HAPPY 2018

Wishing all our friends and family 

a very happy new year! 

May 2018 bring you many blessings!!

Happy New Year from the Pavones!

We made so many memories on our travels in 2017.

We are truly blessed and fortunate to be able to travel.

Mid-January took us to Nashville where we met great friends and visited the Jack Daniels Distillery, in nearby Lynchburg, as well as a 'behind the scenes' tour of the Jack Daniels Fire Brigade; met friends in Las Vegas; a Caribbean Cruise, in February, with Kathy and Stan (my sis and BiL); and a few RV trips, including trips to Pismo Beach, Buellton, Rincon County Beach, Newport Beach, Thanksgiving week at Del Mar Beach Resort on Camp Pendleton, and our annual trip to El Mirage, AZ, for the month of March for spring training.

When we returned from AZ, we picked up our new puppy, Bailey, a 14 week Brittany, at the San Diego Airport. She flew down from Idaho to become a member of our family. She's a year old now and a great addition to our family, although we will be glad when she stops digging and chewing things that aren't meant for dog (like drip lines, dog beds, paper or fabric scraps!). She is loving and playful, and helping to keep Sydney (now 13) young at heart!

In July, we took a trip of a lifetime cruising the rugged coastline of Norway with Kathy, Stan, and our good friends, the Lauries. It was a fantastic trip. The Norwegian landscapes and fjords are breathtaking and spectacular (my favorite fjord, Geirangerfjord, is pictured on the front of this card). Norway is one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen. It meant so much to walk on the land where our fathers' ancestors are from (although our cruise didn't take us to Skien, 

the actual town, of my dad's ancestors).

Our Christmas gift to our family was taking all 11 of us on a Caribbean Cruise, in mid-December. A wonderful time was had by all, especially the grandkids. They loved everything about the ship, Oasis of the Seas (one of three of the largest cruise ships on the seas): the food, the buffet, swimming in the ships' pools, the Carousel, kids' club activities and more. They also had fun going ashore and swimming or snorkeling in the clear turquoise waters at the beaches of Labadee and Cozumel. It brought us such joy to watch the excitement on our grandkids' faces on this great adventure. Guess we've spoiled them; they can't wait to go on another cruise!!

Sadly, we said goodbye to my mom, Hope (she had Alzheimer's), at the end of Sept., three months shy of her 90th birthday.  She will be missed by so many, and always remembered with love!

            We are thankful for our family, our health, and our friends.

                        Wishing you and your family a very happy and healthy 2018!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE PAVONES

Highlights of 2016

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I had the best of intentions for writing blogs, but alas, our busy life got in the way and I didn't make the time to write any! So, here are the Highlights of 2016. It was another busy year filled with family, friends and fun, traveling, RVing, quilting teaching, and much joy. 

We traveled throughout the year. In January our traveling included a trip to a very stormy New Jersey,  and a Caribbean cruise with friends. In July, we flew to Seattle & took a summer road trip with friends (not in the RV) thru the Olympic Peninsula; drove around the Lavender Festival in Squim; ferried to Vancouver Island; stayed in a quaint, boutique hotel close to the waterfront in historic Victoria; spent a day amongst the beautiful flowers of the Butchart Gardens; ferried to Vancouver, Canada; spent a couple days in Whistler; then continued on to the big city of Vancouver; then back to Seattle. The Pacific Northwest is so picturesque and a favorite of ours. Sept we went to Laughlin on our now “annual family vacation;” spent 4 fun-filled days on the Lake Mojave with our adult kids and 5 grandkiddos-always a great time! Oct we went to Santa Catalina Island on our friend’s sailboat. It was a wonderful, relaxing trip; had fun exploring the town of Avalon.

RVing included the month of March in Arizona for Spring Training again; in May, a weekend with family and friends in Julian; spent the 4^th of July in Oxnard with my sister and family, then onto Buellton to camp with friends; in Aug at Rincon County Park (on PCH but right on the edge of the beach; for our Annual Thanksgiving week of camping we spent it with friends and family at Del Mar RV Resort, on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base.

Nick did a lot of teaching all over So Cal for the State Fire Marshal’s Office; he worked on beautifying our yards, and helped with our master bath remodel, re-staining our vanity and tiling the floor. Karen went to the Broadway play, ‘Carole King’s Beautiful” with Nicole (a wonderful night of reminiscing back to my college days!)and went to 4 quilt retreats, making many quilts for charity.

