Archive for category Travel
Saguaro National Park/Sonora Desert Museum
This morning we spent a couple of hours at the fascinating Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, a wonderful collection of desert plants and animals. This provided a nice introduction to desert flora and fauna and, surprisingly, we had a scrumptious lunch at the on-site Ocotillo cafe. The cool temperature and small number of visitors made for a quiet, leisurely morning. After lunch we sped back to Saquaro National Park West and meandered along the Bajada Loop Drive getting a real feel for the vast and stark Saguaro cactus forest. We spent several hours on the short six-mile drive and Trisha even hiked up the Signal Hill Trail to get a close up of the petroglyphs and desert panoramas. On our way back to the hotel, we got a nice overview of the area from Gates Pass.
- Me in the shadow of a Saguaro along the Bajada Loop road
Cedar City to Tucson
We were greeted with another crispy morning: 6 degrees. After a bowl of oatmeal we were off to the south west skirting the edges of Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks and the Grand Staircase Escalante and Vermillion Cliffs National Monuments. The snow-fringed red rock formations during the first hour of today’s trip were truly stunning.
As in the past two days, the weather was superb; we had bright sunshine all day with the temperature as we entered Tucson pushing 60 degrees. Quite a change from the morning. At one point the GPS sent us in the wrong direction for fifteen minutes and slow traffic around Phoenix made for a full ten-hour drive. But we’re looking forward to three great days in Tucson.
Boise to Cedar City, UT
Today was one of the longer segments of our winter trip. We were greeted with a super chilly, near zero degree temperature to start the day. The new Acura even warned us that the tire pressure was low–we lost about 4 psi overnight. Once again, the weather was almost perfect. We had one forty-five minute stretch of snow blowing across the highway but otherwise it was another day of bright sunshine. We had pizza delivered to the motel room so I could watch the Oregon v. Kansas State football game.
Entering Utah from Idaho
Off to Arizona
It was another spectacular winter morning in North Bend as we turned east onto I-90 headed for Boise, Idaho. I have been watching the weather closely hoping for a window of clear days for the first two stages of our drive to Tucson. And we got that today. Only the roadway through Snoqualmie Pass was wet; after that we had clear, dry pavement and even a few hours of sunshine
Near the end of the day, as we approached Boise, we were treated to a lovely sunset over the Snake River:
Getting Ready for Arizona
Quiet Birthday
My 65th year began with an hour massage at the Sage Springs Spa in Sunriver after which I baked in the steam room and soaked in the gigantic whirlpool tub. We had planned to drive to Crater Lake for the day but the north entrance is still closed with winter snow. With the Sunday forecast for rain we decided to head home this afternoon instead of tomorrow morning and enjoy the mountain scenery between Bend and Salem in the sunshine. En route we scoped out Black Butte Ranch for a possible fall visit and stopped briefly in Sisters.
Sunriver Golf, Day Two
A very chilly morning led to a 45-minute frost delay. However, that worked out because I cajoled Trisha into riding along for the first nine holes. It was another spectacular morning and with Trisha’s excellent coaching I shot a very steady 42 on the front nine. After that, I have no idea what happened. I couldn’t do anything with any club and ballooned to a 55 on the back, my worst nine-hole score in over 100 rounds.
At the Meadows Golf Course
We took an afternoon drive up the the Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort then had dinner at Greg’s Grill in Bend (very good). I’m looking forward to a luxurious massage tomorrow morning at the Spa.
Meadows Course at Sunriver, OR
17th green with Mt. Bachelor in the background
I was anxious to test a new course, one slightly more difficult than my home track at Mt. Si. The Meadows course at Sunriver wasn’t in great shape yet since the last snow had melted just a couple of weeks ago. But it was a delicious morning; perfect really. I had pretty much the best of High Desert golf: snow-capped mountains in the background, hard fairways and thin air at 4,300 feet elevation. I had a steady albeit unspectacular round ending with an 87.
Birthday Trip to Sunriver, Oregon
Trisha and I had visited the area near Bend, Oregon way back in 1992 and I never forgot the beauty of the mountains and high desert. So for a 65th birthday celebration we decided to spend a few days in a rented home at the Sunriver Resort just south of Bend. The drive from North Bend was a little tedious but the time went fast. We checked out the rental: a very nice two-bedroom unit overlooking the ninth fairway of the Resort’s Meadows golf course. One of the first scenes awaiting us was several families of geese with their young in the small wetlands just off the back deck. We made a quick trip to Whole Foods to pick up a dinner and by 8:30 or so we were sipping a local rosé wine and admiring the sun setting behind Mt. Bachelor and the adjacent Cascade peaks. Life it good, even as birthday 65 nears.
View from our back deck.
Heading Home
Our drive back to North Bend consisted of two segments: Sedona to Ogden, UT (575 miles) and Ogden to home, an epic 778 miles in one day! Between Page, Arizona and Kanab, Utah, route 89 passes by Vermillion Cliffs and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments. offering some stupendous vistas from the highway. The varying scenery and lovely weather helped make the miles go by fast (the 75 mph speed limit helped too).
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