I Left My Heart. . .

We just got back from a most fun trip. Sailor had a class to attend for his work, and he brought me along. We went to this same seminar 3 years ago and stayed at a really nice hotel, so when this came up again, we booked an extra ticket for me. We stayed in the same hotel again in San Jose.

The Sunday before we left, we quietly celebrated our 35th Wedding Anniversary. So we decided this would be our "trip" to commemorate that day.

I LOVE these jacaranda trees. They were everywhere.

Anyway, three years ago when we were here, I discovered how to travel via the light rail. I explored a few places beyond the train stops and found a fun mall. I entertained myself buying clothes and shoes for the upcoming trip to Austria. This time I had plans to try and find my way to San Francisco via rail. I knew we could connect from the light rail to Cal Train, but that was about as much as I knew.


The first night, the company hosted an introduction luncheon and we met all the participants of the class. They announced that this time the company were providing an excursion on a catamaran in the San Francisco Bay the next evening. So instead of finding my way to San Francisco via rail, the first day when Sailor went to class, I found my way to another place to shop. The name of the town is Campbell.


I found a wonderful little knitting shop called the Green Planet Yarn Store. They had different kinds of yarns, from wool and cotton to sugar cane and bamboo. The latter two are so soft, they feel like silk. I had to purchase some. I will attempt a scarf made from sugar cane and socks made from bamboo. There are no synthetics at this store. I found a cute measuring tape that was covered by a handmade sheep. You pull his tail and that is the measuring tape. I couldn't afford to buy him after I got all the yarn and needles for my two projects, so I took a picture of him instead.



While in the town of Campbell, I saw a bike made of bamboo or something like that and a cat sleeping in a bookstore window. Click on bike picture to enlarge and you tell me what you think it is.





I got back in time to soak my feet a bit in the hot tub, then change and be ready for the bus that left at 4:15. The bus was arranged with two seats facing backwards, a table and two seats facing forward. The hosts provided drinks and snacks. That was anything from water and soft drinks to beer and wine along with all variety of chips, pretzels and nuts. We were glad we didn't have to drive in the traffic. Our first stop was at the top of a hill called Twin Peaks. We were supposed to see the best view from there, but the fog had rolled in and we didn't see as far as they had hoped.


Then we headed to Pier 39 to meet our boat, the Adventure Cat II for a Sunset Cruise on the San Francisco Bay. It left from Pier 39 where the sea lions have taken over the pier.

The Captain was named Hans and he had a great accent. He was an excellent Captain. It was fascinating to watch the crew setting the sails.

As we sailed along, dinner was served below. It was a Mexican feast with an assortment of fruits and a wonderful plate of cookies and other desserts.





We sailed past Alcatraz and around that island, then turned back and rode so close to a restaurant jutting out from Sausalito that we could wave at the diners, and they waved back.






Then we sailed toward the Golden Gate Bridge. We sailed under the bridge and then turned around.







As we turned a huge cargo ship was heading out to sea, and another one coming in had apparently called for a tug boat. We passed it on its way to meet the next boat coming into shore. I made sure we kissed while under the bridge, and we whispered "Happy Anniversary" to one another.

Coincidentally, ten years ago we celebrated our 25th on a boat as well. We were on Lake Powell and were honored by all present on the house boat.


While heading to the Bridge the first time, I was invited to take the wheel. I can now say that I sailed a catamaran in the San Francisco Bay. That is something I never thought I would say about myself. What a wonderful memory.

The people in charge of the conference were the most gracious, generous and kind people. We felt like royalty. I guess they have this seminar every year. I think Sailor had so much fun that he will sign up again next year. wahoo.

Coming back to shore, the sun had set and we got some amazing night shots of the San Francisco sky line. It is all so magical. I LOVE it there.

Living in the middle of a desert makes all this ship and sea stuff quite unique and wonderful. I loved the Bay, I loved the fog, I loved the waves and the sea air. I could have stayed there for a month and never missed a thing at home.
I thought of the movie, Big Business where Sadie says to Rose, "I could live here the rest of my life and be as happy as Beulah the cow." Pretty much, I felt the same way.


