May 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park

Just a quick post to share some layouts from May of last year when we visited Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.  It was probably the most unique National Park that we visited in Utah. 

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK HOODOOS - May 10, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We spent a week in Bryce Canyon National Park. We camped just to the North of the park entrance at Ruby's Inn. The weather was chilly, especially at night.
Mon: Drive from Zion to Bryce Canyon - 2 hours
Tue: Navajo Loop Hike - Snowing and cold
Wed: Park road drive to Rainbow Point
Thu: Rim Trail hike - Rain and sleet in afternoon
Fri: Queens Loop and Peek a Boo trail hikes
Sat: Fairyland Loop trail hike
Sun: Red Canyon hike in Dixie National Forrest

SUPPLIES USED: National Parks scrapbooking kit

SERENITY - May 11, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We woke to 32 degrees so Matt headed out for his sunrise shoot of Bryce Amphitheather and Thor's Hammer along. Snowy weather would end our hike early so we went to the visitors center and museum.

SUPPLIES USED: Complete Boy papers from My Minds Eye

NATURAL BEAUTY - May 12, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We woke up to cold and windy weather so we decided to explore the park by car. We drove the main park road from the north entrance to the end at Rainbow Point. we made several stops along the way including this one. Natural Bridge. Elevation 8627

SUPPLIES USED: Complete Boy papers from My Minds Eye

ENJOY THE RIDE - May 12, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We continued our drive out to the farthest south point on the park road, Rainbow Point. Shown here are the beautiful Pink cliffs and the steps of the park.

SUPPLIES USED: Complete Boy papers from My Minds Eye

AMAZING - May 12, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: Our next stop of the day was the Fairyland Canyon area of the park. We would return in a couple of days to do the hike down into the canyon.

SUPPLIES USED: Complete Boy papers from My Minds Eye

BRYCE CANYON - May 12, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: Our last stop of the day was a short hike to Mossy Cave, located outside the main park entrance.

SUPPLIES USED: Kraft paper by My Minds Eye Life Stories

MAGICAL SUNRISE - May 13, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: Matt catches Thor's Hammer at sunrise

SUPPLIES USED: Kraft paper by My Minds Eye Life Stories

ADVENTURE RIM TRAIL - May 13, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We spent the morning hiking the 2.5 mile Rim trail in our down jackets.

SUPPLIES USED: Destinations paper by Colorbok

QUEENS GARDEN TRAIL - May 14, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We started our day by hiking the Queen's Garden trail with its namesake rock formation of Queen Victoria.

SUPPLIES USED: Destinations paper by Colorbok

BRYCE CANYON UTAH - May 14, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We decided to extend our hike by continuing onto the Peekaboo loop trail. It was very quiet and beautiful, however, we were amazed at the snow remaining.

SUPPLIES USED: Boy Scouts paper by K&Co, Sketch by Page Maps

BRYCE CANYON LODGE - May 14, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: After our hikes, we stopped for lunch at the lodge. We explored the lodge area and found these great cabins and an old gas station.

SUPPLIES USED: Mirabelle papers by The Paper Studio, Sketch by Cheri O'Neill

FAIRYLAND CANYON GOOD TIMES - May 15, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: Our last full day in Bryce. What a great hike to end with.

SUPPLIES USED: Cinnamon Stick by Cloud 9

ESCAPE TO NATURE - May 16, 2010 - Dixie National Forest, Red Canyon, Utah

JOURNALING: We hiked the Pink Ledges and the Birdseye trail at this beautiful park.

SUPPLIES USED: National Park paper kit

2010 Trip Summary by State

I got curious to know exactly where all we lived last year so I tallied up our nights spent in each state or province for 2010 and below is what I came up with.  Not too surprising that Alaska was the largest chunk of time followed by our home in Colorado (since we didn't start our trip until mid-March). 

These totals include only states in which we actually spend a night.  We visited many others while driving through but since we didn't actually sleep there, they don't make the list.  I can't wait to see what 2011 brings!!!

Total Days	% of Year	Location
12	3.29%	Alberta, Canada
146	40.00%	Alaska
1	0.27%	Arizona
5	1.37%	British Columbia, Canada
95	26.03%	Colorado
2	0.55%	Kansas
18	4.93%	Missouri
9	2.47%	Montana
1	0.27%	Oklahoma
33	9.04%	Texas
27	7.40%	Utah
5	1.37%	Washington
11	3.01%	Yukon, Canada
365	100.00%	Total 2010

Zion National Park - Scrapbook pages

I am loving my new scanner.  I have gotten all the layouts that I've done scanned into the computer and I'm slowing getting them all keyworded and uploaded to my new website (more details to follow as I get it ready to go).

