 Moving yet further north on our fall foliage trip to Minnesota we found ourselves almost into Canada. In fact, we brought our Passports with us just in case we decided to cross the U.S. / Canadian border as we passed through International Falls, MN. But this particular Rainy Lake Visitor Center was up at the Northwest end of the park and was actually the only one (of the three) that was open at this time of the year and I wanted to make sure that I got my “National Parks Passport” stamped and you can only do that at a parks visitor center. But we did manage to visit the two other visitor centers (Kabetogama Lake and Ash River) in our travels through the park. Before visiting this National Park, I had no idea what a voyageur was let alone the reason for the park’s status as a national park. While we were in the Rainy Lake Visitor Center the Park Ranger there explained to us that for over one hundred years, French-Canadian “voyageurs” left Montreal for the adventures of the fur trade. Traders and trappers ventured into the Ojibwe Indian territory to trade with them. The traders, trappers and Ojibwe Indians traveled these waters in birch bark canoes. The voyageurs carried tons of European-made trade goods in their canoes and bartered them for furs trapped by the Ojibwe Indians. The voyageurs canoed the waters in a customary route that became the border between the U.S. and Canada. A portion of that historic route is commemorated in Voyageurs National Park. And as we looked at all the birch trees in the park, we could not help but think of how much work that musts have been to build those canoes, but also the 12 hour days they had to endure to get there goods to market. Although the first proposal to designate the area as a national park occurred in 1891, it wasn't until 1975 that Voyageurs National Park was established after a lengthy legislative battle that began in 1962. Many people were involved in the movement to establish Voyageurs National Park, including Ernest Oberholtzer, one of the founding members of the Wilderness Society in 1935. Rich in the history of the early, exciting exploration of our great country, Voyageurs will serve as a living legacy linking generation to generation and century to century.” On April 8, 1975, Voyageurs National Park was established “to preserve for the inspiration and enjoyment of future generations, the outstanding scenery, geological conditions, and waterway system which constituted part of the historic route of the Voyageurs who contributed significantly to the opening of the Northwestern United States.” The peninsula is Voyageurs’ largest landmass and can be reached by water in summer or over the ice in winter. Rainy Lake is 60 miles long and 227,604 acres in size; it has 929 miles of shoreline. The park includes 36,418 acres of Rainy Lake. Within the park Rainy Lake has a maximum width of 12 miles, maximum depth of 161 feet, an average depth of 35feet, and 200 islands. Kabetogama Lake is 15 miles long and 25,760 acres in size. It has 78 miles of shoreline, a maximum width of 4 miles, a maximum depth of 80 feet, and 200 islands. Today, around 250,000 people visit the park each year. Visitors can access the park via four points along U.S. Highway 53. From Orr, County Road 23 leads to Crane Lake. County Road 129, also called the Ash River Trail, leads to Ash River. County Road 122 leads to the third entry point, Kabetogama. The fourth road providing access to the park is Minnesota Highway 11 east from International Falls to the Rainy Lake Visitor Center. The park also has visitor centers at Kabetogama and at Ash River. Crane Lake has a Ranger Station. Visitor destinations include the historic Kettle Falls Hotel built in 1910, and Ellsworth Rock Gardens begun in 1944, as well as many other historic sites. Visitors to Voyageurs National Park have miles of waterways to explore, hundreds of islands to enjoy, dozens of fish to catch, and over 200 boat in campsites to call home on a quiet evening. Nature abounds here. Because of the combination of forest, bog and lake environments, Voyageurs has a wealth of habitats that support a rich diversity of life. Park naturalist programs allow visitors to safely explore the park. You can even become a modern- day voyageur on a North Canoe adventure. Or you can take a cruise with a naturalist to the Little American Gold Mine, Kettle Falls Hotel and Dam, or the Ellsworth Rock Gardens. In fact our Park Ranger is one of those boat guides during the summers up there. He happened to have spent his whole life up there as a fisherman prior to becoming a Park Ranger. The park is located 300 miles north of Minneapolis-St. Paul and stretching across 55 miles of the border country between Minnesota and Ontario, Voyageurs National Park is Minnesota’s only national park. The Park is one of the nation’s wildest, most remote and unique national parks, and is widely loved for its beauty and recreational opportunities. Adventures really abound in the Park. One can explore the four major lakes dotted with hundreds of isolated islands, or escape into the wild heart of the park, the Kabetogama Peninsula, which is ringed by water and strewn with inland lakes, towering pines, rugged cliffs, and swamps. But, the summer is the prime season for boating, canoeing, camping, fishing, and hiking, and in the winter the Park is a choice destination for snowmobile vacations, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and winter camping, but if you love falls colors, I can attest that is a very time in the park. Voyageurs Park is a boater’s park. And, as the Park Ranger told us; “Visitors must leave behind their car and explore by boat.” But (given the time of year of our visit), that was not an option for us. But in spite of that we still fully enjoyed the beauty of the park anyway (as you can see from the photos I captured) while we were there. “The uniquely scenic and historic Voyageurs National Park, stands as a monument forever to the dedicated citizens and conservation organizations whose vision, ingenuity and courage match the splendor of this superlative wilderness area.” ~ Richard M. Nixon (January 8, 1971 on the occasion of the creation of Voyageurs, the 36th National Park)                   
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 Well, we have just returned from a fall foliage trip up in Minnesota and we could not have been there at a prettier time of year. The drive from Duluth, Minnesota along North Shore Drive around that part of Lake Superior was to say the least, was as absolutely spectacularly colorful and adventurous trip. As we made our way from Duluth, we came across lake shore towns like Knife River, Larsmont, and Two rivers. While at Two Rivers we found another light house was appropriately called the Two Harbors Lighthouse. Even though it was a nice light house, it in no way was as exciting or picturesque as was the Split Rock Lighthouse, so we only took a few pictures of the Two Harbors Lighthouse and preceded back on our drive through the Silver Creek Tunnel and then the Layfette Tunnel only stopping to check out Gooseberry Falls on our way. When we got to the light house at Split Rock, we were welcomed by a very state of the art visitor center and accompanying light house tour. This included a very nice and energetic young college grad aged guy who was very excited to tell us about the history of the light house and how it was built and why. This tour of his included the fact that the year before the lighthouse was approved and funds were allocated for it, that there were 28 shipwrecks in that area. He also pointed out that because the water was so deep around the cliffs that often times ships’ captains in stormy or foggy weather often thought that they were in deep water and as such, were further from the coastline that they were in reality and would crash their ships loaded usually with iron ore and sank along that area of the North Shore of Lake Superior. He also made one point that I found amazing was the fact that in the 99 years since the light house was built, there has not been even one shipwreck after the light house began its operation in 1909. Just when we thought the tour could not get better, he passed us off to a lady dressed in period clothing who was in one of the three identical light house tenders quarters. The lady explained how they needed three light house keepers, because the light house had to tend to the light house 24 by 7 for 365 days a year. After she explained how the families of the light house tenders lived on a day to day basis, she handed us a plate of homemade cookies that just came out of the hundred year old over and they were delicious. Next on our tour was a guy also in period clothing who took us on a tour of the actual lighthouse itself and explained about the cost of the light itself which was made in France at a cost of $70,000 which in today’s dollars would be about one million dollars. His demonstration and actual winding up of the weight that drove the light mechanisms was nothing less than amazing. I was fascinated with its mechanical genius that was a hundred years old. He explained that Shipwrecks from a mighty 1905 November gale prompted this rugged landmark's construction. Completed by the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1910, Split Rock Light Station was soon one of Minnesota's best known landmarks. Restored to its 1920s appearance, the lighthouse offers a glimpse of lighthouse life in this remote and spectacular setting. In the early years of the 20th century, iron ore shipments on Lake Superior doubled and redoubled. United States Steel's bulk ore carriers became "the greatest exclusive freight-carrying fleet sailing under one ownership in the world," so the demand for a new lighthouse on the lake's inhospitable North Shore was hardly surprising. A single storm on Nov. 28, 1905, damaged 29 ships, fully one third of which were the uninsured property of the steel company fleet. Two of these carriers foundered on this rocky coastline, which some called "the most dangerous piece of water in the world." A delegation led by the steamship company president descended upon Washington, D.C., and in early 1907, Congress appropriated $75,000 for a lighthouse and fog signal in the vicinity of Split Rock. The guide told us that the light house light alone would now cost over a million dollars to replace, it even has the original lens in the light. The station closed in 1969 when modern navigational equipment made it obsolete. The State of Minnesota obtained the scenic landmark in 1971. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources operates Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, a 2,200-acre state park that offers hiking, picnicking and tent camping to visitors. In 1976, administrative responsibility for the 25-acre Split Rock Lighthouse Historic Site was given to the Minnesota Historical Society. The Society continues the dual goals of preservation and interpretation of Split Rock Light Station for the generations to come. The U. S. Lighthouse Service completed the 7.6-acre facility in 1910 and operated it until 1939, when the U.S. Coast Guard took command. By that time, Split Rock's picturesque setting near the North Shore highway, built in 1924, “had made it probably the most visited lighthouse in the United States."Needless to say it was a wonderful trip and a wonderful tour of the lighthouse. As you can tell from a couple of the shots, we even got a little snow to accent the beautifully colored trees on our return trip. I also threw in a couple of the other lighthouse we passed at Two Harbors and one of the tunnels. As with all the shots I post, you can double click on them for a bigger view! “We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining - they just shine.” ~ Dwight L. Moody                       
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 As we still find ourselves moving backwards in our adventure, the next step is also another National Park to cross off of my bucket list. Additionally, it was also one that I knew almost nothing about, but at first glance, it looked very much like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon to me. Which, if I really think about it… could be the reason that it has the name that it does too? The view from Green River Overlook was one that I really enjoyed, and it really was reminiscent of the parts of the Grand Canyon National Park only not so overwhelming in its depth. I was surprised that the river that we happened to be looking at was the Green River and not the Colorado River. I was however relieved to find out that both the Colorado and Green rivers wind through the heart of Canyonlands. They both cut through layered sandstone to form two deep canyons. Both rivers are calm upstream of the Confluence, ideal for canoes, kayaks and other shallow water craft. Below the Confluence, the combined flow of both rivers spills down Cataract Canyon with remarkable speed and power, creating a world-class stretch of white water. The Island in the Sky mesa rests on sheer sandstone cliffs over 1,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. Every overlook offers a different perspective on Canyonlands’ spectacular landscape. But the Island is the easiest district to visit in a short period of time, offering many pullouts with spectacular views along the paved scenic drive, which actually prompted Mrs. LZ to ask; “are we stopping again already?”Much of canyon country's annual precipitation falls during summer monsoons. These dramatic storms often last less than twenty minutes but can cause powerful flash floods despite their brevity. The Needles District (which is in the southeast corner of Canyonlands) and was named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone that dominate the area. The district’s extensive trail system provides many opportunities for long day hikes and overnight trips. Foot trails and four-wheel-drive roads in the area lead to such features as Tower Ruin, Confluence Overlook, Elephant Hill, the Joint Trail, and Chesler Park. The Maze is the least accessible district of Canyonlands. Due to the district’s remoteness and the difficulty of roads and trails, travel to the Maze requires more time, as well as a greater degree of self-sufficiency. Rarely do visitors spend less than three days in the Maze, and the area could easily absorb a week-long trip but we only had a half of a day there. A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. ~ Thomas Jefferson                 
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 No, this is not the same Moab that was an ancient nation located in the uplands of the Dead Sea, (now part of Jordan). That area was unprotected from the east; hence its history is a chain of raids by the Bedouins. The Moabites were close kin to the Hebrews, and the language of the Moabite stone is practically the same as biblical Hebrew. The relations of Moab with Judah and Israel are continually mentioned in the Bible. As a political entity, Moab came to an end after the invasion (c.733 B.C.) of Tiglath-pileser III. Its people were later absorbed by the Nabataeans. The Moabite religion was much like that of Canaan. Archaeological exploration in Moab has shown that settlements first occurred in the 13th cent. B.C., but what in the heck does “all of that” have to do with this post? Well actually… nothing. They just happen to have the same rather unique name. Even though that is NOT the Moab we are discussing here in this post and although maybe even without some of the long Biblical history of the Mideast, it is however still a pretty cool place. Well, now that I think about it, the weather is not too unlike the weather that you might find in the Mideast as well especially in the summer. When you start discussing the history this particular Moab you’d need to move past that Mid-Eastern Moab by some 1,500 years or so just for the starting point of this Moab in Utah. Because this Moab (in Utah) has a history that basically starts just prior to the construction of the railroad in 1883. Moab, Utah at that time was primarily known as a strategic place to cross the Colorado River. A toll ferry service across the river ended when a permanent bridge was built in 1911. This particular bridge was replaced with the current bridge in 1955. The highway that uses this bridge has been renumbered multiple times and is presently numbered U.S. Route 191. Moab gained freight railroad access in 1962, when a spur railroad line (now the Union Pacific Railroad's Cane Creek Subdivision) was built to service the Cane Creek potash mine. Moab has never had passenger rail service, although the California Zephyr has advertised service to Moab in the past via the stops at Thompson Springs (no longer a scheduled stop), Green River or Grand Junction, Colorado. Moab currently does not have regular bus service, although charter busses and shuttle service to Salt Lake City or Grand Junction in Colorado are available most times during the year. In 1949 the famed Western movie director John Ford was talked into using the area for the movie Wagon Master. Ford had been using the area in Monument Valley around Mexican Hat, Utah, south of Moab, since he filmed Stagecoach there 10 years earlier in 1939. A local Moab rancher went, found Ford, and persuaded him to come take a look at Moab. There have been numerous movies filmed in the area ever since, primarily using the beauty of Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park as their backdrops. Since the 1970s tourism has played an increasing role in the local economy of Moab. In fact Mrs. LZ stayed in a place called the Moab Valley Inn which when we checked in had all sorts of pictures of the movie stars, cast ands crews of some of the movies that were made using Moab as it base of operations. I happened to notice that one of the movies was called “Road To Redemption” and after we got home we rented this movie just to see if we recognized any of the Moab locations in the movie. Many of them happened to be scenes that we actually remembered seeing while we were in and around town. If you are perhaps wondering what other movies have been filmed in and around Moab, here’s a short list of some films: Rio Grande (1950), Warlock (1958), The Comancheros (1961), Cheyenne Autumn (1963), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1963), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1988), Thelma and Louise (1990), City Slickers II (1994), Baraka (1992), RocketMan (1997) and Mission: Impossible II (2000). For all of you Star War junkies, you may be interested to know that the course for the pod races in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) is a computer-generated imagery montage of Moab area landmarks, including Angel Arch. Partly due to the John Ford movies, this area has become a favorite for photographers not unlike myself, as well as rafters, hikers, and most recently mountain bikers. Moab is also an increasingly popular destination for four-wheelers as well as for BASE jumpers, who are allowed to practice their sport in certain areas around Moab. In recent years Moab has seen a surge of second-home owners too. The relatively mild winters and enjoyable summers have attracted many to build throughout the area. Controversy has arisen over these new temporary citizens and their homes which remain unoccupied through most of the year. Many citizens in Moab are concerned that Moab may soon become like Vail or Aspen in Colorado, which I guess they don’t care for too much according to their comments. Sunset magazine's March 2009 issue listed Moab as one of the 20 best small towns in the west. Although Mrs. LZ and I really had no desire to start building a second home here, it was still a very nice place and the people their seemed genuinely friendly and hospitable. Riding along the road not far from the city of Moab is where I happened to catch this picture of the “Hole In The Rock” sign actually written on the red rocks. I laughed when I first saw it, but then the more I though about it, the less funny it seemed to me. I quickly thought to myself something like… if that was in a National Park it would be about the worst graffiti I had ever seen, but I guess on private property it would be called advertising? And it looked as though some entrepreneur was hard at work there. "Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children." ~ Ancient Indian Proverb            