Rounding out the year we tried to spend as much time as we could with all 5 of our grandkids (pictured above l to r: Seth-3½, Hallee-5½, Gigi-9½, Micah-6½, and Brody-6½). Every time we are with them it is always fun. They bring us much joy and happiness.

New Year's Resolutions: to make them or not?

I started the new year out thinking about New Year's Resolutions for 2016.  

Every year I seem to always think about them, but I can't remember if I have ever actually written them down. 
That's not to say that I don't make "to-buy" or "to-do lists," 

because I make those. But actual New Year's Resolutions, nope! 

Holley Gerth describes it so well: "The new year unfolds like pages in a book yet to be written, bringing hope and endless possibilities." 

The beginning of a new year is exciting and fresh. 

It's a time to reflect and look forward to new things. 

Instead of New Year's Resolutions, I'm starting the year out with 

some great ideas and plans: finding "my one word" for the year; for trips; for writing more blog posts; for quilting projects I want to finish (that's a really long list!); and sewing projects I want to make.
I've decided my word for the year is going to be "JOY-JOYFUL!" I'm going to look for the JOY in each day and each situation.

One thing I have always wanted to do, and never have, is read
the Bible in a Year. So, along with my "to-do lists," and finding JOY is each day, 

I've committed to doing just that; I'm joining many who attend
The Fields (my daughter and SIL's church), and reading the entire Bible in 2016!

Here's to a productive and enlightened 2016!

Exploring the USA

We took our first USA RV Trip with our good friends, Sue and Bill, (and our dog, Sydney, of course!). Our wonderful journey started on August 11th when we left Lake Almanor in Nor Cal.We returned home on Oct 8th, 2014.

(we drove to the top of Pike's Peak in Colorado)

We spent 8 1/2 weeks on the roads of northern America in our 40' RV, towing our jeep, on our trip of a lifetime (the first of several such trips).

Nick and I have camped our entire marriage. We started camping in a tent, before we bought a camper. After the camper, we owned 2-travel trailers (18" and 24"), 2-Class C motorhomes (22' and 28'), 1-Class A 34' motorhome, and 2-diesel pusher 40' motorhomes. We have always talked about seeing and traveling through all the states of the USA.

Last year we bought our USA map (those of you who camp have seen the USA maps on the sides of RV's). On it, we put the states' stickers for the states we traveled to in 2013 in our RV: California, of course, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.  Now our USA map has 19 states' stickers, only 29 more states to go, 30 if we take our RV to Alaska!

Here's a look at our trip by the numbers:

We traveled 17 states:  (18 states if you count driving 20 miles through Arizona!).

We visited and or/traveled to:

*** 38+ American cities/towns

*** 6 cities visited friends

*** 8 National Parks:

    Glacier National Park
    Yellowstone National Park
    Theodore Roosevelt National Park
    Badlands National Park
    Rocky Mountain National Park
    Arches National Park
    Bryce National Park
    Zion National Park

*** 26+  Points of Interest and National Historic Sites, including:
    National Bison Range, MT
    John D. Rockefeller Memorial Pkwy (the road between Yellowstone and Grand Tetons)
    Little Missouri National Grasslands, ND
    Mt Rushmore National Memorial, SD
    Custer State Park in the Black Hills, SD
    Crazy Horse Memorial, SD
    Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, SD
    "Wall Drug," SD
    Jefferson Expansion, St Louis Arch Gateway to the West, MO
    Anheuser Busch Brewery and Budweiser Tour, MO
    Branson. MPO
    Air Force Strategic Air Command and Museum, NE
    Holy Family Shrine Chapel, NE
    The Mall of America, MN
    Minnehaha Falls, MN
    Harley-Davidson Museum, WI
    Wisconsin Dells, WI
    Vesterheim - Norwegian-American Museum, IO (both Sue and I are Norwegian!)
    Covered Bridges of Madison County, IO
    United States Air Force Academy and AF Cadet Chapel, CO
    Pike's Peak, (14, 115') CO
    Garden of the Gods, CO - National Natural Landmark
    Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge, CO
    Grand Mesa outside of Grand Junction, CO
    Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, NV

*** 4 baseball parks: Minnesota Twins, Target Field; Milwaukee Brewers, Miller Park;
               St Louis Cardinals, Busch Stadium; and Kansas City Royals, Kaufman Stadium

*** 33 RV parks, including 3 state park campgrounds and 2 city RV parks

*** 28 days/nights of rainstorms with thunder and lightning, like we've never seen in southern California! Everywhere, along our trip, locals told us it was the "wettest" summer in years, which we can attest!

