Yosemite National Park

By Claire


Our final destination, before heading home, was a vacation from our vacation at Yosemite.  I wasn't sure what November weather in the park would be, but we decided to go for it.  As luck would have it, our good friends, Letha and Tai, were up for joining us.  It was so fun to hook up with them before coming back to reality.

 

We stayed in side-by-side rooms at Yosemite View Lodge, a great choice.  Each had a gas fireplace, kitchenette, two queen beds, spa tub and table and chairs.  The room felt cozy and comfortable, and we shared all our dinners together--which involved some chair hauling, but it all worked out.  We also played Skip-Bo all 3 nights.

We mostly relaxed in the hot tub and got caught up the first day.  Snow was predicted; so waking up, I opened the curtains and, to my delight, we had a fresh dusting and the temps were in the thirties.  We bundled up and took off for a day of up-close and personal with nature.

El Capitan as we drove in

 

First view of Half Dome, Letha and Tai

 

We happened upon a lively bunch of college students visiting from San Francisco.  At least one of them was an exchange student from Rome.  They gladly took our pictures as we demonstrated our joy at the beautiful day.

Close up of Half Dome

We continued driving around and stopping at various spectacular view spots.  We saw "chains required" signs but Tai was at the wheel and they have snow tires.  

 

First stop, the Ahwahnee Hotel

Main Room for lounging, visiting and reading

 

 

Famous dining room

 

Another cozy room to relax and enjoy the warmth of the fire

 

We had packed lunches but realized that it was way too cold to eat them outside.  Besides, where would we sit?  Everything was pretty much covered in snow.  We made a quick decision to have lunch in the hotel bar--there was no line and they had just opened.  It was a great choice and our sandwiches for dinner that night were tasty and easy.  A mocha for Tai and hot chocolates for the rest of us.  The chocolate group also had the chili, which was awesome, and Tai had the Chicken Waldorf Croissant.  With a window seat and good food, we were warm and satisfied. Later we saw a long line waiting to get in.

We decided to hike to Mirror Lake after checking out the back lawn area of the hotel.  We were so lucky to be able to enjoy the gorgeous fall colors in the snow.  How lucky could we get?

 

 

 

 On the trail to Mirror Lake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little table top snow man was a reminder of just how cold it was.  The temperature ranged from 29º to 34º that day. 

 

Bridal Veil Falls in winter (but it's fall, isn't it?)

Back at our lodge, where we spent time all three days

What a perfect way to end our trip.  I am amazed at how much we saw and did.  It was so interesting to really see this country and experience different cultures, food and weather conditions.  I will treasure the memories forever.

Chuck:

This was a trip I had envisioned since I was a child--though, in the originally imagined version I visited all 48--at that time--States.  We, wisely, decided that was too much to take on for our self-imposed 70 day limit.  After all, we can always fill-in with shorter, targeted trips--e.g., to the Northwest and the Northeast. 

There were so many highlights, all so different, that I find it impossible to pick out single best-of-category sights or events.  But, some of my memorable moments include--in no particular order:  Visiting a number of Frank Lloyd Wright structures; spending a full day at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum in Cleveland; visiting the several National Monuments & Parks described along the way, especially Yellowstone and the Everglades; touring Biltmore House in North Carolina; riding in the Air Boat in Florida; eating the Low Country Boil in Savannah; visiting and dining with Pete and his daughter in Charleston; the NYC Architectural Boat Tour around Manhattan; visiting with my daughter, Natasha, and her partner, Adom, in NYC; visiting with my son, TJ--aka Todd--in New Orleans; the very full day touring New Orleans; finishing up by spending time with Letha and Tai at Yosemite in snow, sun and shade. 

I'm glad I did it, and have no serious regrets about our choices along the way or our time frame.  I return home realizing there is beauty throughout this country that compares well with what any place in the world has to offer--we have no reason to apologize to anyone on that score.  Nonetheless, I am happy to be home, again, and look forward to the adjustments involved:  Putting stuff away; resuming my regular exercise and meditation regimens, increasing my commitment to reading, and finding time to draw, paint and write. 

