time to put them in our suitcases tonight.

The TV weather guy told me that our area has already had ten days in which temperatures have not risen above freezing.  He added that we’ve got at least another four days of below freezing temperatures in the forecast and a possible ice/snow mix coming up early next week.  Over the New Year’s weekend–Saturday evening through Tuesday noon–we were under a wind chill advisory.  The danger was frostbite in as little as 30 minutes, leading to possible hypothermia.  Residents were cautioned to cover all exposed skin if they went outdoors.

 

Hawai’i also had weather warnings out for part of the holiday weekend–Monday afternoon through Wednesday morning.  In Hawai’i, however, it was a high surf advisory.  While we St. Peters residents were covering all exposed skin, those poor beach goers in their swimsuits had to be cautious on the beach.

 

I’m counting the hours until our flight leaves at 8:00 am Friday!

With so much of the country experiencing record-breaking cold temperatures and wind chills, it seems like a good time to bring out an old favorite.

Ted and I spent the afternoon with Kari’s boys today.  Ted and I look forward to these days and, whatever we do, we always have a good time together.  As usual, we started with lunch.  History is a good predictor of the restaurant the boys will choose, so yes, we went to Steak ‘n’ Shake.

Sitting across from the boys at the table, I noticed that all three were wearing sweatshirts with orange zippers.

 

The best part of Steak ‘n’ Shake is always when the shakes arrive.

 

It was cold outside (10-12 degrees) and a dangerous wind chill advisory was posted for late afternoon through the next three days.  An indoor activity like bowling seemed like a good idea.  The boys were willing, so we each got a pair of ugly bowling shoes and picked out a ball.

The boys might have been overly optimistic about their superpowers.  Sky and Dylan selected ten-pound balls and Teddy chose a seven-pound ball.  After several frames of watching Dylan and Teddy drop, rather than roll, their balls on the alley, I suggested they look for lighter balls.  (Teddy’s ball would probably have been good for Dylan, but the finger holes were too small.)

It was Saturday afternoon on a cold holiday weekend, so all the lanes were filled with families whose kids also needed lightweight balls.  As a result, Teddy and Dylan couldn’t find anything lighter than what they had.  Due to the large crowd, the bowling alley policy was six people to a lane.  That meant that after throwing (or dropping) a gutter ball or a low-scoring ball, each of us had to wait five turns to try it again.  B-o-o-o-ring!  We finished the game, but no one was eager to bowl another line.

Here’s Dylan, using body language to coax his ball toward the pins.

 

These are our scores–but not really.  The screen only showed the first initial of each name, so Teddy and Ted and Dylan and I sometimes messed up and bowled on each other’s turn.

 

Looking at the family scoreboards across the lanes, I saw very few scores over 100–apparently there were few true bowlers present for open bowling on a holiday weekend.  The boys and I have tentatively banned Ted, the family jock, from playing miniature golf with us in the future because his score was a lot lower than anyone else’s.  We might also have to ban him from bowling with us in the future because his score was so much higher than anyone else’s.  The scores weren’t the important part of the afternoon, but I think I speak for all of us when I say we were ready to move on to a different activity.

The boys voted that we return to their house so they could show us all the things they got for Christmas.  After that, we played Michigan Rummy, using the new chips Dylan got for Christmas.  Just as Teddy was ready to quit because his chips were gone, he won several of the pots and perked up again.  The Christmas toys and Michigan Rummy were the highlights of our time together, proving again that the simple things are the most fun.  We were practicing hygge.

Last night, Ted and I had dinner at Dewey’s, one of our favorite pizza restaurants.  We eat there frequently enough to make participation in their rewards program worthwhile.  After we spend $xx, we get $10 off our next dinner.  We’ve enjoyed the $10 reward a number of times, but had no idea there was a higher reward level.  Last night, when we presented our $10 coupon, the waitress said we’d be getting something special in addition to the $10 off the price of our meal, and the manager would be right over.  Something special?  And it requires a manager to present it?  We were mystified.

When the manager arrived, she offered us a choice of a Dewey’s shirt, a Dewey’s cap, or a Dewey’s glass.  Neither of us thought we’d wear the shirt or the cap, so we opted for the glass.  The manager left to fetch our choice and returned with the glass in one hand and a gift bag in the other.

We waited until we got home to open the gift bag and were surprised to see how much our patronage is appreciated.  Inside the bag was a very nice 20-ounce mug with (according to the box) “a vacuum insulated body (and a) copper-plated inner wall to help retain the internal temperature of the tumbler longer.”  According to the box, beverages will stay hot for 8 hours and cold for 16 hours.  In addition, there was an envelope with another surprise inside:  a $50 Dewey’s gift certificate.  At a pizza restaurant, that’s very generous.

Dewey’s slogan is “Taking pizza to the next level.”  They also take customer appreciation to the next level.

Ted and I were browsing in the kitchen store at the mall and saw a breakfast idea.  Two eggs, a little bacon, and this handy gadget gives you big-eyed bunny-face eggs to make you smile in the morning.

