Day 9-Colorado

For breakfast, Jules and I discovered Jean-Pierre's, a fantastic French pastry shop in Durango. The croissants were buttery delicious. Afterwards, we strolled the streets and did some shopping. In the afternoon we drove towards Silverton and went off at an old Forest Service road called the Old Lime Creek Road. The drive on Old Lime Creek Road was fun, very bumpy and rugged. We parked the car and hiked up the Spud Hill Trail about a mile. The wetland and mountains were beautiful. We got super muddy on the trail. Got back to Bev's and Bob's and went to dinner at Seasons. Another yummy restaurant in Durango.

Day 8-Colorado

Today we did the 200-mile San Juan Skyway loop. It took us from Durango, north to Silverton and Ouray and west to Telluride. We had a late lunch in Telluride, a cute little town nestled in the mountains. From Telluride, we traveled south to Dolores and then back over to Durango. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped often along the way to take in the spectacular mountain scenery.

Day 7-Travel Day

Today Jim, Juliano and I drove from Flagstaff to Durango. It was a 320 mile journey that took us from Hopi to Navajo to Ute lands, or from the Colorado Plateau to the San Jaun Mountains, in about 7 hours. We arrived in Durango in time for dinner at Gazpachos, Juliano's favorite New Mexican-style Mexican restaurant. Very, very hot food. Jules was in heaven eating his tamales and sopapillas.

Days 4, 5 & 6-Southwest Trip

I attended the Natural Areas Conference on these days. On Wednesday night, we all went up to the Lowell Observatory-the site where Pluto was discovered. Flagstaff is a "Dark Skies" city and stargazing was outstanding. On Friday, I rafted down the Colorado River from the Lake Powell dam to Lee's Ferry. It's a very calm portion of the river, no white water. I also spoke at their banquet on Friday night and rallied the troops to attend next year's Conference in Cleveland!

All in all, we ate at two good restaurants and enjoyed the company of Museum friends. But Flagstaff is a very congested city. Old town Flagstaff was cute, but the roads are extremely busy and not pedestrian friendly at all. We couldn't wait to head north to Colorado...

Days 2 & 3-Southwest Trip

WOW! No other words can explain the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon. It is the most magnificent place I've ever seen. On Monday, we stopped at every vista along the 25-mile south rim tour. It was incredible. On Tuesday, we picked up sandwiches at Canyon Village and made our way back to our favorite spot on the Grandview Trail to eat lunch. We hiked down 4 switchbacks to a secluded rock. It was so peaceful. The ravens and vultures fly by and you can actually hear the wind in their wings. We took our time hiking back out of the Canyon, stopping at every switchback due to the elevation. After lunch, we headed to our second favorite spot, Lipan Point. We crawled down the rocks and sat here for an hour, taking in the view. Click on Juliano's Photography on the right to see some of his photos of the Canyon.

We made our way back to Flagstaff for dinner at the Flagstaff Brewery. Our two days at the Grand Canyon could never do it justice. We hope to get back sometime for a full week of hiking and exploring.

Juliano at Grandview Point:

Day 1-Southwest Trip

We arrived in Phoenix on Sunday morning and rented ourselves a red Chevy Cobalt. We started our journey to northern Arizona immediately. We stopped along the way for some Del Tacos and took a nap at a roadside pull off. I awoke to Jules screaming that he was being burned. Apparently the sun came around on him while we were sleeping. He jumped out of the Cobalt like he had ants in his pants. Below is a picture taken along the road to Flagstaff. We made it to Williams, AZ around dinner time. Williams in located along historic Rt 66. We ate at Pancho McGillicuddy's. Yep, a Mexican Irish joint. Food was pretty good. Went to sleep around 7pm. Tomorrow we're heading to the Grand Canyon, bright and early...

Yard Work

In preparation for Fall, we worked on the yard today. Our oak tree in the back yard is prolific this year. Jules raked and swept 1,000s of acorns. Muffin helped up by rolling in the acorn piles.

Storm Windows

Theresa can attest to the jankiness of our two storm windows on the back of the house. They didn't slide up/down and the one window had a homemade screen. On Saturday, Juliano & Michael "Meyers" Greco removed the two windows and installed new ones. They look fabulous and the view of our backyard from Juliano's office is pleasant.

New Appliances at 7005

We finally made a decision and purchased our appliances tonight!!

Whirlpool Range

Whirlpool Refrigerator

Frigidaire Affinity iWash

Frigidaire Affinity iDry

New Germany, PA

Despite the gloomy weather and occasional rain, Carl, Judy and I had a good time in Cambria County, PA. On Thursday, we took our time driving along the Lilly Mountain Road through Game Land 198, a whopping 7,000 acre game land. The amount of striped maple trees was astounding. We saw quite a few warblers, no dragons! The forest was thick and lush. We passed several open meadow areas that would be great for bugging on a sunny day.

From there we headed towards SGL 26, through Blue Knob State Park. It was a pretty drive, we stopped to see the Lost Children of the Alleghenies Memorial along the way. Along the road to the memorial, we checked out Bob's Creek. It was stocked with brookies. We saw a couple hummingbirds on the jewelweed and a spicebush swallowtail. The Memorial was freaky. Apparently in 1856, two boys wandered from home and were lost in the woods for 2 weeks. A man in town had the same dream three times showing the location of the boys under a birch tree. He lead a group to the spot in his dreams and the boys were found, dead, at the base of the tree. Seems shady to me. They never mentioned cause of death. I wonder if the dreamer didn't have something to do with it?

SGL 26 didn't have much to offer. We stopped again at the Beaverdam Reservoir. Judy and I watched as a newly hatched damsel fly weakly above the water. A cedar waxwing made a swooping attempt to eat it and missed. Knocking the poor damsel on top of the lake. Moments later, the damsel met its demise when a fish gobbled it up. The day wasn't a complete bust for dragons, we did see ONE white faced meadowhawk.

From here we jumped on the highway and head to Off the Rak for spirits and dinner!

On Friday, we visited the Wilmore Dam Reservoir - Willow Beach area (Conemaugh River). We weren't seeing much and then Carl and I heard Judy screaming, "Carl, Renee, Carl, Renee". We headed over to see what she had. Judy had found a long-tailed salamander! I had never seen one and it was way cool looking. The tail was at least 4-5 inches long. At the same time, we spotted a rather large dragon along the stream, either a shadow darner or Boyeria sp. It was flying low and close to the bank, near the roots of the bank. We never captured it. From here we hiked along the edge of the reservoir. Found many cavelike openings, a chrysalis of an eastern comma, a cool orange fly w/a monster-sized ovipositor and rain. It began to rain and we had to head out. We grabbed a late lunch and called it a day. Ernesto had finally reached us, it rained for the rest of the night and all day Saturday.