2012 US Road Trip Stats Totals

   
Lodging: $7,708.15
Food: $3,165.96
Gas: $892.96

Parking/Tolls: $207.15
Entertainment: $1,621.43
Miscellaneous: $99.84
Total Cost: $13,910.58
Daily Avg: $198.72

Miles Driven: 11,005
MPG Avg: 49.9

No. States Seen: 28

No. Pics Taken: 2,980

It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end. ~ Ursula K. LeGuin

Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AZ

By Claire

Taliesin means "shining brow" in Welsh, which is Frank Lloyd Wright's ancestry.  He believed a building should be in the brow of a hill, not the crown.

We made our last FLW pilgrimage today, another exciting, interesting journey into this man's life and work.  Taliesin West was built from 1937 onward.  He was in need of a winter abode, fell in love with Scottsdale, Arizona, while designing a home for a client, and decided to build a western location.

Entrance--note the twirling square--a Frank Lloyd Wright logo

 

This rock with petroglyphs was found in the hills behind the property during ground preparation.  Frank had the builders place it near the entrance in the same relative position they found it, and adopted the twirling square as a logo that represents the linked hands of fellowship.
 

 

The entire estate living area is a sprawling 33,000 square feet.  There are patio areas everywhere, giving it a roomy, open feel.
 

 

This structure is an archive that stores all documents and plans to protect them from fire.  Our guide, Jim, was talkative and full of information, quotes and jokes.  One client, Mr. Johnson, of Johnson Wax, called Frank in a fury because he was holding a party to showcase his new home, when it began to rain.  The roof started leaking over Mr. Johnson's chair.  Frank's response?  Move the chair.

 

We went into the office where the archives are located and sat and listened to some history of the place.

This is a photo of FLW taken 3 months before his death.  He died in a Phoenix hospital at 92.  He was in great shape; he ate mostly organic vegetables from his own garden, took a nap everyday and walked all over his properties, except when he was driving one of his 25 Cherokee Red cars.  Every Frank Lloyd Wright home incorporates Cherokee Red paint.

This is the Kiva, designed after the Indian style.  It had one window and stayed cool, wonderful for the parties held in here. The interior is surrounded by beautiful drawings.

 

Chuck heading into the Kiva--that red tile has FLW's signature carved into it as a building with his personal seal of approval

This drawing is a design he did for a proposed new City Hall building in Scottsdale.  The Mayor wanted something special and different.  Unfortunately, the City Council rejected it except for the spire, which was built and placed somewhere in Scottsdale. 

We were startled to find it as we drove by, later in the day, on our way to get gas.  If his design had been built, it would have become world famous, I'm sure.

  

Frank loved triangles and this house has them everywhere.

 

Looking towards the mountains

 

 

Frank loved Japanese art and placed one of these at all entrances.  These were purchased at Gumps in San Francisco.

 

Lots of sculpture placed all around the property

 

Frank found some pots he wanted to place in the living room.  His wife told him he would have to build wider shelves.  His solution was to cut a hole in the glass.

 

  

These small squares are ventilation windows for the bathroom on the other side of the wall.

 

Water tower on the right

 

Dragon with the ability to shoot a flame 4-5 feet

 

Breezeway--the Venturi effect--designed to increase natural air flow

 

View through Venturi onto Olgivanna's patio where she enjoyed tea every morning

 

 

Bell tower--the bell was used to call the architectural students to meals

 

This walkway had the beams at 6 feet--remember, he felt that anything over 6 feet was wasted space.  After his death, the beams were raised 8 inches.

 

Double doors leading into the theatre where plays took place and architectural presentations were made

 

Music room--each row had bench seats facing chairs and tables

 

Frank brought in a grand piano but it took up too much room.  He told his students to get their hammers and make a hole for the piano.  One of them had the bright idea of using dynamite rather than trying to chisel it out.  It worked but it took out all the windows too.