I traveled the light rail a few more times the next day, once to go back to the Green Planet Yarn store to purchase things I forgot yesterday and again with Sailor to eat dinner after the light reception they held after the class was over. One more time on the day we left to show Sailor the mall I loved near Oakridge.

The airport is very tiny in San Jose. Our airline was delayed due to a downpour in Salt Lake. The plane coming was delayed taking off from Salt Lake and again from San Jose until the storm had subsided.

We arrived home to find out we had also gotten the downpour here in our tiny desert town. We have had beautiful rains all week and I am loving it. I am singing my Soft Rain song over and over and over.

I hope you had a great week.

~a

ps. it is now Wednesday after I wrote this. We have been enjoying rains all week. In fact tonight it has rained for an hour and a half now. I am loving it.

Picasa Web Photos

I have always loved that I can link from someones blog to their Flickr or Picasa photo accounts to look at more of their photos, whether it be their trips or the latest antics of their children or pets.
I finally figured out how to link it on my blog.

What you see is what is there for all my posts, on all of my blogs. So basically you will see my Taiwan trip and many other things. I spent a long time last night trying to remember our Taiwan trip and typing in some captions below the photos.

What did it accomplish? I got terribly homesick for Taiwan. I wanted to go back and see the Taroko Gorge again, I wanted to go back to the sweet people our son introduced us to. What is Ray up to now? How is Freddy? I would love to go back to that Buddhist Monastery again. And would love to see Puli once more and stay in that marvelous Waterhouse bed and breakfast. Where is Daniel Lieu our wonderful driver now? He happened to have a two week break from school when we came and took that time to drive the car we rented. We paid for his food, all the gas and helped with his hotel costs as well. Has he gotten married by now? The Landis Hotel was such an amazing "wow factor" hotel with the best and largest breakfast buffet I have ever seen. The food was so unique you can't taste it anywhere here that I have found.
And Mangos, ahhhhh mangos. You haven't tasted mangos until you taste them fresh off the tree.
If I ever serve a mission for our Church, I think I will put in a request to be considered to serve there. I cannot imagine a better place to serve.

There are some things I didn't get to see the first time around that I would like to see next time. We never got to see Taipei. We landed there, but immediately boarded a bus and headed to Taichung. We didn't get to see the Taipei Temple either. I cried over that for several hours as we were stuck in an airport waiting for our returning flight. There was a town we didn't get to see that is famous for it's wood carvings that we didn't get to see either.

The only thing I don't miss is the flight. That was so LONG, so crowded and miserable. It was so miserable, in fact, I purchased upgrades on the way home. I just couldn't imagine my two sweet long-legged men having to fold themselves on those tiny seats of Malaysian Airlines which were built for much smaller people than we are. I don't miss the humidity either.

But in all, just looking at those pictures made me homesick for a place I only spent two weeks in. Have you ever gotten homesick for a place where you didn't spend much original time too?

Its been awhile

Sorry for not posting sooner. I have been really busy. I even got a comment from one friend saying she thought her reader wasn't working.

Getting ready for Christmas always takes a powerhouse of energy, and I work best under that kind of pressure. I have count-down lists in my head and manage to meet those deadlines. It is necessary to postpone and cancel the less important things. Therefore the blogging has suffered, as have the Christmas cards.

I got a quilt top made for Sailor and put together some fun Christmas bags for all my children, sister and her two girls. We got most of the Christmas stuff to our children before Christmas, except for the ones who live out of state. We were traveling their way, so that made things easier. I just stacked their things by the door. We would leave right after Sacrament Meeting and get there about 1 in the morning.

Earlier in the week, our D3 called. She didn't sound very good, and when we asked the problem, she began to sob. Her husband had just gotten laid off from work. This couple had carefully planned everything in their lives. They had waited until he was done with his Bachelor's and Master's degrees and a really nice job secured with an amazing company, before they started a family. They had purchased a house and had begun to fix it up. All the rooms were painted, carpets removed, wooden floors polished, kitchen and bathroom remodeled, and family room cozily furnished before the baby arrived.

