We have friends who spend every winter in Tucson and they have been raving about the place for years. I'm not a huge desert landscape fan but this year we were ready to escape the Virginia winter and go anywhere warm. It was time to give Tucson a try and boy was it worth it! The Sonoran Desert is spectacular and it's particularly spectacular in this region where they actually get some regular rain. I am now totally fascinated by the saguaro cactus and I really love that we don't know a lot about them. Supposedly, if they have arms they are over 100 years old, but they don't know for sure. There are no tree rings to count. Before I get into the vacation week I want to tell you about my two celebrity sightings! The first was when we left Richmond on a 6am flight. We were standing in the Delta check in line and we saw a man and woman get in the Sky Priority line. The man looked like an aging rapper and I didn't recognize him at first but as soon as I heard his voice I knew it was David Bromstad from HGTVs My Lottery Dream Home. No one bothered him and he seemed as nice as he is on TV. I assume he was in Richmond filming. The next one was at Tanque Verde Ranch. We went horseback riding one evening and our friends were showing us around the ranch before our ride. I was surprised to see that there was some sort of quilting event going on there. As we walked through one area there were 2 men sitting at table talking with some of the quilters. It was Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably! I had not paid to be at the conference so I didn't feel it was appropriate to speak to them but I thought it was funny since I had just finished the blue quilt top that was from one of his books. In case you are interested, the retreat was sponsored my Madeline Island School or the Arts. They have retreats in Arizona, Minnesota and Maine. Back to the trip. We had 4 absolutely fabulous sunny days with temperatures in the upper 70's and we took full advantage hiking every day. There are so many hiking opportunities in that area. We hiked in the Ventana Canyon, Sabino Canyon and East and West Saguaro National Park. This photo was in Ventana Canyon. That was out longest hike of about 6 miles, straight up and straight down. It was a great workout. The last 2 days were cooler but still lovely and a nice break from gray Virginia. Today, though, Virginia is bright and sunny and almost 60. We went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and got to see the raptor show. There's a hummingbird exhibit there too but we saw more hummingbirds at our friend's condo than we saw in the Museum enclosure. I expect that we were there at the wrong time of day. At the Tanque Verde Ranch we went horseback riding. I haven't been on a horse since I was about 9 at 4H camp so I was a little unsure. I had a chat with Cimarron beforehand to explain that the ride was all on him and that I was just going to focus on not falling off. Laurie had Elvis and he was a little more of a handful so I was grateful for Cimarron. He's very comfortable leading ignormat riders around. It was a beautiful ride and I got over my apprehension very quickly. By the end I was hardly paying attention to the horse and just enjoying the great views. That was the day we saw Kaffe Fassett. During the down times we played a lot of tug with our new friend, Jammer. Jammer is an incredibly well-behaved dog. She doesn't beg or counter surf but we learned that she apparently has a jones for ear plugs. I sleep with earplugs and I put them on a little tray by the bed in the mornings. One night I noticed one missing but didn't think anything of it. I assumed it got accidentally thrown out, but just in case, I tried to keep the bedroom door closed. I opened a new pack and then I had 3 earplugs on the tray until the day we came home and all three were gone. I had accidentally left the door open. Then we were pretty sure that Jammer had developed an addiction. I was worried that it would cause her trouble. Bill and Laurie were not. Sure enough, over the next 2 days were were relieved by reports of fluorescent orange poo pellets. While we were there we also visited Biosphere 2. I didn't get any photos, the weather was awful and, frankly, I didn't think about it. The whole Biosphere 2 experiment fascinated me when it was going on and when it all collapsed so I was excited to actually see the place. If you are interested, the Wikipedia article on it is pretty darned entertaining. Today it's owned and managed by the University of Arizona and there's one significant experiment going on there, Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) where they are studying how volcanic rock evolves into fertile soil. All of other experiments referenced in the tour seemed to be halted. You can actually download the Biosphere app and take the tour virtually. What struck me the most about it was the size. It's not nearly as big as I expected and the idea of putting something like a dozen different plant and natural ecosystems inside, in essence, 3 buildings seems ill-advised in hindsight. Of course, we know it didn't really work but I'm sure there were good lessons learned for science anyway. The tour really glosses over the Biosphere experience for the residents and doesn't actually reference any real research that they were doing while living there. I think they were having enough trouble surviving and producing food. It was worth the trip though. I've always wanted to see it. The drive around Oracle was beautiful and we stopped by Catalina State Park. We would like to hike that area someday too. I did get to visit a local quilt shop and a yarn shop. I bought some cactus-themed fabric to make some memento placemats. I forgot to photograph the fabric but I'll get it later this week. During the flights and little down time, I worked on chemo hats. Hats are the perfect travel project and I finished the 4 chemo hats on the front. The dark blue one is a hat I finished a couple of weeks ago when I was at a doctor visit with Mom. All of these are made with a really soft polyester yarn, Feels Like Butta by Lion Brand and whatever the Hobby Lobby equivalent is.