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 There are probably only a few of you who know, that something that is on my own personal “Bucket List” is to visit ALL 58 of the U.S. National Parks, but having said that; this particular park was one of those that I was not terribly excited about visiting. But after having now done it, I would have to say that this park actually turned my opinion of it completely around now. It was much more interesting than I would have ever expected. There were some really interesting things that happened while we were in the park though. One of those was the fact that I always "thought" there was just one of these cliff dwelling sites in the park, but actually there are over 20 mesa top sites and view points which may be visited on your own while in the park. By being unoccupied for many centuries, they have been weakened by natural forces. Some were so badly damaged by looters before the area was made a national park. So they make sure that maximum protection is given to the dwellings in order to preserve them. One regulation that is strictly enforced, is that visitors may enter cliff dwellings ONLY when accompanied by a Park Ranger. However, there are over 4,000 known archeological sites in Mesa Verde National Park, 600 of which are cliff dwellings. Only a few of these sites have been excavated so far. Archeological sites of many different types are accessible to visitors. They range from pit-houses built during the 500s to the cliff dwellings of the 1200s. So you can actually see how they progressed over that 700 year period. Of all the things there are in the park to see, the cliff dwellings are the most spectacular, but the mesa top pit-houses and pueblos are equally important. Seen in their chronological order, these sites show the architectural development of Mesa Verde. Mrs. LZ and I actually viewed them in the wrong order (chronologically speaking) but it may have been even more impressive than doing it the other way around. And, although I did take a picture in one of the ceremonial rooms (with the ladder into it) It was really just an empty room. To think that they basically started in a hole and worked their way out and up with very rudimentary tools just seemed amazing to us. Another point that the park rangers made was that area was inhabited for about 800 years by agricultural people who began to drift into the area shortly after the beginning of the Christian Era. The National Parks rangers call the first farming people in the Mesa Verde area the Basketmakers (A.D.1-400), because weaving excellent baskets was their outstanding craft. At this early date, the people did not make pottery, build houses, or use the bow and arrow. No sites dating from the early Basketmakers have been found within the boundaries of Mesa Verde National Park. Then around the year A.D. 400, the people began to make pottery and build roofed dwellings. Around the year A.D. 750, they began to use the bow and arrow. Although the people were still the same, the culture was changing. Archeologists call these people the Modified Basket-makers (A.D. 400-750). The pit-houses were built in alcoves and on the mesa tops. Scores of pit-house villages have been found on the mesas, and two pit-houses have been reconstructed at Mesa Verde. Starting about A.D. 750, the people grouped their houses together to form compact villages. These have been given the name of "pueblo", a Spanish term meaning village. The name, Developmental Pueblo (A.D. 750-1000), simply indicated that during this period there was a great deal of experimentation and development. Many types of house walls were used; adobe and poles, stone slabs topped with adobe, adobe and stones, and finally layered masonry. The houses were joined together to form compact clusters around open courts. In these courts were pit-houses which grew deeper and finally developed into ceremonial rooms we now refer to as kivas. During their last century, some Pueblo Indians of Mesa Verde left the mesa tops and built their homes in the alcoves that abound in the many canyon walls. This last period marks the climax of the Pueblo culture in Mesa Verde and is known as the Classic Pueblo Period (A.D. 1100-1300). The exact number of dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park is unknown, but over 600 cliff dwellings have been documented. There were several things that we noticed about these Cliff Dwellings, like the fact that you can see the blackened areas where there campfires were. The other noticeable thing for us was that these places all seem to be located so that they were protected from both the sun as well as the elements. Another thing was the fact that many of these structures could be seen on both sides of the canyons. And from the road driving around this area you could view many of them. Lots of people have asked us why these people left this area and we were told by the park rangers that beginning in A.D. 1276, drought struck the region and for 23 years precipitation was scarce. One by one the springs dried up and the people were in serious trouble. Their only escape was to seek regions which had a more dependable water supply. People left village after village. Before the drought ended, these people had left Mesa Verde area. In 1906 two new things happened in the United States. Mesa Verde National Park was created and Congress passed the Antiquities Act. Mesa Verde was the first National Park established to protect a historic feature, the famous cliff dwelling houses built by Native Americans over 600 years ago. The Antiquities Act did something equally important. It allowed the President to set aside government-owned lands as National Monuments. Mesa Verde National Park is located in the high plateau country of Southwestern Colorado. The park itself lies atop a high mesa that rises from the canyon of the Mancos River, a tributary of the San Juan River. The Mancos has cut a deep, broad valley along the eastern and southern edge of Mesa Verde, which in turn is dissected by 15 canyons formed by smaller streams. This erosional action has thus created many smaller mesas. Two of these, Wetherill and Chapin mesas, provide the primary access to most of the park's public archeological sites. Mesa Verde National Park encompasses 52,122 acres, about 81 square miles. It runs about 9 miles both east-to-west and north-to-south. Elevation on Mesa Verde varies between 6,000 and 8,500 feet. So to all of you who may not have been excited about a visit to this particular National Park, let me advise you to move it up higher on your own National Parks “Bucket List!” Also I'd watch out for climbing in the bushes where you can see that one sign while in the park too! “Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.” ~ Chief (Luther) Standing Bear                    
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 Even though this part of our trip was a little off of the beaten path and perhaps just a bit disappointing, (compared to all the other things we had done) it was still kind of fun... at least for my part of the story. As the signs tell you as you approach to site, “The Navajo Nation cordially welcomes you to one of our most unique landmarks - The Four Corners.” The fun part of this is that this is the only place in the United States where four states intersect at one point: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. This location is very remote as you will experience when visiting it. It seems like the only access to this place via road is controlled by one of the tribes and you have to pay on a per person basis to even keep going down the road to where the Four-Corners Monument is placed. The surrounding area around the monument itself seemed a little like a native American carnival or street fair to me. But… maybe I am just being a little cynical here? The original marker was erected here in 1912 and was a simple cement pad, but has since been redone in granite and brass which you can see in the pictures. The Visitor Center is open year round, and features a Demonstration Center with Navajo artisans. Navajo vendors also sell handmade jewelry, crafts and traditional Navajo foods nearby. In fact there are people selling stuff all around here and the purchases can be from Navajo Tacos to Turquoise Jewelry and Ice Cream Bars. To me the commercialism here was just a little sad. Picnic tables and self-contained restrooms were available. But overall, both services and accommodations around the Four Corners area are very limited to small cafes, grocery stores and self-service gasoline stations within a 30 mile radius of the Four Corners; but having looked at a map before venturing off there, I made sure I wouldn't really need any of those things while we were there. If you ever visit there, I’d recommend that you have plenty of water, food, snacks, hand wipes and extra toiletries when visiting. The area is very remote, no running water, no real electricity, no telephones etc. In fact the nearest Gas Stations are in: Teec Nos Pos, AZ - Shiprock, NM - Cortez, CO - Mexican Water, AZ - Bluff, UT. Even though Teec Nos Pos, Az. is the nearest community (approx. 6 miles away). But as we left this Four Corners area (in the exact opposite way in which we had gotten there), the next big thing I saw was this huge rock extrusion which to me looked like a gigantic rocket ship out in the middle of “Nowhere Desert” (my description of the area) not really it’s name. As we traveled closer to it and our angle of approach changed, it looked more like a sailing ship than it did like the rocket ship I had initially compared it to. It seemed a little hazy that day so I apologize for the shot here, but it was the best I could come up with at the time. Guess what? This geographic feature is called (of all things) Shiprock! And the closest town to Shiprock is also called Shiprock, New Mexico. The town is located in northwestern part of the state of New Mexico, but it not really around the geographic feature. It (Sailrock the rock) was actually several miles from the city of Sailrock, but you could see it (the rock) for several miles after yolu could no longer see the city. The Shiprock (the rock) feature itself is a most impressive example of a volcanic neck, or a central feeder pipe found anywhere around there. It is actually the remnant of an eruption around 30 million years ago (give or take a few days here or there) during the Oligocene era and it is actually the basalt core of an extinct volcano. Near the main peak, you can see small pinnacles, the remains of smaller auxiliary volcanic vents. When the magma solidifies before ever reaching the surface, it is referred to as a "diatreme". The local Navajos consider it sacred, being a main character in their folklore. They call it Tse Bitai, meaning "the winged rock". Which, I suppose may be one reason the town is not very close to the Rock. It could be hallowed ground to the Indians? The central part of Shiprock is visible from many miles away, and it is roughly 1,640 feet in diameter. Stretching almost 2,000 feet into the sky above the surrounding terrain, Shiprock is part of both the Navajo and Chuska volcanic fields in northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico, extending north into Utah and Colorado. It is also within the boundaries of the vast Colorado Plateau, known (of course) as the Four-Corners area.This region of extinct volcanic features covers approximately 20,000 square km of this area. Shiprock (both the city and the rock feature) were an unknown entity to us as we travelled away from the Four-Corners area, so it was kind of nice to see it and to learn all about it too. And, even though our side trip to the Four-Corners was less than I had expected, it was nice to get to make a fool of myself and have four bodily extremities in four different states (at the exact same time) and to be able to tell about it afterwards. P.S. That cross is in Groom, Texas 40 miles East of Amarillo (off of I-40) and really should have been in the Route 66 post but I forgot it. It is actually over 150 feet tall. It was put up by a religious group in 1995 and can be seen for miles in any direction. It is made out of stainless steel. “Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?” ~ Will Rogers               
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 Well folks... Mrs. LZ and I have just returned from a pretty extensive road trip of some almost 3,500 miles. So rather than just doing this chronologically, I thought I'd mix this up a little and start with the ending and move backwards and confuse both myself and the reader. I am not so sure I can say that I have ever done a post about a road before, but in our travels this summer, we came across the signs for the old historic "Route 66" in many of our travel destinations. Any of you who may have seen the "Great American Travel Adventure" on TV this summer will already know about this historic route and where it goes and its derivation, but for those of you who may not, here's some facts that may be useful. Officially, the numerical designation 66 was assigned to the Chicago to Los Angeles route in the summer of 1926. With that designation came its acknowledgment as one of the nation's principal east-west arteries. From the outset, public road planners intended U.S. 66 to connect the main streets of rural and urban communities along its course for the most practical of reasons: most small towns had no prior access to a major national thoroughfare. While legislation for public highways first appeared in 1916, with revisions in 1921, it was not until Congress enacted an even more comprehensive version of the act in 1925 that the government executed its plan for national highway construction. Albuquerque boosters began pushing for a straighter route, and in 1931, federal money was designated to realign the road to a more east-west direction. By 1937, the entire route from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California was paved. The new road carried thousands of GI's longing for a better look at America and yearning to see what the country held in store for them. Route 66 was fixed in the memory of many by John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath and Bobby Troup's lyric "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" as well as CBS TV's "Route 66". Today I-40 runs over much of the original roadbed, but many parts of the old highway can be seen today just beside I-40. Albuquerque and Santa Fe as well as many other then relatively small towns grew up along Route 66. Near Route 66, you'll also find the Albuquerque Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science and the National Atomic Museum. Walking or driving along Central Avenue in the downtown area, you can enjoy the majesty of this vibrant district. Step into the Pueblo-Deco KiMo Theater and the ambiance of diners and boutiques along the way. You can stop for a bite at one of the revitalized diners and other restaurants that line the route. We found many many of those in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but we were trying to find Maria's (a favorite of our youngest son and his wife). We finally gave up that effort and just decided to keep moving toward home. But in spite of that the revitalized Route 66 was a real treat for us. As you can see from several of the photos I have attached to this post, many familiar old signs could be seen all along those Old Route 66 Highways all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles. In fact I was so taken by a Texas Highway Rest stop about 50 miles outside of Amarillo, Texas that I included many shots that I took not only of the rest-stop, but also from the inside of the ladies room (which Mrs. LZ consented to help me with). This highway technically is now called US Interstate 40 (which we took) all the way to Oklahoma City before parting ways with it. One of the other signs I have posted as the top picture here was one of the "Historic Route 66" signs we took while in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You may also notice that one of these signs in the Texas rest area was particularly concerning to us. I am sure you can figure out which one I am referring to? And... you can believe me when I say that neither Mrs. LZ nor I either one ventured in the rocks or grasses around that particular stop. Most of the other signs were actually hung inside the rest stop. Mrs. LZ did manage to find us a couple of our new favorite delicacy called a Texas Cinnamon Bun. While probably not on the Zagot's List as a classic dining facility, we did enjoy our restful stop there on our way back home. "About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation." ~ Will Rogers               