Studies show that the Danish people are the happiest in the world.  Today I learned that might be due to the fact that Danes practice hygge.

 

Further reading revealed that hygge is based on enjoying simple pleasures associated with everyday living.  Friends.  Family.  Graciousness.  Contentment.  Good feelings.  A warm glow.  More hospitality.  More warmth.  More respect for each other.  A deeply satisfying and cozy feeling of well-being.

I vote that we all resolve to practice hygge.

Kari’s family opened gifts at their house this morning and then joined Kathy, Annette, Ted, and me at our house after lunch.

Kari took a group picture before the unwrapping began.

Annette has apparently been waiting years to make waffles at home.  Now she can do it.

The boys seemed very pleased with the gifts they received.  Teddy added two pigs to his collection.  Is it significant that both are piggy banks?  The jar he’s holding is “pork and beans”–little stuffed pigs mixed with bean seeds.

Here’s Teddy with his Lego piggy bank.  Who knew you could get a pig Lego set?  When Ted and I saw it, we grabbed it.

Since he was a little kid with enough money to buy gifts, Thom and I have always exchanged a Christmas Lego figure with each other.  This is the one I received from Thom this year. . .

. . . and the one I sent to Thom (on the right).

I took a group picture after the boys distributed the gifts.

 

After an early dinner, it was time for Kathy and Annette to leave for Kirksville so Annette could get some sleep before going back to work tomorrow.  Our two-day Christmas holiday with our girls and their families was wonderful.  We had time to visit and time to play.  Family time is always good and always goes by too quickly.  Until next time, merry Christmas and happy new year!

From Thanksgiving until Christmas, the St. Charles Historic District is decorated for the holidays and has holiday activities and performances several days and evenings each week.  There are Santas from around the world, carolers, a drum and fife corps, and over 40 costumed Victorian holiday characters from history, literature, and folklore.  All of these characters walk throughout the district and interact with visitors and shoppers.  There is an opening parade the day after Thanksgiving and, on Christmas Eve, a closing parade, followed by a farewell to Santa as he leaves to begin delivering gifts to children around the world.

Kathy and Annette wanted to do some shopping in the Historic District, so that’s where we headed after lunch.  As we were walking around the area, the Christmas Eve Parade began.  We went to the parade with Jeff’s family in 2015.  It was sunny and in the 40s.  Today it was around 20 degrees with a wind chill about 10 degrees colder.  The parade moved faster and there were fewer attendees than in 2015, but it was still fun.

Here they come. The wassailers are first, singing warm songs in the cold.

These are the Victorian carolers.

This guy is the Master of Revels.  I don’t know why his lipstick, eye makeup, and costume are bright blue.

Here comes Santa Claus!

 

Santa’s horse-drawn carriage is the last thing in the parade, so spectators along the sidewalks fill in behind him and follow him to the riverfront (one block east of here).  Annette, Kathy, and Kari opted to shop inside a warm store; the brave boys (Sky, Dylan, and Teddy) came with Ted and me to the riverfront where they could play in the snow some more during Santa’s farewell ceremony.

I’m not an official crowd estimator, but I’d guess there were about 200 people braving the cold to wish Santa a good trip.

The man is one of the international Santa figures; the woman is Saint Lucia, the saint of light (candles in the wreath on her head).

Four more international Santas.

There’s a short ceremony on the bandstand to bid Santa farewell.  That’s Dylan in his snow-covered jacket in the foreground.  Sky is bent over ahead of Dylan.

Santa said all the girls and boys in St. Charles are on the “nice” list this year.  Whew!  That’s Mrs. Claus on his left.

It’s time for Santa to leave so he can load his sleigh and get started with his deliveries around the world.

 

And then it was time for the boys, Ted, and me to join the girls in a warm store before heading back home.

Last year, when the kids arrived for Christmas, we decided to have lunch at Pizza Hut.  That was fine with me because I didn’t have to cook.  The girls and their families remembered the fun we had at last year’s lunch and said we should do it again this year.  Easy!  Kathy and Annette arrived last night, spent the morning at Kari’s house, and we all met at Pizza Hut for lunch.

We were the only ones at the restaurant when we arrived, so we parked our three cars side by side.  You can see that it’s snowing again for our white Christmas.  That’s now Kathy’s Prius on the right.

Just waiting for our food.  Dylan is toasting the fun we’re having.  Annette is still too cold to take off her jacket.

 

After lunch, Kathy and Annette wanted to browse in some of the St. Charles Historic District shops, so we headed downtown.  The boys are out of school and it’s our second day of snow, so they were hyped up about being outside in the snow–even if it was less than 20 degrees with a nasty wind chill.

The boys spotted a teddy bear decoration that had fallen over, so they had to inspect the fallen bear.  Dylan is in a sympathy pose, imitating the bear.

Dylan had fun rolling in the snow.

Sky and Teddy got in the sled and Dylan became the horse to pull it.