***12 audiobooks listened to along the way

*** 2,000+ pictures taken

*** and 8,600 miles put on our RV and 1,500 miles on our jeep.

America is so much larger than we imagined, with the most amazing beauty, vastness and diversity of the terrain. We saw green rolling hills, lush foliage and forests;

many rivers, including the Missouri River, the Mississippi River, the Arkansas River and the Colorado River; waterfalls: many lakes and the very Big Sky of Montana; the wildflowers; glacier, hot mineral springs, and geysers;the brilliant blue skies over America with the clouds almost close enough to touch; the beautiful sunsets;

the sunflower fields, as well as the endless fields of sorghum and soybeans, and corn fields; Hoodoos (spires); the plains; the many mountains, including the mighty Rocky Mountains; and many different wild animals, including: American Bison, Elk, Prone Horn Antelope, Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer, Prairie Dogs, bear, chipmunks, ground squirrels, and Mountain Goat.

We drove on two lane highways, interstates, back roads, and dirt roads; throughout National Parks; through small towns and large cities; in the middle of what seemed like nowhere, alone on an interstate and stuck in traffic (YES! there is traffic outside of California, although shocking, I know!); used 4 GPS's and a good old-fashioned Atlas, at one time, to guide us along our way, sometimes finding a "different" way to get to our destination. We drove on sunny clear days and through some torrential thunderstorms; had warm weather and some really cold weather in the fall (woke up to 27 degrees in Bryce Canyon National Park); through the plains, over the continental divide several times, and over the Rocky Mountains via the Independence Pass, 12,096 ft.

To see more of our trip check out  my flickr page !

Travel Bug Part IV

The Highlight of Our Travels in 2013 has to be Our Adventure Down Under!

We spent 19 days exploring some of Australia and New Zealand, 13 days aboard the

Celebrity Solstice Cruise ship, traveling with our friends, Cara, Andy, Nancee and Marc.

Except for the very long flights (a grueling 14 1/2 hours in coach) from and back to LA, 

the trip was fantastic! 

We spent 3 days exploring Sydney prior to boarding the cruise ship, touring the city sights, which of course, included the iconic Sydney Opera House 

and a harbor cruise around the Sydney Harbor.  

Nick, Nancee and Marc "climbed" the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge! (It's way too high above the harbor waters for me!)

Sydney is a beautiful city, an easy city to walk around,

with lots of pubs, cafes, water fountains, and shopping malls all over downtown.

Due to the Bush Fires near and in the Blue Mountains, however, we weren't able to see any of the Outback of Australia. We also toured the beautiful capital city of Melbourne, pronounced "Melbun," and visited the Melbourne Zoo. 

We sailed through the Milford and Doubtful Sounds of New Zealand, with breathtaking views of the  fjords and many waterfalls, despite the heavy fog and some rain.

We visited 5 ports of call in New Zealand where we took excursions to see much more of the country.

 We visited the Lanark Castle, toured the Speight's Brewery and tasted the local brew, visited a Sheep Farm and watched a herding dog named, Jack bring the sheep herd down the mountainside where the sheep were grazing, watched a sheep shearing demo, took a Jet Boat Ride, saw Kiwi farms, walked the mud trail at Hell's Gate Mineral Hot Springs and Mud Pools, and took a wine tour of 3 NZ Wineries.

The scenery was spectacular, especially in New Zealand, where 

all the hills and valleys were covered with greenery and sheep. We enjoyed this beautiful country so much and would love to return someday.

Both the Aussies and Kiwis are such welcoming, friendly people, always willing to 

chat with us or give directions on occasion to sometimes lost American tourists!

Pictures tell the story better than words, so hop on over to my flickr page to see many of the sights we saw!!

We've Got the Travel Bug, Part III

July-August 2013

We were gone on our Summer Vacation RV Road Trip for five weeks, visiting three states and British Columbia's Vancouver Island in Canada! We returned to Bend, Oregon, for a week of camping with our friends Lynn and Rick. While the boys went fishing for a few days, Lynn and I sewed outside on the patio of our site at Crown Villa RV Resort. The weather was a beautiful 80 degrees with a nice breeze! She and I also took a quilting class at the local shop, BJ's Quilt Basket.