I wanted to share the layouts that I did for the time we spent in Zion National Park in May of last year. Zion is located in Southern Utah and we had a very long drive to get from South Padre Island, Texas to the park.  We did spend one day in Flagstaff, AZ along our route.  We spent the week of May 4 through May 10 in the park and found it fantastic.  We didn't get to do a couple of hikes that we wanted to do so there will definitely be a return trip there.

TOURIST - May, 3, 2010 - Flagstaff, Arizona

JOURNALING:  We overnighted in Flagstaff, AZ at a Camping World with hopes of getting our leaky slide fixed before we headed North.  They found the problem but could not fix it.

SUPPLIES USED:  Postcard, Papers & Embellishments by Best Occasions

 

UTAH BOUND - May 2010 - Utah

JOURNALING:  May totals:  2,912 miles in 45+ hours of driving

SUPPLIES USED:  K&Co Road Trip

WONDER - May 4, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  To get to our campsite in Springdale, we had to drive through the tunnel.  It was a tight fit

SUPPLIES USED: National Park paper, Best Occasions paper, K&Co Boy Scouts title

EMERALD POOLS - May 5, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  Our first full day at Zion Nat'l Park.  We got off the shuttle at the Zion Lodge to hike up to Emerald Pools.  After the hike we picniced and found ice cream at the lodge.

SUPPLIES USED:  Cocoa Mint papers & stickers by Cloud 9

TOGETHER - May 5, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  After lunch we hiked the riverside walk along the Virgin River.

SUPPLIES USED:  Cinnamon Stick papers by Cloud 9

RELAXING SUNSETS - May 5, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: The Watchman rock formation guards the southern park entrance.  What a sight at sunset.

SUPPLIES USED:  Cinnamon Stick papers by Cloud 9, Distress crackle paint

BACK TO NATURE - May 6, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  We spent the afternoon exploring Weeping Rock.  We walked along the Pa'rus trail in the evening to find that perfect spot for the sunset photo of the Watchman.
Sunrise at Court of the Patriarchs
Sunset on the Watchman
Pa'rus trail
Weeping Rock

SUPPLIES USED:  Wild Indigo by Cloud 9 Design

HIKING HIDDEN CANYON - May 7, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:
Trail No:  Hidden Canyon
Direction:  Shuttle to Weeping Rock stop
Required Gear:  boots, poles, backpack, water, food, chains
Information:  2.4 miles, 853 ft elevation gain, steep drop offs

SUPPLIES USED:  ATD Great Outdoors papers & embellishments

ANGELS LANDING HIKE - May 7, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  After reading the trail description for steep drop offs and chains, we decided that Matt should do this by himself.

SUPPLIES USED:  Boy Scouts papers by K&Co, postcards

WHAT A VIEW - May 7, 2010 - Zion Nation Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  Matt takes a few minutes to reward himself with the beautiful views from the top of Angel's Landing

SUPPLIES USED:  Memories papers by The Paper Studio

COOL CLEAR WATER - May 7, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  We re-visited this gorgeous water fall for some peace & quiet.  Zion National Park.  Big Bend area.

SUPPLIES USED:  Travel papers by Me & My Big Ideas

LAZY DAYS - May 8, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  After long days of hiking we were ready to relax.

SUPPLIES USED:  Travel papers by Me & My Big Ideas

TRUE BEAUTY - May 8, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  We drove to Kolob Canyon to hike the Taylor Creek trail.

SUPPLIES USED:  Linen Closet papers by DCWV

WHAT A VIEW - May 9, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  We spent our last full day exploring the Zion - Mt. Carmel drive.  we hiked the Canyon Overlook trail to enjoy the beautiful views.  We also drove further to the Checkerboard Mesa's near the east entrance

SUPPLIES USED:  Complete Boy papers by My Minds Eye

SOME OF MY FAVORITES - May 9, 2010 - Zion National Park, Utah

JOURNALING:  We spent 7 days at Zion before making the 2 hour drive to Bryce on May 10.

SUPPLIES USED:  Complete Boy by My Minds Eye

Merry Christmas to Us!!!

We are loving being Winter Texans this week.  It has been sunny with high temperatures in the 70's and lows in the 60's, just beautiful and windy enough for Matt to kite quite a bit.

I realized that I had not posted a photo of our campsite yet, so I grabbed one this afternoon.  Its nothing special but is roomy enough for us to spread out and for Pinkie to enjoy the sun.  We do actually have a ocean view from our large back window even though we are one row away from being beach side.  We do have to use our big tarp on the ground here because the grass is filled with these horrible little mean sand burrs.  Needless to say our first few days were filled with several "choice" words as we picked them out of our tender little feet.  No going barefoot around here.  Notice how clean and shiny the RV is, we had her washed and waxed last week and they did a wonderful job of removing my bees and also of removing the Alaskan and Canadian road grime accumulated over the past year.

Isn't she pretty & shiny???