It's good to be back home and to have humidity again! I've never been so constantly thirsty and dry but we really enjoyed it and are looking forward to going back.
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I had a long but rewarding day at the precinct Tuesday. We have an excellent Chief and a great team. That is very helpful for a day that starts at 5 am and ends at 8:30 pm. I was exhausted when I got home but I was up early Wednesday so I could get on the road to the beach. It was about a 4 and a half hour drive and here's where I headed 15 minutes after I unloaded the car. It was a beautiful day and we spent a couple of hours sitting on the beach. I always enjoy watching the shore birds feeding in the retreating waves. Yesterday we were expecting afternoon clouds and a pretty windy day so I got out early to take a long walk. I almost had the beach to myself. In one hour I saw maybe 6 people. There were a lot more beached jellyfish than people. The afternoon actually turned out nicer than forecast and we spent most of the day right here. Kim was reading and I was listening to a book and crocheting. I made a hat and a headband for my Grand Niece who could arrive any day now. The hat was made with this Crochet Shell Hat Pattern and the headband was made with the Blueberry Dance Headband pattern. Then I started a hat for her mother. Ashley has a very small head so she can't buy hats that fit. I'm making a few for her and this one is in a chenille yarn. I ran out of yarn so I'll finish this one when I get home Sunday.
Today we are expecting some rain so I expect we'll finally break out the sewing machines. Or we might not . Mostly, we are just relaxing and enjoying every minutes of it. We left Acadia Friday but before we packed up we took one last hike. Our favorite is the hike closest to where we stay on Beech Mountain. It's not too long but has a little of every type of trail. It also has this beautiful view of the lake that "our" house is on. I never tire of seeing the granite steps on the trails around the park. I can't even imagine how long it took to put all of these stones in place. One thing's for sure, they don't require any ongoing maintenance! We've probably hiked this trail 4 or 5 times but it's the first time I've noticed this profile. We usually see turkeys in various places around the park but Chris commented the night before we left that he hadn't seen any this week. Then we headed to Beech Mountain for this hike.... Turkeys on the left... Turkeys in the road... Turkeys on the right! That satisfied is desire to see some turkeys! On the way up and back I got to do lots of crochet in the car. It's about 16 hours each way so I have a lot of time. I did a baby hat to go with the blankets and 2 hats for my brothers step-grands. These are in their school colors. I have 2 more to make for the other 2 kids and I ordered the yarn while I was in the car. I still need to stitch these together to finish them off. About the drive, I really have sympathy for those of you who live around Boston. The traffic is miserable, no matter what time you are there. The only other yarn I had in the car was the leftover baby blanket yarn. I bought way too much of that yarn! I started a C2C. This is going really fast and will probably be done in a few days. It's going to be a little smaller so if I finish it I'll add it to the gift. This one might make a good car blanket. But I'll also give her the option of gifting or donating it.
