BACK HOME IN MICHIGAN!

We arrived home this afternoon after 3 wonderful weeks on the road. Since the last post we had good days in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone, where we stayed at the historic log lodge, Old Faithful Inn, where my mother and father stayed on their honeymoon in 1938. Here is a snap of us at one of the geysers.





After Yellowstone we went to Montana where we toured my younger brother's 2 ranches. Here I am, flanked by brother Jonnie and sister-in-law Sooky at one of the wonderful rock formations at the Cherry Creek Ranch. We also hiked at his smaller ranch not far from the South Dakota border. Both offer incredible hiking and scenery.


Here is the house on the smaller ranch where they sometimes stay when they visit from their home in Minneapolis. It has incredible beauty against this stark Montana background.






After we left Montana we headed for my childhood home in Wisconsin, now owned by Jonnie. We wanted to spend some time at his picnic spot on the Yellow River that runs through our farm but we were stopped by this little guy---his mother no doubt close by. It's interesting that we were warned a hundred times in Yellowstone to watch out for bears but saw only one----at a great distance. Then we head to Spooner and are stopped dead in our tracks.

On Tour Out West!

Tomorrow we begin our third week out West. Our first stop was in Denver, spending a wonderful 4-day Labor Day Weekend with our dear fiends Darlene and Kathy. We had wonderful mountain hikes with them---including a drive up a remote mountain road to the Pomeroy RR tunnel. I did my doctoral dissertation on Marcus M. Pomeroy, a 19th century newspaper publisher and general gad-about who was also the brains behind a railway tunnel through the Continental Divide---a tunnel that was later labeled "Pomeroy's Folly" because the tunnels coming in from the East and West didn't meet. Here's what is left of the opening. I walked in a ways, but we'd forgetton to bring flashlights so cut our excursion short after 90 feet---as John paced it. Kathy treated us to wonderful meals, thanks to her recent cooking lessons, and we joined them for worship on Sunday at Columbine United Church. What a preacher is Steve Poos-Benson; we'd drive every Sunday from Grand Rapids if we weren't so concerned about our carbon footprint!

In Salt Lake we spent a night and much talk-----and a fantastic meal with Chris and Bob Nelson. What fun to be back together again.

Then on to Oregon where we hiked all the falls beginning with Multnomah and then a drive down to Silver Falls State park, all combined to make 13 miles of hiking that day, staying in a wonderful inn in Silverton. From there to Camano Island, NW of Seattle for a wonderful evening meal with Rimmer and Ruth DeVries and then a couple of miles away to see family, David/Sharon/Barry/Margaret. My brother David has a wonderful 5-acre woodlot. What a wonderful spot to live. They took us to Mount Baker. Here they are hiking.



From there we went to the little western town of Winthrop, WA. We stayed in this wonderful Inn right down town.

















Our next stop was Glacier National Park. Here I am at Virginia Falls.

Grand Rapids has a big art contest going on through the end of September. Artists from around the world are bringing their outdoor art to display---hoping to win the big $250,000 ArtPrize award. I decided to enter my own outdoor art for the contest. It's displayed at my business, Carlton Gardens and titled "ArtPrize 2009." It's a quilt painted on wood. John framed it for me, and we just finished it yesterday--took most of three days to complete.















John has also been building outdoor structures for me at Carlton Gardens. He does a fantastic job. This is what you see when you drive by on Breton Road. He also built that absolutely wonderful orange Adirondack chair you seen in the photo.