We've spent most of the week on the beach and I caught Matt enjoying a Coke and good book.  I have finally finished reading all 7 of the Harry Potter books and I loved them.  Thank you Mom and Dad for the wonderful Christmas presents!!   

Beach Babe!!!

We have been asked quite a few times if there is anything major that we forgot to bring with us on our journey and for the most part, there has been nothing critical.  However, we did miss our expresso and latte maker terribly.  So, on our recent trip to Corpus Christi, we decided that a visit to Bed, Bath and Beyond was in order so that we could get a small expresso machine for the trailer.  We have really enjoyed our lattes (and am actually enjoying one as I post this).

Yum!!!!  But I just finished drinking this one!!!

We always struggle with what to buy each other for Christmas so this year we decided to wait and see what came up that we wanted after Christmas.  After being in Haines for so long, we were so far out of touch with stores and shopping that we really had no idea what we wanted.  Well, we both got to say Merry Christmas these past two weeks.  Matt decided that a new kiteboard was needed and I decided that I wanted a large format scanner so that I could scan my scrapbook pages into my computer.  Merry Christmas to us, Merry Christmas to us...  For our family that gave us money for Christmas and contributed to our "Christmas Fund", THANK YOU and see below for our gifts...

He says it goes "upwind" much better than his old one.

Busy at work scanning away

 I have spent the last 2 days playing with my present and have all my images scanned in for 2010 and some of 2007 that I had with me.  I will send the heavy original paper copies home in a large box with Ted when he comes to visit us next month for safekeeping.  I also started a new website for all my scrapbook pages.  As I get it updated, I'll post the link here so you can check out my pages.

I think that is about all that is going on with beach life so I'll catch you up in about another week. 

Take Care,
Angela

Winter Texans...

Well, I think we are officially "Winter Texans" although even we have not escaped these wonderful winter storms that have been plaguing us all.  Its been a while since I've posted so lets see if I can get us caught up.

At the end of January, we drove to visit our friends Jim & Sandie who are in McAllen, Texas and will be joining us here on SPI in March.  The area is much larger than we anticipated and it is estimated that the normal 100,000 population swells to over 300,000 due to Winter Texans.  So what exactly are Winter Texans, not quite sure, but we all seem to be hiding from winter in Texas so you can draw your own conclusions.

Matt has had several really good days of kiting and even some extremely windy days before the first winter storm in the first few days of February.  We had winds 30+ and temperatures in the 30's and spent about 18 hours without power.  Now normally, that is not an issue for us, but of course, when we needed it, the generator would not start!!  We did manage to have a wonderful ice storm that left us with several inches of ice all over everything. 

The truck was encased in ice.

The trailer with its ice sheets.  All morning and afternoon we cringed inside as huge ice sheets fell off.  We were a bit scared to walk anywhere near it.  Notice the open generator compartment where Matt was trying to fix it.

We did manage to warm up back into the 70's before this week's storm hit.  We visited the Kite Festival here on the island and the size of the kites were amazing.

That is a huge flying octopus!!!

Quite the variety of kites.

We decided to bypass the RV during this storm and drove about 3 hours north of here to Corpus Christi, Texas.  We hit the cold front about an hour north of here and were hit by 40+ mph winds and a drop in temperature from 67 to 33 in a few very short minutes.  We took advantage of several scrapbook and guitar stores while in Corpus on our first day.  While in Corpus, we visited the Texas State Aquarium.  It is a great facility and we enjoyed the great exhibits although we scurried through the outside exhibits due to the cold.

Here I am enjoying my favorite exhibit, the Sea Horses.

Matt enjoys his favorite exhibit with some very large fish and sharks swimming around.

Since it was so chilly outside, we watched the dolphin show from a showroom that gave us a view inside the tank.

After visiting the aquarium, we drove around Corpus Christi bay and visited the Padre Island National Seashore.  It is amazing to me that the Padre Islands (North and South) make up about a 150 mile long barrier island to the Texas coast.  After a great shrimp dinner at Snoopys, we drove back to our hotel for the night.

Yesterday was our last day in Corpus and we visited the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier now located in the bay. It was an amazing tour with over 100,000 square of touring area with lots of steep stairs to climb up and down.

The USS Lexington where she now rests in the Corpus Christi bay.

The tower of the ship which includes the bridge and captains quarters.

Can you imagine landing fighter planes on this small little strip with a boat pitching and rolling beneath you.

Matt enjoying one of the exhibits.

Can you imagine sleeping in these quarters?  The sailors didn't just imagine it, they lived it.

The Emergency room on board the ship.

This is actually the sick bay in the hospital area.  Can you imagine being sick and having to climb into one of the top bunks?

Well, I think that just about catches us up.  We returned to SPI yesterday and the weather is gradually improving.  We should be in the 70's this week again, thank goodness....