I'm still going to have some yarn leftover but it will go in a scrap donation blanket. This week I have a lot of dyeing stuff to catch up on but I hope to have some time to sew on the blue quilt. I finished the second baby blanket! I expect that I have enough yarn to make another. I used the same color sequence as the first blanket. It finished 35" x 38" The pattern is the Crochet Ripple Baby Boy Blanket from Daisy Farm Crafts. It's all double crochet stitches done in sets of 3. Their patterns are really well written and there are excellent video tutorials. The color yarns are Brava Worsted from KnitPicks and the white is Lion Brand Basic Stitch. They are pretty much indistinguishable, very soft and easy to work with. They wash great too. I didn't do any sewing but I got out my brand new ruler and marked blocks for sewing. I got all of the rest of the block sets marked and ready for sewing. I'll work on them at home. Today we are going for one more hike on Beech Mountain and then heading out. Yesterday we did a 5 mile walk on a series of Carriage Trails. The nice thing about Carriage Trails is that you don't have to watch for trip hazards, you can look at the scenery. You only have to watch for the cyclists. About 90% of them are on e-bikes. The trails were Aunt Betty Pond and Eagle Lake. We saw some beautiful autumnal color. There's a section where the trail crosses back and forth over a stream over 6 bridges. It's very picturesque even though the walk is all uphill in this section. Here are a couple of other photos taken on the walk. We've had a great week and we're ready to head home. I'll check back in on Monday.
We've had a lovely couple of days but before I share the vacation pics, I'll give you an update on the projects. The crochet baby blanket is almost done! The last section is white and I'll finish that today and weave in the ends. I still have a lot of this yarn leftover. I'm not sure what I'll do with it but I'll make something. I've made good progress on the blue quilt too. I got all of the recent stack of dark bow ties sewn into blocks. Now I'm ready to sew the corners of the last group. I realized that I didn't have a ruler to mark the diagonals so we stopped at a quilt shop in Bar Harbor yesterday and I picked up 2 rulers. There are 2 nice quilt shops here. One is Fabricate in Bar Harbor. The other is Quilt N Fabric in Southwest Harbor. They both also carry yarns and Fabricate also has papercraft supplies. They both have really nice fabric selections and there are lots of lobster and Northwoods themed fabric for us tourists. Now, to catch up on vacation. On Tuesday we wanted to hike Day Mountain. It was one of the first hikes we did in Acadia several years ago. We hiked this one back when I was unsure of my hiking capabilities and we thought it would be fun to hike it again. Unfortunately (fortunately), the parking area was full so we went ahead and parked in another area about a mile past that point. That added about .8 miles on Hunter's Cliff Trail and Lower Day Mountain. I knew it was going to be a good decision when we came across this cool bridge. A little further down the path and we arrived at Hunters Beach Cove, a beautiful gem of a place that I'm sure isnt's often visited. The parking area only accommodates 4 cars. We were there at low tide so we could wander around in this cove area that's inaccessible at high tide. From there we followed the Cliff Trail to Lower Day Mountain on a very picturesque hike. The autumnal colored bushes are blueberry bushes. From there we hiked to the peak of Day Mountain. On the way we had a view of Schoodic Point in the distance. It's one of our favorite places to visit when we are here but we'll miss it on this trip. Yesterday we woke to this beautiful view. Our goal was to head into Bar Harbor and to hit it right around low tide so we could walk across the bar. Yes, Bar Harbor is named for an actual land bar that connects the town to Bar Island but it's only accessible around low tide. So we started out day with a 2.5 mile walk in the neighborhood. By our count, there are less than 10 houses occupied in this neighborhood of 40ish homes. The bar wasn't open when we got to town so we started our day with the Shoreline Path where we could see some of the beautiful Bar Harbor resorts and homes on one side and the Porcupine Islands on the other. We also love finding erratics when we are on our hikes around here. Before heading to the bar we went to another bar, an Irish Pub for a scotch (me) and Irish Coffee (Chris). We sat next to a couple who were on a cruise. They were from Philadelphia so we had lots of fun talking all things Eagles. This has been quite the Eagles-centric vacation which is a big bonus for me. This is the famous "bar" of Bar Harbor. This photos is from Bar Island looking back to the town. It's accessible about 1.5 hours each side of low tide. Low tide was at 3:33 yesterday. On the Island side they have all kinds of warnings about the tide, the tide schedules and water taxi phone numbers in case you are incapable of paying attention and planning. Bar Island has a hiking trail to the peak where you can get a good view of the town. From the town side to the peak and back is only about a 2 mile walk. It's a very busy little town during tourist season. It's always a challenge to find parking and there are usually cruise ships in. I don't mind one day of "peopling" while I'm on vacation. Otherwise, I avoid the crowds. While we were up there we were given this photo opportunity. We saw that tourist ship leaving when we started the Shoreline Path and got to see it return while we were on Bar Island. It was a nice ending to the day and we were ready to relax after about 6 miles of walking.
