Majesty

Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty

The whole earth is filled with His Glory

The Wonders of Zion

 

October 8, 9, 10

Zion refers to a specific location to which members of the millennial church are to be gathered together to live. The Mormons were were the first white men to discover the area and name it so appropriately I think.

If you’re like us and are concerned about how the federal government squanders our hard earned tax dollars; we were finally somewhat calmed by the National Park System operations.  Zion is an excellent example of a well thought out and executed park operation; as evidenced primarily with its trails, roads and transportation system.  Though it is wisely outsourced to a private company; there are no private vehicles in the park and propaned-fueled double buses shuttle people to about 12 different stops with pick ups every 10 minutes.  Even Springdale, the bordering village enjoys the same free service.

We treated ourselves to the Imax presentation which really helped prepare us with the history and geologic background on the area.  Obviously the large screen and stunning photography allowed us to really appreciate Zion from another perspective.  There was also a breath-taking and nail biting segment of a couple scaling one of the sheer Zion cliffs which nearly ended in tragedy.  While touring the park we saw numerous climbers who often spend nights in the narrow crevices to be able complete their ascent the following day.

As far as the beauty and splendor of this precious piece of God’s earth, we’re not able to describe the majesty in either words or picture.  Instead we’ll merely offer this quote copied from an amazingly talented local photographer, Michael Fatali (www.fatali.com): 

“To Look at the Wonders of this Creation, Is to Look into the Heart of God”………….

Zion refers to a specific location to which members of the millennial church are to be gathered together to live.

Another First .......Las Vegas

Oct. 4, 5 & 6,  2011

Again we are thankful for the GPS getting out of the San Francisco area and all the highways and byways.  Our new digital friend “Roger” who can often be irritating, tells us exactly where to go otherwise we would be screaming at each other, lost, heading in the wrong direction and probably just about ready for a divorce or ready to end our trip. 

road to Las Vegas

Once out of Marin County and up and around the Bay Area we crossed over the Bay Bridge and onto the long straight road, south on Hwy 5 toward Las Vegas.  Can’t say too much about the scenery other than we passed miles and miles of fruit trees and various vegetables in the San Quaquin Valley 

The clouds hung in the sky like an art gallery with the sun casting shadows and spotlights.  To the right was an old man looking up to the heavens, over to the left was a painted lady on a galloping, white stallion, her hair flowing in the wind.  There was a fox ready to pounce.  And everyone’s favorite- The Michelin marshmallow man waving hello.  Of course Jeff couldn’t see any of this!  Especially the colors.  Oh well, I was entertained.  I love clouds.

We made it as far as Bakersfield, Ca.  Stayed at the fanciest, most accommodating, cleanest, RV Resort we have ever stayed at.  Had a nice happy hour and we had a huge, inexpensive breakfast before we left the next morning.  

On the road again the terrain changed to desert and rolling hills with strange cactus type trees.  We would have stopped at the Mojave Desert or Hoover Dam, but unfortunately it was raining again so we’ll have to leave that for another trip, another time.  We don’t go backwards, only forward!

I thought the last road was long and straight.  Wow the road into Las Vegas was even more so.  One RV park was about 6 miles outside of the strip and one right on the strip at Circus Circus so we decided to check in there so we could walk right in. 

Well I won’t go on too long here as it was just as we expected.  Pretty sad how all those people can just sit there and dump their money in those machines.  You can’t even get a thrill pulling the lever as they are all automated now.  So we aren’t gamblers!  Had some dinner, saw a very short rope acrobatic act with live music, looked at the tacky shops, checked out the lights on the strip, lost about $2.75 and can now say we’ve been to Las Vegas.  I know some people love it but I couldn’t even find a show I really wanted to see. 

Now thats a sculpture

So off we went in the morning, headed for Zion Park and Bryce Canyon.  Leaving Las Vegas was more spectacular than being there.  The mountains in every direction were awesome.  Then we entered The Virgin River Canyon which was like entering a cave with no roof.  The road snaked through the canyon with red mountains and buttes right there next to the road.  Beautiful.  I just love how the land changes.  God’s Hand.  

After leaving Nevada, going through the Northern tip of Arizona and then into Utah we came to St. George where we decided to get some info on Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyons.  We stayed in a great little park with palm trees and backed right up to cliffs of red rocks. St. George has become an extremely popular retirement area for folks from all over America because of the ideal weather, outdoor activities, 12 golf courses and wonderful terrain.  The annual Huntsman Senior Olympic games were taking place with over 10,000 participants with a myriad of events..  Decide to look at some properties and actually found a really nice resale of a open southwest style home with waterfall in backyard and several outdoor gas firepits.  The views were astounding with mountains in all directions. 

St. George Utah, Mormon Temple

RV Park owner's home

Neat Round About near Snow Canyon

We had some time to kill until the park was opened after the Senior events were over and visited several wonderful homes in a golf community.  We also happened upon a open house of a great 3 bed 3 bath resale.  This home came fully and nicely furnished, with waterfall and pond, several outside entertainment areas with gas heating logs.  Asking price $465,000.  Jeff and I have fallen in love with southwest design and motif and could see owning one some day.

There is so much to see in Snow Canyon, Zion, Monument Park, Bryce Canyons, the Grand Canyon to mention just a few.  Need a good night’s rest and a prayer for good weather.  Can’t wait for tomorrow.  

Snow Canyon outside St George

This is the State Park is the site of a large volcano with lava caves and mound all around.

Lava Cave

We Left Our Hearts In San Francisco

A Rainy Day, But Good Day in San Fran

Oct. 2 & 3, 2011

What a beautiful skyline!