A view of the white Christmas riverfront.

Everything that needs to be done is checked off the list.  Now . . . Let there be peace on earth.

It’s rare for St. Louis to have a white Christmas, but we had about 2.5 inches of very wet snow this morning and the forecast is calling for another inch tomorrow–Christmas Eve.  We were in the 50s and 60s all week, so the ground is warm.  The roads were wet, not snow-covered, and the snow is melting quickly.  Still, white is white.  Merry Christmas.

 

 

 

For a number of years, Ted and I have made the Bach Society’s Candlelight Christmas Concert a part of our celebration of Christmas, and we did so again this year.

The head of the Bach Society (I don’t know his title) did a little introduction before the concert started and he was pretty funny–not something we’ve come to expect at this event.  He told us that we’d be hearing from the Bach Society Choir and also the Bach Society Children’s Choir.  (A misnomer, in my opinion, since these are high school kids.  I would call it a “youth” choir, rather than a “children’s” choir.)  These students get voice training, music education, and character education.  Bach Guy followed this information with “Hopefully, one of them will run for President” and got a round of applause from the audience for his reference to character.

It is not unusual for audience members unfamiliar with classical music concerts to applaud after each movement of a selection, rather than waiting until the entire piece is finished.  Before leaving the stage, Bach Guy asked the audience to please hold applause until the end of the entire musical piece–Handel’s Messiah.  He said the performance would be so outstanding that applause after each movement would keep us in the venue until midnight.  He then promised we would know when the piece was over.

Of course, the well-known closing of the Messiah is the “Hallelujah Chorus,” for which everyone stands.  Why?  Because at the London premiere of  Handel’s Messiah in 1743, King George II stood.  According to royal protocol, when the king stands, everyone must stand until the king is seated, so the audience stood as well.  No one knows why King George stood.  My theory is that he might have thought the piece was over and was preparing to leave, then awkwardly stood in place while the orchestra and choir finished the “Hallelujah Chorus.”  If so, he was probably glad he stayed until the end, since the final chorus is the most stirring part of the entire Messiah.

Powell Hall is always beautifully decorated for Christmas.  You can see the adult choir coming onstage behind the orchestra.

 

For the second half of the performance, the concert hall is darkened and each of the approximately 200 choristers carries a lighted candle (battery-operated for safety).  The musical selections are Christmas carols–traditional and new–sung by the adult and children’s/youth choirs.  The audience sings along for two or three familiar carols, and the closing is always “Silent Night.”  As the choir members sing, they walk around the perimeter of the hall and through the aisles, spacing themselves so that the audience is surrounded by music.  It’s absolutely beautiful!  After this concert, Ted and I are always spiritually in the mood for Christmas.

Ted and I finished shopping for Christmas gifts, wrapping Christmas gifts, and preparing boxes for shipping Christmas gifts as of last night.  Gift Wrap Central is in the basement, where we store gift tags, ribbon, wrapping paper, etc. and have our wedding gift kitchen table as a working surface.  It’s a good place to work on projects because, if we don’t finish, we can leave the mess, go upstairs, and continue with our lives.

I’m the chief gift wrap artist in our house, by default, not by choice.  I’m not very artistic, but I get the gifts covered in holiday paper and modestly decorated.

 

It’s always a challenge to find boxes for shipping.  As our family grows, we need more and larger boxes.  We assess boxes we receive during the year to determine if they will be useful at Christmas or not, which determines if we keep the box or not.  We can usually find boxes that match gift sizes.  This year, I needed one of the larger boxes from the bottom of the nested pile.  As I was putting the mailing label on the box, I noticed it was an old box of Thom’s and I had coincidentally filled it with gifts for Thom’s family.

It looks like this box has been in the basement since Ted snagged it from the NWS office in 1994.

Yessir!  Thom (then Tom) clearly marked it as his stuff!  Now there’s some new stuff for him and for his family in his old box.

At some point, I clarified which stuff Thom had in the box.  David was a doll (or whatever you call the boy version of a doll) he had–complete with “stuff” for David and stuffed animals.

 

Christmas gifts and memories. . . . Good stuff!

Teddy, age 9, has loved pigs for several years.  When he first asked me for a pig birthday cake, I was amazed to discover that there were hundreds of photo suggestions for “pig cake” online.  Who knew that so many people wanted a pig-themed birthday cake?  Ted and I gave him a stuffed pig last Christmas, and he loves it.  For his birthday, he asked for a pig quilt to keep him and Waffles (the stuffed pig) warm.

Now I know for sure that Teddy was ahead of the trend.  When Ted and I took our walk a week ago, we saw a pig Christmas decoration.  Yes, when I think of Christmas, I often think of decorative pigs.  (Not.)  This one lights up at night, but the lights are white and don’t show the pink color.  It even sparkles in the sun!

Here’s the pig ornament.

The pig is one member of a menagerie.  There’s a raccoon, a polar bear, a cardinal, a rabbit, an owl, and more in this display.  Lawn Ornament Christmas is evolving.

