Rocky Mountain High

 Over the 4th of July, Evan, Brad and I drove up to Durango, Colorado and met Ian and Annie there for a vacation in the San Juan Mountains.

 We started out with a day at Mesa Verde.  We hadn't been there in 25 years and it was much more interesting than I remember.

 We climbed the ladders at the Balcony House tour.

 Here we are at the Balcony House overlooking the valley below.

 Looking at the ruins.

 On this particular tour, we had to climb through small tunnels.

 A classic jump shot overlooking the ruins.

 We took our rafts up to Durango and floated down the Animas River.  Here we are shown with the Silverton/Durango train in the background, returning from Silverton.

 Ian, Annie and Evan were in one of the rafts. . .

 until Ian fell out of the raft on the rapids.

 Next we drove up the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton, an old silver mining town. . .really lovely views.

 Then we had lunch at the Switzerland of America, Ouray, Colorado.  We really loved being surrounded by the mountains.

 Then it was on to Montrose where we went through the very complete and fabulous Russell Stover Factory Outlet store.

 Then it was onto Paonia where we stayed at the Living Farm B and B on Grand Street.

 Here we are with the owner, Lynn Gillespie, at the B and B.  Since this B and B was not quite ready to open, we almost didn't stay there.  But all of the other B and B's were full so Lynn said we could stay there and be the first guests ever at her B and B - as long as we didn't mind that a few things were not completed yet (e.g. no draperies on the windows).

 It was the Cherry Festival in Paonia and the mayor of this city of about 1500 people rode by on his bike.  We talked a bit about city politics in our respective cities.

 We all went cherry picking in a local orchard.

 Next we drove up to Marble, about an hour away.  This is a city of about 24 year-round residents.  This picture is of the marble quarry on the hillside where the Lincoln Memorial and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier were quarried from.

 Then we stopped for a quick lunch on the Crystal River.

 Finally, before we headed to Utah for a friend's homecoming from her mission, we stopped to hike Hanging Lake in Glenwood Canyon.  Evan did a great job in his walking cast - over 1 1/2 miles one way with  a 1000 foot elevation gain.

Finally, we went to the Hole in the Rock above Hanging Lake to watch the water coming out of the rock.

Panama Adventure

 The next part of our trip took us to Panama to explore the new expansion of the canal.  Panama City, as shown from this picture when we flew in, is a modern, big city with plenty of new construction.

 Here is a view of the canal expansion at Cocoli, being built right along side the locks on the Pacific Ocean side of the isthmus.  The current locks are 110 feet wide and a class of ship called Panamax is 106 feet wide - 16% of the ships in the world are too big to access the current size of the locks.  The Panama Canal was built almost 100 years ago and the new locks will be open supposedly on the 100 anniversary of the opening of the first canal locks, which will be in 2014.  The cost of this canal expansion is $5.25 billion.

 The Port of LA helped us to get a really good tour of the locks at Miraflores.  We are shown here walking across the gates of the locks.

 The boats go through the locks under their own power, but the tugs help to steer them.

 There is only a small amount of space on either side of this ship going through the canal.

 This ship barely fits.

 Our group after touring the canal.

 We then drove to the Gamboa Rain Forest Lodge and took a tour up the Chagras River to the indigenous tribe of the Embara Indians.

 The entrance to the village of the Embara people.

 The village of the Embara.

 Mom with the chief of the Embara people.

 Some of the women in the tribe performed for us.

 After the trip up the Chagras River, we relaxed in the pool of the lodge.

 A view from our balcony at the Gamboa Rain Forest Lodge.  There were capybaras grazing on the lawn outside of our balcony.

 Dad celebrated his 87th birthday that night at the Rain Forest Lodge.

 Right after the Culebra Cut part of the canal, we watched this big ship make its way into Lake Gatun on its way to to Colon, the port on the Caribbean side of the isthmus.

 We drove to El Valle, which is a small town in the crater of an extinct volcano.

 This is the small inn, Las Capitanes, that we stayed at in El Valle.

 Dinner with the Captain of the inn.

 The next day we did a zip line in the forest canopy.  Here we are suited up and ready to go.

 We had to cross the rivers on rope bridges.

 Here is Annie getting ready to go on the zipline.

 Mom liked her first trip on the zipline.

We had our final meal at a restaurant on the Amador Causeway overlooking Panama City.

Humanitarian Aid Trip to El Salvador

 This past week, Evan, Helen, Annie, Pat, Donna, and I went to El Salvador to donate and ambulance and newborn baby kits to people in different areas of El Salvador.  Above, Evan is eating his first pupusas (his favorite is ayote which is a combination of squash and cheese).

 After lunch, we drove for about two hours and went to a small village out on the coast.  This is one of the huts that the people live in.

 This is a house that was built for $3000 and the people are grateful to be living in a house like this.

 Pat found a young girl who had a newborn, and she was very grateful to get one of the newborn kits.

Evan, Helen and Annie shared a coconut break together.

 We went back the small city of El Carmen where we were serenaded by a mariachi band and the mayor of the town had a delicious dinner for us.

 The following day we went to a rural area outside of El Carmen and showed the local people the new ambulance.

 All of the people there wanted to entertain us.

 Because Evan is fluent in Spanish, he was interviewed by Univision, the largest Spanish language television station in the U.S.  They came with us to follow the story of ambulances being given to villages in El Salvador.

 Annie found a young boy that wanted to practice his English.

 We drove down to the village of El Tamarindo on the coast.  One the way we passed some cattle just walking down the road.

 In this picture, I was turning the keys to the ambulance over to the mayor.

 Everyone in our party was presented with a lovely certificate by the governor of the state of La Union.

 Next, the dancers came to entertain us.

 This little girl and her brother were very cute.

 In the poorer neighborhoods, pigs are just roaming among the living areas.

 After we went through the formalities of donating the ambulance, we got to relax at the beach park where they fed us a very good fish dinner.

 On the way back to our hotel, we stopped in Conchagua, a village that sits on the side of the extinct volcano.

 The governor of La Union took us to a place where a man practices his leather craft abilities.  He desperately needs new tools to teach the students in his leather work class.

 this is the brand new port (it isn't even finished yet) at the city of La Union.  It will be the second largest port in El Salvador, once it is finished in a few years.

 When we went back to San Salvador, we drove up the sides of the extinct volcano and were able to look down in the crater.

 When we arrived back at the home that we were staying in in San Salvador, there were people there making pupusas for us.

 The big surprise for Evan was that a girl that had served in his mission in Argentina, Stephanie, was in a ward in that area.  She and her family stayed for the evening and it was fun to get to know them.

 The next day, we went to a hospital that had a lot of newborns and we were able to give away the newborn kits that Pat's ward had made up in Utah.

 This is where the new mothers take classes to see how to take care of their babies.

The home we were staying in was very close to the San Salvador temple.