Our last stop in New Mexico was at Capulin Volcano National Monument. We arrived just as they were locking the gate for the evening so we could not drive to the top. We were, however, permitted to walk up.
Walking the road is ONLY allowed after the gate is closed so that worked out very well.
There were big, wide views in every direction as we circled the extinct volcano. You can see several other extinct volcanos in the same area.
Below is a view inside the crater.
Our last significant stop was at the Tallgrass Prairie Nationsl Preserve. P was thrilled to see Bison from the walking path. In addition to these two that were close, we saw a herd running away over a hill elsewhere on the path.
There were several prescribed burns going on in the area and the air was filled with smoke. Still, it was a beautiful visit.
Miss P was excited to get many new stamps in her national park passport this trip.
Spring Break - part 3 New Mexico
After three fun filled days with my sister, we left Carlsbad and headed to Albuquerque to see my nephew. On the way we stopped at Salinas National Monument and visited the Gran Quivira Ruins
and the Quarai Ruins.
From Albuquerque, we journeyed to Bandelier National Monument to see the ancient cliff dwellings.
There were a few caves there that you could enter to see what it was like. P enjoyed that.
The wall shown below had many petroglyphs just above the level of the upper post holes.
Here is a carving of a parrot.
Next, we vistited the ruins of Fort Union, which had quite a spectacular location. It is way in the distance of the photo below.
Spring Break - part 2 - Carlsbad
We enjoyed getting out and seeing the sights around Carlsbad, NM. My brother-in-law took us to his secret pecos diamond hunting spot which thrilled P, our budding geologist.
On the hottest day of our visit we toured the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The view below was from the parking lot at the caverns.
On our last day my brother-in-law took us to more great spots with big views. The first stop was Sitting Bull Falls where miss P and her cousins played in the water.
We had our picnic lunch there.
The next stop was Dark Canyon. We were amused that my great niece read the sign as "Dark Canyon, LOOKOUT!"
We hiked to Cottonwood Cave, a much less visited cave than the caverns.
My brother-in-law knows all the best places to hike.
We finished the day with a sunset view from "the rim" and late night star viewing from dark canyon.
This really was a trip of big views.
Spring Break - part 1 - traveling to New Mexico
Last week was P's spring break from school. We extended break by one day so that we could drive to New Mexico and visit my sister and her family. On the way there we stopped at the southern tip of Illinois and visited Heron Pond.
In addition to the state champion Cherrybark Oak shown below, we saw a thousand year old tupelo tree and the state champion Cypress tree. We were on our way to visit the nation's longest covered bridge but, sadly, that road was closed due to high water.
The next day we enjoyed the wide open spaces in Oklahoma at the Washita River Battlefield. We welcomed the big, blue, clear skies.
We also visted the Abilates Flint Quarries on our way to see my niece in Canyon, Texas. There was a beautiful camping area in the park. That's B up on top of the hill checking out the view.
Miss P enjoyed looking for fossils, and cacti.
We soaked up the big views.
Sleeping Bear Dunes - a winter visit
We took a quick overnight trip up to Sleeping Bear Dunes this weekend. It was quite chilly and we had the dune trail to ourselves Monday morning.
We also walked on the beach. P REALLY wanted to find a Petosky stone but was not successful in that venture. We did see lots of ice.
Spring Break 2015 - part four
Our last few stops for seeing the sites on the way home were in the Smoky Mountains. We would love to go back and spend a week camping there.
Spring Break 2015 - part three
On our way home we also made a few stops for nature viewing. The first stop was the Okefenokee Swamp.
Our next stop was Pearson's Falls, a 268 acre property with a beautiful trail and waterfall owned by Tyron Garden Club, in North Carolina.
Spring Break 2015 - part two
Our spring break destination this year was Florida. We have family in St. Petersburg, and St. Pete Beach so we do get down there to visit occasionally.Our favorite thing to do when visiting is to take morning walks at Ft. DeSoto. We always see such interesting wildlife there. Our last morning, in addition to the usual sea birds and shellfish, we saw two starfish, two manatee, a dolphin, and a sting ray. The ray swam along with us for a while as we walked the beach.
Spring Break 2015 - part one
We really enjoy driving south during our spring break each year. Shedding more outerwear at each stop, we leave the drab brown of Michigan and drive through the coming of pale green leaf buds showing on the trees and into greens so bright and rich they make your eyes hurt.
I'm still going through our vacation photos and will be back with more from our stay in Florida and the return trip.
Holland, Michigan - the winter edition
The second day of our trip to Lake Michigan started with a visit to the lighthouse in Holland, Michigan.
The ice formations were very different here than they were in St. Joseph. There was a lot of fresh ice here scattered like broken glass.
I love these icicles dripping from the large ice formations.
St. Joseph, Michigan in Winter
This weekend was a long holiday weekend for us. Both B and Miss P had Friday and Monday off. Friday we did some catching up on chores at home. Saturday, we had a tourist in our town day in Ann Arbor. We parked just north of town and walked in to Ann Arbor on a walking, jogging trail by the river. We walked up to the hospital and saw an amazing exhibit of paper cut snowflakes by Thomas Clark. Then we walked over to the Natural History Museum, for our fill of rocks and dinosaur bones. After our dinner in town I was exhausted. It is a lot harder to walk around town in subzero cold, wind, and snow than it is in warmer spring and summer weather.I have seen pictures of Michigan lighthouses covered in ice and icicles and have always wanted to see that in person. With the Saturday snowstorm and extreme cold temperatures we thought that this might be a great time to head over to the Lake Michigan and see what it was like.We went to St. Joseph to see the lighthouse yesterday afternoon. It was not dripping in icicles as I had hoped but the ice on the lake did not disappoint.
