Trippin'

“Going south to warm my bones.”  That is what my father used to say when he and mother headed south for a vacation.  I am not so sure that was my intention for going south but it certainly was pleasant.

We headed south on Sunday the 14^th, Valentines Day, specifically to drive through Denver on Sunday to avoid traffic... we still ran into traffic and were delayed about 45 minutes... I could not live there, the traffic would drive me insane.

Our first stop was in Colorado Springs to visit my sister Diane, her husband Rich, my niece Jessica and her husband Joel, and their three kids.  We haven't seen much of Diane and her family in recent years, so it was great catching up again. 

Sunset on the top of Sandia Peak

We arrived in Alba-quirky on Monday the 15^th and met Andrew and Linda Yiannakis for hors d'oeuvres and beverages.  Linda and Andrew are lifetime martial arts practitioners/instructors.   They gave us tickets for the tram to the top of Sandia Peak, Carol had made reservations at the restaurant at the top of the mountain for supper, so unfortunately we had to cut our visit with Linda and Andrew short.

We drove to Phoenix on Tuesday through the mountains to the east of Phoenix... a very pleasant drive.  We drove through the Tonto National Forest, a forest of saguaro cactus... wish we had stopped to take a picture. 

We stayed the next three days with Carol's sister Mary.  The temperatures in Phoenix were in the high 80s and one day broke 90F, so we sat on the patio during the day soaking up the heat.  Carol's sister Phyllis also lives in Phoenix and she and her boyfriend Dale met us that same evening at Mary's house for adult beverages and fried chicken.

On Wednesday the five of us visited Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture school out in the dessert.  Interesting place.  Interesting spaces.  Lots of use of concrete and stone.   

 

Thursday we visited the Phoenix Japanese Garden, a strolling type garden with a large pond.  It was well maintained.  Grade wise I would give it a B.  Not a destination like Del Ray, Portland or Anderson Gardens.  Later that afternoon  we visited Phyllis and Dale's house in Sun City.  They purchased a fixer upper and flipped it, it is very nice, Dale did a good job.  It is cute.  We sat outside, I picked some grapefruit and oranges from their trees.  I had never  done that before.

Friday we hung out for most of the day.  I got in a nice two mile hike.  That evening we had supper with Urban, his fiance Jodi and his two girls.  It has been 10 years at least since Urban and I had visited.  Funny with good friends, you just kind of pick up the conversation where you left off 10 years before.  Urban was a judo student at NDSU back in the 1990s.

Saturday we headed for Las Vegas to visit our daughter Amy and her husband Daniel.  Sunday we did the zipline on Freemont Street... the long one, where you lay down... I did my best George Reeves Superman imitation... cross one off of Carol's Bucket List.  From there we ate at the Strip Burger, a little open air restaurant on the strip, great burgers and great malted milk shakes.  On Monday I visited my friend Marcus at his home.  Marcus was a judo student back in the early 1980s, then we lost contact with each other until I ran into him at the Martial Arts Hall of Fame seminar in 2007.  In the last couple of years he restarted judo training and earlier this year passed his shodan examination (first degree black belt).  Marcus and I did some judo in his backyard, talked a lot about judo, cleaned up his outdoor G scale model train layout, had a beer and went out for a sandwich. Always great visiting with Marcus, he is a true marital artist and a great friend!!!!

While I was playing with trains, Carol and Daniel attended the HOA meeting, the primary reason we were in Las Vegas at this time. 

Carol doing Tai Chi at Hoover Dam

Tuesday, Carol and I got a guided tour of Hoover Dam.  We got to go into the generator room, then the tunnels through the dam.  Dam, it was cool.  That evening Carol and I attended the Circ de Soil performance of Mystere, as usual it was awesome, incredible feats of athletics and dance, put to a great story.  Fun.  After the performance we went for sushi at Sushi Rokku in the Caesars Palace Mall. We ordered a modern version of sushi that was good, grade A-, next time, if we return I will order classical sushi.