She had returned to work once a week in a doctor's office and life seemed to be going great for them. She told us that she needed us to come up to help fix an older car. The really nice one they had just purchased had to be sold, so the older one needed to work. So instead of the pre-Christmas list, we dropped everything and rushed up to help.

Sailor had taken up the "way of the wrench" back when the children were young in order to keep us in older, but working cars. Then to furnish all the children with hopefully reliable transportation when they left for college. Because the cars were old, we ran many rescue missions to fix cars and help out stranded children. In the course of fixing, Sailor has acquired many tools and books to help him diagnose and fix the cars. He has become so amazing at diagnosing that sometimes when the children call and describe a car problem, he can help figure it out.

This ambitious SIL3 had let no grass grow under his feet and within a week of the lay-off, he had already secured another job with a local firm. We were informed through a text on our cell phones two days before Christmas that he had gotten the job. The former employee had given him two-weeks pay, so actually they came out ahead in their budget. We acknowledge the hand of God in blessing them in this way.

On the day before our scheduled departure, our son (S3), daughter-in-law (DIL3) and their sweet little baby daughter came for a friend's reception. They chose to spend the night here. Which was fabulous. I had a duet in the Church choir that I was going to sing, so I was happy to have some family here to support me.

But just as they went to bed, she began to cramp. She had told us at Thanksgiving she was pregnant, then announced this last week that she was losing the baby. But the actual miscarriage took place here. I felt so terribly bad for her, but was so glad we could be on hand to care for her sweet little daughter. My son spent most of the time by her side and running errands for her needs. So I am glad we could watch their baby so they didn't have to worry about caring for her as well. We ended up skipping Church for the most part. Sailor got in on the Priesthood part, I got in on Sacrament Meeting and sang my song. As this poor, sweet DIL3 suffered through the labor, we told our son not to rush to leave, just to take their time. As we had planned on traveling right after Sacrament Meeting, we began to make alternate plans. When the worst was over, he carried his little bride to the couch, surrounded her with pillows and comforters and brought her soup and crackers. Sailor had made a Jello for her. She looked as white as a sheet. We gave her a heat pad for her stomach and she laid there and recovered.

Some time during the whole ordeal, she had called her mom. She agreed to meet them on the interstate and pick her up and take her to their home. S3 had to work up through Christmas Eve. Plans were made to see their family doctor the next day.

We got on the road only an hour and a half later than planned. The truck was all packed the day before, so it didn't take much to load the last minute things and embark.

We got to my mom's home by about 2:30 in the morning, and were so wired from all the caffeinated drinks that we buzzed for about an hour. But at least we had dry roads and were safely there.

Monday was pretty much a recovery day. We felt jet-lagged. We had a wonderful time celebrating with my Mom, sister and her friend, and her twin daughters. That night we went to Sailor's Mom's birth town to celebrate another reunion. It has been a tradition to have this reunion Christmas night. They bring pot-luck food and their stringed instruments. We have a whole book of Christmas carols and are accompanied by a piano, violin, guitar, bass and flute. It has been very fun to attend these whenever we are in the area.

Then we headed to S1's house. The day after Christmas, we celebrated with S1, his family and D2 and her family. There had been several flu bugs going around, but thankfully everyone was well. The only down part is the last day there, in the evening, I felt like I might be getting a cold. I took the usual preventatives, Musinex, Sudafed, Cold Snap and water all day Monday as we drove home. Thankfully, Sailor was not affected by the bug. But I slept almost the whole way home. That makes me sad, because I just LOVE traveling with him, and I felt like I missed 8 whole hours of "just us" time. Our plans to join S2 and his family for New Year's Eve was canceled as well. We will make it up to them later. I hate to disappoint the children, because he had indicated they were excited to have us come visit.