. . . Santa might come early.

Last night, Ted picked up his new car at the dealership.  We had test-driven a similar car, but hadn’t seen the model or color combination Ted chose.  Here’s his first look at what he selected.

I think he likes it.

 

Naturally, we had to take a picture of the new and the old.

It’s bigger than the Prius and looks huge in the garage!

 

Ted and I spent about two hours in the driveway today going through the owner’s manual to learn how to operate the many bells and whistles on the new car.  I think we’ve got it all figured out.  Tomorrow, we’re driving to Kirksville to deliver the Prius to Kathy.  We offered her the first right of refusal, and she said she wanted to buy it because she needs a car, she hates the thought of car shopping, and she knows the Prius is in good condition.

It’s a 2018 Honda CR-V Touring model with a “Lunar silver metallic” exterior (who names these colors?!) and a light gray interior with black accents.

Yes, tonight’s concert was a blast from the past.  Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons played at the Family Arena in St. Charles.  Ted and I didn’t know if Frankie had a decent voice left, but even though he’s 83, he still sings pretty well–just in a slightly lower key.  The crowd cheered when he did his famous falsetto notes!  (Maybe because we love them; maybe because we were surprised he still has that much voice range.  Who cares?–He did it!)  The Four Seasons are apparently interchangeable over time and were much younger (40s?).

The show was scheduled for 8:00 pm, but didn’t start until 8:15.  I heard the man behind me tell his wife that they were probably giving Frankie oxygen to get him ready to perform.  (Yes, we old folks have a sense of humor about age.)  The average age of the audience was probably 65-70.  The sign at the concession stand said “We ID everyone.”  Ted and I wondered if there was any point in that, given the audience’s age, but then we saw about a half dozen kids whose parents (or grandparents) probably dragged them to the concert.  They brought the average age down a few minutes.

Frankie might be old, but he didn’t get fat.  He has a good band too.  Tonight, it included two local musicians on the trombone and the trumpet (the two on the left in the back).  The four guys in suits on the left are the Four Seasons.  (Duh!)

Frankie still sings well enough to do solos.  In fact, he and the Four Seasons just released a new album–“Romancing the 60s.”

When Frankie sang “Can’t Take My Eyes off of You,” the crowd broke out the cell phones and the flashlight app to do the arm wave thing.  We’re baby boomers:  we’re aging, but we’ll always be cool.

Frankie sang all his big hits and the crowd loved it.  The Four Seasons’ moves were all choreographed–just like in the 60s.  In this picture, they’re singing “Oh, What a Night.”

The finale.  All good things end.

 

The concert was very good.  Ted and I agreed the tickets were worth it, and I heard a lot of other people complimenting the performance as well.  As I was looking over the crowd before the show began, it made me think of the PBS pledge week doo wop specials, but after the lights went down and you couldn’t see all the gray hair (mostly on the men, of course), you wouldn’t have guessed it was an old crowd.  Party on, Baby Boomers!

Ted and I kicked off the concert season at the Hardin Middle School orchestra’s winter concert.  Sky and Dylan are cellists in the orchestra.

It’s Big Teddy and Little Teddy, ready to hear some music.

The orchestra is warmed up and ready to play.  Arrows point to the people we are most interested in–Dylan in the center ahead of the bass, and Sky on the right in the front chair.

Here’s a closer view of our boys.

Only the eighth graders played the most difficult piece.  Afterward, they stood to take a bow.  Sky is already in eighth grade!

 

Ted and I always look forward to these concerts, and we enjoy them.  The holiday music season has officially begun for us!

Ted and I were going through our pictures from our Southwest trip and I found one I meant to blog.  It’s a picture of an awesome chocolate fountain at a candy shop in the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.  Go ahead–salivate!

Tonight, Ted and I decided it would be fun to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  There are a lot of laughs in the movie, but our favorite moment is always the one when Clark turns on the outdoor lights and Chicago dims.

This was a St. Louis headline today.  The high-end Parkway School District in western St. Louis County has a very ethnically diverse student body.  An African-American Parkway Central girl was interviewed about this incident for a TV newscast.  She said nothing like this has ever happened to her before.  My first thought upon hearing her statement was that our President and others in high positions have made it acceptable to speak in derogatory and divisive terms of people who disagree with them, and/or of people who are not like themselves.  As a result, incidents like this seem to be increasing in number.

In my opinion, the recent well-publicized tweet exchange between Chairman Kim of North Korea and President Trump approaches cyber bullying–a crime in most states–and definitely falls into the category of body-shaming.  That two world leaders would address each other in such a disrespectful (and public!) manner is shocking to me.

Regardless of one’s opinion of these two world leaders, they (and far too many other influential people) are speaking and acting in ways that no mother I’ve ever known would allow.  In addition to the hate speech that is becoming daily news, it’s getting hard to keep track of the number of well-known and highly-positioned men currently accused of improper sexual conduct with children and women.  When will this divisive and disrespectful behavior stop?  My mother taught me that I didn’t have to like everyone I met, and that I didn’t have to make them my best friends, but I was never to treat others without the respect due to them as human beings.  I thought that’s what all mothers taught their children.  Apparently, this is not true.

