Bryce Canyon

Hoodoos


The bluest sky you'll ever see


A natural Wall Street


Enveloped

Resting


Reaching tree duo


Natural arch


Different jungle gym


The Marys


The monkeys


Colorfully geared

Ready to hike back up


Our crew near the bottom of the canyon

This is where we played a brief game of charades with a kind, foreign tourist who was willing to take our picture. (Four adults acting out, from afar, how to rotate a camera isn't as easy as it may seem!)




Thank you, children, for carrying my water in your CamelBaks.

Learning greater independence in packing and carrying your own gear because your mother rarely carries a purse has served you (and me) very well.

Thanks for the hand sanitizer, Kathleen.
Mary Kate, I thank you for carrying my chap stick.
Thank you, Mike, for the granola bars and trail mix.

Just remember when you hike at Bryce: It's easy going down, tougher comin' up!

On this day 09-16-09, our elevation here was about 9,169 ft.

...at least at some point during the day!

This day was also Grampy's birthday!


Showered with homemade cards


Treated to a rootbeer float.

Have you ever had a rootbeer float on a camping trip? Tastes better.

All food tastes so much better on a camping trip
(especially when enjoyed out of doors in a forest of Ponderosas).

Now leaving...

International Committee Rejects Obama's Personal Pitch that His Large Ego Be Site of 2016 Olympics

Copenhagen, Denmark--President Obama, joined by Oprah Winfrey, flew to Denmark to personally pitch his own ego as the site of the 2016 Olympic games. But Olympic officials rejected the proposed site on the grounds that "while President Obama's ego is certainly large, it is an imaginary place in an imaginary world."

Administration officials defended the president's proposal to host the games in the enlarged ego section of his psychic apparatus, arguing that Obama's sense of self-importance is so strong it should have "overwhelmed the collective id of the International Olympic Committee."

"In the end," said one Olympic official, "the logistics of hosting the games in a figment of President Obama's imagination would have simply proven too costly when other real-world places were available to us."

Associated article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/02/AR2009100200550.html?hpid=topnews

International Committee Rejects Obama's Personal Pitch that His Large Ego Be Site of 2016 Olympics

Copenhagen, Denmark--President Obama, joined by Oprah Winfrey, flew to Denmark to personally pitch his own ego as the site of the 2016 Olympic games. But Olympic officials rejected the proposed site on the grounds that "while President Obama's ego is certainly large, it is an imaginary place in an imaginary world."

Administration officials defended the president's proposal to host the games in the enlarged ego section of his psychic apparatus, arguing that Obama's sense of self-importance is so strong it should have "overwhelmed the collective id of the International Olympic Committee."

"In the end," said one Olympic official, "the logistics of hosting the games in a figment of President Obama's imagination would have simply proven too costly when other real-world places were available to us."

Associated article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/02/AR2009100200550.html?hpid=topnews

Has-Been Musicians Sing for Has-Been Global Warming Theory

Geneva, Switzerland.--The British rock group Duran Duran and heavy metal band Scorpions are among other has-been musicians who have joined in recording a song to draw attention to the increasingly has-been “global warming” crisis, organizers said. The effort is part of a mass media campaign to boost belief in what have become questionable “climate change” theories based on suspect evidence.

On the global warming tour, Duran Duran will revive the classic themes of its hit 1984 music video for “The Reflex” -- featuring humans in chains and remarkably fake-looking floods caused by imaginary rising water levels – to honor the often reflexive, knee-jerk acceptance of scientifically dubious global warming claims.

Associated articles: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iyAzv7fCgFLJDVt-S1PGzJwKMM6g; http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmU0NDMzZTlkM2E5MDBhY2Q4N2ViYTFkNjVmNzU5NTc; http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/10/02/lawrence-solomon-the-end-is-near.aspx#

Has-Been Musicians Sing for Has-Been Global Warming Theory

Geneva, Switzerland.--The British rock group Duran Duran and heavy metal band Scorpions are among other has-been musicians who have joined in recording a song to draw attention to the increasingly has-been “global warming” crisis, organizers said. The effort is part of a mass media campaign to boost belief in what have become questionable “climate change” theories based on suspect evidence.

On the global warming tour, Duran Duran will revive the classic themes of its hit 1984 music video for “The Reflex” -- featuring humans in chains and remarkably fake-looking floods caused by imaginary rising water levels – to honor the often reflexive, knee-jerk acceptance of scientifically dubious global warming claims.

Associated articles: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iyAzv7fCgFLJDVt-S1PGzJwKMM6g; http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmU0NDMzZTlkM2E5MDBhY2Q4N2ViYTFkNjVmNzU5NTc; http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/10/02/lawrence-solomon-the-end-is-near.aspx#

North Rim

Heading back south a bit from Lake Powell...

...we stopped at the Navajo Bridge on the way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.


Forever energy


The North Rim spectacle:

A calming sight even for four rambunctious little bodies.



Don't be fooled by the foliage.
Just beyond that tree trunk and bit o' shrubbery is
a very high cliff.

Basically,
straight down.

I recently read about some of the most common reasons for people falling to their death in the Grand Canyon. As you can imagine, overzealous photographers have had their share of falls. Other noteworthy reasons though, that fall into the usual high risk taker category (males between the ages of 19 and 41), tell me that people in this particular group should all make great efforts to resist the urge to 1. urinate off the edge of a cliff, and 2. pretend they're falling off a cliff.

There's a whole book written on this subject called, Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon.

You really don't even want to look over the edge on one of these natural (i.e. no restraint features) trails.

But yes, I do suggest that you warm your chilled bones with some yummy tortilla soup,

because you'll probably notice a temperature change at the north rim.

I think cool weather makes all the difference in the world for our loving natures.

See how loving our children are when they're cold?


The spirit (akin to but not quite as sharp as the spirit of Jack Frost) just moved them to snuggle

and get their blood pumping.


A girl with camping hair that now doubles as a shawl--

at least before she gets it all cut off and gives it away to Locks of Love or some other charity.

Won't it make a nice shawl (or wig) for someone in need?

If there was a way to donate eyebrows, she's got a good crop that she could also share.

Hello, favorite pine tree of all time!


The magnifi-scent Ponderosa (a.k.a. Butterscotch Tree)


Can't you almost taste the butterscotch just dripping from this beauty? Well, the drippy stuff is the sap, but the bright orange part between the rugged bark is where you want to give it a sniff. Some think it smells like vanilla. Whatever the opinion, it's fabulous and gives its forest a gloriously sweet fragrance.

Smell all the Rosas you can find. Then pack that scent away in your little gray memory box and pull it out when you need a nature break.

Also, don't forget to file away the sound of the cool breeze blowing through all those long pine needles. It almost sounds like running water!

Onward we go to a most lovely little in-"spiring" city.

Lack of Translator that Speaks "Crazy Talk" Hampers U.S. Discussions with Iran

Recent discussions between the United States and Iran have become complicated by the lack of a translator who speaks the particular "crazy talk" dialect used by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The talks come as Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust occurred and says the destiny of Israel and her allies is to be destroyed, has obtained a threatening nuclear capability.

The shortage of crazy talk translators began when the translator assigned to Muammar Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, collapsed 75 minutes into Gaddafi's recent hour-and-a-half rant at the United Nations. The beleaguered translator's last words were "I just can't take it any more."

State Department officials said the remaining translators "know crazy talk, but not the nuances of President Ahmadinejad's unique variety of crazy."

Associated articles: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574442901560824682.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/opinion/30milhollin.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%20Gary%20Milhollin&st=cse; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1216068/Gaddafis-translator-collapsed-exhaustion-UN-rant.html