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 Not too far from the location of my last post from Denver, Colorado is a place called Estes Park, Colorado and it is the gateway to the Rocky Mountain National Park which just happens to be one of those National Parks that should be experienced rather than just viewed. But frankly, the viewing is perhaps as staggering to the eye as many of the other National Parks in the United States. Although having said that, I still plan to upload several of my favorite shots of the park along with this post. But, as you can see from these pictures, the park itself has a very diverse population of not only plants and trees, but also of animals who inhabit the park in almost every corner of its huge size and the fact that it's also a living showcase of the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, with its elevations ranging from 8,000 feet in the wet, grassy valleys to 14,259 feet at the weather-ravaged top of Longs Peak, provides visitors like us with opportunities for countless breathtaking experiences and the many adventures to be found everywhere you look in the park. We also picnicked in the park, but I will spare you the shot of our picnic table, but it was right near to where I took the moose picture. Throughout its 416 square miles of rock-ribbed wilderness, Rocky Mountain National Park truly is a land of superlatives. Here you will find that at least 60 mountains exceed 12,000 feet, topping off at 14,259 feet on the football field-sized summit of Longs Peak. Names such as Cirrus, Chiefs Head, Isolation, Mummy, and Storm evoke the grandeur of this high landscape. Among its many attributes, Rocky Mountain National Park has also been the home to Native Americans for at least the last 12,000 years. This even makes me feel young, but the remains of all the known prehistoric cultures except Folsom (ca. 10,000-8000 years ago) have been found in the park. The basic prehistoric sequence is Clovis (11,000–10,000); Folsom; Early, Middle and Late Archaic (7,500-2,000); and the Early, Middle, and Late Ceramic cultures (2,000 to 300). The major inhabitants of the Park area in historic times were the Ute and Arapaho. Ute origins may have been in the Great Basin and/or the mountainous areas of the State and we strongly suspect that Uto-Aztecan speaking ancestors of the Ute have occupied the Colorado Mountains for at least 6,000 years. The Apache appear to have been in the park for at least 400 years as based on the presence of their pottery and historical accounts of a battle with the Arapaho in the 1830s in Upper Beaver Meadow. The Arapaho homeland was originally in Minnesota, and they migrated into Colorado by about 1790. No less than 36 place names in the Park are of Arapaho origin. By about 1880, the Ute had been moved to reservations in Colorado and Utah, and the Arapaho to Oklahoma and Wyoming. Due to the high altitude and severe winters, occupation for these hunter-gatherers in the park was confined to the warmer months. Major occupation may have been in the fall of the year when the high altitude elk game drives were in operation. Present evidence indicates that winter occupation was at lower altitude along the Front Range, and in Middle and North Parks. Historic archeological sites include the remains of roads, resorts, ranches, mines, mining towns, cabins, sawmills, water control structures, three CCC camps, signs, and several old National Park Service campgrounds and entrance stations. Some 400 prehistoric and 600 historic archeological sites have been recorded thanks to a five year long survey of the park by the University of Northern Colorado. Although the great peaks comprise the essence of the park, the delicate alpine flowers, clear lakes, rushing mountain waters, and impressive forests appeal to all the senses. An array of wildlife - bighorn sheep, ptarmigan, coyote, elk all adds life to the landscape almost around every corner. As you can see I caught a few shots of many of those my self as well as a marmot which look a lot like the woodchuck I found in my yard last summer. Can you see it on the rocks in the first (top) shot? Well, if you can't a also put in a closer shot down below. The wide variety of elevations and habitats create a choice of activities for visitors. From scenic drives and short strolls along a gentle trail to more ambitious daylong hikes to vertical mountain climbs, Rocky Mountain National Park offers many ways to experience nature in all of its splendor. Going to the highest point of the road that runs through the park from a starting point in Boulder Colorado then up to Estes Park then on to the Beaver Meadows Entrance Station of the park we went all the way through the park from visitor center to visitor center and finally exited the park out of the Southwestern corner of the park which finally lead us down to Grand Lake and eventually south back to Highway 70. This day long auto trip through the park made for a whole day of stopping and looking over the views of the valleys below and seeing the interesting wildlife around almost every corner of this wonderful park. I can’t wait for another trip around and through this wonderful National Park someday in the not too distant future. "A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away."~ Barry Goldwater                   
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 As many of you know, when Mrs. LZ and I are in a different (either medium or large sized) town, we usually try and venture out to check out the local botanical garden to see what they have to offer. Some of these have turned out to be real treasures and not always necessarily expected. I would say that was exactly the way we thought about our experience at the Denver Botanic Gardens. We were not expecting anything as nice or certainly as large as perhaps the Chicago Botanic Gardens but also nothing as nice as what we found there. The Denver Botanic Gardens are located at York Street right downtown between Cheeseman Park on the West and Congress Park on the Southeast of gardens. The gardens actually presents a very wide range of gardens and collections that illustrate an ever-widening diversity of plants from all corners of the world. Not just from the Colorado area. These distinctive gardens define and celebrate their Western identity and a unique high altitude climate and geography. An additional uniqueness about the gardens here in Denver is that many of their innovative gardens are in fact models of drought-tolerance and they also showcase native and adapted plants that thrive in many Western gardens in several of the adjoining states. Throughout the Denver Botanic Gardens, there are time honored traditions of European horticulture merged with a dynamic diversity of plants and design that represent the best in local horticultural achievement. Denver Botanic Gardens is an accredited museum by the American Association of Museums, with scientifically documented living collections and two preserved collections. The garden’s Plant Records Department manages botanical and horticultural information for over 16,000 taxa (plural of the name applied to a taxonomic group in a formal system of nomenclature) in over 250 plant families. While there we had to evade several little downpours, which could help explain my "less than normal" amount of photos. Of course it could be that I was just busy enjoying the beauty all around me. This Denver Botanic Gardens was a hit in LZ's Places to see while you are in Denver. "Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country." ~ Margaret Thatcher      
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 So you might ask; “Where in the heck have I been?” Well the truth is that in the last couple of months (and in a three week period) I have had to take two separate week long trips to upstate New York. It wasn’t bad enough that I had to take one trip there, but with just one week at home, I had to turn right around and do it again. While I was flying over Buffalo, NY., I could not help but think of the (then recent) plane crash just outside of Buffalo. But at the same time I saw Niagara Falls from the air. The cold and whiteness of the ground outside reminded me of a trip that Mrs. LZ and I took several years ago to view the falls in the wintertime from the Canadian side. Even though I am sure than many of you may have seen the falls in the summertime, but I doubt if many of you have ever seen the falls in the wintertime. But those of you who have, I am sure that you will agree with me, that it a totally different than it is in the summertime? I did a blog post about the falls many months ago, but it really dealt with the normal history and experiences around the falls. But the summer falls bare little similarity to what the falls look like in the dead of winter. The only thing that seemed the same to me about the falls was the noise that was generated by the falling water of the falls over their precipice which still had that almost deafening sound that the falls generated. They even have what is called the “Winter Festival of Lights” there at this time of year. Of coarse we didn’t stick around on our day trip there to see the falls lit up at night, but the pictures that we saw of it seemed that they were just beautiful. In fact, you can experience the illuminating beauty of the lights located along the Niagara Parks Winter Wonderland lighting route and throughout the City of Niagara Falls! Their event’s fireworks illuminate the winter sky above the falls every Friday night! The mighty falls glows with color nightly during this Winter Festival of Lights. Also as part of the festival, you can enjoy fantastic stage productions throughout the Festival. In fact, past performances have included Disney's® Beauty and the Beast and Seussical the Musical! You can also have a barrel of laughs at the Niagara Falls Comedy Fest with top comedians from around the world. Past performers at these events have included John Pinette, Brent Butt, Nikki Payne & Jeremy Hotz! If so inclined, you can get your cheer on at the Annual Festival of Lights Cheerleading Competition! During the Winter Festival of Lights, the 3 plus mile lighting route along the Niagara Parkway is known as the Niagara Parks Winter Wonderland. Within the Niagara Parks Winter Wonderland, you will notice the Life in Niagara lighting displays, which feature the award-winning Niagara grape and wine industry, an historic 1812 battle, and Fort Erie Racing. A wide variety of winter activities like skating, skiing, ice hockey and carriage rides are also displayed throughout the Niagara Parks Winter Wonderland. And while we didn’t do any of these, it was still nice to know that they were available to us for a price. While I can’t recommend the falls location weather temperatures in the winter, I can still honestly recommend the view! “No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.” ~ Joan Rivers            
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 Before I get to this somewhat unique post, I want to apologize to all of you who have been wondering where in the heck I have been for the last month or so. The truth is that not only are the holidays a busy time of year for our family... what with birthdays, wedding anniversaries, Christmas and New Year, but this year we even threw in a wedding and several other events to boot. In addition to having all of that going on, our PC has been having some issues too. Issues so bad in fact, that we had to put it out of its misery and secure ourselves a new one. That event has just been completed this last weekend. But the trying to recover data and photos has been well... TRYING! Now on to the post… The hands you see here are actually those of Mrs. LZ and me. At least how they looked 40 years ago. It is really hard to believe that Mrs. LZ has put up with being married to me for exactly 40 years last month! Wow! What courage, what guts, what backbone and what tenacity this woman has shown. But really, what I would say in all seriousness is "What LOVE she has shown me over all of that time!" When I think about the fact that after our wonderful honeymoon night on a round bed in the Honeymoon Suite at the Mission Inn in Riverside, California, we followed it directly by our snow-bound honeymoon week in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California (by the way... we spent it in a cabin) hidden away in Lake Arrowhead, California. It all seems not all that long ago and many of those memories are still fresh. I could also tell you all about the first meal I tried to make for my new bride, but then you'd "really wonder" why she has stayed with me for these four decades. (Really that part hasn't changed too much over 40 years). If I can't grill it, you're better off not trying to fill it... (Your stomach that is). Ask Mrs. LZ sometime about my Honeymoon biscuits covered with baked marshmallows... ah... NO scratch that! She may have forgotten that " particular instance" in these last four decades, and I'd really hate to remind her of it if in fact she has forgotten it. Then when I think about moving into our new (newlywed) apartment which was shortly followed by my fourteen and a half months in the jungles of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, it seems like millenniums away from today. But we did what we had to do, and thankfully I came home to her in one piece and a few pounds lighter and a lot tanner. For everyday that I spent in Vietnam we wrote each other a letter and because out in the jungles, the mail is not always as good as it was " Back in the World," we both used to number the back of the envelope so that if we got more than one delivered in the same day, we would know which one to read first. I also took a deck of cards over there with me and once every week I would put a card in one of my letters. I told my new bride that by the time she had the whole deck of cards at home, that I would be home to her very soon too. When I actually extended my tour of duty over there for another two and a half months, I started sending her the jokers from that deck. I am not sure how funny she found either of those two actions, but she abided with my decision and never really discussed my decision with me in our letters. I had my reasons for doing that, which were mostly driven by the fact that when I got back to the world, I just wanted to put Vietnam and the U.S. Army experience behind me and go back to my civilian job and the wife that I loved and missed. I think that experience is something that I will never forget and retrospectively I am honored to have been able to serve my country. But like I have told many people, I think it may be even tougher on the spouses of servicemen and servicewoman than it is on those who are actually involved directly in the service of their country. I think they serve differently, but none the less, they TOO serve. Every time I see a soldier kiss his young bride "goodbye" at an airport, I just want to run up to them, hug them both and say; "I know how it feels!" If someone was to ask me; “What is the secret to being married for 40 years?” I would have to say that you just can't give up on each other ever! Sometimes the things that bring you the most strife in your life are actually the things that make your love stronger and bring you closer together. You have to work at a marriage every day and you don't get to take a day off from it. But at the end of each day, you know that you have done the right thing in order to keep your marriage strong. Because most of you were not able to make it to our wedding... (Because many of you may not even been born then) but regardless of that, you can now vicariously re-live that day through our photos of it that I have posted here and this slide show I put together for my wife to help celebrate our 40th Anniversary via this musical slide show of our wedding.Our 40th Anniversary was celebrated by our sons and their families. The first thing they did was to invite us over to lunch at our youngest son’s house, where he and his fiancé made brunch for all of us included guests were my Mother-in-Law (who was spending the holidays with us) and then my oldest son and his wife and our grandson and two granddaughters. After the brunch was over we were presented with a card with reservations to a very nice restaurant here in the city with a nice amount of cash to pay for a very lavish dinner that is probably not something we would have done on our own. After we opened the cards, I played the Wedding Video (above) we then played “Guitar Hero” for a while and then they said we had to all take off for our oldest son's house where they had a cookie and punch celebration for us too. When we got over to his place, we noticed that our neighbors and really good friends pulled up right in front of us. After we went into his house, the door bell kept ringing with more and more of our best friends who were also there for the Surprise Party they had put together to celebrate our special day. Our kids had really pulled off the SURPRISE part of the party and none of the guests had given away the surprise. It was truly a wonderful day and the dinner was wonderful. Mrs. LZ and I could not have been prouder! Even though I have picked up a few more pounds and a few more wrinkles and (for me) a lot more gray hair, I love Mrs. LZ today even much more than I did on the day that I married her. She was truly a gift from God for me! Mrs. LZ; "I will love you tell death do us part... and still… even long after that!" You are WONDERFUL! ALL MY LOVE!"So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself." Ephesians 5:28                     