So for the last day, I have mostly unpacked and tried to recover from this head cold. And that is where I have been. I will include pictures later. My Christmas cards have not been mailed, not even the email version sent. I feel badly because I have received so many really nice cards and gifts, but just don't have the stamina it would take to complete this task. bleah

My prayers go out for my sweet little friend Lori, who apparently fainted on the landing of the stairs. She basically did a face-plant and broke several bones in her face. I feel so badly for her and ask everyone to join me in praying for her full recovery.

I will post more when I feel better.

*¦*:·-·:*HAPPY*:·-·:*¦*:·-·:*NEW YEAR*:·-·:*¦*

love to you all
~a

Destination Estes

I love this web cam.
Whenever I get homesick, I can look at my web cams around my home.

I love the web cam because it updates every 10 seconds. I thought I had saved two photos of a sequence, the first being the family getting their picture taken, the second was supposed to be of the photographer giving the group their camera back, but somehow in my rush yesterday, I got two of the family getting their pictures taken. Ratz.

Estes Park is around 50 miles away from where I grew up. Dad and Mom used to drive us there once in a while.

I loved to walk around the shops with Dad. He was an inventor at heart, and he would look at the gag gifts and say, "I could have done that. Someone is getting rich off that invention." He did end up inventing and producing a novelty gag gift that sold for years. When I find a picture I will post on that someday.

My memories of Estes park include caramel corn and Salt Water Taffy. This is no ordinary salt water taffy. It comes in fabulous flavors such as Texas pecan with real pecans, cinnamon, mint, vanilla and other flavors, but those are the ones I get. If you click on the link, you can see the old fashioned taffy puller still working in the window. We always got those two treats when we went to Estes. The whole town was filled with amazing shops that sell souvenirs, novelty gifts and many useless things but it is a lot of fun and it was a beautiful mountain town and a resort for many visitors.

I have watched this Riverwalk web cam for several seasons. I have seen the sun rise and set, I have seen the rain and the snow fall, the lamp post turn on, the people resting on the bench, talking on the cell phone, giving a baby in a stroller it's bottle, joggers hurrying by, bicyclers swishing past. There is drama going on all the time.

When I visited home last time, I was determined to find this web cam. I had not even known about Estes' Riverwalk, and neither had my mom or her out-of-town cousin visitors who happened by while I was there. We all caravaned to Estes, each with a destination in mind. Mom just wanted to be with us and come for the ride.

That sweet little Lady used her cane and braved the whole 4 blocks up and down. The California cousins had their own agenda so we exchanged cell phone numbers and split up. I wanted to find the web cam, so I left my sweet husband with Mom and hurried east along the river. I was looking for that lamp post, that flower box and that bench. There weren't many like it so when I finally saw the lamp posts that look like the one in the picture, I knew I was near.
The web cam is on the corner of the deck, the lamp post, the bench and the flower box all match.

I stood under the web cam and took photographs of what the web cam sees. I guess if someone I know had been watching, they would have seen me. I should have called on my cell phone and had someone click print page and saved it. That would have been planning ahead.

Anyway I found it. That was my whole goal in Estes Park, besides getting some of that delicious salt water taffy.

I enjoy the web cam even more now that I have seen it in person. That is an amazing river running beside this walk. I think it is the Big Thompson River.

We were treated by Donna, our cousin, to a lunch in an outdoor restaurant along the Riverwalk and watched the people pass by. I enjoyed getting reacquainted this wonderful lady and her grandson who is actually my second cousin once removed. Donna would be my first cousin-in-law once removed. How fun to find family. We really got along well and had a nice visit. We exchanged emails and I hope we continue to keep in touch. In the end, we walked back to our cars and they were on their way to another tourist attraction, and we went back home. What a sweet and unexpected bonus to my visit to see Mom.

It was a fun adventure. I love Estes.

~a

ps
for some reason, looking at that river makes me so thirsty. Every time I see it, I jump up and go get a glass of cold water. Now I wish I could have a sound cam as well, I want to hear that water rushing by. There is nothing like a Colorado mountain stream. They are so amazing.

