News Trend Inside My Mind|Actual

I have taken to hanging only my own art around the house.

It's not because I think I'm the greatest artist on the planet.

Ha.

But when I paint, I can capture and reflect whatever is floating around in my brain..

My imagination comes alive through the paint that flows from my brush.

Circles and lines.

Geometric patterns.

Imperfect perfection.

And these days, a harmony of blacks and whites.

When I find myself surrounded by my own art, I feel comfortable.

Like I'm walking around inside of my own mind.

Which feels really good.

And sometimes, I paint flowers too.

News Trend Arches National Park: Park Avenue|Actual

"In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you." -Leo Tolstoy

^ In a few concentrated hours, we'd hit a solid handful of highlights at Arches National Park.

We bounced around Balanced Rock,

dove deep under Double Arch,

snuck a long-distance peek at Delicate Arch,

toured the trifecta of Landscape, Tunnel, and Pine Tree Arches,

and as the afternoon was winding down, we figured we might just have time for one more adventure.

^ So from our vantage point at the far end of the park drive, we retraced our tracks back toward the entrance, and headed ourselves to Park Avenue

^ This area is the first place that most newcomers stop, but experienced visitors like us know that the best time to visit this area is in late afternoon when the sun shines low and hits these rocks with full force, exploding them into shades of fiery red.

For the record, despite my previous visit to the park, I'd completely forgotten about this phenomenon. My husband remembered. His brain is stuffed full of interesting factoids like this one and his steel trap of a memory often comes in quite handy.

^ He remembered something else quite interesting and useful. There's a one-mile hiking kisi-kisi that winds down in the canyon between these two rock walls, a route that can be traveled in either direction but the savvy hiker starts uphill and winds down the canyon, rather than vice versa.

And while the kisi-kisi can also be hiked as a round trip, it's a nice twist to have one member of the party drop the hikers off at the top of the trail, then drive down to the lower trailhead to pick them up.

^ And that, we all agreed, sounded like a nice do-able ending to our day of kecil-hikes around the park.

^ Except when we got to the starting point, and looked down, down, down that steep grade into the canyon, I won't lie. I got some seriously cold feet.

My shoulder was killing me.

I felt bad for ditching my husband at the car for hours while my daughters and I hiked.

And sadly, I felt worst of all about leaving my confused but ever cheerful dog behind yet again. She really had been quite a good girl under trying circumstances.

^ As my daughters and I stood at the top lookout, gazing at the rock walls towering over both sides of the canyon with the hot sun beating down on our heads, I kept my thoughts to myself. A hiking party-pooper I am not. So I waited to see what they would say.

I didn't have to wait long.

With a very few moments of discussion, we all agreed that maybe we should skip the hike, enjoy the view, and leave while it was still a party.

^ Feeling relieved but a tiny bit guilty for opting out of a gorgeous hike, I walked back to the car where my husband was waiting yet again with the dog, and told him our thinking.

He agreed. And as for my regret about missing out on the Park Avenue hike, he suggested, "We'll just remember to hike here the next time we come."

I'll trust him to file that information safely away in his capacious memory

And I'm pretty sure he was secretly relieved to be done with our hikes for the day.

^ Which was nothing compared to the joy this girl expressed when she saw us all back together again.

Although we were all satisfied to be done hiking among the arches for the day, we still had one more stop ahead of us..

And that is where we headed next.

* * * * *

Road Trip 2019: read all about it.

Leaving

Resting

Glacier National Park

Dakota Sunshine

Mackinac Bridge

My Newfound Brother

Fox Trilogy

Cleveland Rocks

Vermilion Legacy

At The Conservatory

Riding To Rifle

Arches National Park: Balanced Rock

Arches National Park: Double Arch

Arches National Park: Devil's Garden Trail

Arches National Park: Park Avenue

Dead Horse Point

Waiting For Breakfast

Canyonlands National Park

Cheeseburgers

Car Keys

News Trend October's Best|Actual

October's got one thing that makes all the other months jealous.

Pumpkins.

Round and ribbed.

Thumpably sturdy.

Earthy and true.

And orange. Yes, certainly orange.

But lately, some other colors have been added to the pumpkin spectrum.

Tomato red.

Scarlet.

Pale peach.

Pure, aesthetically refined white.

I'm smitten.

And every time I see stacks and bins of these October beauties outside the grocery store, I can't help but smile.

Pumpkins are a masterpiece of nature.

And truly, they are October's best.