We spent a day at the 38th Annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt (and it wasn't rained out this year!)! admiring thousands of beautiful quilts (pics from the Sisters Quilt Show).

From Bend Nick and I headed northwest to Portland for a few days. We visited the famous Multnomah Falls, 611 ft high,

and the Wahkeena Falls, 242 ft high, both east of Portland. located in a tropical rainforest area. We toured little big city of Portland on the Big Pink Trolley, for a day.

Next, we drove up the Olympic Peninsula of Washington on Hwy 101 and stayed at  John Wayne's Waterfront Resort in Sequim (pronounced SQWIM), on Sequim Bay. Once we arrived we soon realized we were just in time for the Annual Sequim Lavender Festival! Lavender grows everywhere in this region and the lavender fields were beautiful.

During the festival there's a street fair, a craft fair, a quilt show, and each of the lavender farm shad more craft vendors, music and food, and lavender inspired items.We drove all around the quaint community and visited several of the local lavender farms!

We took the Black Ball Ferry from Port Angeles, WA, USA to Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada and visited the world famous Butchart Gardens. It brought back some fond memories of my childhood as I had visited the gardens with my mom, dad, and sister many years earlier. The gardens were even more exquisite and beautiful than I had remembered!! My favorite garden was the rose garden and the walkways with the rose covered trellises!

From Sequim we drove to the Seattle area, staying about 20 min out of Seattle.  We walked around the Wharf, took the monorail from the '62 World's Fair, the Seattle Space Needle and rode the elevator to the Observation Deck.

From the Observation Deck the views of the area were amazing and we even saw a Fire Boat doing a pump exercise.

We walked all through the amazing Pike's Place Market! We also took a Ferry to Bainbrige Island, where I visited Mckenna Ryan's quilt studio and shop!

From San Marcos, we drove north through central California, through Oregon, Washington, Vancouver Island, back to Cali , on to Lake Almanor, and home again: 2856 miles in all!

Here's more pics from our summer vacay!

We've Got the Travel Bug, Part II

Mid June 2013  Road Trip: Virginia to Massachusetts

In mid-June we flew toVirginia. From Virginia, we drove through West Virginia to Maryland, then to Pennsylvania, through NJ, NY and Connecticut to Rhode Island with our final destination in Boston, Massachusetts.

First we drove with friends to The Wisp Resort in McHenry, Maryland, at Deep Creek Lake, for their son's "destination wedding!" This resort has summer and winter activities, including, snow skiing, golf, and an adventure park. The happy couple were married on the top of the mountain overlooking the valley and lake, and the reception had a picturesque view looking up the green mountain! It was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful setting.

Following the wedding, we ventured on our road trip with friends, Marc and Nancee. Our first stop was Emmitsburg, PA, where we walked the grounds of the National Fire Academy, (our first visit to this prestigious campus), where there's the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial and a replica sculpture of the firefighters raising the flag at the WTC site, entitled "To Lift a Nation."

Our next stop was Gettysburg, PA. We visited the Gettysburg National Museum, and marveled at the Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama Painting, "a breathtaking canvas that measures 377 feet in circumference and 42 feet high;" then we took a "CD Guided Auto Tour" of the battlegrounds, which spanned miles of open fields. [awesome!] This year marked the 150th anniversary of the famous battle. It's hard to describe the feelings that stir when you walk on historical grounds such as these.

From a couple of days in the Gettysburg area, we drove through Lancaster County, the Amish countryside of Pennsylvania, and stopped in a couple of small towns.  Of course, I found a couple of wonderful quilt shops to browse the beautiful made quilts and fabrics. I bought just a few pieces of fabric (as a quilter, I just couldn't go to Amish country and not, right!?!).  While we were walking around an outdoor plaza, suddenly we were pelted with rain. Due to the rain we only saw one Amish buggy. The rain lasted the rest of our drive to Newport, RI. The scenery all along the way was so green and pretty (except while we were driving through the big city of NY).

We stayed a couple of nights in Newport, RI and toured several of the famous Mansions of Newport. They reminded me of an American version of Downton Abbey!

This is "Marble House."

We also walked and eat on the beautiful waterfront of Newport, celebrating my birthday!

Next up, West Yarmouth for a few days. One day we took the pretty drive all the way to the end of Cape Cod. (Found another cute quilt shop on the way!)

We took a "fast ferry" to the island of Nantucket where we went on an informative walking tour of the old buildings in the town. We enjoyed the quaintness of Nantucket, despite the pricey stores!!