So much for the scenic winding roads.  Now there were freeways, 5 lane highways and traffic.  That’s city life.  Thank goodness for the GPS.  We were totally confused as to where to go and where to stay while in and around San Francisco so we called my cousin Eileen, who lives in Martinez, only to find out she was on the East Coast and on a cruise.  Her daughter wasn’t around and our friend “Aunt Maria” in Morgan Hill wasn’t home either so we were on our own to figure it out.  With the help of the GPS it suggested a campground a half mile from where we currently were in Larkspur, Marin County .  So we pulled in the RV site and it was within walking distance to the ferry to San Francisco and they had all sorts of info.  We were right on the harbor and could even see San Quentin.  Just like home- Ha Ha.  

In the morning we walked over to the ferry and for $4.25 each, we had a 1/2hr ride to San Francisco.  It’s amazing how many people they loaded onto the ferry in about 5 minutes.  The Vineyard needs to take some lessons.  We sat with some fellows going to work so they gave us some good tips and pointed out Angel Island and Alcatraz. 

Alcatraz

We arrived at Pier 4, The Embarcadero, had a coffee and Belgian waffle which energized us for the walk to Pier 39.  We chose to do this rather than the trolley.  Aren’t we good!  At the pier we took a 2 hr,. narrated,  open top bus, tour of the  city.   Great tour where we snapped pictures and got a history  and a real good feel of all the sites of the city.  Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Italian, Japanese, Haight Ashbury, Painted Ladies, the Presidio, and The Golden Gate Botanical Park and Tea Gardens.  We were advised of several areas to avoid and as we drove through them it was quite evident why!

Of course, the premier site was The Golden Gate Bridge where we got to get off and took pictures.  We were just finishing up the tour and the rain let loose, but it was time for lunch so we got a great seafood lunch at  Sabella & La Torre on the Pier. Luckily we had great rain gear so it didn’t slow us down except having to cancel a dinner in Chinatown (we’ve both had a craving for good Chinese food so that’ll have to wait)  Had to have a Boudin Sour Dough Chowder Bowl. 

We happened upon a really unique museum that housed hundreds of antique arcade machine and games.

By this time it was now pouring rain so we ducked in and out of shops on Pier 39.  Too bad but we had a great day in San Francisco.  We wondered Pier4, Embarcadero market shops before boarding the ferry and watched the beautiful city on the hills fade away and before we knew it were back in our “cozy little cabin on wheels” and enjoyed some Asian food we brought back from the Farmer’s Market.  A good day even if it did rain.  

Look closely for the humming bird.

NAPA Wine and Bike Tour

Saturday, Oct 1 and Sunday, October 02, 2011

A Day Biking In Wine Country

Filipino Salt Vendor

We got into Calistoga about 10am to grab a quick coffee and croissant at the bakery and naturally a visit to their Farmer's Market, then headed off to meet Brad at the bike shop.  Actually one stop before was to Dick Vermeil's winery tasting store.  He was the coach of our 1980 Eagles NFC championship team and the St. Louis Ram Super Bowl team 1999. The gal who ran the tasting was a "trip" and knew Dick and family as he grew up in Calistoga and stll has deep "roots" there especially now with a vineyard.  Ha-ha...........

He’s really grown the business, a lot of it through rentals and wine tours.  He has arrangements with five wineries for wine tastings of which we only made it to 2 of them which will be explained later.  Brad gave us a map and thorough directions.  The whole tour would have been about 10-12 miles of level roads through gorgeous vineyards.  Up the main street was a great market where we bought 4 chunks of cheese, a stick of hard salami and of course a baguette for our picnic lunch.

Our first stop was at the Summer Winery which is renown because it is one of a handful of wineries that produce the Charbona Reds which we never heard but loved!  Of course we bought one to be picked up later by the bike store.

It was 2pm and way past our planned picnic time so we headed for Chateau Montelena which was the vineyard that put California on the map on 1973.  In a blind taste contest between 3 French whites and 3 California whites, the Montelena Chardonay took first place and the rest is history.  One of our favorite movies “Bottle Shock” chronicles the story.  Our picnic by the pond was right up with our Picnics in France and Janice’s cheese choices were perfect.

Chateau Montalena

Thinking of your Fiona!!

On to Twoomey Vineyards which is a Silver Oak  (our very favorite Cab) vineyard and it was on the other side of town.  We heard the roar of the moto-cross races  at the Calistoga fairgrounds as we passed by on the way to the next vineyard.  Made it over to the Twoomey tasting just before closing and struck up a conversation with the man next to us.  Joel, retired from 27 years in the air force, worked at the Mt. Helena hospital as a anesthesia nurse.  He was really into wines and in a number of preferred member winery clubs.  He asked us to join him at the Sterling Vineyard just up the road.  Wow was that neat….you took a gondola up to the tasting rooms and winery.  He got us in for free (would have cost $20 each) and got an upgraded tasting with all of Sterling’s reserve collection.  Sterling was the highlight of our day and as you’ll see the vistas were stellar.

Jeff & Joel overlooking retire oak barrels

Didn’t get back to the bike shop till after 6 o’clock closing but Brad and his crew were still finishing up a busy day.  Sharon and her 2 beautiful girls met up with us and we had a nice but short reunion.  Several “God Winks” about Sharon that we had forgotten.  She attended  the same church as us in PA. as well as the Vineyard and attended Delaware County Christian School with Kelly Winter, daughter of Jeff Winter our pastor at Faith Community Church!! Do you believe how beautiful their girls are?

The Suhr's

We ended up the day with a light dinner at the Calistoga Inn.  The next day heading down to San Francisco we stopped at the Beringer Winery which was probably one of the most picturesque.