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 This was one of those tours that I really was not all that wild about doing, but I could not have been more wrong about this dam. From the minute we pulled into the parking lot and got our first real look at the dam, boy was it impressive! It was really a lot bigger than it looked as we were flying into Las Vegas. But if you get to Las Vegas sometime, it is worth the drive out to Bolder City to just see it, if for nothing else. We found out all sorts of things about the dam and its history. Like that fact that in 1930, construction began on the Hoover Dam and it was the largest dam of its kind at the time. Despite its remote location and harsh working conditions, it was completed in less than five years. That was actually two years ahead of schedule and unlike most government projects it was well under budget too. Of course the dam is named after America's 31st president, Herbert Hoover, who also played an extremely large role in bringing the nearby states into agreement about water allocations, thus settling an ongoing 25-year controversy. The dam has been called Boulder Canyon Dam as well as Boulder Dam, but Hoover Dam was reinstated as the official name by Congress in 1947*. As a National Historic Landmark, Hoover Dam is the highest concrete dam in the Western Hemisphere, standing at more than 725 feet above the Colorado River. With 17 generators producing 4 billion kilowatts of electricity a year, it also is one of the country's largest hydroelectric power facilities. Operation and maintenance of the facility are solely supported by revenue from power sales. Two tours of the dam are available and well worth the time and money spent. For $11 per person (and discounts were available for children, seniors and active military) is the actual Hoover Dam Power Plant Tour. This tour is broken up into several components at numerous locations. The unique tour format allows guests to pick and choose which locations they want to see and the complete tour generally lasts about two hours. The Hoover Dam Power Plant Tour begins like a lot of the tours we’ve been on, with a brief video presentation depicting the history of Hoover Dam and how it came to be. Afterwards, a guide will escorted us to an elevator for a 500-foot descent to get an up-close look at the power plant generators housed at the base of the dam. The dam is 726.4 feet high, 1,244 feet across at the top, it is 660 feet thick at the base and 45 feet thick at the top. It weighs 6.6 million tons and can store up 2 years 'average' flow from the Colorado River. Total storage capacity can be measured in 30,500,000 acre feet and the surface area of Lake Mead is 146,000 acres, the maximum water surface elevation of Lake Mead is 1229 FT, the maximum depth of Lake Mead is 590 FT, the length of Lake Mead is 115 miles. One of the shots I have here (below) was of two of the "Winged Figures of the Republic" by Oskar J.W. Hansen, which is part of the monument of dedication on the Nevada side of the dam. I just thought that it was very cool and in fact it reminded me of something that could have been built by the same architects of the Great Pyramid of Giza. It also had many signs and symbols of the marble slabs in front of the Winged Figures of the Republic. It was really one of my favorite parts of the dam area.The dam has a power generating capacity of 2.8 million kilowatts, and it cost ONLY $49,000,000 to build Hoover Dam, $165,000,000 to complete the Boulder Canyon Project which includes the Imperial Dam, Hoover Dam and the American Canal. If you look at it closely, see if you don't fell the way I did upon viewing it? The dam contains about 4,360,000 cubic yards of concrete. There are 96,000,000 pounds of steel and metalwork used by the dam - but none of it is actually IN the dam. In spite of some rumors to the opposite, NO ONE IS BURIED IN THE DAM (because Jimmy Hoffa went missing long after the dam was completed)! About 16,000 men and women worked on the project and about 3,500 people were employed at any specific time. Officially, there were 96 'industrial' fatalities during the construction of Hoover Dam. Guests on the dam tour can also see the original diversion tunnels and stand atop a giant, 30-foot pipe where they can feel the rumble of Colorado River water racing through it. It was so busy around the dam with all of the cars and all of the tourists that it is no wonder that Project Management Team (PMT) was developed to oversee the design and construction of the project. The PMT has representation from each of the major project stakeholders including the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the States of Arizona and Nevada, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) and the National Park Service (NPS). Central Federal Lands Highway Division (CFLHD) will act in the lead management role for all elements of project procurement, design and construction. Construction of the Colorado River Bridge is advancing with construction of the 1,060 foot twin-rib concrete arch. The Colorado River Bridge is the central portion of the Hoover Dam Bypass Project. Construction on the nearly 2,000 foot long bridge began in late January 2005 and the completion of the entire Hoover Dam Bypass Project is expected in June 2010. When completed, this signature bridge will span the Black Canyon (about 1,600 feet south of the Hoover Dam), connecting the Arizona and Nevada Approach highways nearly 900-feet above the Colorado River. It was easy to see where the work was going on there, but I still wasn’t too sure that anything was going to hurry traffic along in this area unless they make the new bridge a NON-tourist route. But then, I could be wrong! "This morning I came, I saw, and I was conquered, as everyone would be who sees for the first time this great feat of mankind. . . .Ten years ago the place where we gathered was an un-peopled, forbidding desert. In the bottom of the gloomy canyon whose precipitous walls rose to height of more than a thousand feet, flowed a turbulent, dangerous river. . . . The site of Boulder City was a cactus-covered waste. And the transformation wrought here in these years is a twentieth century marvel." ~ From a Speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Dedication of Boulder (Hoover) Dam, September 30, 1935 *P.S. For those who care about this historical detail, on May 8, 1933, Harold Ickes, Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, decided that the name of the dam should be 'Boulder Dam', its original name. The reason for this was no doubt political. Then on April 30, 1947, the resolution renaming the dam back to Hoover Dam was passed by congress and signed by President Harry S. Truman.       
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 What can you say about a place with such natural beauty as Barbados? Well I read the “Travel & Leisure” Magazine every month and this month they have about 10 pages about this wonderful little country. So it made me want to do a post about it for those of you that may want to go there some time. One thing I caution you about is what side of the road they drive on, to say nothing about where they happened to place the steering wheels in their rentals cars, but that only takes a few mistakes to make you think carefully while driving around the island. Barbados is the most eastern island in the Caribbean and is a tiny dot on most world maps with an area of 166 sq miles. Barbados has a population of about 260,000 which is quite high considering its size. With 60 miles of coastline, Barbados has much to offer its visitors in terms of water sports and beach activities. I hope you will be spending much of your day relaxing there! We did, but we did a lot of travel around the island as well. In researching for our trip we found out that the island was uninhabited when first settled by the British in 1627. Slaves worked the sugar plantations established on the island until 1834 when slavery was abolished. The economy remained heavily dependent on sugar, rum and molasses production through most of the 20th century. The gradual introduction of social and political reforms in the 1940s and 1950s led to complete independence from the UK in 1966. In the 1990s, tourism and manufacturing surpassed the sugar industry in economic importance. The country is close to Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and just Northeast and right off of the coast of Venezuela. Their primary Industries include: Tourism, sugar, financial services, information services, light manufacturing, component assembly for export. And of course the world famous Barbados Rum production. In our travels around the country, we saw not only lots of this famous sugar cane, but we also saw sugar beets crops being grow. They were carted around in horse driven carts (just like this guy that I have added a picture of) at the bottom of my post here. The one thing that we were cautioned about was trying to take pictures of the Bajans themselves. They have a fear that it captures part of their soul to be photographed. But for a few bucks… this guy was more than happy to give up a little of his soul. There were several things that we did that we really enjoyed. One of those adventures was called "Harrison’s Cave", which was like a smaller version of the Carlsbad Caverns. I’ll post a couple of shots from inside the caves too. The caves are geographically located in the center of Barbados, Harrison's Cave is a natural phenomenon, unique to the tropical world. The really cool part about it was that you get to ride through them. This specially designed transport takes you down through the underground tunnels to a sight so beautiful, that few can compare. In the specially lighted caverns, you can view the majestic stalactites and stalagmites which have been growing from the floors and ceilings for many centuries. Cascading through the caves, the crystal blue waters form magnificent pools and waterfalls, filling the senses with sights and sounds of such pure wonder, that it is guaranteed to be the experience of a lifetime. It was one of the highlights of our trip and not something you would ever expect to find in Barbados. Another very enjoyable side trip away from the beautiful white sand beaches of this lovely island country was a trip to what they call the “Flower Forest of Barbados”. It was located in the heart of St. Joseph and is called the Flower Forest. This 50 acre attraction offers an explosion of greenery and commanding vistas of the island's stunning Scotland District. You can see from my pictures here that the owners aptly consider this attraction "a cross between a botanical garden and a nature trail", since you can take an hour or a day to leisurely stroll the Forest’s winding paths while eyeing a virtual wonderland of tropical flora (as you can see Mrs. LZ doing here). The paths are all amusingly named, and while you will never get lost, you might get really confused as there are several short and long cuts coming off the main paths. "Don't worry, be happy" as there is no time limit and no fixed way to travel through this forestland. The Flower Forest has a main lobby with gift shop and snackette (as they called it). Another thing we did there was to check out the capital of the country. It is the historic Bridgetown and is one of the oldest cities in the Caribbean with many historic landmarks and a variety of restaurants and Duty-Free shopping. Of course Mrs. LZ wanted to spend more time here than I did, but it was a bustling little city. It also had many old historic buildings, most of which looked like they would have fit right in anywhere in the U.K. in the 19th century. Another place that we really enjoyed was the Old Codrington College in the St. Johns part of the country. You may actually remember this post from several months ago? So I won't add shots of it again. But if you want to see the post, (again or for perhaps the first time) you can see it by clicking on its name in this paragraph. More than 70 per cent of the island's 260,000 people are direct descendents from the forced mass Africa migration of the late 1600s and 1700s-the slave trade. The island also has a peaceful blend of European (primarily British) settler blood with the Afro descendents, as well as small but vibrant Hindu (India), Arab (Lebanese and Syrian) and Jewish communities. African influence is readily seen in the art, craft and literary works produced on the island, as well as many of the foods and figures of speech. Bajans are a quick-witted, fun-loving people and their gift for the double entendre or turn of phrase is most visible through calypso and literature. Local festivals, particularly the island's biggest national festival, Crop Over, (think Mardi Gras) reflect specific elements of Bajan life. The primary driving force of the economy and lifestyle is the sugar crop. It was the island's largest income-earner from the late 1600s until the late 1980s, and remains a powerful influence in both the lifestyle and the economy. "Crop Over" is a celebration of this agricultural mainstay. The other prime economic influence is, of course, the fishing industry and festivals hailing this trade are also held. We also noticed a lot of farm animals (like goats and cows) wandering around many of the areas that looked like they could have been family farms without fences. If you happened to be in the center part of the island, it was not very easy to figure out where you were, but after all it is an island, so how lost can you get? (Don’t ask!) But in spite of that, this still gets the LZ stamp of approval. "We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot". ~ ABRAHAM LINCOLN, in a speech delivered before the first Republican state convention of Illinois, Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856                         
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 As many of you may know, I love to photograph both plants and flowers. So, an opportunity to visit the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln, Nebraska was one of the highlights to our trip there. Even though there are many tourist activities that would rate much higher on some other peoples' lists of things to see in Lincoln, Nebraska, this one rated about the highest with me. As you can see from these pictures, it was just a beautiful day and an ever prettier garden. The gardens themselves are at the southwest corner of 27th and D Streets, and have been the pride and joy of citizens since its completion in 1931. This 1.5 acre lot was constructed over the winter of 1930-31, during the worst financial depression the United States ever experienced. Well that may be a sign that it might be time for a new wing to this place given the current economic times and our own stock market woes, but this project was part of a program used by the City of Lincoln as an opportunity for unemployed men to earn money to support their families. The program helped families survive those hard times, as very little money was available for employment in any line of work. In the early 1900s, Antelope Park extended from Sheridan Boulevard to O street, following the meandering path of the Antelope Creek. The construction of a new bridge over 27th street and Capital Parkway required straightening and relocating the stream several hundred feet to the north through D Street. Completion of the bridge left a large depression in the middle of the lot with a sheer bank on all sides, preventing development. As a result, for many years the area was used primarily during the winter by the neighboring children for sledding. Incorporating the corner of 27th and D streets into an active part of the parks system had been a desire for many years. The piece of land that makes up the base of the Sunken Gardens was donated by Mr. Henry H. and Mrs. Sarah H. Frey in 1906. During this time, several lots in this area were donated to the Parks Department, adding to the linear nature of the park along Antelope Creek. In the fall of 1930, J.C. Seacrest donated two adjacent lots on the west side of the block to the Parks Department. The addition of these lots to the site provided the opportunity to create a garden of beauty for Lincoln's residents. E.M. Bair, city commissioner and park head, (in those days) was the driving force behind the acquisition of this parcel of land and its development. Many newspaper articles credit Commissioner Bair as being one of the main government officials responsible for much of the development in the Parks Department. During this time, Bair created several different city improvements projects, of which he was able to assign temporary jobs to more than 200 unemployed men. This government