Carnegie Hall~when it rains it pours

Our choir has been invited to sing in Carnegie Hall once again in May of 2009. I guess I know what I am saving my money for next year. We would be singing Brahms Requiem under the baton of John Rutter himself. This is amazing to me, since we have sung many pieces that have been arranged by him in our choir. How amazing is this?
In the same week, our director received a second invitation from Lex de Azevedo to sing with his choir in a piece he has composed called Alleluia, in March of 2009. It was just announced and he told us to think about it. But the consensus was two things. First it would be hard to perform two such hard things so close to one another, second, our director says, our Spring Concert is always at that time, and to skip it would hurt the audience if we didn't remain consistent.

First Bi-annual Family Reunion

We had our first Family reunion, consisting of all our children, their spouses (or in S3's case future spouse) and the grandchildren. It was organized by S2 & Wife. We went to a wonderful place in the mountains that was built for the sole purpose of hosting Girl's Camp for the girls in our Church. It is big enough to house 5000 girls a week. The girls have been coming here since 2003, so it is fairly new. Then they decided to allow families to come after the summer is over, and even boys to come during the winter for Winter Camp. The cost is very inexpensive, the place was very clean, and it was most pleasant. I even took the zip line challenge, which left me shaking for 5 minutes afterwards. I HATE heights.
It was great to see all of our children together. We played games, hiked, and each family prepared a meal, which made it very fun to taste everyone else's food and not have to be in charge the whole time, which in the past was what we did as a family. It still was a lot of preparation, like all camping trips are, but not as much was dedicated to food preparation.
I loved seeing all the grandchildren as well. We stayed in three cabins which are built to house 16 girls in bunk beds in each cabin. Some brought blow-up mattresses to sleep on the floor and some brought single bed mattresses to fit in the bunk beds. There were flush toilets, showers, propane gas hookups and stoves, a room with a place to store all the food, including a refrigerator and running water, and a covered place to prepare the food, plus a nice fire ring, for those who wanted to do the Dutch Oven over the open fire cooking style. The cost is $165 a night, and each family paid 1/6th of that to reserve our place, but I seem to remember that we paid a bit less. I think the price went up since our reservation. But I just looked this up on the website and the cost is now $165. My sister and her husband just got back from a 23-month Mission in Africa, and they came up to join us on Friday. We had a rousing game of Risk for the men, most girls tend to dislike that game. We take it too personally, well at least I DO. So we sat on the side and watched them and talked about girlie things. Those who weren't interested or just too tired, went to bed in the other cabins. They supply each cabin with two folding tables and 6-8 folding chairs.
On Saturday, we had to clean our campground, cabins, showers, bathrooms and cooking pavilion and were checked out by the full-time Senior missionary couples, who serve there, before we left. This leaves it clean for the next group and probably cuts the costs, which is fine with me. We know this is a big commitment, so we decided to make it an every other year event. Everyone will take turns organizing it, and I think when it becomes our turn, we just might be tempted to reserve this place again.
I think it would be appropriate to pronounce this First Family Reunion a BIG SUCCESS.
Thanks to everyone who was there and helped in any way. Pictures to be posted later.

More pictures on my Picasa Web Album.

The Big Road Trip with my Sister Part 3: The Coast

After traveling across Washington, we headed straight to Seattle. Throughout the whole trip, somehow we managed to hit rush hour in every single big city. We took Highway 1 all the way down the Pacific Ocean Coastline, starting in Seattle. We went up the Space Needle and viewed the city. We took a picture of our tiny yellow car parked in the parking lot down below. We rode on a Trax train. I don't know what it was called, but it was like the Metro in Washington DC.