 

No house should ever be on a hill or on anything.  It should be of the hill.  Belonging to it.  Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

By Chuck

The highlight of Carlsbad Caverns is the Big Room, estimated at 600,000 square feet--seven football fields--it is the largest natural limestone chamber in the Western Hemisphere.  In here, you can view the entire range of speleothems--from stalactites to stalagmites to columns.  The ranger gave us a handy mnemonic for distinguishing the two:  the 'c' is for ceiling and the 'g' is for ground.

An inscription reading "J White 1898" was discovered deep within Carlsbad Caverns in the 1980s.  It provides witness to the presence of a 16 year old Jim White, the first documented discoverer of the caves.

While riding his horse through the Chihuahuan Desert looking for stray cattle with a fence mending crew for the Lucas brothers, Jim saw a plume of bats rising from the desert hills.  It appeared to be a volcano, or a whirlwind but did not behave quite like either.  He tied his horse to a nearby tree and worked his way through the brush to the edge of a large opening in the ground.  Jim described the moment by saying, "I found myself gazing into the biggest and blackest hole I had ever seen, out of which the bats seemed literally to boil."  He thought that any hole in the ground which could house such a gigantic army of bats must be a whale of a big cave.

A few days later, he returned to the cave with some rope, fence wire and a hatchet.  He cut wood from some nearby shrubs and assembled a makeshift ladder.  He lowered the ladder into the opening and using a homemade kerosene lantern, descended approximately 50 feet to the first serviceable ledge.  He climbed down an additional 20 feet to a floor.  Using the "sickly glow" of his lantern, he made his way into the cave. He felt as if he "... was wandering into the very core of the Guadalupe Mountains."

After reaching a chamber, he noted two tunnels leading off in opposite directions, one downward and to the right and one, more level, to the left.  He decided to go left first and discovered the Bat Cave. He explored it for a while then proceeded down the other tunnel.  “I followed on until I found myself in a wilderness of mighty stalagmites. It was the first cave I was ever in, and the first stalagmites I had ever seen, but instinctively I knew, for some intuitive reason, that there was no other scene in the world which could be justly compared with my surroundings."

By the time he reached the first formations, he had "... crept cat-like across a dozen dangerous ledges and past many tremendous openings."   He saw more stalagmites, "... each seemingly larger and more beautifully formed than the ones I'd passed."   He encountered chandeliers, stalactites, soda straws, flowstone, pools of water, rimstone dams and other formations.  He dropped rocks into pits to determine their depth.  He rolled one boulder into a pit and it fell for a couple of seconds and then "... kept rolling and rolling until its sound became an echo."

Then the light from his homemade kerosene lantern went out.  The darkness seemed to smother him.  Jim described the incident by saying, "It seemed as though a million tons of black wool descended upon me."   We knew exactly how he felt when the ranger turned off the lights at one point during our tour.

The first thing that struck me was the awesome size of the open spaces.  The second thing was how dry most of the cavern seemed to be.  In between, the white calcite always had a liquid appearance, regardless of the wet/dry reality.

They have carefully implemented the lighting to great effect, in my opinion.  But, it left us in dim lighting the entire time, playing havoc with our poor little camera, trying so hard to produce acceptable results.  They are currently in the process of converting to all LED lighting, to save on their electrical bill.

 
A couple of pillars (columns) alongside stalagmites

These draperies were unique and interesting.  Sometimes they were translucent, with the artificial light shining through.

The Hidden Elephant--Does this cave make my butt look big?

Unbelievably clear water--they try hard to keep it this way.  People keep dropping coins and food.

No Comment...

"History was made on August 19, 1952, 750 feet below the surface of the earth, at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Tex Helm fired off 2,400 number 2 Super Flashbulbs, lighting 55 million square feet of surface in the Big Room, to capture the beauty of this view. Never attempted again, this magnificant 'Big Shot' is a result of Mr Helm's technical know-how gained through 30 years of photographic experience throughout the world."  I hope you enjoy this vintage photo.