That's the phrase that defines our vacation so far! Remember that I wasn't going to post at all this week? Well, that was because we were flying to Maine and I didn't want the hassle of bringing my laptop. Well, for a couple of days before we left Chris was watching the weather and there was a tropical storm headed straight for Maine around the time of our flights on Saturday. Our flights had already been rescheduled by Delta to the worst possible scenario as the last flight from LaGuardia to Bangor that day. Late Friday we decided that we weren't interested in the chance of spending the night in LaGuardia airport and made the decision to drive. Well, that changed what I could bring so I added the laptops and sewing machine! We left about 7 pm Friday night and drove until about 1 am. We stayed overnight in Wilkes-Barre, PA and were back on the road by 7 am Saturday. We made it to Acadia about 5 hours ahead of when we would have arrived on the flight. We even were able to get full refunds on our flights and rental car. Our flight did land on time but we were glad we drove. We had a really good audiobook (another Michael Koryta) that kept us entertained. We got settled and then the storm really hit and we lost power about 10:30 that night. The house we are in has a generator so we really weren't without power at all, only internet. Wireless coverage here is terrible but we survived that small inconvenience. This neighborhood was probably worst hit from the storm. There were trees and lines down everywhere. It's also a holiday neighborhood so there are very few people here and, rightly, didn't get priority treatment. We were thrilled to come back from hiking today (Monday) to find everything back on. We were grateful for the generator! I made great progress on the baby blanket Sunday. In the afternoon we decided to go to the sports bar to watch whatever football was showing. I knew that the Eagles weren't playing in this market but we were willing to watch any football. Imagine our surprise when we walked into a bar FULL of Eagles fans with the Eagles game on 5 TVs! They put the Vikings/Chiefs on 1 TV but everything else was all Eagles. What a treat! Since I had all the blue blocks cut out I brought that project and set to sewing this morning before we went for a hike. When I started making this quilt I thought my brother and JJ would like it so I'm determined to get it done to give to her before Christmas as a celebration of her recovery. Thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes. She's not totally out of the woods yet but she is doing better. Here was our view this morning before we left for our hike. I never tire of this place. Our hope here was that we would get to see fall leaves. Well, here they are after the storm! It's still a beautiful trail but there aren't a lot of leaves left on the trees. We started at the Wild Gardens to Hemlock Road, to Stratheden Trail to Kebo Mountain and back down Hemlocks Trail and Road. It was about 2.5 miles with some nice climbing up Kebo. It's an easier trail. We're avoiding the advanced trails because they are all so wet. I'm too old to be slipping down granite rocks. There were a few beautiful maples along the way. It's cool to see how different the trails seem with some of the leaves gone. Usually they are quite dark and shaded but now some light streams through. It's really beautiful.