News Trend Canyonlands National Park|Actual

"In the past, I've visited remote places partly as a way to visit remote states of mind, remote parts of myself that I wouldn't ordinarily explore." -Pico Iyer

After a glorious day at Arches National Park and a mind-blowing sunset at Dead Horse Point. I thought I'd seen every flavor of majesty that this corner of southeast Utah has to offer.

Well, I was wrong.

Because the next morning, after my close encounter with a bighorn sheep, we headed to nearby Canyonlands National Park for another eye-searing morning of sightseeing.

Though the two park entrances are less than thirty miles apart, there's a world of difference between Arches and Canyonlands.

There are certainly gorgeous vistas to be had at Arches, but most of the park has an intimate feeling. Canyonlands, on the other hand, is vast, open, and unabashedly untamed.

There's an immensity of place that draws the visitor into herself. It's a place that begs us to sit and wait whereas Arches invites us to move in and around the places we see.

I took a keen pleasure in the juniper berries, lush and pale blue on every bush in sight. They provided the only sense of closeness and detail in a place of unrestrained scale and size.

We traveled out to the Grand View Point Overlook, where the waters of the Green River meet up with the Colorado. Then we circled back to the Green River Overlook.

Red rocks.

Shimmering threads of water.

Broad basins of rock.

Canyons as far as the eye can see.

If Arches is a dancer, Canyonlands is an astronaut exploring vast regions of the galaxy.

If Arches is an evening at home with a few friends, enjoying cocktails and good conversation, Canyonlands is a months-long cattle drive.

If Arches is a perfect little cream puff, Canyonlands is a party-sized sub sandwich.

And if Arches is a place one could linger through for hours, it would take months or even years to explore Canyonlands.

In fact, it's quite difficult to get around many parts of  Canyonlands. The park divides into three geographic regions and most visitors, including us, stick to the area called Island in the Sky. A mesa with easy access to Moab and plenty of well-maintained roads, this is the place to visit if you have limited time and want easy access to some fabulous overlooks.

The Needles is for the more committed visitor. Here can be found some stellar arches and rock formations, but unlike those over at Arches National Park, these are deep in back country so visitors need to take on long hikes or four-wheel drive trips to see them.

The Maze is the third area of the park; it's the least visited and least accessible section of the park.

Not to be overlooked are the waterways, perfect for kayakers.

My husband visited here as a boy, and took a raft trip through the Needles with his adventurous dad and devotedly acquiescent mother. I cannot believe that woman went along with all of these crazy wildlife adventures but she did.

As for us, we stuck to some easy strolls around the overlooks, a picnic lunch, and one short hike out to this finger of rock.Called the Schafer Canyon Overlook.

Though we stuck to the well-traveled roads, we could see evidence of the park's more primitive pathways. Unpaved trails like this one offer a down and dirty way to get closer to the scenery, but four-wheel drive vehicles only, please.

And for the truly rabid animals among us, some visitors actually ride bicycles through the canyons along barely there roads like this ferocious grade.

We watched a trio of bicyclists descend this wild cliff - see them in the top half of the lower loop - but before we saw them, we heard their over-taxed brakes squealing with rage as they fought to maintain control against a big wallop of gravity.

Arches National Park definitely appeals to a tightly controlled and aesthetically precise energy; Canyonlands is a place, quite frankly, for thrill seekers and utter maniacs.

Cute red dogs, however, are equally happy to visit both.

* * * * *

Road Trip 2019: read all about it.

Leaving

Resting

Glacier National Park

Dakota Sunshine

Mackinac Bridge

My Newfound Brother

Fox Trilogy

Cleveland Rocks

Vermilion Legacy

At The Conservatory

Riding To Rifle

Arches National Park: Balanced Rock

Arches National Park: Double Arch

Arches National Park: Devil's Garden Trail

Arches National Park: Park Avenue

Dead Horse Point

Waiting For Breakfast

Canyonlands National Park

Cheeseburgers

Car Keys

News Trend Seattle Skies|Actual

Everyone knows that the Pacific Northwest is a gloomy, atmospheric, cloud-filled kinda place.

And I won't argue that. It's true.

But here's the thing. All clouds are not created equal.

Most of the time, our little corner of heaven is buried under blankets of flat, low, consistently grey cloud cover.

We call it the marine layer and try to pretend it's cute.

And while that monotonous cover of mist does conjure up lovely opportunities to wear cozy sweaters, sip warm cider and curl up on the couch for delicious afternoon naps, it is not by any means an interesting or attractive feature of our landscape.

And that is why days like this are worth a hundred dollars.

