April, May and most of June found us in Baltimore helping the kids out while Dustin was away at Jimmy John’s training. Here’s the full story (minus the Great Flood) as told by Carter…
Click on Carter to see his version of things!!
Yep. It was a great chance for us to spend real quality time with Carter and Chrissie. And the timing of the trip allowed us to be in Baltimore for the closing of our Jimmy John’s franchise deal.
Carter says…Go jimmy John’s!
From the Grand Canyon we headed to the Valley of Fire, just north of Las Vegas. Over the years living in Vegas we had the opportunity to make several trips to the Valley of Fire. It never ceases to amaze us.
Pictures don’t do this special place justice…
Like everywhere in America, Indians tamed the land and left their marks for us to wonder over…
The nights were clear and crisp. But, the lights of Las Vegas many miles to the southwest made photographing the Milky Way very challenging…
This was the second time we have headed to the Grand Canyon. The first was in February of 1971. We had been married only a couple of weeks and had just settled into our new life in Las Vegas. I had just started my training in the F-111 at Nellis AFB. Long story, short… We booked a donkey trip down into the canyon. We hit heavy snow around Flagstaff. Almost ran out of gas. Slept in the car. But, we finally made it to the canyon. It was still snowing heavily. When we asked to cancel the donkey trip, a very surprised ranger said “Why cancel? The donkey trip never cancels because of snow.” We played our wimp card and got our money back and went skiing in Flagstaff.
The plan this November was to spend a week or longer at the canyon. But, on our second day…guess what
Snow!
This time we didn’t need to wimp out. We were warm and cozy in the Airstream and stormy weather makes for some great photo ops.
The canyon is spectacular in every way…
After a great week on Prince William Sound we headed off to Denali National Park. The last week of September is the last week to park facilities are open. If you like to have a national park all to yourself, the end of September is the only time to go. Even with a few days of snow flurries, the weather was quite mild. No…the weather was perfect!
The bus system can get you anywhere you want to go. But we were determined to see some moose. So, we spent most of our days in our own car driving the main park road that had the most “watch for rutting moose” signs. Unfortunately, moose cannot read and were no where to be seen. Regardless, the country is spectacular.
We did one bus tour that took us 90 miles up to Kantishna, the last stop on an amazing, winding, gravel road that is only open to a few cars that have to enter a lottery.
The country was amazing…
The Dall Sheep was the icing on the cake…
The Ptarmigan at this time of year are just starting to turn white. In a couple of months they will be pure white…
The “Alaska Season” is pretty short by Lower 48 standards. May through September is about it. We decided it was about time we see some of the wonders of that wonderful, wild place. Since we can’t help ourselves, when an interesting adventure that centers around a boat, we opted to join a Sierra Club Adventure to PrinceWilliam sound aboard the classic motor vessel DiscoverySitting just off Harriman glacier.
Click here to see a short a video slide show of our amazing adventure…
There was no shortage of critters in Prince William Sound…
Glad we were downwind from this amazing gang of Sea Lions
Around every bend we we were entertained by Otters like these guys
There’s nothing quite like a Dall’s Porpoise enjoying the bow wave
I was anticipating at least a few bears getting in a late meal of salmon. Unfortunately, by late September all we saw of the salmon were their scattered remains. Consequently, the bears where no where to be seen.
We saw only a couple of humpback whales during our week on the sound. And they were a long way off spoiling any photo ops. I suspect most were already headed out on their migration to warmer waters to the south.
A few more Discovery pic’s…