sponsored program was put into effect to benefit the city and those in need Crew members were able to work an eight-hour shift at the rate of 40 cents per hour, twice per week, earning $6.40 per week. These temporary crews were sent out to work in many different areas of the parks to perform tasks ranging from tree trimming to construction projects. It was from this work force that at least 15 men were added to existing parks staff to help construct the Sunken Gardens. In the beginning, the Sunken Gardens was referred to as Lincoln's "Rock Garden" to reflect its design. In fact when we first saw this place, we were somewhat surprised because we sort of thought that the gardens would have been under water rather that just under the street elevation from which it garners its name. During the 1930s, in the United States, building rock gardens in progressive communities such as Lincoln was very popular. These gardens, including the Sunken Gardens, used rocks to form the garden's skeleton and contained rocks structures, such as water fountains or memorials. Rock retaining walls at different heights created terraced levels in the garden. Each level could be filled with different types of ground hugging sedum, a succulent perennial. Rock gardens were often located along and designed to mimic natural ravines using winding patterns and irregular widths. These design elements can still be seen in the rock walls of the Sunken Gardens. Construction of the garden began with the removal of the old disfigured trees on the site. Then several truckloads of rock were brought to the site to lay out the rock walls. The rock used in the walls of the garden was harvested entirely from Lancaster County, of which Lincoln is the county seat. The cost of hauling the rock and the labor to install it were the only expenses for building the walls. The lower retaining walls were constructed of white limestone, while the reddish-colored rocks, which were collected from land south of where the Nebraska State Penitentiary currently stands, provided the main color scheme for the walls. Semicircular flower beds were used to decorate the slopes along the north and east banks of the garden next to 27th and D streets. These beds were designed to accentuate the bright hues of the plantings on the bottom of the garden, contrasted by white gravel paths that wandered throughout the garden. Three cement-lined pools were built in the bottom of the garden to create peaceful sights and sounds of water. The southern-most pool was used exclusively for a water lily display and contained several species of tropical and hardy water lilies. Henry Goebel reported that the majority of the lilies had been purchased from the Botanical Gardens in St. Louis, Missouri. The garden's main water display was the four-level waterfall, which flowed down the southern terraces. Water was pumped approximately 20 feet to the top and then trickled down four large steps into a pool stocked with colorful fish. "I expect to make this spot the most beautiful place in the city, either in or out of the parks. The ground lends itself perfectly to the making of a sunken garden, and at the same time a spot rich in beauty, at a small expense." ~ E.M. Bair, Lincoln NE city commissioner and park head during the years of the Great Depression            
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 Hailed as "America's Desert Playground" and a refuge for Hollywood's brightest stars, Palm Springs offers miles of palm-lined canyons, cascading waterfalls, desert flora, and big horn sheep. The city blends a rich heritage — steeped in Indian, Mexican and Western cultures — with world-class entertainment and a sophisticated business district. Palm Springs is referred to as "The Golf Capital of the World," with more than 100 championship courses. As you know from my previous post, Palm Springs Aerial Tramway takes sightseers from the sun-drenched desert to snow-capped mountains. The popular Village in Palm Springs is alive with a variety of restaurants, trendy shops, historic sites and annual festivals. Towering in the background, of these cities is the majestic Mt. San Jacinto offers hiking and horseback riding. As I am sure that you remember that this is also at the top of the Arial Tramway. As for the best season to visit... Palm Springs is said to be sunny and warm 354 days a year. If you are so inclined, you can take a tour in Palm Springs to see how the rich and famous live via a tour of the Palm Springs Celebrity Tour. This glamorous tour drives past 30-40 homes of the celebrities. If you can only imagine yourself living in abodes formerly occupied by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Walter Annenberg. The tour also includes a great commentary and a bit of Palm Springs history thrown in for good measure. You can also visit the cities of Cathedral City (The re-born city), Rancho Mirage (The Playground of the Presidents), Indian Wells (The wealthiest city in the nation), Palm Desert (Home of El Paseo Drive). This street is often called the “Rodeo Drive” of the Desert and could actually been a post in and of itself. But most of the stores that you see on Rodeo Drive you weill find on El Paseo Drive as well . But the closest Mrs. LZ and I actually got to entering one of these stores, was a trip to the Rudy’s Resturant for a large Strawberry malt! Palm Desert (which by the way, is where we just happened to be staying our week on our visit to the Palm Springs area). While on this leg of the tour, you can see the estates of Frank Sinatra, Walter Annenberg, and even the church that Dolly Sinatra re-furbished. You can also walk through a nature garden and much more. We happened to be staying at the Marriott Resort Villas there in Palm Desert. The tour takes a short break to experience the natural Dates of the Coachello Valley. The Coachella Valley is a large stretch of land in Southern California that is populated by close to a million people and which includes the famed tourist mecca of Palm Springs. After this short break, you will head into the heart of the “Old Movie Colony” of Palm Springs and the Las Palmas area of Palm Springs. You can even get up close and personal with the stars on the second leg of their tour. You also get to see the homes of stars like Bob Hope, Dina Shore, Alan Ladd, Elvis, Liberace, Celine Dion, Arnold Schwartzenagger, Ronald Regan, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and several more. I have never seen so many golf courses in such a small area in my life. There may be some, but I sure don’t know where they are. It is amazing to me just how all of these perfectly manicured golf courses were so green and beautiful, when the truth about that particular area of California is more adept to the Sand Traps than it is to beautifully manicured “greens”. If you go just a few miles from any of these beautiful resort golf courses, what you find is a nothing more than a stark desert. Even though the desert can also be beautiful, but perhaps the next time we go there, we’ll wait until winter. Palm Springs, California has been called a desert oasis with a cosmopolitan twist and LZ agrees! Well... and where else can you get a "Ruby's" Shake, an "In & Out" Burger and an "Island's" burger and a "Karl's Jr.'s" burger all in one afternoon? "Not to have known- as most men have not-either the mountain or the desert is not to have known one's self. Not to have known one's self is to have known no one."- Joseph Wood Krutch                  
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 While in Southern California, the one thing I told Mrs. LZ that I really wanted to do was to take the relatively newly renovated Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up to its top station. The biggest difference in the renovation is that the cars now rotate around twice in the path from both the bottom to the top and from the top to the bottom. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway constructed in rugged Chino Canyon on the north edge of Palm Springs is about two hours by car from Los Angeles and San Diego did not just happen. It required foresight, planning, financing and, most of all a vision. For years, it was the dream of a young electrical engineer named Francis F. Crocker to "go up there where it's nice and cool".Construction of the Tramway was an engineering challenge and was soon labeled the "eighth wonder of the world." The superlative was earned because of the ingenious use of helicopters in erecting four of the five supporting towers. Some 20 years later, the Tramway was designated an historical civil engineering landmark. When we got there I noticed that there seemed to be a lot more places to park than I remember seeing here on my previous some 30 + years earlier. But I would still say that the area looked about the same as I remembered it. Except (if you look at the second shot on the bottom) that is what the cars looked like that I rode in back then. The ride up the side of the mountain was just as simulating as I had remembered it, but this time you had the change of viewing direction as it did its two 360 On a hot summer's day, one of the best things to do in Palm Springs is to take a ride from the dry desert floor with the Aerial Tramway, 5,873 feet up into the cool, moist climate of the San Jacinto Mountains. Come and ascend into a pristine wilderness aboard the world's largest rotating tramcars! Truly one of the greatest experiences in Southern California! These are the world's largest rotating tramcars that carry visitors from an elevation of 2,643 feet (where we parked to start the trip) to a Mountain Station located at the 8,516-foot level of Mt San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness. It also has the steepest vertical cable rise in the U.S. and the second steepest in the world. They say that the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is truly one of the greatest experiences in Southern California. What is remarkable about the ride, aside from the breathtaking views of the valley, is the change in temperature. At the bottom of the tram route, the temperature on the desert floor can reach 120 degrees. Rising up through mountain canyons and chimneys, you arrive in an arctic-alpine forest with giant Ponderosa pines. The thrilling vertical ascent gives you views of the Chino Canyon and the San Jacinto Mountains from the front of the car, while the Sonoran Desert is splayed out below from the rear of the car. Look to the top of Chino Canyon, snap a few photos, and then look behind and below as you move from one ecological zone to another. Even though the day we did this, it seemed pretty smoggy to me, but it didn’t damage our excitement, but it did kind of spoil my photos of the desert floor from the top though We noticed at the Mountain Station, you can walk from the car into the large, 3-story facility which has a cocktail lounge, dining facilities, a gift shop and observation decks. We walked all around here and after going outside and hiking around a little (while taking some photos up there too.) One of my favorite parts up here was the station theater. It featured "Building on a Dream" which was an 18-minute film on the history of the history and construction of the Tramway. I really sort of enjoyed hearing all of this information and seeing the pictures of the construction of the tramway. Up at the top you can also explore the 14,000-acre Mt. San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness Area, which has 54 miles of hiking trails, rustic campgrounds, and granite outcroppings providing clear views of the cities below. One of the things that I sort of forgot about is that once you go up there, you can stay for as long as you want, but if you are there after the last cable car goes down, you’ll be stuck up there for the rest of the night. It almost made me want to wait and go down after dark, but I think that the last one actually goes down before it actually gets dark, plus there would not be much to see down below except the lights of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, La Quinta and Indio. Another interesting point to me was that the two cable cars are actually tied together at opposite ends of the cable. This means that you pass the other car both halfway up and halfway down the mountain. And even though you are both traveling at the exact same speed, it seems as though the other car is going faster than you are. It was really an enjoyable ride and it gets the LZ seal of approval. If you get out around Palm Springs, California it is worth a small side trip to the Tramway. “Talk not of wasted affection! affection never was wasted;
If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters returning
Back to their springs, like the rain, shall fill them full of refreshment” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow                              
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 This was not our first visit to either San Diego nor was it our first visit to Old Town in that city. We used to visit here a couple of times a year while we lived in Southern California. But frankly, I had never given it as much attention as it had probably always deserved. One reason may have been that I never really knew that as part of the the Founding of California Old Town San Diego is actually considered the "birthplace" of California. San Diego is the site of the first permanent Spanish settlement in California. It was here in 1769, that Father Junipero Serra came to establish the very first mission in a chain of 21 missions that were to be the cornerstone of California’s colonization. Father Serra’s mission and Presidio were built on a hillside overlooking what is currently known as Old Town San Diego. At the base of the hill in 1820’s, a small Mexican community of adobe buildings was formed and by 1835 had attained the status of El Pueblo de San Diego. In 1846, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant and a Marine Lieutenant, raised the American flag in the Old Town San Diego Plaza. In 1968, the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation established Old Town State Historic Park to preserve the rich heritage that characterized San Diego during the 1821 to 1872 period. The park includes a main plaza, exhibits, museums and living history demonstrations. Historic buildings include La Casa de Estudillo, La Casa de Bandini, La Casa de Altamirno Pedrorena and the Mason Street School, San Diego’s first one room schoolhouse. Just up the hill from Old Town San Diego Historic State Park, you’ll find Heritage Park where several of San Diego’s most notable Victorian homes have been relocated and authentically restored to their original splendor. Just a short walk down San Diego Avenue is the Whaley House, an officially designated haunted house, the Little Adobe Chapel on Conde Street, the first Church in Old Town San Diego and El Campo Santo on San Diego Avenue, a 1850 Catholic Cemetery. But let me tell what I do know and love about "Old Town" San Diego, that being the food that you can find there that to me if the best Mexican Food North of the Mexico border. For that reason alone, it was our first stop after leaving San Diego's Lindbergh. One such place is called "Old Town Mexican Cafe Cantina" where we not only saw the ladies hand-making the tortillas, but also the pleasure of Mrs. LZ and I eating those same tortillas. But for me, the best part of this place was finding the best Chile Relleno I have had since moving to the Midwest from Southern California several years ago. We even ate there another time prior to leaving San Diego, just to insure that they had not played a trick on me. But it was just as good as it was the first time I had it there. There was also the visit to the first one room School House in San Diego (that I mentioned above) and the charming stories about its first young single schoolmarm who came by boat from the East Coast down to South America and then she took a train across the isthmus of Panama (prior to the Panama Canal being built) and then of her taking another ship from that point to San Diego for her new job (there in this school house) that she secured as it teacher from the next some 38 years. My suggestion is that if you ever get a chance to visit San Diego, you should really visit Old Town San Diego, to get a perspective of how California really started. And by the way... don't forget to have dinner "Old Town Mexican Cafe Cantina" and tell them that LZ said; "you NEED to try their Chile Rellenos!" And... if you look closely at that last shot... you'll see Mrs. LZ reminiscing of the "olden days" before I bought her that new washer and dyer a couple of years ago. “Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing, not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, strong of muscle and with warm, long hair, from Puget Sound to San Diego” ~ Jack London            
