Garden of the Gods

A view of the Garden of the Gods with Pike's Peak in the background

Just around the corner from the site of the wedding at Castle Glen Eyre, is the Garden of the Gods, a Colorado State Park exhibiting the near perpendicular sandstone walls and spires formed as these once flat-lying sedimentary beds where tilted upward by the forces that formed the Rocky Mountains.  Sue and I took our nephew, Daniel, into the Garden, but found it difficult to find a parking place wit the enormous popularity of this site.  Late in the afternoon, after multiple trips around the loop, we found a space to park and hopped out to get a closer look and a few photos.

 On Monday morning, we returned with my parents to take another look at these formations.

Balancing Rock

Sue & Mark (on right) of Balancing Rock

Mark avoids being crushed

Kissing Camels

Wedding at 'The Springs'

Back home from Nephew Brian's wedding in California for a week and a half, then it was back on the road to Nephew Scott's wedding to Jesse in Colorado Springs - with a host of other activities thrown in for a full measure of celebration.

Sheri and Tony hosted a dinner at PF Chang's for those family members representing the groom's side of the celebration.  I sat across from Aunt Marjorie and Uncle Norm who flew in from Virginia, and it was great to see them after many years.  Grant and his sweetheart Kaileen were expected from Columbia, Missouri, a straight but very long drive west on I-70 from middle Missouri.  They did not make it for dinner, but arrived late evening at our hotel suite.  Upon his arrival, we sprung an early birthday on him, delivering a few gifts before dispensing ear plugs so as to endure the snoring of the old folks in the same room.

Grant's early 22nd Birthday in our hotel suite

Grant and Kaileen try to guess the gift wrapped contents

The next day all of the family guests from Scott's side checked into the Big Horn Lodge accommodations as guests of Sheri and Tony on the beautiful grounds of "Glen Eyre Castle", a private conference center for the Navigators, a Christian college campus organization.  The Castle was tucked into the foothills, next to the famous Garden of the Gods Park.  The wedding was to be held on the Castle terrace Sunday afternoon, and in the mean time it was so nice to gather at such a beautiful retreat center and be together with family.

Grant and Kaileen exercised there freedom to explore both Colorado Springs and the Castle Glen Eyre grounds. Sue and I teamed up with the Best Man i.e. Nephew Daniel, to visit the Garden of the Gods (along with thousand of other tourists/sightseers).

Mark & Sue
Having fun storming the castle

Mark & Aunt Marjorie

Grant & Kaileen
On the grounds of The Castle, Colorado Springs, CO

Kaileen & Grant
Breakfast al fresco on the Castle Terrace

Grant & Kaileen
(I made them pose like this)

Castle Terrace

The knight in the Castle

Sue at the Castle door

Castle Garden

Sue sits on the bridge above the moat

Sister Wendy at the Castle

Mainly as the result of secret planning by my sisters, Wendy & Sheri, after our breakfast in the St. James room of the Castle, we adjourned to the patio of the courtyard and unfolded a Father's Day tribute to dad/grandpa.  There were cards and thoughts of appreciation, and Grant had put together a touching and well executed audio tribute to his Grandfather based on a phone interview he had done as part of one of his journalism courses a year earlier. 

At 3 in the afternoon, we all filed onto the terrace to witness the exchange of vows between Scott and Jesse, and then celebrate their marriage.  After the completion of a multitude of family combinations and poses for the wedding photographs, we gave the bride's family a decent head start to get back to their home on the north side of Colorado Springs where the reception party was to begin.  There was dancing and dining, origami and toasts and bubbles into the night, until Scott and Jesse bid us all farewell and drove away.

Grant and Kaileen had to leave early Monday morning, as they both had to be at work at Newsy by 9 PM.  They reported that they got back into Columbia, MO at 8:50, and set to work producing digital content until 2 AM.  A long day of driving back, but as journalists, they did not miss that deadline.

The rest of the family (that is my parents, my two sisters and their husbands, and us) stayed in town for one more night.  Again, my sisters had secretly planned to surprise my parents for their 59th anniversary as we all joined up a Dickey's BBQ with festive anniversary plates and cheers for my parents.

For those of you who have lost track of the party score in The Springs:

• Grant's (early) Birthday
• Family Reunion kind of thing
• Rehearsal Dinner
• Wedding
• Festive Wedding Reception
• Father's Day
• 59th Wedding Anniversary for Parents
• A road trip - includes Garden of the Gods (State Park)

Wow! That's a lot!  
And it was a lot of fun.

Post Script:  Scott had just accepted an offer from Intel near Portland, Oregon
a week before the wedding, and the couple will return to Portland where they met at Portland State University.  They both have an abiding love for Japanese culture and speak Japanese.  

On the grounds of Castle Glen Eyre
A magnificent sandstone spire, a remnant of
the formation of the Rocky Mountains 

Go West! Canyon de Chelly

A civilized start time from the Arotca home in Fresno, we leave with plans to stay at Valley of Fire, Nevada State Park, east of Las Vegas.  Yet we are curious about billboards erected along our route advertising motel rooms for "as low as $27 per night".  Sue checks out the details and reviews on her phone.  Virgin River Casino in Mesquite, NV is legit - though (as always) there are a few complaints.  We figure that a room with a/c will be cheaper than paying the entrance and camping fees at the Valley of Fire.  I am all about value.