Detail

Rock of Ages

As we exited from the elevator, we noticed a group with protective headgear and headlamps emerging from one of the longer, 5 hour tours of the caves.  I envied them, but felt we had done enough for one day: a formal tour of  the King's Chamber and a self-guided tour of the Big Room.  Time to relax.

Once again we were grateful for our choice of timing in taking this Road Trip--almost no crowding at tourist sites.

At the end of the tour and our self-guided tour of the Big Room, we had the senior special lunch: half a turkey and cheese sandwich, pickle and green chili with pork soup--spicy, but delicious.

Lunch with the Jetsons 800 feet underground

We are in the only motel in the area.  Its great virtue is that you turn right, drive down Carlsbad Caverns Road for 5 miles and you are there.  We should have been suspicious when we discovered only one bar of soap.  The only restaurant here gets mostly very bad reviews but we decided to give it a try anyway rather than drive 20 miles to the next town.  The reviews were correct.  We shared a Mexican combo plate and Claire gave me most of it and then after trying it, pushed more onto my plate.  The Continental Breakfast at the motel consists of bad coffee, packaged muffins and a carton of low quality OJ.  The "town" is about as dead as any we've seen and consists of about 8 buildings.  The woman in the grocery store, if you can call it that, said she can't wait to get out of here and is just waiting for her son to graduate from high school.  The only activity is the guy doing construction work on our motel.  We're getting used to the hammering, sawing and dumpster dumping. Well, they never promised us a rose garden.  However, there is a lovely pool with a tempting water slide, outside; but it is too cool to try.  We are anxious to move on, edging ever closer to California, Yosemite and then home.

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land. ~ G.K. Chesterson

Dinner and a Movie - Austin, TX

By Claire

Yesterday was a 7 hour drive and tomorrow is 8, so we decided to completely blow off today and just relax.  We slept in, had breakfast then mostly lounged in our huge, one bedroom suite with kitchen ($84).  We are hooked on these kinds of places.

After a while, we decided we probably needed to head out for supplies:  chocolate covered coffee beans for Chuck, yogurt for me.  A latte sounded good, too, so we scoped out a Starbucks using our iPhone map and took off.

While we were enjoying our coffees, we spotted something called Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.  I thought, hmm, maybe a movie would be good.  And then I remembered something David had said--we had dinner last night with friends who live here--he told us about a theatre that serves food while you watch.  Turns out, that's exactly what this place was.  So we went for it.  Looper was due to start in 15 minutes and the man behind the counter very kindly explained that we had to choose our seats.  He showed us a touch screen and made recommendations about where to sit.  We made our choice, took our tickets and found our seats.  That's when we saw how it works.  Amazing clips from old Sci-Fi movies and TV were being shown as we walked in.  Sitting down we saw the menu and the order sheet.  We decided on Grilled 3 cheese and roasted tomato sandwiches; our order was picked up by a guy who walked in front of the tables picking them up, explaining how it works (extra lemon for your coke?) while swiping our card. 

 

It was all very efficient and fun.  We settled in watching the clips and previews, all done in a very fifties style--with the sound in a normal range, while various waitstaff took orders.  We noticed that the couple next to us was served a bowl of popcorn and a pitcher of beer.  The woman at the end of our row had a glass of wine.  The theatre was small and intimate and the screen size was just right.  It wasn't stadium seating but somehow no one blocked our view.  Taking out a row of seats every other row and adding a long table probably accomplished that.  One of the best features, and we noticed this at the last movie house we went to in Biloxi, is that talking and texting is absolutely NOT tolerated.  You will be removed from the theatre and there are no refunds.  I like that.  And best of all, there is an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema coming to San Francisco in 2013!

Another great, spontaneous day.  Oh, and the movie?  Fantastic!  See it.  We're off to the hot tub, now.

Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.  ~ Lawrence Block