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 This is really not a very uplifting post, but perhaps it will in some ways help us to remember some of the worst things done to man by other men just because of some religious prejudice. Mrs. LZ and I visited this place while on vacation in Miami, and it was something that not only was I not expecting, but also that was extremely moving to walk through an view. But before I tell you about that, here is a little history about how the Memorial got built in the first place. In the fall of 1984, a small group of Holocaust survivors formed a committee dedicated to building a permanent memorial to the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The Holocaust Memorial Committee was formally established a year later as a private non-profit organization. Its objective was to organize a permanent committee, locate a potential site, develop ideas for the scope and design of the Memorial, and determine ways and means of financial support for the project. With full cooperation from the City of Miami Beach Commission, the present site at Meridian Avenue and Dade Blvd. was designated to receive the Memorial. Kenneth Treister, architect and sculptor, was entrusted with interpreting the Holocaust into a structure which would memorialize its victims, serve as solace to its survivors, and also inform with factual representations in pictures and words of this century's greatest human crime. The Holocaust Memorial on Miami Beach was dedicated and opened to the public in February 1990. Since then, the committee is devoted not only to maintaining the memorial, but to developing cultural and educational programs for the community. The committee invites you to join the effort to make a lasting impact on future generations. The Holocaust Memorial took over four years to be built, reaching its final stage at dedication ceremonies on Sunday February 4, 1990, with Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate as guest speaker. Visitors to the Memorial will at first be met by a visual sensation of contrasting elements: the brightness of the luminous Jerusalem stone, which represents the basic building material for the Memorial, and the stark, somber black granite, which lines the walls; another contrast is offered by the stillness of water in the reflecting pool with its majestic lily pads of uncommon dimension, and the azure sky reflecting its patterns in the water, almost competing with the somber reminder of the site's purpose - the reflecting shapes provided by the Memorial's sculpture. Two parts of a semicircular black granite wall provide two important components of the memorial: on the visitor's right begins the journey into the universe of the Holocaust. In the first three panels of the granite wall, I presented a short but concise history of the event, from 1933 through 1945 and followed it up with a chronological pictorial depiction of Holocaust events and experiences, accompanied by textual explanations and maps. From almost the moment that Mrs. LZ and I walked into this place, there was a sense of both sadness and of peace, almost the same feeling that most people have as they visit the grave of a dear loved one who has parted from us and this world. As I looked at these walls and saw all of the names of all of the people that we are aware were taken in the Holocaust, it is truly hard to believe that people could ever treat other human being in this manner. This kind of thing can only happen when good people let evil people walk all over OTHERS and then "DO NOTHING". But so it was with Hitler and the Nazis. I am not Jewish, but this was not only about the Jewish people being made a scapegoat for what Hitler thought was wrong with the world and wanted to change it into what he thought was his image of a superior race as he viewed it, but it was really nothing more than pure evil putting itself higher than God and His rules for life. It took a long time before someone stood up to this evil and beat it. But it takes courage and as Winston Churchill said... "Courage is the first virtue, without it, none of the others matter!" As for evil in the world that was done to the Jewish people by Hitler and the Nazis, the Jewish people say... "Never Again!"Mrs. LZ and I are flying off to San Diego, California this week... I'll be reading all of your blogs on our return! "I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me. I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn." ~ From the Diary of Anne Frank dated Tuesday, 4 April, 1944   
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 Well, some of you may have thought that we were never going to leave BlogStock ’08, but it really was a whole lot of fun and I just wanted to make sure I shared the photos and adventures from that event. Again, many thanks to those who were not only there, but also to our hosts and planners; Cliff & Marilyn Morrow as well as Ralph & Char Campbell. Shortly after this BlogStock event, we had the privilege of watching our two granddaughters for about a week and a half while their parents got to enjoy a second honeymoon in Napa Valley, CA. Before they left for California, we asked if it was "OK" if we took the girls on a road trip withw us, so that we could have a little vacation with them while the folks were enjoying their "wine country" vacation. They said; “Sure… go ahead!” So with that approval, Mrs. LZ, the girls and I took off on our own little adventure and as you may have already surmised, it was to Altoona, Iowa to an Amusement Park called Adventureland. Altoona, Iowa is less than a half hour East of Des Moines, Iowa. Other than Adventureland, about the only other place we saw around Altoona was a horse racing track called Prairie Meadows. But if you went to the city’s website, it doesn’t offer much more information than the following: “Altoona is located in Polk County, Iowa about 5 miles from Des Moines. Altoona has a population of 13,301 in 2005 and one of the lowest city tax rates in the metro area. We are conveniently located approximately 20 minutes from the Des Moines International Airport and about 15 minutes from the Ankeny Airport. We offer many large city amenities but with small town quality and convenience. Altoona offers beautiful recreational bike trails, a new aquatic park, fire department, and library. Shopping is abundant with a Lowe's, Menards, Target, and Wal-Mart. After a day of shopping enjoy entertainment at Prairie Meadows Casino or Adventureland Park. Then enjoy dinner at one of our many restaurants and stay for the night in one of our five hotels. Come see why Altoona, Iowa is the best little town in the metro. “ So when I say that was all we saw there, I guess I should have added the Lowe's, Menards, Target, and Wal-Mart too? But the most important part was that we had an excellent time there with our granddaughters. I was really surprised that both of the granddaughters wanted to go on ALL of the rides, even some of the ones that were a little too exciting for Mrs. LZ and I. I think they could have spent the whole day on that “Silly Silo”, which just about made me want to call “BULLAH!” And if nothing else made me too dizzy to walk for a few minutes. It was a giant tub like device that spun around at a very fast rate and then the floor dropped out from under you while centrifugal force held you to the wall. The park’s own brochure stated that… “Adventureland Amusement Park contains over 100 rides, shows, and attractions including some of the country's most exciting roller coasters and thrill rides that can challenge the most avid amusement park enthusiasts. There are also plenty of rides for less adventurous guests including great water rides as well as a full compliment of children's rides spread throughout the park. But the entertainment doesn't stop with rides - Adventureland presents a full array of shows in the park - from live music to magic to song and dance - there's always something to suit everyone's taste. Simply the most fun you will have all year! Adventureland Park is a smoke free facility. Speaking of “thrill rides that can challenge the most avid amusement park enthusiasts”… another ride that surprised me was the Space Shot. This thing shot up about 240 feet in the air in about 2 seconds. Then it sounded like it blew up as you then dropped about another 100 feet before going back up to the top again. It was really quite invigorating for this old guy! The youngest granddaughter was not quite big enough to go on this ride because of height requirements or she may have just been as adventuresome as her bigger sister. The girls also really enjoyed getting wet on several of the rides like Saw Mill Splash and the River Rapids – Log Ride. It was ok for the girls, because they had their swim suits on under their clothes, but Mrs. LZ and I were not that smart. But we still had fun just the same. There was also another water type ride that I really enjoyed in which we got soaked called the “Splash Over”. The name (in and of itself) should have been a give-away of what that ride was going to be all about. But it was still a “wet” kick in the pants. In fact, I think that was perhaps my favorite ride of the day. We also even got to go under the Big Top for the Hannaford Circus which had acts all the way from frizbee catching dogs to a lady on the flying trapeeze to a guy who juggled ping pong balls with his mouth and the final act of a guy being shot from a cannon. That's the guy who's out of focus! Some of the non-water related rides that we went on were the giant Skywheel which was like a giant Ferris wheel, only with round baskets that would hold at least 4 people instead of the usual type that is like a ski lift. Those of you who have noticed that I changed my avatar lately, may also noticed that it is just that I want to show off that I am as tough as my eight year old granddaughter is on the Space Shot! (It looks as though it blew off my glasses and my flip flops... but really I just made sure that I didn't lose them on the ride! What a TRIP! This is why you have kids when you are YOUNG. “Perfect love sometimes does not come until grandchildren are born” ~ Welch Proverb “Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends - and hardly ever our own grown children.” ~ Ruth Goode                            
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 Ok! Ok! I know that some of you may think will this party "never end" here in Tekamah, Nebraska? But I just wanted to do this my third and final BlogStock post by showing both the Front and Rear covers of the BlogStock book that Ralph Campbell put together for all of the BlogStock folks. (*As is the case with all my photos... you can just double click to see the larger version of the shot and then just hit the BACK button to return to this page again). BlogStock '08 Bloggers:1) Cliff and Marilyn Morrow2) Jerry Wiley3) Jamie Dawn4) Dan & Julie Morrow Family5) Nora Spitznogle6) Rachel Phelps7) Paul Nichols & his wife8) Desiree Wallace9) Jim & Mrs. Jim Hovendic10) Terah Goerzen11) LZ & Mrs. LZ Blogger (you are already here) 12) Janelle Carson13) John, Terah & Jacob Goerzen14) Georgette Jones Family 15) Catherine Harwood Family 16) Ralph & Char CampbellAs I left off on the last post, we had left the winery and arrived at Cliff and Marilyn's farm. This is where the action started moving toward the hamburger and hotdog supper prep activities. As we road for miles and miles down a gravel road, we saw the Burma Shave (type) signs that marked the road to the farm. Not only were these fun to read, but they also made you feel as though you really were NOT lost. If we had been driving this road by ourselves, this might have been a concern to a city boy like me. When we got to the farm, the first thing I did was to wander the property and started taking shots of the farm equipment, silos, barns, horses, ponies, gardens, corn fields, farm house etc. that were all around the place. Mrs. LZ both spotted the first cherry tree that either of us had ever remembered seeing. We had no idea that the cherries from this and other cherry trees on Cliff and Marilyn's property would later become one of the gift bag items via the homemade Cherry Jelly jar. Most of the folks who had not been to the farm, were out exploring it as well. But as more people starting arriving for the burger and dog dinner we all sort of started ending up at the tables under the tent. This made for a lot of discussion about personal aspects of each of our lives and how we all managed to end up here at BlogStock '08 in Tekamah, Nebraska on the 4th of July in 2008. This information in (and of) itself could have filled a book of many chapters. Such a diverse group of people from all sorts of backgrounds and different interests, but all seemed interested in their blogging buddies own personal stories.  I loved the cover shot of Cliff and Ralph in the "high corn" and it seems completely in tune with the event itself. I did however take some liberties (with the back cover up top) and added the numbers to the photos on that rear cover of the book so that you could see who these bloggers actually were for those of you who may not be familiar with all of the participants. I also included their names beside that rear cover information.  I was extremely happy to see so many of the bloggers that I have enjoyed reading over the time that I have been blogging, but then at the same time, I wished that some of the others who I read on a regular basis (or whom post on my blog) would have been there as well. But what a nice group of people were in attendance even sans a few fellow bloggers I have learned to call friends. My only disappointment in this whole wonderfully planned BlogStock event (for me) at all, was just Mrs. LZ and I having to leave it before it was all over! Well... and I suppose, the fact that the Cherry Jelly didn't even last through the weekend! Just in case you haven't figured out who Mrs. LZ is... she's the pretty blonde lady in the red and white striped blouse riding in many of the horse shots with Jamie Dawn below. "The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few esteemed characters." ~ Thomas Jefferson                                                   
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 Well I sort of apologize for not getting some more pictures from BlogStock '08 posted, but it not just that I'm LZ (read LAZY), but it is rather that I've just been a little busy since the Fourth of July. For that reason I am going to make this a short post and just add more pictures from the event (post Tekamah, Nebraska Parade). After the parade, we all went to Cliff's mother in law's house for a while prior to our next agenda the winery. After getting to meet the rest of Cliff and Marilyn's family, we all went out to Silver Hills Winery where they had a nice lunch laid out for us complete with breads, lunch meats, cheeses, salads and desserts. If you wanted to test out their wines that was also available for a very minor charge. This part of the event allowed us all to learn a little more about each other. Things like where we were all from, what we did there and often, how we got into blogging in the first place. The picnic area was large enough for us all to find places to sit and be able to eat confortably out of the sun if that was your preferrence. As you can see, most of the bloggers attended this event, but the were a few who had made alternate plans for that particular part of BlogStock '08. After a nice lunch and some good conversation, we were off to Cliff and Marilyn's farm where there was a large tent set up with lots of tables and chairs to seat us all. As I stated in the prior post, I made sure I was following someone on the trip from the winery to the farm, just to make sure I was not driving around in a corn field maze for the rest of BlogStock '08 Event. More photos to come on my final BlogStock '08 post next time. This will include the horse and pony rides, eating and just having fun with the other bloggers. "The only way to have a friend is to be one." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson                                         
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 Can the 4th of July get any more traditional than a parade down "Main Street" Mid-America, U.S.A.? Well, I think not! Then, when you throw in a Parade Float that you are riding on in that parade (and) trying to get some canned goods food and money donated to a local food pantry, the excitement becomes palatable. At least, that was the experience that Mrs. LZ and I had this Fourth of July. In fact, the only thing that might make it more exciting is if you are going to be doing it with some of your internet blogging buddies that you in fact may have never even met before today! Let me tell you how this exciting day progressed for Mrs. LZ and me. First as we pulled into town via Hi-way 75 through charming little towns like Fort Calhoun, Blair and Herman, we noticed that Tekamah had a very large billboard style sign just at the edge of the city stating simply; “Welcome to Tekamah, Nebraska” this in and of itself seemed like a GOOD start to me. I let Mrs. LZ know that “we are HERE!” Just getting there sometimes can be half of the battle ya know? But, she just gave me one of those… (“Why am I still married to you after all of these years?”) looks! When we arrived, a little earlier than we had expected to, we noticed that the BlogStock ’08 Float (that we had expected to find SOMEWHERE) was not visible to us. We did however; manage to find the booth that was set-up for the parade participants. As we pulled up to that little set-up area table, and even after asking several people in the parade prep area. They would say things like… “BlogStock? Oh… that’s Cliff’s group, we haven’t seen him yet today!” And even though that was a little concerning to us, we drove around in the set-up area for a while until I finally saw him pulling up with the BlogStock float in tow. I recognized him right away and I asked him if he “had room on the float for a couple more”. He said; “You bet!” As for these bloggers, most of them where exactly what I had expected them to be (after reading their posts for years). Bloggers for the most part seem to have a tendency to gravitate to other bloggers with either the same interests, or often, at least similar values. The theme of our float “BlogStock Salutes Disney”, but its “purpose” was actually to collect food and money for the local Tekamah, Nebraska food pantry. My blogging buddy of a couple of years now Cliff Morrow was exactly as I had expected. Just as humorous and down to earth in real life as he is on his blog. Even the funny little off-hand comments that Cliff made around us, were exactly what I would have expected he would say in any given situation (or as a response he might post on a blog). He was