We shopped. It was fun to do just what ever we wanted. Then when we got bored, we got back onto the road, Highway 1. It was such a beautiful way to travel, Highway 1. We could just drive and look to our right, not to the left, if we were traveling from San Diego to Seattle, NO, we planned that out. That was about the only thing we planned in our whole trip.
We drove on to Oregon. We stopped anywhere we wanted along the road, and explored all the beaches that looked interesting. We gathered seashells and played in the tide pools. We saw Portland and stopped and shopped for souvenirs. We found roadside rest stops to sleep. We bought some wonderful blackberries from a roadside stand. We cooked our breakfasts on the picnic tables at the rest stops, and then took a "shower" in the bathrooms. They had outlets, so we would take a washcloth and wash ourselves with soap, and wash our hair in the sink, then plug in our wonderful rollers. We would use the hand dryer to dry our hair, then we would curl our hair, put on makeup, change clothes into a fresh outfit. We would even wash our old clothes and hang them in the back of the car, and as we drove they would dry. Back in the day, there was no such thing as A/C in cars, except for the very fanciest of BMG's and Cadillac's, so our windows were open and the clothes got dry.
I remember the Portland Roadside stop, for some reason. When we awoke, we realized we were not alone. There was a car near ours with two CUTE boys in it. We had gotten up early enough that we were Beautiful, by the time they awoke. They used the restroom, nodded and went on their way. We were just packing our breakfast gear into the trunk and we got into our car. I remember they passed us several times on our way south and waved. It was fun.
As I think back on that now, I get the chills. As it turned out in hindsight, Ted Bundy was on the loose and happened to be in the Portland area exactly at that time. He preyed on beautiful girls with long dark hair, parted in the middle. We fit that description.
But we went merrily on our way. After Portland, our next stop was Northern California. We stayed at a dear friend's house. She was my mom's roommate from college. She and her husband resided in a wonderful house not far from the beach. ZB and I dressed in our prettiest dresses and walked to the beach that early Sunday morning and I wrote a love note in the sand to my sweet fiancee, and ZB took my picture.
Our sweet host and hostess showed us a wonderful time that day, while we visited. She is an artist and he is her biggest fan. They were still so much in love, it was an inspiration to us. So romantic. We had a wonderful visit, and a great shower. Good food and a comfortable bed was most welcome after our attempt to camp on our own.
Early the next morning, we headed onto San Francisco. I love it there. Even though the song goes, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco", I have to add and $10, which was the parking ticket. It was impossible to find a place to park and even though we drove around and finally thought we had found a legal good place to park, after our exploration of the wonderful city, we found a ticket on our car. :( boo

But we rode the street cars, we took pictures of the pier, visited China Town, Ghirardelli Square (and ate chocolate there too, mmmmm), and spent the whole day there. So if you think about that ticket in today's terms, that wasn't too expensive to park. But being 1973, gas prices had gone from .25 per gallon to over a dollar, and my sweetheart remembers paying $1.39. We both felt like we had been robbed by the police. Being the obedient people we were, we wrote a check, reluctantly and put it in the mailbox and headed out of town on a sour note. We got caught in a traffic jam on our way out, I remember. Just outside of a little town of Livermore, my brand new car lost some sort of belt and we came to a screeching halt along the side of the road. We lifted our hood and looked inside. We had retrieved the belt, but had no idea what to do next. Along came a highway patrolman and picked us up. He drove us back to the tiny town. It was a Tuesday, I remember, and my Daddy's words rang in my head. He had said, "If you ever have trouble and need help, call the Church. I had just joined the LDS church three years earlier, and he was not a member. But his words of advice came in very handy. They were having a youth program, and one of the Young Men Advisers answered the phone. He picked us up, drove us around the town until we found a gas station open and matched the belt. Then he drove us out to our car and put the belt in. He was our hero. Garrison Keilor once said, "When a woman needs a hero, she needs him right NOW." He was so right that night.
We headed on to a small town in the California Desert named Ridgecrest where my older sister lived. It took us all night to get there, and we arrived at around 6 in the morning exhausted and very glad for a cool house and a bed to sleep in.

Here I will sign off and continue our trip in the next Road Trip Blog.

The Big Road Trip with my Sister Part 2: Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Washington

I cannot remember the exact day it was, but I know I received my engagement ring on the 16th or so of June. I am pretty sure it was shortly after, that we (ZB, my sister and I) packed my brand new yellow Mazda 616 and drove out of the yard. We headed west. We drove for nearly 12 hours and got to Provo Utah. This was our first night, and we had NO idea what we were going to do. We perceived our way through the whole trip. Along our way, we had stopped at Dinosaur National Park near Vernal Utah, and arrived in Provo by evening. I showed her the BYU Campus where I had attended a semester, we found something to eat and then we had to decide where we would sleep. We drove around, looking for a likely place and finally settled on a residential street, parallel parking. We pushed back the seats of our car to lay as flat as we could, and pulled out Grandma's feather pillows covered ourselves with Grandma's heavy wool batt quilt and called it a night.
We awoke rested and proceeded to find a grocery store to purchase our breakfast.

