Off to float the Grand Canyon

Hi All -

Ginger, Kelly, and I are launching March 20 for a 14-day raft trip down the Grand Canyon. 16 of us, on 5 rafts, 230 miles! We were invited to join a trip by our friend Greg Crockett who has been on the wait list since 1995. We took Greg on our Middle Fork one-week raft trip last summer - "Pay it Forward" works!

So - I get to check off a major item on my Bucket List!

Oh - Eric made this same trip last spring with his class so he is babysitting our llamas, new lambs, wild cats, hot tub, frig, etc.

Love All, Bill

DC daytrip

We went downtown yesterday for a Christmasy day trip of DC. Here is a hit list of what we saw:

Walked up to the CAPITOL BUILDING to see the platform being built for the inauguration and the christmas tree. Max's hat has Mickey Mouse ears if you can't really see it.

Went over to the BOTANICAL GARDENS to see their beautiful trees and this really cool MINIATURE TRAIN EXHIBIT- if you have kids this is a MUST SEE! Even if you don't have kids I'd say GO SEE IT! There are also replicas of the Smithsonian, Capitol building, and all these little villages made out of natural materials- acorns, leaves, cinnamon sticks, etc. This was super cool- maybe my favorite of the day.

Then, over to the NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART where they have put up these really cool lights in the tunnel between the two galleries. Emily was also tricked into seeing some art as we had to walk through an exhibit- I saw that famous painting of George Washington, a painting by Whister (not his mother). We were moving fast as I wanted to keep Max on the move.

Then, to watch the ICE SKATERS while we waited about an hour for Nick to go get the car and come back and pick us up. Highlights and lowlights included Max falling and hitting his face on a stone bench, hot chocolate that burned your tongue and Emily dropping and losing $40. I hope it was a great happy surprise that was found by someone in great need.

A REALLY WONDERFUL DAY!

Trip to Bali

Aloha

I thought you might like to see some photos of our trip to Bali. Now where, you might ask where is that place? It is one of my favorite places I/we have visited in Asia...in Indonesia (Obama spent some time in Indonesia, you might remember). I/we have been there twice - for our 20th and 25th wedding anniversaries. I will put more on later when I get a chance to go through some other files.

Cheers...

















This is an beautiful cliff area in the southern part of Bali.


These are amazing creatures found in various places in Bali. But you have to watch your hat or sun glasses, as they steal them for food. Just after the above picture was taken of us, one of the monkeys tried to steal that hat of Kathy's. She just grabbed it in time...



This is the fire dance...which is a famous male dance in Bali. We saw this at sunset overlookiing the cliffs...really something to watch...also the sounds were quite amazing.



This is a most amazing rafting trip where anything goes, including going under a waterfall, getting stuck on rocks, going backwards over rapids and jumping off into the water to float down through a canyon, running into other rafts (on purpose) in the middle of rapids and also going to these hand carved rock cliffs which were incredible and covered an area ten times what you see here.

I will add more in a while...but must go now.

Cheers...