The lighthouse is at the end of a long pier and the lake was frozen all the way out to the end. Where I was standing to take this picture was on a bit of an ice cliff. The usual beach line was far behind me. The ice formations were quite impressive.
I had my camera set for photography inside the museum in Ann Arbor so the first photos I took didn't turn out well but I did like the lighting on this one. After changing lenses for a wider view and adjusting the settings I did get some photos that I liked. I'm sorry the ones with the rainbow in the sky did not turn out. You will just have to trust me that they would have been GREAT!
There was so much ice. B and Miss P are standing on a giant ice hill. The shoreline is far behind us.
You could hear the creaking of the ice below us where it wasn't as thick. The ice formations around us were fascinating. The big dunes of ice were made of packed snow and broken pieces of ice. They looked a bit like ice concrete.
Closer to the shoreline were giant balls of ice that had been trapped in the growing ice and snow.
It was a beautiful sunset at the beach but one unlike any other beach sunset I have experienced before.
We were remembering our visit to St. Joseph last summer when it was so hot. I was wearing long underwear, jeans, snowpants, two shirts and a sweater, winter coat, super boots, hat, scarf, and mittens and I was still cold.This morning we visited the lighthouse in Holland, MI. I'll post pictures of that tomorrow.
Family Vacation
We had a short family get away last week for the fourth. M has an internship this summer over on the west coast of the state and we had been too busy to visit him until the holiday weekend. It is nice that he is SO CLOSE to the lake this summer. I know he is enjoying that.Miss P got to use her new binoculars!
There was a lot of rock skipping and searching for perfect skipping rocks,
some dune play,
and a bit of general splashing around.
We also saw an awesome fireworks show in town.We had so much fun at the beach that we hardly noticed there was no power or internet in M's apartment. His neighborhood was the last to be restored after a storm earlier last week.I hope we make it back for another visit before the summer is over!
Summer Vacation!
We have had a long summer saying a very sweet, sad, and loving goodbye to my dear mother-in-law. I am lucky to have known her and love that she was a presence in my life and that my children grew up spending time with her while they grew up. She did not have an easy life, but always kept a cheerful attitude and positive outlook. She was a hard person to bring down and I strive to be like her in that way.Now that things are settling down a bit we thought we should take a quick get away before starting back into the school routine this week.One of the great things about living in Michigan is that we are never very far from a beach. We really needed the change of scenery and our little twenty four hour vacation seemed longer than that because we were some place different and had no distractions.
The beach was a fitting place for our getaway. We visited the beach with B's mother a number of times over the years. We treasure those memories and also strive to create new family memories for our children.We came back refreshed and much more ready to start the new school year. Sometimes you just need to go take a walk on the beach!
Seeing the Sights
We are back from seeing some sights in the DC area.
Now to clean off the sewing table and play; it seems like weeks since I've sewn anything.
Twenty Five Years
B and I took a little trip to celebrate our TWENTY FIFTH wedding anniversary!
We left our truck on the mainland and took our bikes on the ferry to Kelleys Island in Lake Erie.
The island is small and we were able to ride our bikes all around and see the sites.
The glacial grooves were pretty impressive.
Our second day we took the bikes on a ferry from Kelleys Island to Bass Island. It was a bit more tourist oriented than we usually like but we enjoyed having a picnic lunch down at the campground on the south shore. We even saw a bald eagle there.
These photos were taken by the light house on Bass Island.
It was nice to have a wee bit of time away from the routine of home - and thanks to the boys for watching miss P while we were away.Now it's time to get everyone ready for the start of schools on Tuesday.
Antique Quilts at International Quilt Market
I was looking through last month's photos from quilt market and found these pictures of some antique quilts that I never shared with you.There were several booths of antique quilts. I loved this wall of hanging quilts.
In the same booth was this unusual leather quilt with a wool felt edging. I have never seen anything like it before.
This applique quilt with just a touch of embroidery was interesting. I like the aged color of that green.
I love the close grid quilting and feathers on this basket quilt.
This French one, however, stopped me in my tracks. The quilting was incredible. I stopped for a second look but it had already sold. I'm glad I snapped a photo the first day when I saw it.
Wordless Wednesday - the Williamsburg sampler edition
Norfolk Botanical Gardens
After our canoe trip in Maryland we traveled to Norfolk, Virginia and visited the Botanical Garden there. We reached azalea overload there but also saw many other interesting sights and beautiful flowers in bloom.
An Afternoon on the Pocomoke
Last week while on spring break, we went to Virginia and visited B's mom. After a couple of days there we went to eastern Maryland had an afternoon canoe trip on the Pocomoke River. I took many pictures but have boiled the trip down to a reasonable number to share with you.
It was a great afternoon but I wish I had worn sunscreen and a hat.
Gratitude
I am grateful that I can share my love of miniatures with my daughter. We enjoyed viewing the Thorne rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago. We have also been having fun with some of my miniature pieces that I collected as a child.