While I was out walking with Ranger, dark clouds tumbled and scattered across the stormy sky. Swept this way and that by high winds, the shifting shapes set forth an ever changing pattern of color and light overhead.

I felt just like I was turning and twisting inside of a blue-grey kaleidoscope.

As we turned onto the last leg of our route, these brooding beasts burst open.

We dashed for home

cold

wet

breathless from the sudden change in weather

and oh, so thankful to live in this beautiful place.

News Trend Waiting For Breakfast|Actual

"An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day." -Henry David Thoreau

With my family, I sat in the drive-through lane, bleary eyed and tired after a long day of exploring the Utah desert and a short night of marginally restorative sleep.

Dreaming about that first bite of the Sausage Egg McMuffin which would soon be mine, I glanced right across the emerald green side lawn of the Moab McDonald's and into the parking lot next door.

Where I was met with a gigantic visage of a big horn sheep.

A pixelated visage, at that.

Well, I'm gonna tell you what. Without blinking an eye, I unbuckled my seat belt, popped open the front passenger door, and muttered to my shocked husband, "I'll be right back."

And without waiting for his response or even so much as glancing back to see if he heard me, I stepped off across that freshly watered grass, camera in hand, and headed straight for that sheep.

I walked all the way up close to view the squares,

then moved back to take in the total effect.

Which was, in a word, magical.

I topped off my camera roll with a dozen shots of the mural and then, satisfied, walked back to our car.

Which hadn't moved an inch.

"I wanted to take some pictures of that sheep," I unnecessarily explained to my family.

"Yes, I saw that," my husband replied.

Then, not quite so tired as before, I continued to wait for my breakfast.

* * * * *

Road Trip 2019: read all about it.

Leaving

Resting

Glacier National Park

Dakota Sunshine

Mackinac Bridge

My Newfound Brother

Fox Trilogy

Cleveland Rocks

Vermilion Legacy

At The Conservatory

Riding To Rifle

Arches National Park: Balanced Rock

Arches National Park: Double Arch

Arches National Park: Devil's Garden Trail

Arches National Park: Park Avenue

Dead Horse Point

Waiting For Breakfast

Canyonlands National Park

Cheeseburgers

Car Keys

News Trend Cold War Kid|Actual

As I prepare to vote in this hotly contested presidential election, I find myself reflecting on the moments and milestones of my life that have shaped me as an American citizen and contributed to my worldview today.

* * * * *

I grew up as a Cold War kid, and from a tender age, I carried in my mind a crisp image of what that meant.

A red telephone with no dial but a big round button in the middle.

One sat on the desk of my president in the White House.

The other on the desk of the president of a place called the Soviet Union.

What I gathered from my mother, my teachers and eventually, MAD magazine was that, given ample provocation, either man could hit that button, declare a war, and effectively end the other country's way of life.

I didn't really grasp the parts about nuclear missiles, radioactive fall-out, and mutually assured destruction. Thank goodness.

Hey, even us Cold War kids couldn't worry about Armageddon all the time. I had stuff to do.

But even as a very little girl, I saw pictures in LIFE magazine of Soviet mothers and children standing in snowy cold for hours just to buy a loaf of bread.

I knew about the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall, and I grasped the fact that these boundaries split children from their grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

And as my mother and I watched Olympic ice skaters and gymnasts compete, she explained to me how Soviet children with athletic promise were taken away from their families to live in pelatihan centers, far from their homes.

Nyet, nyet, nyet. I wanted nothing to do with this Soviet way of life.

And while I didn't yet understand ideals like freedom, liberty, unalienable rights and the pursuit of happiness, I knew that I had food and family and a sense of security that children in the USSR didn't have.

The president, as I understood him, was a cross between

my big, sturdy grandfather and my ever-patient and loving teddy bear.

I associated all those advantages with the man who sat at the desk with the red telephone.

My president.

He knew which kind of life was best for me.

He would not let the Soviet Union hurt my country.

He kept me safe.

* * * * *

Quite suddenly, the Cold War ended.

The walls were torn down.

The Soviet Union miraculously imploded.

Thought the Washington DC-Moscow hotline still exists, it was never quite what I imagined. Not a detonation device or even a telephone at all, it was more of a telegraph and sent only written messages.

But what remains - in my heart, in my mind, in my soul - is the conviction that the President of the United States is our defender, our protector, the preserver of our privileged way of life.

* * * * *

For more stories on this topic, read:

Speak Out

Clara's Golden Door

Tiny Habits Of Patriotism

The Watergate Years

My Political Posse

My Thoughts On Election Day