From the face of Hoover Dam

Godbe mill in background.

Wednesday, Daniel and I drove out to Red Rocks, parked the car and headed out on one of the trails.  As soon as we got to the bottom of the gulch, we got off the trail and went cross country from there, scrambling over rocks.  The temperature was in the 70s and sunny, very pleasant.  We got about 5 miles of scrambling, my FitBit showed I had 92 floors that day.  Later that afternoon we drove to China Town for lunch and shopping... I bought a new shodo brush (for Japanese Calligraphy) and some ink. Carol found some liquid silver jewelry at a pawn shop.

Thursday,  we started our journey to Boise to visit the youngest of Carol's three sisters, Cynthia and her husband John.  On our journey we traveled through the Great Basin on US93, stopped in Pioche to take some pictures of the Godbe mill and mining facilities and a graveyard, where 76 people were buried before one died of natural causes.  We stayed at Ely, Nevada, another mining town and had supper in jail. 

 

Godbe silver mill.

The following morning we visited the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, a 40 acre park, a complete railroad maintenance facility with working steam and diesel locomotives.  

Then later in the morning we were back on the road arriving in Boise about 5 pm.  We met John and Cynthia at a local bar that has a lively atmosphere.

John decided that I should go snow skiing at Bogus Basin with his nephew Steve.  So Saturday morning John dropped me off at Steve and Denyse's house.  Steve and I jumped in his Jeep and headed up to the mountain. It was raining in Boise so we had our fingers crossed that it was snowing at the higher elevation.  It was snowing at Bogus Basin, the temperatures were in the mid 30s and the snow was pretty wet. I got a lift ticket and rented some equipment and we headed for the chairlift.  Steve skied with me for a couple of runs, giving me some valuable instruction... this was only my second time skiing this year and third time in my life.  I make 11 runs. The snow was packing down and becoming icy. 

Cynthia and John showed us all the good places to eat and drink in Boise.  The food was very good and so was the company. 

We left on Monday morning, after John and Cynthia went to work, for Jackson, Wyoming.  Carol reserved a room at the Snow King Hotel and Ski Resort.  Carol had been to Snow King back in the 1980s to present a seminar when she worked for the Department of Labor and had been impressed but hadn't stayed there.  We had supper at the hotel, a good meal but not great, I would give it a B-.

Tuesday morning I rented some equipment and headed for the chairlift, beginning slope, of course.  I had been warned that Snow King was steep for a beginner... and it was.  I stuck with the “Easy Trail” and made three runs.   As I was snow plowing down the slope I decided that if I was going to conquer this mountain I would have to take a ski lesson, so after my third run I stopped by the ski school.  After lunch I met Jim Sullivan, a 69 year old guy who had been the assistant ski instructor for years and the slope manager for another dozen years.  My friend Tom P. refers to this relationship as, “rent a friend”.   Anyway Jim was a good friend for a couple of hours, and a master instructor.  I had a delightful time as he showed me how to go from snow plowing to parallel skiing.  We started on the Easy Trail and soon graduated to the intermediate slopes and part of a black diamond.  At the end of the lesson I did a face plant fall, I caught my downhill edges in the snow and smack!!!  It wasn't pretty.  But I was pretty satisfied, as I felt that I was really skiing, and not just plowing snow.  Carol and I finished the evening at the Million Dollar Saloon and Steakhouse.

Wednesday, we drove north out of Jackson, we were hoping to get a view of the Grand Teton Mountains but they were shrouded in low clouds.  We did see deer, elk, mountain sheep and wolves though.  As the roads in Yellowstone are not plowed at this time of the year we cut off on US26 and drove through a blizzard in the mountains, thankfully the road is pretty straight with broad curves and gentle hills.  After a couple of hours at 30 mph we were out of the blizzard and the mountains.  Pretty easy sailing, in fact a bit of a boring drive to home.