Here I must explain that my mother was very resourceful and thrifty. Nine years earlier, our whole family traveled to the New York World's Fair in our car. We stopped each night at a motel, but instead of restaurants, she cooked our food in a park, on the Coleman stove. I remember her making eggs for breakfast, and since we didn't have a toaster, we had soft white bread. We had orange juice on the side. We were gone for a month, and the whole trip cost $400. So her advice was to cook our meals and use our spending money on something else. We took her advice going one step further, not wasting our spending money on a stupid motel.
After breakfast, we got back into the car and headed north into Idaho. I wanted to show her my other stomping grounds, Ricks College.
Ricks College is located in Rexburg, Idaho, near Idaho Falls. I loved this campus and the people and teachers I met there. Some, no ALL of my fondest memories of college took place on this campus. I think we wandered around campus and I showed her where I lived, and where my classes were, and I think we even met some of the professors. I don't remember where we spent the second night.
Then we studied our map and decided to go further north and west into Idaho, instead of traveling along the southern border. We stopped at the Crystal Ice Cave. It was run by a little man who came down with us and turned on all the lights. We were his only visitor at the time. It was hard to find, because it was located way out in the country. We drove for miles among lava rocks and sage brush, following tiny signs, and finally after thinking we were truly lost, we found it. It was amazing among all that lava and heat above that it would be so cold in this crack that there is ice there! And it stays that cold all summer. Then we headed north to Craters of the Moon.
After that we headed west towards Boise. We were so impressed with our last two tours that when we saw another cave being advertised along the road, we stopped. This was a bust. It was just one large room cave that didn't have much else to see. I cannot even remember the name of it.
I had a former roommate who lived in Melba Idaho. We found Melba and stayed with Connie and her mom for several days. Finally we got back onto the road and headed due north. We had spent too long at Connie's and I was trying to make up for lost time. But we were to meet up with some of Zeepter's friends who were somewhere in a camp in the panhandle of Idaho. We drove for three or four hours to this camp sight, and were disappointed to find out that they had gone down to Boise for the weekend. This was terrible news, and I could see that we were wasting yet another day. Being the big sister, I made the executive decision that I have regretted the rest of my life. I told sweet little Zeepter that we just couldn't go back. I remember wending our way up a hair pin curvy road out of Lewiston and just thinking I didn't want to turn around and head back to Boise. Instead my sweet little sister sat in the passenger side and cried. I felt like such a lout. As you can see, GUILT still plagues me to this day and I wish I could rewind and take her back to Boise and see all her friends. It wouldn't have made much of a difference in our vacation.
We spent the night above Lewiston in a campground. We paid the $2.00 in a little box, and pulled into a parking spot and slept.
The next morning we headed on north towards Coeur d'Alene. It was beautiful, we saw the lake which borders it but we didn't stop for long there. Instead we headed across the border to Washington. We found a Mennonite family who was related to my mom and had moved there from Kansas. The lay of the land and the wheat fields, with the exception of more rolling hills, reminded me of where my Grandma lived in Kansas. We spent the night at this house of friendly relatives, and in the morning we headed further west towards the coast. As we drove through the forests towards Seattle, we were amazed by the size of the trees growing there.
Being a native Coloradoan, I had the limited view that those Rocky Mountains were the ONLY real mountains, and the forests and streams were the best of all. But the trees that grew in these forests were so much taller and bigger around than any I had ever seen. We had to concede that there WERE other forests that were as beautiful, if not more beautiful than my own beloved Colorado Mountains.
Here I will stop, to give the reader and writer a break. I will probably come back and edit this and maybe add some links and pictures, but for now I will publish this and will continue the journey in the next blog.

