Sunday, November 18, 2018

The Southwest in September

The Southwest is truly a beautiful part of the country.  I added almost 3500 miles on my trusty crv and camped in it too!  It worked out great and it was a great trip.  I visited friends (Mary and Paul) in Mancos, Colorado (near Durango and very near to Mesa Verde National Park.  In fact, you can see it from their front porch!  Mary and I then drove to Questa, New Mexico (near Taos) to visit our friend Rebecca.
The whole trip was filled with incredible sights, good friends, peace, fun and some interesting animal encounters.  A few of the animal encounters are included but the best (or at least my favorite) took place in the middle of the night in Valley of Fire SP in Nevada when I was visited TWICE by what turned out to be a ringtail cat.  He climbed in through my moonroof trying to steal an apple from my food stash.  It being literally the middle of the night, I didn't think to try to photograph him and shooed him away, the second time closing the moonroof.  It wasn't 'til morning when I saw the apple (from my friend Mary's garden) with little fang marks and on the opposite side of the car that I realized what the little critter was after.  Poor little guy!  I would gladly have let him have the apple if I had known!
Anyway, there are far too many photos and I've narrowed it down as much as I could.  Just a spectacular part of the country!

Hickison State Park Near Austin, Nevada



Some Beautiful Scenes Along the Way


My Trusty Camp Car
Castle Rock Campground, Utah


Dead Horse State Park

There is a yellow dot (look closely) where Thelma and Louise supposedly drove
off the cliff.


A bird who visited my campground
Canyonlands



Arches







Hiking near Mancos

Mesa Verde

Questa, New Mexico
Wupatki Ruins (there is an earth breathing hole here and a ball court!)













Navajo National Monument


The (VERY) Grand Canyon

An Elk at the Grand Canyon





Petroglyphs at Valley of Fire SP near Las Vegas
Valley of Fire State Park




Friday, November 16, 2018

Some Catching Up - Toronto

I took a (very) brief trip in March to Toronto because I was fortunate enough to get tickets for the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  This was my first trip to Toronto and I thoroughly enjoyed the neighborhood in which my Airbnb was located.  It was within walking distance of the gallery and the bus that I took to Niagara Falls and FULL of great restaurants and nice little shops.
I invited a woman I met in Costa Rica who was from a suburb of Toronto (Jo) and  I offered her my extra ticket.  We met at the gallery and had a great visit.  It nice when things work out like that.
Niagara Falls in the Winter is really something to behold.  The New York side is impressive, but once you stand close to Horseshoe Falls on the Canada side . . . . Well, it is just breathtaking.  Have a look.

The neighborhood:
The View from my room
 




One of Yayoi's Infinity Rooms.  Amazing!

New York Side of Niagara Falls.

These two are of Horseshoe Falls.