just a real funny and uplifting kind of guy. His humor is very subtle and dry, but also very quick and witty. Cliff‘s buddy Ralph (who was also the other BlogStock organizer along with Cliff) is a longtime personal friend of Cliff’s and you could see just how the two of them could actually pull this whole thing off together. Their skills and talents just seemed to augment each others. Their wives Marilyn and Char have been friends since they were little girls in Colorado together. I think I heard one of them say that they can’t remember NOT knowing each other. They are the real brains and beauty behind those two guys though! But at the very least… there was a certain synergy in this “fabulous four” that pulled this whole thing off with almost seamless precision. One of the female Bloggers that I have really enjoyed reading for a couple of years now (Jamie Dawn) was just as sweet as I thought she would be and Mrs. LZ just loved her. Her husband Keith is a pastor of a non-denominational church in Northern California, but I never before heard of the city in which it was located, and I still can’t even remember its name now. It seems like it was somewhere between the bay area and the San Joaquin Valley somewhere. Keith was a very nice and laid back guy. Jamie Dawn and Keith also brought their college age daughter (Courtney) with them. Courtney loves to take photo shots of everything, (so she and I are on the same page here). They also have a son who was not there, because he was doing some sort of music recording. Both Courtney and her brother Taylor are frequent post subjects on Jamie Dawn’s Blog. There were people from, Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky there too and maybe a couple of states I have forgotten about too. When the parade was over, we all went to Silver Hills (a local winery) for a nice buffet lunch. This was also a nice chance to get to know some of the other folks. And several from Cliff’s family were also there, his sons, daughter and grandkids too. Cliff and Marilyn’s sons (Tom and Dan and their wives and kids) were there from Lincoln, NE. Julie (their daughter and her son and daughter) live very close to Cliff and Marilyn’s place. Most of the activities of the day (after the Tekamah Parade) happened out on Cliff and Marilyn’s farm. So, after the time we spent at the winery, we all took off caravan style to meet up again at Cliff and Marilyn’s place. They had a big tent set up outside with tables and chairs for everyone to be able to sit down and talk and have a few snacks while many of the guests helped get everything set up for the hamburger and hotdog dinner that Ralph got busy grilling the hot dogs and burgers for. These folks really know how to put on some eating events, if you ask me! I would imagine that all in all, there were about 50 people there for BlogStock ’08 (including the kids and grandkids). After supper was completed there were both horse rides and 4 wheel ATV rides around the farm. Mrs. LZ really surprised me once again, by wanting to actually ride a horse. She did it and she just loved it. It is helpful to know that the last time Mrs. LZ road a horse was when we were on Grand Bahamas Island. That particular time, the horse tried to run her into a tree. But even though that was some years ago, (and I figured she had forgotten all about it) but she still wanted to ride again. But, she did admit that she had remembered the Grand Bahamas ride and in spite of that, she still wanted to get back in the saddle again. The farmhouse itself was out in the middle of acres, acres and acres of fields planted with corn. If I had not been following someone, I doubt if I would have found it without a police escort. I am pretty sure a GPS here, would have been fruitless. The good thing was that the farmhouse was the last thing on the road, so I didn’t really have to worry about how I would get out of there and back to the highway. The food was great and the people were at least as nice as I expected (if not more so). The Morrow’s farm had a couple of big old cherry trees with actual cherries on them. Both Mrs. LZ and I had really never even seen a cherry tree before. So we were thrilled by this particular discovery on the farm. Mrs. LZ and I stayed at the farm until almost 10:00 P.M until other commitments for the weekend took us away and on our return trip back home again. But when Cliff found out that we were leaving and not coming back, to BlogStock that weekend, they decided to have a little ceremony that they had planned on doing the last night of BlogStock, so that Mrs. LZ and I could be part of it too. So he asked us if we could stay around just a while longer, so that he could do a little something. We said; “sure!” Then, Cliff sort of did a little speech about how the whole concept of BlogStock was Ralph’s brainchild and he explained how without Ralph’s effort and the help of their wives (Marilyn and Char) it would NOT have happened. After the speech and the applause for all of the help, Cliff and Ralph then passed out bags to each BlogStock participant that contained a BlockStock ’08 Book (that was a spiral bound collection of the blogger's posts). This book contained at least two blog posts from each of us bloggers, as well as bios from each of us. On the front of the book was a picture of Ralph & Cliff with just their heads sticking out of rows of corn and on the back was a collage made with all of the BlogStock participants very own pictures. In addition to the book, there was also a local paper that just happened to have an article about BlogStock ’08 and the parade and the Bloggers participation in the parade to gather food and money for the Tekamah food pantry. The bag also contained a jar of honey from the farm as well as a jar of jelly made from the cherries off of those trees outside of the Morrow farmhouse. It also contained a couple of ball point pens from Cliff’s latest run (and won) for Burke County Supervisor. It also contained a glass proudly emblazoned with the name of the kennels that Cliff’s wife Marilyn runs (with the help of their grown daughter Julie). All in all, just a very fun day for us and the weather could not have been any nicer for a GREAT 4th of July! I will post some pictures from the parade with this post and then ones from the Silver Hills Winery and the Morrow Farm on later posts. To Cliff, Marilyn, Ralph and Char… Thanks for a wonderful visit and a great BlogStock event! You guys should be very proud of your planning and execution that made BlogStock ’08 a wonderful event filled with the spirit of what the celebration of America’s "Independence Day" is all about. To all of you bloggers that I just met there, if I wasn’t reading you before, I will be now, to those of you that I already read and post on your blogs… It was truly a pleasure and an honor to get to know you even better through this visit. I hope that we can all do it again sometime! It was truly a memorable event and an absolutely wonderful Fourth of July for Mrs. LZ and me. As the old Bob Hope theme song used to say… “Thanks For The Memories!”
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.” ~ Erma Bombeck
                             
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 As promised this time we are going to take a look at this beautiful part of the world from the air via a Jack Harter Helicopter. From the minute we walked out to the helio-pad, I was excited. Jack met us once we were seated and told us to put on our headphones so that we could hear his narration of exactly what we were viewing on this 60 minute trip over the island of Kauai. This actually took longer than the hour, just because Jack likes to make each trip a little unique. This was also a plus in my book. When we took off, I was surprised at how much smoother the flight was as compared to those chopper flights I took all the time when I was in Vietnam in those Army Vertol CH-47 Chinooks and Bell UH-1 Iroquois Hueys that we called Slicks. This thing was very comfortable and enjoyable. Well, and I suppose that the fact that no one was shooting at us also made it much more relaxed and comfortably too. This was the one thing that I really wanted to do while on Kauai. I had heard that it was the garden island and I wanted to see just how beautiful those areas were that you could only view from a helicopter and thankfully Jack did just that by taking us over to many areas of the island that are just not really accessible by any other form of transportation. The waterfalls from the movie “Jurassic Park” were just a few of the really cool things that Jack took us over to see. I may include a couple of those falls shots as well (even though) they were not actually on the Napali Coast. I really can’t say enough about Jack’s abilities as a chopper pilot, but additionally he knew Kauai like the back of his hand. He simply would not let a sight go by without first pointing it out to make sure that we all saw EVERYTHING. And by everything... I mean; The Nawiliwili Harbor and the Menehune Fishpond, Kipu Kai and the Tunnel of Trees, Manawaiopuna Falls in Hanapepe Valley, Olokele Canyon's and its pristine beauty, Waimea Canyon (also called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific), the North Shore beaches from Ke'e to Hanalei Bay and Valley. Hanalei Bay is also where my Rough Rider buddy’s Zodiac Boat took off from. Jack also made sure that we saw Mt. Waialeale and the heart of Kauai's ancient volcano and finally, Wailua Falls and of course, my favorite Na Pali's spectacular sea cliffs and valleys. Jack also pointed out where the “Wettest Place in the world was”. I think he said that it gets 600 inches of rain a year up there. Of course as you might imagine with that much rain, it was cloudy and raining up there. Jack was also insistent about getting a view of the island through a rainbow and made sure that we all got a chance to get a photo of that event. Before this trip, no one had told Mrs. LZ and me about Jack Harter and his helicopter tours, but his helicopter business was associated with the Kauai Marriott Resort & Beach Club, where we were staying on Kalapaki Beach, in Lihue. The hotel concierge recommended him very highly, but not until this flight was completed did I understand why. This time with Jack Harter in his helicopter over Kauai was truly the highlight of our trip to Kauai. I hope you enjoyed it too? Jack Harter gets the “LZ Five Star Award for Quality Service” in my book! Now Mrs. LZ and I are off for the Fourth of July Celebration at BlogStock '08! With some of our blogging buddies. I hope if I don't see you there that all of you Americans have a safe and Happy Fourth of July holiday. "We invite you to escape the ordinary; to leave the byways of man and immerse yourself in the wilderness grandeur of the Garden Isle. Only by exploring its natural wonders can you truly capture the meaning of this glorious island." ~ Jack and Bev Harter             
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 When I remember back on some of the most beautiful places in the world that I have ever seen, the Napali Coast of Kauai always comes up toward the top of my personal list. Those of you that have managed to visit this beautiful place know exactly what I am talking about. There are really about only three ways to get to this place. First you can hike and back pack back in there, second you can view it from a helicopter, or you can take the Zodiac boats there from Princeville, Kauai. Well, we managed to do two out of the three of these options. We decided to forgo the backpacking. Maybe if I had been 20, 30 or even 40, I might have gone for the backpacking idea, but at our age the helicopter and the Zodiac boats seemed to be our best options. Before I tell you about those adventures, let me first explain about the Zodiac boats. We have friends in California, (let’s just call them Jack & Jill) who told us that we just “had to take the Zodiac Boats around to the Napali Coast!” Jack & Jill are about the same age as Mrs. LZ and I, so we thought… this will be great! So, we made sure we planned to do that and set up reservations while we were there. After a beautiful drive from our hotel (the Marriott at Lihue, Kauai) around to the other side of the island to Princeville, we said there were a lot of beautiful places to stop and have a picnic on the way. But the Zodiac boats excursion also included a picnic on the beach on the Napali coast. Not only did it come with lunch, but the extended lunch time also came with a little snorkeling and fish feeding on that same beach. All of this sounds pretty nice, but let me tell you a little about this sea cave travel adventure! First, they pack you into these Zodiac boats like sardines and then they tell you that you better be able to hold on to not only the people you are smashed against, but also to the rope on the boats air bag pontoons. When I say “hang on”, I am not exaggerating. If you don’t hang on for dear life, you’ll be out there swimming with the sea tortoises very soon. I am not kidding this was one heck of an exhilarating ride. There were many times, I wanted to yell out… “Let me off of this damn thing!” But, I was determined to live through this adventure one way or another. I also felt like our boat driver, was trying to insure that we NEVER came back here again. He was about 40 + years old and was a transplanted mainlander, who thought he was a stand-up comic as he reported to us that his parents always wanted me to have a job where he could wear a suit to work. He said all of this at the same time he was turning around to show us all his tan and his tiny bikini style “Speedo” SUIT! His jokes got worse as the trip continued, but like the old saying goes… “The beatings (of the waves) will continue until morale improves”. But you know… in spite of the extremely rough ride to get around to the sea caves of the Napali coast, the caves were wonderful and extremely fun. Of course our wonder-boy driver like to insure that we could be quickly killed if he didn’t time the waves correctly as we would be smashed against the cliffs or smashed into the cave ceilings. Just more of his 40+ boyish charm I’m sure! As you can see from the pictures, the caves were actually very neat and it was kind of fun going in and out of them. One of them even went back in one side of the cliff and out of the other side. But most of the caves required both entrance and exit from the same hole. This coupled with the timing of the waves and the skills of our stand up comic Zodiac boat operator made for quite an adventure for Mrs. LZ and me. After we had all the scares (I mean excitement) that we could take, we were off to the picnic lunch on the beach. Which by being on dry land alone made it enjoyable, but was also a nice respite, from the somewhat pounding adventures given by our Zodiac boat driver the Marquis de Sade. This picnic was followed by snorkeling in the little bay right in front of our picnic beach. While we were enjoying ourselves on this beach, another group of tourists came onto the beach in a power sail Catamaran. These folks jokingly asked us if we had actually come here on those Zodiac boats. We responded (not so jokingly) and asked them if they wanted to “TRADE” ride on the return voyage to Princeville. Needless to say, as much as we tried, (and begged) they didn’t go for it! Not too much after that, we were on our way back to Princeville while the beatings continued. When we got back to Princeville, we were greeted by a person who wanted to interview us about the “JOYS” of our just recently completed trip. Well… Mrs. LZ, soberly answered her, “I’ve never done ANYTHING like it before!” I guess the interviewer got the idea and moved on to people who actually had smiles on their faces. When we had completed our Kauai trip and had returned home, I asked Jack (of Jack & Jill) if they had really taken the Zodiac boats to see the Napali Coast. Sheepishly, he responded, “oh no, we took the Catamarans!” If I ever decide to make this trip again, I know I will be making it “by myself” but maybe it will help if I wear a SUIT! Next post… the Napali Coast from the air. Beating the drums for Hawaii is not hard to do... the place just grows on you. ~ James MacArthur            