Through the ordinary doors of the casino complex we are ushered into the underworld where we walk through dingy aisles lined with decrepit old white people with either cigarettes or oxygen tubes hanging from their face.  They dutifully sit with mindless expressions as they pour their pensions into blinking machines each emitting inane techno sounds.  Is this Hell?

Because of demand, the room rates have gone up to $32/night, but we shell out the extra $5 and check in.  We unpack and head back to the tomb like structure that is the casino, and make our way to the house cafe.  I good prime rib dinner can be had for $6.99. Is this Heaven?  I am all about value.  

In the morning we bust out of the thin walled rooms of our purgatory and are going east from Mesquite, we are almost immediately in Utah, the we drop into Arizona.  We continue east for our final Go West! destination: Canyon de Chelly.
We pass up the Grand Canyon ("next time" says my wife), as Sue says Canyon de Chelly is on her "bucket list".  We are in Navajo Country.  The Navajo have there reservation here, and we also have a reservation - at the Sacred Canyon Lodge :) inside Canyon de Chelly National Monument.  

With the remaining daylight, we travel along the south rim of the canyon.  The first overlook we stop at, a sister and brother Navajo are selling jewelry.  Sue selects a couple of necklaces.  At the next overlook on the south rim, two young Navajo men are sitting on a blanket with modern petroglyphs etched into sandstone slabs.  
"Hey, would you like some Indian art from Canyon De Chelly?" 
I tell them, "Nice work, but no thanks."  
"Only ten dollars.  Looks real good, no?"
I suggest to Sue that she put on her just purchased Navajo Indian necklace to help ward off the hustle from the set of entrepreneurs we are sure to find at our next stop.

The Window
Our first overview stop on the south rim

Canyon De Chelly
The Navajo People still inhabit the valley floor
where you can see their farms and homes from above

White people are not allowed into the Canyon, unless accompanied by a Navajo, for which a tour fee must be paid.  The one exception is the trail that runs down the 600 foot wall of the south rim to the valley floor, opposite the White House Ruins.  The White House Ruins were built by the area's inhabitants prior to the arrival of the Navajo people about 700 years ago.  The cliff dwellings were built around 1100 to 1300 AD.  From the rim we look at the White House trail and contemplate making the hike, but with the dwindling light and closing of the the trading post cafeteria at 7, we opt to consider the hike tomorrow.

White House Ruins
Cliff Dwellings built by the Anasazi 1100-1300 AD

Besides, I want to get to Spider Rock at the end of the South Rim tour loop and get back for dinner.  The literature recommends the Navajo lamb and green pepper stew back at the Trading Post Cafeteria.

Spider Rock

Spider Rock
Canyon De Chelly National Monument

Cutting it short, we turn back toward our lodging and dinner at the Canyon's entrance.  In the twilight I see a young man walking on the side of the road with his left thumb sticking out.  I slow to a stop and Thomas hops into our back seat, having to rearrange our piles of clothing, a cooler and a mound of vacationer's haphazardly thrown gear in order to find some room.  He says, "Chinle".  He was visiting his auntie and was heading back to town, no, he didn't know anything about tours of the Canyon.  Our conversation was abbreviated.  I dropped him off at the National Monument gate, explaining we were trying to make it to dinner before 7 and could go no further (it was 6:53).

The touted Navajo lamb and green pepper stew served at the Sacred Canyon Cafeteria was in reality, more of a thin soup.  However, we both chose the option of Indian fry bread on the side.  The Germans at the next table over, kept taking furtive glances at our vidals, either out of curiosity or jealousy for not having ordered their own fry bread - or may a bit of both.

The rumor of mourning rain turned into a cold wet fact as we began to tour the North Rim of the Canyon.  We took a gander at more Anasazi cliff dwelling ruins below us at the Antelope House and the Mummy Cave Ruins.

Mummy Cave Ruins

The rain, most assuredly welcome in this arid region began to come down upon us in a steady fashion, going from shower to driving storm.  We checked the exterior temperature from our car's dash console and saw it to be 50 degrees.  With our clothing saturated and our Canyon De Chelly experience sated, we decided not to try the White House Ruins trail in this weather.  So we broke out some towels, dried ourselves and I turned the steering wheel toward Texas. 

Pouring rain and 50 degree weather
on the North Rim

A rainy day in Canyon de Chelly

We pulled into our driveway just before 2 AM.  
We drove hard, took chances, and had a marvelous adventure out west every single day.

As life should be.    

Go West! Into the Yosemite

Moving inland from the California coast, we spent a couple of days with Wendy and Barth in Fresno.  Inga flew out of Fresno back to Portland in the afternoon, and then Sue and I joined Pam and Carol, a couple of high school classmates of mind in Madera for dinner and a round of Apples to Apples at Carol's palatial home.  I win!

