THRU 5/16 IN KETCHICAN, ALASKA

Then onward.... we went to several parks. In northern California, there are several state parks and a federal park. These parks are protecting the coastal redwoods. These trees are different from the Sequoias in central California. These trees are not as wide, but they are taller. They grow as high as 400 feet. The tallest tree keeps changing. The tops break off and other trees keep growing and man keeps discovering taller trees. They are also learning better methods of measuring the height of the trees. We learned that the method they use now is to either climb the tree and drop a plumbbob, or get a measurement by climbing a neighboring tree. They only go to this much trouble if they think the tree might be a record breaker. We took a small dirt road thru the Stoat Grove in Jedidiah Smith State Park. The groves of trees there were thicker and each tree seemed bigger than we had previously seen. It was impossible for our pictures to show the size and height and density of the trees and the forest. It was really impressive.

There were several herds of elk in the parks. We were lucky enough to see some. This one decided to pose for us.

Springtime has sprung up in the northwest. We have seen flowers of every kind and color.

There truly is no way to capture in pictures the trees and the forest. Yes there is a difference,

One of many rivers we have seen.

This is the roots of one of the fallen giants. Remember, these are smaller than Sequoias. Wow!

One tree splintered. Don't know why, but there was a huge pile of splintered wood near this tree. Can't imagine what caused it. Any ideas?

When we stopped to see use the wc, we had a visitor at our car. We both noticed the Stellars Jay sitting on the open door window. We were both very quiet, not to scare it away. We wasted our time. Nothing was going to scare this bird. He hopped down into the car and found himself a peanut. We should have let him clean out the whole car, but we were concerned that he might leave us a present. He didn't. We got some nuts from our stash and he happily landed on Arleen's hand to be fed. A family was returning to their car and we showed them how to feed our friend. Even tho they did everything wrong, to start, nothing scared this "hungry" bird away. We couldn't believe he was still hungry.

We spent the nite at Grants Pass in Oregon at a motel 6, quite a difference from the nite before.

Onward and upward, if north is up. We drove around Portland, to keep away from as much traffic as possible and on to the Lucky Eagle Casino we heard about at KFC. Isn't that were everyone goes for travel info. The young lady who worked behind the counter used her cell to google a casino on our way north. A customer assisted with travel tips. That is one of the best parts of trabvelling, the people we meet along the way. Anyway, the casino had a hotel attached and we were hoping to stay over, but all that was available was the executive sweet for about $300 and I didn't think I could win that much, but I tried. I made a little. So we drove back an exit on the I-5 and stayed there.

Next day we drove on to Seattle. But....we were too close and would arrive too early, so guess where were stopped for an hour??????RIGHT..Emeral Green Casino, a hugh place in Tacoma, Washington. I won $30 there. (don't get excited..I'm sure this money will just be a starting stake for the ship)

We arrived at Gisela and Wolfie's house in the early afternoon. Another lovely home that was made open to us. People are great. We spent 2 nites with them. After a lovely dinner and evening of conversation where we learned much about life in Germany and Austria during WWII and after, the Russian occupation. It seems that we were not taught about a lot of history happening over there. We were inthralled by their stories. The next day we were taken to see there property on Whidbey Island. Gisela has 5 green thumbs on each hand. Here home and here weekend property are botanical gardens. We had a wonderful time. They dropped us at the port and away we went after wishing them a wonderful trip, since they are going to Germany in a couple of days.

We had no trouble boarding the ship, no lines, right on. Unpacked our stuff, had dinner, saw the show and collapsed. We are still recovering from all the travels. We have a day at sea and we will use it to the fullest to rest.

Today, May 16th we arrived at Ketchican, were we rode the local bus around the area to a totem pole park, and Walmart and to forest service information center. It was raining, not a surprise, but just a little. It was a pleasant day for us since we had been here before and seen quite a bit then. It is a small touristy town with an old part on a boardwalk and shops. Did see our first Alaskan bald eagle (we saw one in Seattle, not counting the ones we see at home) So tomorrow we go to try and see Glacier Bay. Last trip we didn't get to see it. More about that next time.

Sorry it took so long to catch up, but now we are all caught up and will try to keep it that way (with luck) Hope all is well with you all. We are having a great time.

5/10 CALIFORNIA COAST

These are some pictures of the coast that Duane took. Lovely shots, lovely views

5/9 CLEAR LAKE, CALIFORNIA

When we left Tucson after returning, we drove to Laughlin, Nevada to decompress. So we spent 3 nites there and Duane rested and I played with the machines. I actually won a little.
So, then we continued on our way. We drove on to Delano, California. We then drove on to Davis, outside of Sacramento to meet with Dick. Dick was a passenger on our Mexico trip and was nice enough to offer to put us up for a nite, on our way to Seattle. Well, he did a bangup job. He not only was gracious and had a lovely home for us to stay in, but he made us a wonderful dinner, with great wine. He has a wonderful wine collection.
Then we drove on, past Clear Lake, the largest lake in Ca.

In Clear Lake, which had nice artists shops on the lake, we found this carved gourd. We took a picture of it since it looked so much like the designs of a friend of ours in Tucson. Lynn Rae Lowe. Surprising to see two people have such similar designs.
This is clear lake

These are flowers ;)

We ended up at Trinindad, a seaside resort area (expensive). We stayed at a motel where we had an apartment that would sleep 6, just for us. What a waste. Oh yeah, there was a casino near there and Duane got some nice pictures while I made a little money.