I try to avoid becoming political in this blog, but I’m tired of sitting quietly by while hate and divisiveness are chipping away at our valuable American melting pot.  Just as many state and local governments are trying to do the right thing in the absence of federal leadership and support (raising minimum wages, funding infrastructure projects, fulfilling the Paris Accord commitments, etc.), we–the people–are going to have to be the ones to say “this is wrong” and to demonstrate respect, tolerance, and inclusiveness to other individuals, regardless of race, creed, color, or gender.

Since Ted and I came home two days early from our Southwest trip, we got an early start on some jobs we had to do.  Number one:  Ted gave the car a good, hard scrubbing and took off the grit that car washes don’t.  He vacuumed, dusted, and detailed everything, including putting on a coat of wax.  Meanwhile, I unpacked a month’s worth of stuff and put it away.

Things looked a little different than when we left home in early October.

When we left, the trees were still green and flowers were still blooming.  Temperatures were in the middle 80s.

When we came home, the peak of fall color was already a thing of the past.  Temperatures are in the middle 40s.

 

I went out to lunch with friends today (a lunch I thought I’d miss because we’d still be in Kansas), and Ted spent that time raking leaves.  When I got home from my lunch date, I finished blowing the leaves in the back yard so Ted could go to buy gas for the chipper.

A lot of leaves had fallen in the yard!

 

Every year, when we rake up a big pile of leaves, Ted and I say we should jump in the pile, but we never do.  This year, we did it.  We stood on the edge of the pile and just fell over backward.  The pile was soft and we fell deeper than we’d expected.  We were completely buried and had to dig our faces out.

You can see a little bit of the pink sleeves on my jacket.  Look between them to find my sunglasses.  My legs are buried in the foreground.  The dent on the left is where Ted jumped in and climbed out.

 

That was fun!  We’ll have to do it again next year.  Are we getting older, or reverting to our childhoods?  First, sand sledding and now jumping in a leaf pile.  After the fun, Ted started up the chipper to get rid of the leaf pile and I started dinner–a real, home-cooked meal.  No hunting for a restaurant tonight.

It took about an hour to make the leaf pile disappear through the chipper.

 

The trip was fun, but it’s always good to come home.

We left Jeff’s house this morning and headed for the Monument Rocks (chalk cliffs) near Oakley, KS.  Last night, we set our alarm an hour early to compensate for the change to CST and to allow daylight time for viewing the Monument Rocks.  Jeff and La asked when we’d be getting home, and we told them we were planning to spend today and two more days in Kansas, arriving home Friday night (this is Wednesday).

Some of the chalk cliff formations.  (Thank you, Google.)

 

We stopped in Colby for lunch, at the turn-off to Oakley . . . Maybe it was because the weather was cold . . . Maybe we’ve been traveling too long . . . Maybe we’ve spent too many years driving directly east and west on I-70 when we visit Jeff’s family . . . Whatever it might have been, Ted and I suggested to each other that maybe we should just go home.  We calculated what time we’d get home (around midnight because we hadn’t left Jeff’s house as early as usual), decided we could live with it, and hit the road.

We had a wonderful trip around the Southwest.

…States visited:  9  (Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas)

…Miles driven:  6,070

…Days away from home:  31

…Time zone changes:  6 (CDT to MDT in New Mexico; MDT to MST in Arizona–they don’t do daylight time; MST to PDT in Las Vegas–a 2-hour time difference; PDT to MDT in Utah; MDT to MST in Colorado–daylight savings time ended; and MST to CST in Kansas.)  At one point, we were so unsure of what time it was and which devices were showing the correct time, that I actually called the hotel desk to ask what time it was so we could set our alarm for the correct time!

…Significant sites visited:  10 national parks; 5 national monuments; 3 national sites (VLA, Hoover Dam, Kitt Peak Observatory); 2 state parks; and 1 UNESCO World Heritage Site.

…Highlight of the trip (if we have to choose only one):  the mass ascension of 550 balloons at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

…Fun we had:  infinite.

Ted and I have been looking forward to our stop in Longmont, CO to see Alex for the first time in 25 months.  He just returned from his mission in Peru on November 5, and we arrived at the house on the 6th, so we didn’t give him much time to recover from the international travel or to re-acclimate himself to the U.S.  After two years, it’s obvious he is a mature young man who’s had a very enriching experience.  We’re so proud of him!  We had a good time with the family and, as always, were sorry to have to leave and be on our way.

It looks like Jeff, La, and Zaque were excited about Alex’s homecoming too.

 

Jeff’s first ultimate frisbee game of the winter season was scheduled during our visit, so we watched his team play two twenty-minute fast-paced indoor games.

Here’s Jeff’s cheering section.

Jeff is a team captain, so I assume he’s giving the team a pre-game pep talk here, even though the team looks pretty relaxed at the moment.