From Cape Cod, we drove to Boston and returned the rental car. We then used the "T"(the Metro) to get around Boston for a few days, took a "Boston Old Town Trolley Tour," walked part of "The Freedom Trail," visited Cheers (of course), and walked on the campus of Harvard University [Mark that off my bucket list!!]; we visited the Fire Museum of the First Fire Department of the United States, explored a lot of history, visited the JFK Museum, enjoyed 'Lobsta' Rolls, and didn't much like the 90% humidity, but we love visiting Boston! We had toured Fenway Park when we stopped in Boston on our New England cruise in 2011, and had hoped to go to a Red Sox game. But it wasn't to be as the Sox were out of town.  For sure we will go there on our next trip to Boston!

Our two week Road Trip took us about 3,000 miles from Virginia to Massachusetts, and we saw so many amazing sights and soaked up the history!  We look forward to more travels like this!

More pictures of our  Road Trip from Virginia to Boston here.

We've Got the Travel Bug! Part I

From March to May, Arizona to Cancun to Fort Bragg, California

As much as I would like to stay up on my blogging, life just gets in the way.

Or, maybe it's the traveling!! We do love to travel!

We headed east to El Mirage, Arizona, for the month of March for Baseball Spring Training.

Once again, we stayed at the Pueblo El Mirage Resort. Family and friends joined us there. We went to many baseball games, 

played some golf 

(I made a couple of pars, otherwise my game consisted of a lot of practice hitting at each hole!),

and enjoyed beautiful sunsets over the desert. It was a wonderfully relaxing month.

We attended 2-3 baseball games each week. Our goal was to visit all the spring training baseball parks in the greater Phoenix area. We almost hit every one of them! (Next year we will!) Of course,
we went to several games at the Peoria Sports Complex, since it is the spring training home for the San Diego Padres (and the Seattle Mariners).

We also visited the newest "state of the art" baseball park, Salt River Fields (spring training home to the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies), where we saw one of the World Baseball Classic games, between Mexico and Italy.

Here's some more pictures from spring training!


The last week of April, we spent a relaxing week in Cancun. This time we stayed at THE Royal in Cancun, a gorgeous all-inclusive resort, not far from the resort we stayed at last year.

We stayed in a Royal Junior Suite with this spectacular oceanview (with a jacuzzi tub in it) and went to sleep each night to the soothing sound of the ocean waves.

 Dinner with friends (Nick and I, Marc and Nancee behind Andy and Cara!

 Cancun has become one of our favorite places to relax!
 More Cancun pictures here.


In mid-May, we headed to Fort Bragg on the rocky northern California coastline in our RV. On our drive north we stayed a night at the beautiful Jaxon Keys Winery thanks to our Harvest Hosts club.

We had a wonderful week of camping at the Pomo Campground, AB diving, campfires, and more with our bestest friends, Lynn and Rick.  Our daughters, Emily and Nicole and their families joined us once again.

It was so fun watching the little ones playing together, 

reminding the grandparents of days gone by when our children did the same. 

Love this new family tradition!

See more pictures of Ft Bragg here.

Anniversary Trip

Cancun, Mexico

For the past 6 years, we have taken a trip with our Cruising/Camping Buddies (Nances, Lauries, and Merandis--last 2 years) to celebrate our anniversaries. We've been going on cruises, but this year we decided to go to an All-Inclusive Resort.

Our friends, Lynn and Rick Nance own an N-hance Wood Renewal business. Each year they go to their company's convention, and this year it was in Cancun. So the rest of us decided we'd tag along and make a great vacation out of it together!! We stayed at the Gran Melia Resort-Cancuna beautiful resort located on the Caribbean Sea.

We had such a great time just relaxing by the poolside, under palappas, sipping all the margaritas, Miami Vices, and beer we wanted! Reading and dozing were the activities of the day, for most of the week! The weather was perfect, in the mid-70's-80's, with balmy breezes, light clouds floating above, and some humidity (just enough for my curly hair and skin to love it!!)

We also took walks on the white, sandy beach, and the Caribbean was warmer than the pool water! One day while Nick, Rick and Bill went fly fishing, the girls

(Sue, Karen, Robin and Lynn)

took a tour to the Tulum Ancient Mayan Ruins, a very beautiful place.

The best part of the vacation was spending time with great friends once again!

You can enjoy the pictures from our great trip here.

