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| This is a letter from Nancy describing their complete trip. I was only there for a very short bit of it. We had great intentions of sending postcards to all of you, while we were away! It didn't happen, so I will send you'll a letter. The postcards we did send (to the boys) were still in our mailbox until last night when we arrived home and discovered that the boys had not emptied the mailbox once while we were away. So, we figure late news is still good news. Maybe a few months from now we will even figure out how to scan some photos into Email. We have arrived home to thick fog, 100 plus humidity, green grass, leafless trees revealing the structural damage of Juan, and the quaint sound of foghorns. Already I miss the cleaner air quality. The air really does seem fresher out west, (except in Los Angeles, which we crossed through as quickly as our trusty rented car would take us). The eastern Maritimes are sometimes called the tailpipe of the continent and today I believe it. Or, maybe, the dry Western, sagebrush-smelling air just agrees with me. We became like the Americans we were visiting and rented a large van (Oldsmobile) with automatic everything. (Alan, we even figured out how the light switches worked.) We tried to fit in far too much, ate too much, spent too much, drove too much, but we had an incredibly fantastic time and wouldn't trade it for anything. Our hiking boots have a few more miles on them and our brand new tent was christened in the Grand Canyon at Phantom Ranch.
Some highlights were our visit with Ellen and Harry Weaver. Ellen is Mother's first cousin, younger by 13 years, the daughter of Mildred, who was Grandfather's (Arthur Riche's) younger sister. She is now a sprightly 70-year-old, not held back that much by her rather extensive arthritis. She had wanted to be able to downhill ski to her 70th birthday, but now has decided to save her knees for walking instead and quit down hilling at age 65. More than once, I had to open my eyes wide and look at Ellen closely, because I thought I was with Mother. She talks like Mother did, gives driving directions just as Mother did, and has some indescribable mannerisms that were Mother's as well. The owner of an ice-cream store that Ellen and Harry frequent, saw us and immediately asked how we were related. (By the way, the ice-cream man always provided a free dish of ice cream for Misha, their well-loved Lab.) The big differences between Mother and Ellen were in some aspects of their respective lifestyles. Ellen had a very successful career as a plant physiologist and taught for years at several universities. She is a scraper and survived many of the trials and difficulties that career women had to survive in the days prior to 'equality of the sexes' and university sponsored abuse/ethics committees. The end result is that she is well aware of any perceived put-down of a woman by a man, and has become a role model, as well as the president of various organizations including Women for Science. I felt as if I were in the presence with the mother who had achieved a career the way in which Mother so badly wanted to have done. Strange, though, how the roll of the genetic dice seems to be able to pick out traits that appear in different people! Ellen and Harry took us to their cottage on the Mendocino Coast as well as showed us around San Francisco. They really enjoy people and told us that that they would like visits from any of you. For the first six days of our trip, they were the most excellent and informative hosts imaginable. Another highlight was our guided and catered hike down the Grand Canyon. Yes, we did splurge here, but we had no easy access to the rather limited supply of camping permits and if the truth were known, our backpacking skills were rather rusty. The outfitters provided us with proper backpacks and hiking sticks as well as organized the food and gave us advice about where to get potable water etc. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable about the geology of the canyon as well as some of the wildlife. Despite all the pictures that we have seen and I am sure you have seen, of the Grand Canyon, we were blown away with the beauty and immensity of the area. The first day we hiked six miles, which doesn't seem like much until one realizes that one of those six miles was straight down and the 35 pounds on our backs didn't help. We were instructed to carry three litres of water each (about 8 and one-half pounds). That was the worst day for leg spasms and we saw some hikers that were in pretty bad shape. There were some mule trains but we were really lucky in our timing as mule trains carrying visitors down were suspended recently, because of insurance issues, we were told. There are millions of visitors to the rim each year but only a small fraction of these do day hikes. A very much smaller fraction get the privilege of a camping spot and hence we were able to enjoy the wilderness without many people. We spent two nights down in the canyon and put our feet into Bright Angel Creek and saw some ancient Indian petroglyphs as well as old grain storing places. Twenty-three years ago we had brought four month old Megan to the rim, looked over and saw nothing but fog. Now we have satisfied our promise to return and hike this area properly. However, the longing is still there - there is more of the canyon to explore - the North Rim, the Havasupai Indian Reserve at the Western end etc. Another highlight was hiking the Sabino Canyon two days after it had been closed because of rain. Yes, of the 350 days of sunshine that Tucson gets in a year, we hit three rainy days! Despite the fact that we had wanted only sun, we were fascinated to see the desert suck up water, and to see the washes (which are usually dried up stream beds) flow and we weren't cold. Alan, we hiked Sabino Canyon the day after you left and finally the sun broke through! A lowlight was seeing our old living quarters in daylight. A parking lot had destroyed 'our' back yard and the windows were covered over with heavy screening; the grapefruit tree was still alive but half its branches were dead. The upside of all the rain is that it is expected to bring on the best spring blooms in Arizona in 25 years! (Who wants to go then?) After you left, Alan, we did have good weather and managed to camp at a really nice spot on the Pacific Coast. We spent hours at the SanDiego Zoo and constantly went back to the orangutan cage at Megan's request. I am told that we share 98 to 99 percent of our DNA with these creatures. When they pick their noses and chew it, I remembered seeing an orangutan in Africa whose habit it was to bum a cigarette and then bum a light. He had all the mannerisms of an old nicotine addicted man. His hands were nicotine stained. We were told that if he wasn't given a cigarette that he would try to steal a pack from the pocket of an unaware person. We tried to stay away from all politics, but were rather happy to visit with Megan's friend in Monterey California. She is studying at the Institute for International Studies and shares a lot of our concerns about the world as do Ellen and Harry. California and Arizona are certainly wonderful places and I hope that politics will keep it a place that we all can visit and enjoy for years to come. | |||||||||||||
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