Jeff in action.

 

Since Alex has been gone for two years, we needed to take some family pictures.

Here we are, looking at some of the pictures Alex took while he was in Peru.  Zaque had already gone to bed.

And here we are the next morning.  Zaque was in school.

Yet another grouping–Ted and me with our elder son.

Our final shot:  three generations of Schroeder men–Ted, his elder son, and Jeff’s elder son, our eldest grandson.

 

I think we need to do a better job of scheduling our trips.  At the start of our Spring Break Road Trip, we had three inches of snow in Nashville, TN and three more in Asheville, NC.  At the end of this trip, we had three inches of snow in Longmont, CO.

 

It must be time to get home and put the flannel sheets on the bed!

Following our Royal Gorge Route train ride, Ted and I returned to Pueblo, where we are spending the night.  Pueblo’s Riverwalk and Historic District were a 5-10 minute walk from our hotel, and we had plenty of time to explore them–a little.  It was Sunday afternoon, and not much was open, but it was good to be outside and getting some exercise, even though it was only 42 degrees.

Pueblo’s Riverwalk is not in the San Antonio Riverwalk class, but it was pretty.  It looks like it might be a new development, so maybe it needs some time to attract more businesses along the Arkansas river.

Here’s another view of the Riverwalk.  They’re hard to see in the shadows, but on the left walkway, there’s a couple walking.  The lady is wearing a red jacket.  Now look in the previous picture and find the lady in the red jacket.  Same lady.  That couple was walking in the opposite direction as we were, so we saw them coming and going both ways.

I’m not sure of the reason for this mural, but it was fun to identify the people depicted by the artist.

Nearby was another mural including the omnipresent Southwest chili pepper.  We see them depicted everywhere, including on personalized license plates and in souvenir shops.

Here’s a view of the main street through the Historic District.  There were some architecturally beautiful buildings in this area.

This sculpture was near our hotel (the building in the far left center of the photo).

 

We enjoyed Pueblo’s Riverwalk and Historic District, but were ready to come indoors to warm up after an hour in the 40-something temperature.  We decided to relax in the hotel’s seating area with a cup of hot chocolate.  These are the good times!

Today, Ted and I took a two-hour train ride through the Royal Gorge.  Trains always run along the rivers in the bottoms of canyons, so I didn’t have to worry about heights.  The Royal Gorge Route Railroad is a “heritage railway”–one that preserves railway scenes of the past.  The route follows the Arkansas River between the 1,000-foot tall granite cliffs of Colorado’s grandest canyon, and is described as “America’s most spectacular rail journey.”  When Teddy Roosevelt rode this route, he called it “the trip that bankrupts the English language.”

The Royal Gorge Route departs from the Santa Fe Depot in Canon City, CO.

The first car of the train is named “Theodore Roosevelt.”  Each of the 10-12 cars had a different name.

Here’s that good-looking couple again!  We had tickets for a vista dome car, so our views were wonderful.

There was an open-air car for unobstructed viewing.  The train moved slowly, so it was a safe ride, but it got cold in the shadows between the canyon walls.

This is the Royal Gorge Bridge–955 feet above us.  We could see people walking on it and looking over the sides.

The holiday village is ready for the Santa Express in December.

Can you see the man’s face in the center near the top of the canyon wall?  He is called “The Guardian of the Gorge,” and his name is Cliff Rock.

We saw about a dozen whitewater rafters navigating the Arkansas River.

Near the top center, look for the red dot.  That is three joined cable cars crossing the Royal Gorge.

 

We just managed to squeeze this enjoyable two-hour activity into our trip.  The train schedule is down from four runs daily in the summer to one run each on Saturday and Sunday, and next weekend is the last trip until spring.  For Ted and me, it was another highlight of the wonderful vacation we’re having in the Southwest.

Ted and I started our day with a visit to the Taos Pueblo and ended the day in Pueblo, CO–in other words, we went from pueblo to Pueblo.  (Insert groan here.)

The Taos Pueblo is over 1,000 years old.  It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is an active, living community, not a reproduction of pueblo life.  All of the pueblos belong to the community, but the homes in the pueblos belong to individual families.  Living in the pueblo means having no modern amenities–no electricity or running water.  Residents usually have a propane stove for cooking and heating.

In 1847, the Taos Pueblo revolted against the U.S. Military and won.  The Taos Pueblo people have never been conquered, and have maintained their culture and tradition.  Tiwa is the native Taos Pueblo language.  It is an oral language and could disappear quickly, so the tribal elementary schools teach Tiwa and English.  Tribal high schools require an additional foreign language, so tribal members are fluent in at least three languages.  The Spanish brought Catholicism to the tribe, and the church in the pueblo is Catholic, but tribal members also practice their native religion.  Yesterday, we were unable to visit the Taos Pueblo because the tribe was celebrating a native religious holiday.

Here is a portion of the wall that surrounds the Taos Pueblo.  It was originally 13 feet high for protection.