PICTURES FROM THE BORDER

Here is a picture of the wall we had made to keep the Mexicans out of the US. What we found particularly interesting, was that the wall is many yards inside of the US.

You can see the sign on the left side of the second picture, a plaque showing where the border actually is. Then on the right you see where the wall is. Strange, huh?

5 3 BACK TO THE US

After 3 nites at San Carlos we headed back toward the US. We had learned that we, who call ourselves Americans, should be calling ourselves something else. We do not come from all of the Americas, but from the United States. So we need to come up with something other than "Americans" to identify ourselves. How about "United States-ers". Any other ideas?

Another long bus day. We stopped at an ironwood shop, where they carved the very hard ironwood. Of course we had to buy something, you know, to support the local economy. We bought a Caracara bird, in rememberance of our float trip.

Anyway, we had no trouble returning across the boarder. Some of us were worried about the US not wanting us to come back after being in Mexico. No such problem. We went thru a Mexican checkpoint where they asked if anyone wasn't feeling well. We were all fine. The guard did scan our carryon stuff, but no problem. When we got to the US border all of the luggage under the bus was scanned, like at an airport. Again, it took a little time, but no problem.

The next morning, the 4th, we drove up to Laughlin, NV for a little rest and laundry doing.

Having taken care of both, we are now, on the 7th, in Delano, California, north of Bakersfield, on our way to Sacramento, to stay with Dick from our trip. We should be there by tomorrow nite.

That is all for now. More later on our path to Seattle.

4/30 to 5/3 SAN CARLOS

On the way to San Carlos we had lunch at a woman's home in Navajoa, Senora. Yes, this is a private home. We had been to a Mormon community, seen a Mennonite home, an indian home, an old hacienda and Pancho Villa's house, but this was the other side of the coin. The bathroom, one of them anyway, has a sunken tub that the daughter used to snorkel in as a child. Lunch was delightful, probably the best on the trip. We drove on to San Carlos on the west coast of the mainland. It is next to Guaymas. It is the equivalent of Telluride's Mountain Village, a resort near a town. Debbie and I stayed at a Club Med there once, right after it opened. Good thing, it turns out, since it has closed.

It was another long bus day and we were very pleased to arrive. The hotel is lovely.

The picture below is of a mountain near our hotel, the "Goat Tits" That is not the real name, but the commonly used one, and we can't remember the real one. It is a sacred mountain to the Yaqui Indians. But, there is starting to be development up its slopes

We stayed in the hotel on the far side of the bay. It is very nice and we spent 3 nites there. On both Friday and Saturday nites there were weddings on the beach, with the celebrations afterwards. We were OK with the partying, that is until the fireworks:)

Hope you can see the pelican in the picture and his shadow on the water. There were lots of pelicans flying around, as well as turkey vultures. We wondered if they knew something we didn't....but all went well.

We went to the site of the old Club Med, where they had done a wonderful job of landscaping. What is left at the entrance is a beautiful cactus forest. Below is just a sampling. Then you can see a Sterns Oriole sitting on a blooming cactus (not a bad English word, actually blooming)

4/29 EL FUERTE AND SAN CARLOS

The down of El Fuerte, the fort, is where we got off the train from Copper Canyon. It sits on the El Fuerte river, which is the home of many birds. In the 1700's there was a fort there, but there are no remains of that fort, so the city built one as a museum. In the evening we had a folklorico show that was delightful. In the background is our hotel. It was originally part of the nearby church and has been expanded recently. As you can see it is quite lovely. The room we had was interesting. It had two doors, because if you had one door it didn't have enough room to open, so they split the door in half. It was so small, that Duane had to remove his backpack to get in and the door hit the bed when you opened it. We had to get out of each others way to move around...but the hotel was lovely.

We went on an outting to see petroglyphs and birds. These are some of the petroglyphs we saw. Very different from American ones....very Mexican looking. Our guide did not know how old they were. Some were just recently discovered.

Birds, boy did we see birds from our rowboat. This is a cardinal, obviously.

This is a great blue heron, nesting in a tree. The entire tree was filled with then and a couple of egrets, all nesting. Some had babies.

On an island in the river, were all these black vultures. There didn't seem to be any dead animals around, they just seemed to like this island.

This is a turkey vulture. We have them at home, too.

Here are 2 baby egrets.

And 2 baby herons

We went with our local guide German, pronounced Herman, to a native village where he grew up. We visited a lady who made homemade corn torillas and visited the local school. Arleen made her own tortilla, with help and even ate it. At the school we were taken to their computer room by a little girl named Joana, who made a picture for us. She and her classmates sang a song for us, and we sang You are my sunshine for them. Grand Circle gives money to this school and supplied the computers to them. Then we were treated to a native dance show by the local men, including the deer dance done by a father and his son.

Next morning we left for San Carlos, a beach town near Guaymas, on the Gulf of California. This is a lovely hotel, but not new. There are lots of people here since May1 is labor day and a holiday. So this is a 3 day weekend. There is a wedding here Friday nite and another Sat nite. We leave Sunday morning for Tucson. So we saw a little of the town, ate at a shrimp restaurant and came back to the hotel. Duane fell asleep. He was tired and slept the nite away.

On Sat we walked the beach and picked up shells, sat at the pool and did this blog.

In the morning, early, we leave for the US