The park is absolutely packed this weekend so we didn't do the Park Loop road as planned. The backup at the entrance was the worst we've ever seen. We expect that many people probably went home today after the long weekend so we hope for a little less traffic tomorrow. No more storms are expected! I don't have a lot to show for yesterday but that doesn't mean it was a bad day! Bill and Laurie had never hiked Beech Mountain so we hiked it with them yesterday. It's no officially our most-hiked mountain. It's a really good hike because it's not too long, had a lot of variety and has a few different trails that you can take. This time the trail that overlooks Long Pond was open so we got a view of the house where we stay. YOu can see that the weather wasn't great. It was forecast to be cloudy all day but it cleared up around 11 and was beautiful until about 4. After lunch we picked up my newly-repaired car and I just drove around for about an hour, well, just because I could! The horrible noise is gone and the car handles much better. I had not even noticed the handling "problem". It wasn't that bad. But the noise was awful. Now my drive home will be more pleasant. My body is a little sore from the hikes so today I'm glad that it's raining. For once the forecast was right! I've sewn the corners on all the blocks that I got cut out and will probably get them cut apart. I think I'll spend the rest of my time working on the crochet baby blanket. I have quite a lot more blue blocks to cut out when I get home.
We'll head into Bar Harbor the the mandatory shopping expedition so I can get a toy for my brother's annoying-but-cute little dog. This may be my past postcard from vacation. We will get in another hike tomorrow before we had home Friday. I'll have book reviews tomorrow and next week will be giveaway week! If you ever visit Maine do not pay any attention to the weather forecasts. Today was another absolutely perfect day. It was 73 and sunny. The day started with no wind at all so Laurie hit the kayaks first thing. After an hour on the pond we headed in for breakfast and then headed to Schoodic Point. I have photos of that at the end of the post. I actually got some sewing time in the afternoon and got the corners stitched on about 40 block sets. Then we dropped my car off for today's repair appointment. In the evening I got another round done on each side of my sweater. This is all I can do on this project until I get home. I need to compare it to my finished blue one to get the sizing right. I'll work on the baby blanket for the few days left in the trip. My favorite place to sit and ponder in Acadia is Schoodic Point. It's north of the park near Winter Harbor, ME. It's a vast area of rock with incredible views. Following are a few more photos that I too yesterday.
Today it really is going to be cloudy all day. We plan to hike Beech Mountain again because Bill and Laurie have never hiked it and we want something less strenuous than Pemetic. Then they are going to kayak in Some Sound in the afternoon. I think I'm going to listen to my book and sew until my car is ready and then I'll do a little shopping in Southwest Harbor. Tomorrow is going to be rain so we plan to head into Bar Harbor just like all the tourists do on a rainy day. Saturday we woke to this view and, frankly, had low expectations for the weather that day. The forecast was for clouds and some rain showers. Bill and Laurie were schedule to arrive in the afternoon with the rain so we decided to get in a little paddling while we could. Chris fished and I kayaked around for about an hour. I checked out one of my favorite areas with lots of grasses. I love paddling around in here and the sound of the grasses on the hull. Around in another cove I found this little Mallard family. After we came in we were surprised by clearing clouds and bright sun. We headed straight for the lake for some floating and sunning. The day turned absolutely beautiful and out friends, Bill and Laurie, arrived around 3. They are college friends of Chris' so I'm vastly outnumbered by Wahoos. We did get some rain around dinner time and then had the most spectacular rainbow! You can see a very faint second one to the right. It was a good ending to a good day. In the afternoon Saturday I got another set of blocks marked for sewing and started some stitching on Sunday. Yesterday was another day that was forecast to be cloudy with rain showers. Wrong again! We got out early to get a parking space at Jordan Pond so we could hike Pemetic Mountain. It's probably my favorite hike in the park. It's about 4 miles with lots of steep climbs and a steep descent over a rock slide but it ends with a nice gentle walk around beautiful Jordan Pond. The work of the hike is worth it for this view. There's an interesting section of the hike where you are give a choice of paths. This is part of the ravine. It was very wet from all of the recent rain. We took the ledge which was challenge enough for us. Today Chris and Bill have a charter fishing trip and Laurie and I may go kayaking and then drive over to Schoodic Point. Tomorrow I get my car fixed! Yay! Don't forget about the giveaways starting next week!