The white arch is the entry to the churchyard.  This is a Catholic church.  Only the far end of the building (crosses on the roof) is the church; the other part is pueblo homes.  More homes are in the right background.

 

There are currently four resident families in the pueblo, numbering about 25 people, but there are another 1,500 tribal members living on tribal land outside the pueblo.  As long as they are living outside the pueblo wall, they may have a modern lifestyle.  Tribal members pay federal taxes, but they have their own tribal government.  Most people use their pueblo home as a second home:  they live outside the pueblo walls, but return to the pueblo for religious holidays and community events.  Many of the homes are shops, selling food and handmade items to tourists.

This is the largest building in the Taos Pueblo, and has five levels.  Each doorway is a separate home.  The homes are small–about 12 feet square with low ceilings.  Food is prepared in adobe ovens or on propane stoves.  The adobe walls in all the pueblo buildings are 3-5 feet thick to keep the interior cool in the summer and to keep it warm in the winter.

Originally, pueblo homes had no doors.  Ladders were used to climb up to the roof and then to climb down into the home through a “skylight.”   This provided protection from intruders.  Today, the homes have doors cut into them.  Many are painted blue to ward off evil spirits.

This is a view through a series of drying racks.  Meats and vegetables are hung on the upper crossbars to dry and preserve for future use.

Adobe ovens are used for baking.  Cedar wood is burned inside for about an hour to heat the oven.  Then the wood and ashes are removed, the to-be-baked goods are put inside, and the door is covered.  The inside baking temperature is 300-400 degrees, and each oven can hold 25-30 loaves of bread.

The center structure is another multi-story pueblo.  Smaller pueblo homes surround it.  To grasp the size of the pueblo homes, subtract 3-5 foot thick walls from the exterior measurement.  The stream in the foreground comes directly from the mountain and is untreated, but it is so clean that it can be used for everything–washing, cooking, bathing, etc.

The center building with the bell tower was the original pueblo church.  The U.S. Military destroyed it during an attack, believing that the pueblo residents were hiding in it.  (They had actually hidden in the mountains.)  The original churchyard area is now used as a cemetery.  There is an oven in the center of the picture and pueblo homes on the left and right.

 

After our visit to the Taos Pueblo, Ted and I had lunch at a microbrewery in Taos.  Local restaurants are always interesting.  This one had a “painting” made of beer bottle caps.

I apologize for the blurring, but you get the idea of how creative a beer-cap artist can be.

 

Ted and I have been driving scenic roads whenever we can.  Today, we followed New Mexico SH64.  It was curvy, mountainous, and beautiful.  I think our average speed was under 40 mph, but we were in no hurry and the views were worth it.  Part of the highway was named the “Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway,” and quite a bit of it was the historic Santa Fe Trail as well.

Winter is getting closer, and it’s becoming a challenge to find fall colors on the trees.  Picture yellow-gold leaves on these trees.

Here’s a village nestled in a valley.

To quote Sting, “Heavy cloud, but no rain” to spoil our views on SR 64.

The Santa Fe Trail continued on I-25.

 

After visiting Roswell, NM and Hooper, CO–two sites where large numbers of people have reported sightings of UFOs, Ted seems to be getting into the mood.  He thought he saw a UFO in the sky today.

Oh, those funny meteorologists!

Ted and I are back in New Mexico today.  Can you believe that, after waiting so many years to check New Mexico off our “states visited” list, we’ve been in the state twice on the same road trip?!

On our drive to Taos, NM today, Ted and I drove over the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  There’s a parking lot at one end of the bridge, sidewalks along both sides of the highway, and an overview area on each side in the center of the bridge.  We parked and headed for the overview areas.  Ooops!  As soon as the bridge left solid land and went over the gorge, my knees felt weak and I had to focus on looking at the sidewalk and the road–I couldn’t look down, because the gorge is so deep.  I stood with my back to the view and checked out the more distant view across the bridge.  Ted had to take the pictures again, just like at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Keep in mind that Ted couldn’t get the top and the bottom of the gorge into the same picture.  Also, it’s always a lot farther to the bottom than a photo makes it appear.  This gorge was very deep–800 feet.

 

When we arrived in Taos, the first thing we noticed was the traffic.  A two-lane highway runs through the city and it was clogged in both directions.  We picked a place to eat based on the large number of cars parked in front, and had a nice lunch.  Then we put our car in a public parking lot and set out on foot to explore this colorful and quaint town that seems to epitomize the architecture of the Southwest.  Taos is a popular skiing destination and also a cultural center.  The streets are lined with art galleries.

This is the city square.  It is surrounded by adobe shops, of course and, like all city squares, traffic goes one way around it.

Here’s a little corner of shops in the historic district of downtown Taos.

I found an unusual interpretation of the pictographs on the hand dryer in a rest room.

This guy seems to have a permanent parking spot on the main street of Taos.  Honk if you agree.

The weather was very nice, so Ted and I stopped at a cafe in the historic district and enjoyed an afternoon snack outdoors.

