ON THE ROAD AGAIN

One fun thing about taking a road trip is stopping in places for which you had not planned. Shoshone Falls along the Snake was one such place. Wow! Amazing view. At 212 feet, these falls are taller than Niagra.

Looks like there were lots of letterboxes around, too. Unfortunately, did not plan to stop here so did not do the research for it so no letterboxes found. Bummer.

OK, let's keep driving toward Redmond, Oregon. You will see this view - or something similar. Mile after mile.

Woo hoo! We made it!

We were in Redmond for a week and enjoyed climbing in the trees and on the rocks!

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

August 1

Well, Little B didn't think too much of celebrating her birthday this way, but we decided on a

ROAD TRIP!!!!

Ok, I'm not sure what we were thinking other than, haven't been there and haven't done that. Enroute from Colorado to Oregon, we stopped at Arches National Park.

Yes, these could probably be stock pictures of Balancing Rock, Delicate Arch and the Windows, but we still enjoyed them!

On to Salt Lake City. We did a brief driving tour around the city before heading off to Boise, Idaho. There were fires in California to which the haze was attributed.

CATARACT LAKE

July 30

A lovely drive to this location followed with some really fun boxing. We saw snakes, squirrels, birds and monster mosquitoes - they were so large I thought they would carry me off. Ouch!
















Isn't this one of the most beautiful places you have seen?

FLORISSANT FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT

Have you ever been here? It is an amazing place. They have helpful rangers and fun trails. Some of the hikes are a little longer, but they have some short ones near the visitor center. Younger people can even become Junior Rangers by completing several tasks outlines in their booklet. They have awesome examples of fossilized insects found on the property in the visitors center.

Just outside the visitor center you can see some of the few remaining petrified trees. Can you tell how huge these trees must have been? Wow! Amazing!

In the past they said you could not walk through the field below the visitors center for all the petrified trees. Sadly, few remain today for all of us to wonder over.

If you take one of the trails on the property, you will come to the crest of a hill and have this view.

Along the petrified trail. (No, that pine tree is not growing out of the petrified stump - it just looks like it.

COLORADO

We flew back to the States in July and headed first to Breckenridge, Colorado. Wow! I love this place. You can see the ski runs in the distance in this first picture. The thing I kept remarking on what the blue skies. I had grown kind of used to the overcast (smoggy) skies in Hong Kong.








I hope this picture doesn't give anyone's box location away. Yup, right by that tree somewhere in Colorado.














OK, more blue skies.






One day we headed over to this trail that was along an old railroad track bed. The rails are long gone. The original track was 63 miles long and ran from Como to Leadville, CO. It was operational from 1884 until 1937. The water tower has since been reconstucted.

Oh, there are a few letterboxes near-by, too!




We had to make a mid-week trip, and on the way to the airport we stopped at Jenny's in Empire. Wow! Great food, super people, and a letterbox with a sweet story.

LET'S GO TO MANILA! July 13, 2008

Here we are, in the cattle section (oh, that's supposed to read Coach) on Cathay Pacific headed to Manila, the capitol of the Philippines. Punkie Dominoes and I were a little squished, but since anything under a six-hour flight is a short one, we didn't mind too much. We got to watch movies and play games on the in-seat entertainment. Fun!


Evidently we did not time our travel too well since the evening we arrived, a tropical storm arrived as well, so the first few days were a little wet. We made trips to the shopping malls near-by, and let me tell you that is really different. In order to get into the mall, you have to pass through secruity and have your bags checked. The thing that was a little different is that the security guards were really armed - no handguns for them - let's use rifles!

We didn't try this common type of transportation - the jeepney. There are literally thousands of them plying the roads in Manila. People sit in the back on benches on the sides, and you enter through a door in the rear. The jeepneys would stop in the middle of the road (middle lane at that) to let people off. What a wild ride that must be! They are very colorful, too.





One day we went to Fort Santiago, built around the 1590's. It is strategically located on the banks of the Pasig River and overlooks Manila Bay. The Intramuros area has many historic buildings, but most had to be rebuilt after WWII.



This is the Catholic Cathedral which was originally built in 1590 and subsequently destroyed by fire, typhoon, earthquake, and the war. This is the sixth building rebuilt on the site and was refurbished in 1954.








This was in a courtyard in a typical (wealthy) Spanish home that was commissioned by Imelda Marcos.

















On the walls of Ft. Santiago, guards kept watch!

CHEUNG CHAU ISLAND

You just have to love that notification of new boxes feature on Atlasquest for your favorite searches! It let us know that someone had planted a box on Cheung Chau Island. So, off we went!

We headed to Hong Kong Island and then jumped on a ferry heading to the Island. Cheung Chau Island is around 6 miles southwest of Hong Kong Island and has been a fishing village since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It is noted for its beaches and particularly for the Cheung Chau Bun Festival. In ancient times, a devastating epidemic attacked the people of the island, who held the first Bun Festival in an attempt to clear their little homeland of disease. The epidemic suddenly disappeared and the festival is held every year now. There is a large parade and celebrations fill the streets and alleys. There is a Lucky Bun competition where climbers scale a tower of lucky buns grabbing all the high scoring ones they can - largest total number wins!




We started our hike at the waterfront and quickly made our way to the Pak Tei Temple which is dedicated to the Northern King. Then we climbed up, and up the trails. Did I mention it was a very hot, very humid day? But, please notice that is was a "blue sky" day. We count them over here, you know.






OK, this is something you don't see every day. These are fire beaters used to put out hill fires. Accidentally start a little fire? Whack it out with these and then return them to the holder.










Yup, we're just hanging around here! It was tough getting up that boulder!

We were really hot and needed more water and something cold, so after monkeying around here and taking the trail to one of the pavillions, we headed back to the main road for water and ice cream. Yum!







After being refreshed, we hit the beach! Let's start with a sand castle or two and then . . .










Let's get in the water! Wow! That feels good!

You can see some of the other Hong Kong islands in the background.


Well, we didn't have time for a seafood dinner at one of the restaurants along the main road, so we had to head back home. Bummer!