The following morning we drive up into Yosemite Valley.  We choose to hike up to the Vernal Falls foot bridge upstream from Happy Isles.  I've done this hike many times in decades past, but I did not realize how steep this trail had become, I swear it was nearly flat the last time I was here.  And probably the last time was on our honeymoon 29 years ago.  How things change, 29 years back we hiked to the top of Vernal Falls and probably sucked face, now we only made it to the foot bridge miles below the top of Vernal Falls, and this time we just sucked wind.

For this trip, I had packed the camera back in the car, but I had forgotten that I had left the camera out of the bag for our trip to Madera last night.  I had to rely on the cell phone in my pocket.  It took decent photos, but I could never see the screen to compose the shot.

Vernal Falls in the distance

Sue catches her breath and the spectacular view
from the Vernall Falls foot bridge

On our way up to the footbridge, as we stopped to rest, a woman in spandex paused long enough to ask "are you all right?"  Her tone sounded condescending, like, what are you doing on this trail if you need rest?  She made her destination, been there, got her selfie and came back past us, again asking "are you OK?"  Just to make her point obvious after my first answer.

We had a picnic lunch of cheese and cold cuts on our "courting blanket" laid out across the grass under a large oak tree as we watched Yosemite Falls before us.

Leaving Yosemite valley, we cut off to Glacier Point for an overlook of all Yosemite Valley from above.  Quite a sight.  Especially after being forced into the side of a road cut by "CruiseAmerica" RV rental that was to scared or to inept of a driver to keep his vehicle in his lane, preferring to maneuver the switchback by taking his half out of the middle of the road.  Idiot.

The view from Glacier Point
Half Dome, and Little Yosemite with Vernal and Nevada Falls

Back down the mountain to catch dinner with another old good high school friend at DiCicco's Italian Restaurant (a Madera landmark).  Good to catch up with Blake.

Go West! Point Lobos

Since we were in the area of the Central California coast, it was agreed that all would spend the morning and afternoon at Point Lobos Natural Preserve, just south of Carmel.  I have to say, this is one of my favored locations for beauty and serenity.  As one poet has observed, the "cypress trees are ghosts fleeing the wind".  The rocks are fractured granite with large feldspar phenocrysts, sculpted by the chisel of the pounding surf, or marvelous conglomerates of sand and cobbles of amazing colors.  Some photos to highlight what I am attempting to write, thus saving approximately 1,000 words for every picture I post.

Our large post-wedding party of 10 hiked some of the trails on the north end of the preserve.  China Cove, my favored spot, an intimate little notch of sugary white sands and turquoise waters wedged between cliffs draped in exotic succulent plants interspersed with orange, yellow and purple flowers was now inaccessible, as it had become a seal rookery.  The seals moved into the cove after the wooden stairs that allowed humans to descend the cliff to the beach were washed out by a storm.  And since the repairs did not come quickly, the seals quickly filled the void, and now, exercising their marine mammal privileges, people are kept out of China Cove and the seals have it all to their lonesome.

The marine air and light fog started us out pleasantly cool, but soon we had to peel off the sweat shirts as the day warmed.

The Sunesons
(sorry to say Grant did not make the trip to California from Missouri)

While all the others had to leave to catch a plane or attend to other obligations, we three Sunesons stayed around another adventure at Point Lobos.  From Whaler's Cove, I wanted to walk to "The Pit", a rocky, circular cove.  We hung around in the late afternoon haze to explore this surf below the stone cliff enclosure.

Trail to the Pit along sea cliff's brim

Sleeping seals 

Spanish Moss on the forest trail to The Pit

Multi-hued cobble conglomerate on the beach

Caught in late afternoon light, we began to stroll back to the car.  At the trailhead, there was a hand-lettered sign that said:

WARNING: Watchout for Hornets!

Yeah, OK.  I think they might as well post a sign, "Don't twist your ankle!" or "Watchout for thorns and stickers!"  We walked past the sign toward The Pit, no problem.  Sue was nursing a tender ankle from a couple weeks past, so on the way back I offered to go ahead and get the car and meet them at the Whaler's Cabin, saving her from walking another 400 yards.  Offer accepted.

While Sue and Inga were waiting at the trailhead, some hornets began to swarm around the two.  An English couple simultaneously asked Sue about the trail, she replied "It is about 3/4 of a - #%&@!!!"  She was now speaking some not-so-polite Anglo-Saxon terms.  The English couple must have started thinking to themselves, "Oh yes, must Turret's Syndrome", the sudden, unwarranted outburst of profanity my affected souls.  Then Sue continued, "Hornets! Damn Hornets, they got me!"  The English couple quickly departed as Inga called out the location of the attacking insect.  "He's behind you!  Now he's up by your left ear!"  She got two stings on her foot, just below her already tender ankle.  A bad ending.

Nothing to do now, but clear the battlefield, and take the ladies to dinner on the Monterey Wharf and buy her a good drink.  So we did get to the wharf for a seafood dinner, sitting next to the picture window overlooking the harbor where we could see a few seals gamboling below in the calm waters and kelp.