 

What a lovely surprise at the end of the afternoon when we checked into our hotel.  Ted finds hotels through his AAA travel books and through Google, so we’re never sure exactly what they will be like, except that they’re clean and have basic amenities.  Sometimes we find out the hotel is geared toward hunters (signs advising guests not to clean game in the room), and sometimes they’re more luxurious than we expected.  Our Taos hotel is 0.4 miles from downtown–walking distance–and encompasses nine acres!  It’s very Southwestern in style and has beautiful grounds and luxurious rooms.  We have a jet tub and a fireplace in our room, and there’s not a game-cleaning rag in sight.

This is the view toward the entrance where the valet met us.

Guest rooms are clustered in small buildings scattered all around the property.  Here are some rooms with a view of the Secret Circle of plantings and water features.

This is a view of the section of the grounds called the Mountain Green.

 

We had hoped to visit the Taos Pueblo today, but it is closed for a ceremony.  The Pueblo is an inhabited, active community, and people in town told us that, yes, every now and then they close for some private event.  They are re-opening at 8:00 tomorrow morning, so we’re going to stop on our way to Pueblo, CO.

In mountainous areas, winter weather forecasts regularly mention “snow in the higher elevations.”  We saw fresh snow on the ground in many places today, because we’re spending a lot of time at the higher elevations.  With the exception of five days below 5,000 feet (Las Cruces, NM; Tucson, AZ; and Las Vegas, NV), Ted and I have been spending our days at elevations of 5,252-11,318 feet since October 13, when we arrived in Albuquerque, NM for the Balloon Fiesta.  We can climb several flights of stairs and/or walk vigorously uphill without puffing, so I’d say we’re acclimated to the thinner air.

Clean fresh snow on the high mountaintops.

Clean fresh snow at our traveling elevation too.  There was ice on the lake surfaces this morning.

There’s not enough snow at the ski resorts yet, so the snow machines have been busy making the ski runs usable.

 

We drove through Leadville, CO today and saw some very colorful houses.  I remember learning that, in Alaska, people like bright-colored houses to cheer them up during the long, dark winter.  Maybe that’s true in Leadville too, because there are a lot of houses painted in cheerful, bright designs.

This house is decorated in shades of blue and green.  It’s hard to see, but the second house to the left is done in shades of red and pink.

This homeowner chose blue, purple, and pink for his colorful facade.

 

The UFO Watchtower near Hooper, CO was along our route today, so we stopped for a visit.  After all, we’ve already checked out the UFO history in Roswell, NM.  The Watchtower was started as a joke by a lady who bought a ranch, then found out she couldn’t successfully raise cattle on it.  She knew that UFO watchers would sometimes visit her ranch after dark, so she decided to make money by building a gift shop in a saucer dome with a viewing platform.

The San Luis Valley, where the Watchtower is located, is revered among flying saucer buffs as one of the best places in the world to see UFOs.  Twenty psychics have visited the site and have identified two large vortexes and outlined them with rocks.  The vortex area is known as the “Healing Garden,” and tourists add items to the clutter in the stone circles.

A cautionary sign at the entrance to the Watchtower area.

The viewing platform sits beside the gift shop.  The gift shop is only open on weekends this time of year, so we couldn’t purchase any alien-type items.

There are two concentric stone circles here.  I could only get an (almost) semi-circle in my photo.  The stone outlines are a bit hard to see through the clutter.

Here’s the Healing Garden from ground level.  Name an object (preferably junky), and there is probably at least one here–ballpoint pens, single socks, a baseball, Mardi Gras beads, etc.

A recovered spaceship?

 

The highlight of today’s travel was Great Sand Dunes National Park.  We visited this park on a trip with our kids in the middle ’80s and had a good time in the sand dunes.  (Except Kari, who got an asthma attack–probably from the dust or from the 7,500-foot altitude.)  It’s the only national park I can remember visiting that has no “stay on the designated trail” signs.  There are no trails in the dunes, and the Park Service has apparently decided that tourists can do no harm to the sand.  We didn’t even see a sign telling us not to take any rocks or sand particles out of the park.

These are the tallest sand dunes in North America.  The dunefield covers thirty square miles and sits in isolation among the mountains and the desert.  It looks a little out of place–like someone put it here and forgot to pick it up and put it where it belongs.  Star Dune is the tallest at 750 feet; High Dune is 650 feet.  Wouldn’t it be more logical for High Dune to be the tallest?  Who named these dunes, the government?

Here’s a long-range shot of the Great Sand Dunes with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains behind them.

Here’s a picture taken at the base of the dunes.

To appreciate the size of the dunes, use the people walking on them and in front of them as a scale.  You might have to zoom in on this picture to see the people on top of the tallest dune.  There are five people up there.  Three people are on the right of the peak, and the figure on the left at the peak is actually two people standing close to each other.

 

Tonight:  Alamosa, CO.

Tomorrow:  Taos, NM, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.