Cruising the Eastern Seaboard

{Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth-Portland, Maine}

New England/Canada 9 Night Cruise

At the beginning of September we cruised up the eastern coastline of North America. We flew into Newark Liberty International Airport, and set sail on this adventure on the RCCL Explorer of the Seas, from the Cape Liberty Cruise Port, Bayonne, New Jersey. Our ports of call included: Portland, Maine; Bar Harbor, Maine (known to locals as BA HA BA !!); St John, New Brunswick, Canada; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; and Boston, Massachusetts!

We cruised with our good friends, Gary and Cindy, and my mom and sister, Kathy.

Fun times were had by all on and off the ship.

{St John New Brunswick, Canada}

We saw a lot of history in these towns that are older than any in California. We walked on some original cobblestone streets, visited some famous lighthouses, Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and Peggy's Point Lighthouse, St Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia, eat Lobster Rolls (Yum!), and Whole Maine Lobster

{I'll stick with Austrailian or Pacific Lobster tails, thank you! I didn't much care for the eyes of the lobster looking at me--so I jumped, thinking the lobster moved, and gave the waiter the biggest laugh of the day!!!!}.

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, we visited the cemetery where the victims of the Titanic were buried so many years ago. We took a few sightseeing tours, a Duck tour of old Boston and the oldest baseball park in the USA, Fenway Park (that's PAAAArk in Bostonian, long accent on short vowel sound!).

{ Nick is leaning on the infamous Green Monster at Fenway}

The ship was a large one, the largest cruise ship we've gone on. It could accommodate 3,800 passengers, but there were only 3,056 of us!!! It had a Promenade down the middle of the ship where the shops were located, a couple of bars and coffee shop, much like an indoor mall which was very cool and a great place to people watch.

For the first time we had a balcony room on the back (AFT) of the ship. It was great. The balcony was larger and we had no wind. Too bad it was not a hot super sunny trip. Weather was ok, mostly in the high 60's - 70's, some cloudy days, few drizzles too, but that didn't dampen our fun.

At the end of the cruise, Nick and I took the train from Newark to Philadelphia for a few days. What a pretty city Philly is. Of course we enjoyed Philly Cheesesteaks! We took a trolley tour around downtown, visited Independence Hall, saw the Liberty Bell, and visited Citizens Bank (baseball) Park, the home of the Phillies, where we had a fabulous tour. We even got to go into the dugout and the players' locker room! Very cool to see all the "behind the scenes" stuff!!

Cruising is a great way to get an overview of places we've never been, but it doesn't afford us any extended time in one place. The East Coast is so lush and green, everywhere, unlike most of California in the fall. The buildings and houses all look so different than what we are used to seeing on the West Coast. As it turned out we were too early to see the Fall Colors, but what we did see really impressed us. We plan to go back to the East Coast, hopefully, in the not too distant future, in our RV, and take more time to see and soak in the beauty of the New England states.

To see more of our pictures go to my flickr page.

Our Trip to the Grand Canyon

The picture above was taken on the North Rim looking towards the south.

To say the Grand Canyon is spectacular seems to be an understatement. It is truly amazing, awesome, magnificent, unbelievably gorgeous, impressive, grand, dramatic, stunning, remarkable fantastic, dazzling, sensational, and utterly breathtaking!! Words can hardly describe it, so we took lots of pictures to try to capture the beauty of the Grand Canyon!!This is called "Angel's Window" and if you look closely through the window you can see the Colorado River running on the bottom of the Grand Canyon!

Neither Nick nor I have ever seen the Grand Canyon. We were blown away. It is so much larger and more awesome than either of us ever imagined!! Everywhere you looked was unbelievable scenery at both the North Rim and the South Rim.

We stayed 3 nights at the North Rim Grand Canyon Lodgein this small cabin (above) on the edge of the Rim.

We stayed one night at El Tovar Hotel on the South Rim (below). The views were all around us!!!

This is a view from the South Rim looking to the north.

We went with a large group, about 60 people. 30 were going to hike the Rim to Rim, 23.9 miles from the North to the South, including our daughter's in laws and our good friends, Dan and Jeri. Nick was supposed to be one of the 30 hikers. Unfortunately, he was not able to make the hike as he had hurt his back a couple weeks before the trip while helping our son move. He still plans to do the hike once he has fully recovered (either with a group going in October or next May).

Pictured above, Dan and Jeri, Krren and Nick
taken on the South Rim

Be sure to check out all our pictures of the Grand Canyon on my flickr page.