The Big Road Trip with my Sister Part 1: The plan

I have a younger sister, ZB, who was my BEST friend as I grew up and still is. We are now separated by many hundreds of miles, living in two different states, but we are still close in our hearts.
She is 4 years younger, but when we were in our teens, everyone thought we were twins. We didn't think we looked alike, she had brown hair, mine was brunette, but we both have brown eyes. But our voices were similar, we wore each others clothes, and we had similar mannerisms that come from hanging out together all our lives. We had private jokes and so much history, that we could just look at each other and know what the other was thinking, and break out laughing. We laughed a LOT. She has the BEST sense of humor, and kept me entertained from the time we began playing with Barbie dolls.
We even thought like twins. For example: We would be driving along, and something would trigger a memory, and we would burst out in song. Same song, second verse, harmony. It was crazy, and it happened all the time.
No, it isn't like a musical where we express ourselves in song, it would be more like if we would see a sign, like Olympic Beer, and we would start singing, "Oly-oly-o,(dum, dum) Oly-oly-o,(dum, dum) Oly-oly-o, (dum, dum) Oly-oly-o (dum, dum),(I forgot this part). . . .That makes the difference, It's the water. . . and a lot more. . ." For those of you too young to know what this is, that was the jingle for Olympia Beer. Which no longer exists since it was bought by Pabst Beer Company. But I digress. . .
Anyway, suffice to say, we were always best friends.
I was home from college for the summer, working full time, and I was buying a car. She began to talk about going on a big trip together in my new car. We had dreamed about doing this for a long time.
It was planned for June. We had been saving our money since last summer and were pretty sure we would have enough to have a wonderful trip. But I had met and fallen love with a really cute guy, and when Cute Student Guy (my future husband) proposed, it looked like the big trip would just fade into a dream. I had a wedding to plan, and really wasn't interested in that big trip anymore. I wanted to plan a honeymoon instead.
But Zeepter was not to be deterred. She persisted. She pestered, she begged, she cajoled, she even tried accusing me of reneging on our plan. I guess I was. What can I say?
But finally I succumbed to her nagging, and promised we WOULD take that big trip after all.
We notified our employers of our vacation plans, and needless to say, her employer decided he couldn't give her a month off, and let her go. Mine promised to schedule me in when I got back. This didn't deter Zeepter. It was All Systems Go. ETD: Mid June.
We had gotten many tips from the folks, plus a Coleman's Camp Stove. We planned on cooking at road-side rest stops. I had fashioned some black curtains for my car, that when strung up and viewed from the outside couldn't be seen. We planned on sleeping IN the car. I know, now in our old age, that doesn't sound like so much fun, but back then it was all about saving money.
Just before I left, I got the engagement ring from my sweetheart, so it flashed in my eyes every time the sun hit it just right. ::sigh:: how romantic
Back in the day, there was no such thing as cell phones. In fact to call Long Distance was prohibitive. Credit cards owned by young people was UNHEARD of. No such thing as a debit card. . . so we carried cash. Yikes!

We set up an elaborate method of letting the folks know where we were at all times. Mind you I was 23 and she was 19, but our parents were worried out of their minds about us being safe. It was before the day of the likes of Ted Bundy, but they were still worried. Eating and sleeping at road-side Rest stops, carrying cash, no cell phone. As a parent I would be crazy-out-of-my-mind worried about my kids getting mugged, raped and killed, with NO way to call for help when they got into trouble.
Zeepter and I were invincible and had NO worries, but to appease the parents, we set up a code. Every night, we would call the operator on a pay phone and ask for a person-to-person to (my mom) call from (my name) in (current city we were in). Mom would turn it down but she would know we were safe. It was before caller ID, so if she needed to talk to us, she would accept and then get the number of the phone booth and call us back.
Complicated, I know, but we thought it was pretty good for that time.
So armed with our belongings, shampoo, toothbrush, my wool quilt from my grandma, pillows and our nifty brand new set of Hot Rollers for our hair, we were off on our big adventure.