I didn't post yesterday because Thursday was our last full day with our friends before we took them to Bangor Friday morning. I'm writing this Friday night after a day of wind and heavy rain. We had a high of 66. It was an afternoon to unwind, do laundry and organize all of my projects. First, I'll catch up on the ongoing projects and then I'll tell you about our wonderful Thursday hike. Oh, for anyone interested, Ian won the Cribbage tournament 9 - 8. He started out with a wide lead and we were tied before the last night but the cards just were not in my favor. I don't like riding in a car with nothing to do, so I started a new donation chemo hat on the ride to and from Bangor. The abay blanket seems to be the thing I most want to work on so I've made the most progress on it. I will do one more set of rows in the three colors and I think I'll finish off with a final row of the dark blue before I add the border. I love how it's looking and I've got plenty of time to finish it before the baby shower in late October. I think I only have a couple more rounds on the sweater before I'm ready to sew the shoulders and add the cuffs. I've finished 1 ball of yarn on each side and started the second. I finally pressed the last set of blocks and took the time to lay them out the way they would look in the quilt. I'm loving it so far. I started maring the rest of the blocks that are cut out and I know I'll need to cut more but I will likely not get to that in the trip. We have more friends coming in today to spend the last week with us and I hope to get in lots of hiking if the weather permits. Chris, Ian and I had a great hike on Thursday to Gilmore Peak. I keep a map marked with all the trails we have hiked and we have just about done all of the park that we can do. I will not hike trails with ledges and rungs. I'm old and not stupid. As Kevin Hart now says "respect the age". From Gilmore we can see Bald Peak on the left and Parkman on the right. We have hiked both of those before. We came up a new-to-us trail called Maple Spring and we came down between Gilmore and Bald. It was an amazing hike for all of the different terrain. We were told by other hikers that Maple Spring had been closed for several years for maintenance and we could see the evidence. It's clearly still being built but it was perfectly fine for hiking for us. I have lots of photos below to show all the different trail surfaces on this hike. If you aren't interested just skip the rest of this post because that's all that's left. We started out immediately in roots and rocks. They had to clear some fallen trees in this section. Chris' least favorite trail surface is roots. He calls these ankle-breaker trails. I don't mind this as much as he does. Between the roots the surface is very soft. This shows how much work they have been doing on the trail. They put in those granite steps several places along the trail and I can't even imagine how long that takes to do! There was an area along the trail where they were building wood bridges and granite steps. They left all of their tools and rigging right where they had been working. I suppose there's not much risk of someone trying to cart off a shovel while hiking these rough surfaces. This is the Hemlock Bridge and you can see beyond it where they are building a wood pedestrian bridge on the trail. The new trail isn't even totally marked yet so they have hung these blue streamers in the trees as temporary markers. In this section the trail goes up the left side and crosses right where the blue streamers are to go up the right side. The trails crosses back and forth over the stream several times to the peak. It wa a lot of fun to hike this one. This is a great example of the stairs that they have put in place in some sections. Note that Ian is wearing the backpack that I made for him and he seemed to really like it. Where he is standing in this photo is where I was standing for the next one. I'm standing where Ian was in the previous photo looking down over the stream and a pool. There were several really lovely spots like this all along this trail. Right near the peak a rock smiled at me to tell me I was almost there! The way down was much gentler and had some very different terrain including this beautiful mossy area and a bit of mud.
All in all, it was a wonderful 3 hours. We came home and spent the afternoon floating in the lake and sunning on the porch. It was a perfect last day with Ian and Laura. Today, new friends (Bill and Laurie) will come to stay with us for the rest of our time here. I'm also looking forward to Tuesday when I get my car fixed! |
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I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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