25 October 2011 by ben.

Our family vacation this year took us to several national parks:  Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Arches.  We drove to Missoula, Montana the first day and each took a spin on the Carousel for Missoula near the riverfront park.  Day two, we drove to Bozeman and then south to Gardiner so that we could enter Yellowstone through the famous northwest arch.  The Gardiner area allows convenient access to Mammoth Hot Springs and the Lamar River Valley, where we saw a couple of grizzly bears, numerous bison, elk, and antelope.

We took a couple of hikes while in the park, the first in the mist and the second in the mosquitoes, and explored the area around geyser basin and Old Faithful Lodge.  And for the first time, we dined at the historic Old Faithful Lodge between viewings of the famous geyser’s eruptions.  On our drive towards Lake Yellowstone, we had the incredible good fortune to spot two gray wolves at dusk while they hunted an elk near the road.  In thirty seconds, they had vanished along with the rest of the pack we couldn’t see.  We stopped nearby, and I could hear them yipping for a couple more minutes.

After a couple nights, we drove out Yellowstone’s eastern entrance towards Cody, Wyoming, and stayed three nights at Absaroka Mountain Lodge, were we enjoyed an amazing horseback ride up a scenic ridge, an evening cook out, and a trip to Cody to see the nightly rodeo.

Heading south, we next drove to Jackson, Wyoming.  Our highlight in the area involved riding the gondola up to the top of Rendezvous Mountain, about 10500′ elevation, where we embarked on a 13-mile hike from the top, descending gradually in a clockwise manner back to Teton Village over the next 7 hours.  On the way, we had to traverse numerous small snow fields, scared up one large elk, watched several marmets study us, and encountered three bull moose just across Granite Creek.  A small shower welcomed us to an aspen forest in the final miles as our legs grew very weary.   On the drive back to our motel, we spotted a Cross Fox patrolling a recently cut hay field, a type of fox none of us had ever heard of before.

Finally, we arrived in beautiful red rock Moab, Utah, a location which allowed us to visit both Arches National Park and Dead Horse National Monument.  Both parks are scenic, and we enjoyed a dusk hike out to the famous Delicate Arch nearly clear skies with a full moon rising in the east.

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6 September 2010 by ben.

Labor Day weekend has rolled around once again; summer’s almost over.  Kim worked Saturday and Sunday, and the Weather Service issued a bleak forecast for the Seattle area.  So Bonnie and I packed lunches and trail mix, grabbed our boots and our cameras, and headed to the east side of the mountains for a hike! Read the rest of this entry »

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30 August 2010 by ben.

At the Big Band Jazz and Auction in May of this year, Kim and I saw a very appealing auction item:  a boating adventure with Kim and Scott Yale complete with a delicious picnic lunch and beverages.  We’ve known Scott and Kim for several years through the high school jazz program, and so we knew we’d love to spend the day with them, and getting a grand tour on their new boat would make the day a highlight of the summer for us. Read the rest of this entry »

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25 August 2010 by ben.

On 18 August, Kim, Bonnie and I drove over Washington Pass to Klipchuck Campground, a few miles from Mazama and a few more from Winthrop, for a short camping trip.  Our plan was to hike every day, dine at least once on burgers and fries at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery in Winthrop, and treat ourselves to ice cream and lattes at Sherry’s in Winthrop. Read the rest of this entry »

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13 August 2010 by ben.

In early August, 2010, Phil, Max, Bonnie and I drove to eastern Washington to a trail head about twenty miles past Cle Elum and hiked up to Esmeralda Basin.  This was Max’s longest hike ever, 7 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 1750′.  He did great, soaking his baseball cap at each opportunity to keep cool. Read the rest of this entry »

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4 March 2007 by ben.

On Sunday, 4 February 07, Phil stayed in Tucson for his final performance of Madame Butterfly, and Kim, Marion and I hiked most of the way up the Pontatoc Canyon Trail just north of Tucson, rising about 1900′ above the trail head and about 2500′ above Tucson for this beautiful panorama.
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4 March 2007 by ben.

After visiting the De Grazia’s Gallery in the Sun, my parents followed us to our motel where we checked in and relaxed for a few hours before going to dinner and then attending Phil’s performance of Madame Butterfly.

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24 February 2007 by ben.

Saturday, February 3rd, began with a rendezvous at DeGrazia’s Gallery in the Sun in NE Tucson with Mom and Dad and also Phil and Marion. DeGrazia lived on a working artist “ranch” with other artists frequently in residence usually in outbuildings that DeGrazia built himself. His artistic pursuits varied widely over the course of his career, from painting, sculpture and metal working to stained glass, and a variety of other ideas.

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21 February 2007 by ben.

Kim and I had our longest getaway ever this year (nearly six days!), reliving the honeymoon we never had, by flying to Tucson, Arizona at 6 am on February 1st. Yes, that’s early — we were up at 4 am — but we were psyched. Time to ourselves, away from jobs, routines, the usual worries and chores; and hopefully we’d get a huge dose of sunshine to blow away the winter blues. We were going to meet Marion, meet up with my parents a couple times, see Phil’s opera, and, weather permitting, hike in the mountains north of Tucson. And that happened, and more!

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25 September 2006 by ben.

The day after returning from Manzanita, Sunday August 27th, Kim, Bonnie and I climbed Bare Mountain in the heart of Washington’s Cascades. After driving about 45 minutes west from Seattle to North Bend, we continued north on a county road for 4 miles and then bounced onto a winding, washboarded, and fir tree-enclosed gravel road for another 18 miles to Bare Mountain Trail No. 1037.

We’d read that there were 50-plus switchbacks on this hike, so we knew it was going to be a long day. But the guidebooks promised amazing views, so we figured it would be worth it. Kim and I previously came up here in 1992, but we only made it 2/3rds the way up the slope, leaving all the best views for some later hike (14 years later, as it turned out). The lower section of the route traverses an immense, steepening field of gigantic ferns dotted with cedars and elderberry bushes. Higher up, the ferns give way to a sparse forest of alpine firs scattered among thousands of red huckleberry and wild blueberry bushes.
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