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 After my last post about the Musse D’Orsay, many folks seem to be surprised by the fact that I liked the Musse D’Orsay better than the Louvre. And, even though I didn’t mean that from the perspective of the size or even the numbers of masterpieces, but I only meant it from my love of the work of the impressionists alone. For me all those works of Renoir, Monet, in one very beautifully restored building was the pièce de résistance. A little French here for “VERY COOL” in “LZ’s” language! But really trying to do the Louvre in one day, is almost like trying to see all of Paris in one day. It just really isn’t possible. But the good news is that I still tried! Tried, but if you changed the position of a couple of letters in the word “tried” and what you end up with is TIRED! I have to start out on the outside of this place. The first thing you notice approaching the Courtyard to the Museum of the Louvre, prominently displayed at the centre is this wonderful looking palace, is that it looks like it is right out of a Louis XIV era movie. Then, you notice this funny glass pyramid thing popping up right out of nowhere that (has no semblance) to anything remotely attached to this building or its architecture. One could almost say; “where in the world did that thing come from?” But then, the realization that they intended it to look like that, in stark contrast to the building of the Louvre itself. As you approach it, you realize, that this glass pyramid is actually now the entrance to the Louvre. French President Francois Mitterand proposed that he wanted to enhance the Louvre in 1983. Mitterand plans included the renovation of the building and moving the Finance Ministry elsewhere, permitting display throughout. I.M. Pei, a Chinese-American architect, was awarded the project and proposed a glass pyramid for the central courtyard, which he argued created a "strong symbolic element ... delicate and stable, correctly proportioned so as not to overwhelm the architecture of the Louvre but rearing its point there..." The pyramid and underground lobby, which enclose the entrance area, was inaugurated on October 15, 1988. See… just as I surmised! The museum is on the Right Bank, in the neighborhood referred to as the 1st arrondissement and lies between the Seine River and the Rue de Rivoli. The Louvre is slightly askew of the axe historique, a long architectural straightaway that cuts through the centre of Paris. The Louvre is one of the world's most visited art museums, a historic monument, and a national symbol. I can’t even tell you how many things there are to see here, but according to their own website, collection contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art drawn from eight curatorial departments. More than 652,000 sq feet of exhibition space is dedicated to the permanent collection. Sources state that the collection includes 11,900 paintings, the second largest holding of Western pictorial art in the world after the State Hermitage in Russia. Six thousand paintings are on permanent display, and 5,900 are in storage. Besides paintings, the Louvre exhibits include sculptures, art objects, and archaeological finds. Oversight of the property is carried out by nearly 2,000 Louvre employees led by Henri Loyrette, the director. The thing that really got to me about the place was the realitively small size of the Mona Lisa compared to some of the works that took up a whole wall. But the Mona Lisa was heavily guarded and framed as if someone might try and steal it or worse yet, try and photograph it. So here’s the picture I took of it, not that you can really see anything more than the frame case it was housed in. The Louvre as a showplace for artwork dates from the time of François I, but it was not until the French Revolution that the royal collection opened to the public and became the "Muséum central des Arts". On 10 August 1792, the Bourbon monarchy collapsed, Louis XVI was imprisoned, and all art in the royal collection was declared to be national property. The National Assembly, deciding that the collection had been weakened by being "dispersed" and that the matter was "urgent", turned the palace into a museum. The royal collection was combined with Church property, which had been appropriated by the State in 1789. With legal authorization given on 6 May 1791, the marquis de Marigny and his successor, the comte d'Angiviller, began developing the Louvre's permanent collection. The museum opened to the public on 10 August 1793, with much fanfare, because the national artistic display was seen as a demonstration of revolutionary ideals. That works once reserved for the ancien régime were viewable by the public was important to the nascent republic as a "benefit of Liberty". The museum's opening was hectic, as artists lived in residence, and works were placed randomly throughout the old palace. However, the republic dedicated a considerable sum, 100,000 livres per year, to help the institution expand its collection with works from abroad. From 1794 onwards, France's victorious revolutionary armies brought back increasing numbers of pieces from across Europe, aiming to establish the Louvre as a major European museum and a symbol of revolutionary progress. Significant additions to the young collection were masterpieces from Italy, including the Laocoon and his sons and the Apollo Belvedere from the papal collection, which arrived in Paris in July 1798 with much pomp and ceremony. The sculptures department contains work created before 1850 that does not belong in the Etruscan, Greek, and Roman department. The Louvre has been a repository of sculpted material since its time as a palace; however, since only ancient architecture was considered suitable for study, the first display of medieval, Renaissance, and modern works did not occur until 1824 except for Michelangelo's Dying Slave and Rebellious Slave. Initially, the collection was relatively small, with about 100 works, because of the government's focus on Versaille. It remained so until 1847, when Léon Laborde was given control of the department. Laborde developed the medieval section and purchased the first such statues and sculpture in the collection, King Childebert and stanga door, respectively. Initially, the collection was part of the department of antiquities but was given autonomy in 1871 under Louis Courajod, a director who organized a wider representation of French works. In 1986 all works from after 1850 were relocated to the new Musée d'Orsay. And you are aware of my excitement about this decision? As part of the Grand Louvre project, the sculpture department was separated into two exhibition spaces; the French collection is displayed in the Richelieu wing, while foreign works are located throughout the Denon wing. The sculpture collection's comprehensive overview of French sculpture includes Romanesque works such as the 11th century Daniel in the Lions' Den and the 12th century Virgin of Auvergne. In the 16th century, French sculpture grew more delicate and restrained because of the Renaissance influence, as can be seen Jean Goujon's bas-reliefs, and Germain Pilon's Descent from the Cross and Resurrection of Christ. The 17th and18th centuries are represented by Étienne Maurice Falconet's Woman Bathing and Amour menaçant; and François Anguier's obelisks. The neoclassical period highlights include Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss (1787), one of the Louvre's most famous works and one that demonstrates the period's emphasis on emotion and love. For me, the most impressive part of the whole place, was the fact that around every corner of this place, was yet another shot worthy of a post card from Paris stating, “Wish You Were Here!”"To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth." ~ Auguste Rodin P.S. ~ Did you find the Mona Lisa?         
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 You know for a guy (like me) who has a love of both art and photography you would think that this would be a fun post, but this is a post that is not so much about my photographs and words as it is about the work of some of the world’s best impressionist artists and this fantastic building that they are housed in. I only had the idea to do this post while I was actually looking at some of the shots I did for my last post about all the tulips in Pella, Iowa of the tulips. They actually reminded me of seeing all of the impressionists works that were at the Musee D’Orsay in Paris. In particular, were the many works of Claude Monet that are kept in this one of a kind museum. I was told that this wonderful building (that now is the Musee D’Orsay), was at one time similar to a very old "Parisian" version of New York City's Grand Central Station, but the story goes back much much further than that story ever could. Even though that part of the history of the museum does sort of go like that, it also goes way back before that time. The Musee D’Orsay (or as I liked to call it); “The Orsay Impressionist Art Museum”. But really, it is called the “Musee D’Orsay” and not the cute little name I gave it. I do think that my nomenclature however, is a much more descriptive name frankly, than the one bestowed on it though. The actual site of the Musee D’Orsay is filled with history. Way back in the 16th Century it was the gardens of Marguerite de Valois, queen to Henri IV. and it was divided up after her death, it was covered with a very upper class neighborhood. Meanwhile on the banks of the river Seine pieces of the famous property were becoming a stopping place for river traffic. This demand made is necessary to form a quay, and in 1615 the Quai d'Orsay was stated under the auspices of Napoleon the first. At the end of the 18th century the Hôtel de Salm (today the Musée de la Légion d'honneur) was built, between 1782 and 1788. On the exact spot of the Museum there was a cavalry barracks and the Palais d'Orsay. During the Paris Commune in 1871, the entire neighborhood was burnt to the ground. For thirty years the ruins of the Palais d'Orsay was a “reminder of the horrors of France’s civil war”. In 1900 the French government gave the land to the Oleans Railway Company who planned to build a more central terminal station on the site of the ruined Palais d'Orsay. The project was considered a challenging one because of the vicinity of the Louvre and the Palais de la Légion d'honneur. It would be a horror if the new station didn’t fit in with its neighbors. It didn’t take long before it would be one of the most modern transport facilities in Paris. After 1939 the station began to feel its age and slowly slipped into obsolescence. While it continued to function it was all downhill; its hotel closed its doors in 1973 despite its historic position, and many changes were soon to follow. On October 20th 1977 the Direction des Musées de France made the decision to make the station into a museum. It would celebrate the life and times of the first half of the 19th century. The President of the Republic, François Mitterrand, inaugurated the new museum on December 1st, 1986, and it opened to the public on December 9th. There were many pictures and post cards around the museum that showed the different stages of this restoration which was quite spectacular in both its scope and efforts. While I have a couple of shots of the buildings of the Musee D’Orsay here, the real treasures (and for that matter) the true art of this post has more to do with the masters of the impressionist era, than it does with anything that I might write or even photograph here. Let me tell you that even the Louvre (in all of its glory, pomp and circumstance) could not hold a candle (in my opinion) to what I found in the Musee D’Orsay. It holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography, and is probably best known for its extensive collection of the impressionist masterpieces that I so love by popular painters such as Monet and Renoir. I was just blown away by the self portraits on Vincent Van Gogh that were in the D’Orsay. I always thought that there was just one of these gems, but I saw several different ones around the museum. The Musee D’Orsay is a place I will never forget, and truly one of my favorite places to visit in Paris. If I could do only one museum in Paris, it would be this one. I truly loved it! “Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh      
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 Hey!... What's up here? Oh I just did some modifications to my HTML code and changed around my template so that I can have some more room for text and pictures. It may mess up the look of some of my past posts, but they are done anyway. I hope that you like the new format, but I do, so it will more that likely stay this way until I decide to change it again in a year or two! Although I don't mind coding in HTML, (but it is) the real reason I gave up coding my other websites and started blogging instead. Many of you may have remembered my post from Pella, Iowa a couple of years ago? But I have been promising Mrs. LZ that I would take her back there some day for another visit to their famous Tulip Festival. Well last weekend was "the time" of that promised re-visit to Pella and although I probably don't have much new to tell you either about the town or even the festival, I do have a lot of new pictures of this years crop of beautiful and unique tulips. So consider this a week late "Mother's Day gift" from me! The same things that were there on our last visit here are still all there: The Vermeer Mill & Interpretive Center, The Wyatt Earp House, The Miniature Village, The Flower Gardens, The Scholte House and the normal Annual Festival Events. The Pella Historical Village itself is a collage of more than twenty buildings, some more than 150 years old. Others were built later or even moved in and restored in keeping with our Dutch heritage. These structures are nestled in a courtyard laced with brick walkways. As we were watching the Glockenspiel (or as they call it "the Klokkenspel") again this year, I noticed something that I don't think I had ever noticed before. That being, that the benches around the Klokkenspel are made in the shape of the letter "S"... which unless you know what a "Danish Letter" is, may have NO significance to you at all. But, if you do know about these Danish pastries, you'll know that they are a sure joy to eat for breakfast, lunch, and even dinner (and for that matter) as a snack anytime in between. I'll try and slip in a picture of one of the benches so you can see how well they match up with the shape of the Danish Letters. (Darn! I wished I had taken some shots of the "Danish Letters" too. This little town's economy seems to be related to two things, the first is the Pella Window Company which has its manufacturing, training and corporate headquarters all in this relatively small and quaint little town. The other industry that seemed to be thriving was the "tourist industry" activities (at least at this time of year)! This town always reminds us of Solvang, California for all of those who are familiar with that town. But I am sure that in the winter, there would be no comparison (at least as far as the weather goes). But the upside is that I doubt that the folks in Pella have to put their tulip bulbs in the refrigerator all winter either. Or worry about earthquakes either. We have always tried to time our visits to Pella at least a week before or a week after the Tulip Festival for the obvious reason; there are just too many people there then. This year by Mrs. LZ and me going on the week after the festival, we still got to see a lot of beautiful tulips, but we didn't get to see a lot of tourists (like us) there. Although we did not do the Scholte House Tour, we did do the Scholte Gardens which are done for FREE. Most of the tulips you'll see in my picture were taken at Scholte Gardens. Pella is beautiful and unique all year long, but at Tulip Time it comes alive with tulips, Dutch attire, parades, food, fun and more. Thousands of residents wear Dutch attire and celebrate our Dutch heritage. Three days each spring, Pella becomes Holland to Pella residents and visitors like Mrs. LZ and I. You can travel back in time with Pella the first week in May to a European village full of windmills, tulips and excitement as we celebrate their 72nd anniversary (2008) of this colorful festival. Anytime you visit Pella, there are historical sights, ethnic foods, Dutch architecture, great shops, and friendly people. Another place that I love is the little Wooden Shoe Pond that is shaped just like a little wooden shoe and is surrounded by little tulip gardens everywhere. Another thing that you can see is how they people who live in the city plant tulips in the parkways in front of their houses. I thought that this was just the GREATEST! Another place that we had a nice meal was at a place called "Smokey Row" and although it was much like a cross between a coffee shop, a 50's diner and a restaurant, it was till kind of fun and the food was good. The service (what there was) involved you going up to the counter and ordering and then paying, but they did bring your food to the table when it was served, but it seemed to be run by some college kids, who seemed more interested in the kids that came in to just talk than they did with the people who were actually eating there, but kids will always be kids! We had a couple of very nice meals there but as for dessert, we moved down the street to Jaarsma Bakery to stock up on some Danish Letters for the trip back home. We also got a couple of other goodies that just looked too good to pass up! “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ~ Soren Kierkegaard (Danish Philosopher and Theologian)                                       
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 The first thing I want to do here is to say “A Very Happy Mother’s Day” to all of you Mom’s out there as we day celebrate this “Holy of Holies” day. That is just a little pun from us Dad’s who better know exactly how very important the celebration of the second Sunday in May every year really is! As for my bride of almost 40 years now… I want to tell you that… “I Love you even more today than the day I fell in love with you all those decades ago!” No kid could ever ask for a more loving mom than you are, and no husband could ever ask for a better wife to help raise his kids than you!” ~ “HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to you Mrs. LZ!”Now on with my post… as many of you know, every year the “Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffet (the Richest Man in the World) has his annual Shareholders Meeting in the Headquarters city of his company “Berkshire – Hathaway” in Omaha, Nebraska. This year I was one of those 31,000 guests of Berkshire – Hathaway at their annual meeting. It was really quite overwhelming. They refer to it as the “Woodstock of Capitalism” and I would say that was true even if just from a sheer numbers perspective. Although the meeting itself was very well done (and at times) very humorous and even entertaining, I plan to make this post about some of the things to do in Omaha and not so much about the shareholders meeting per se. The meeting was held at the newly built Qwest Centre in downtown Omaha. Inside the welcome package given out to everyone was a small booklet about the things to do in Omaha. Many of those you may have heard of and others you probably had no idea that such a place even existed. Let me tell you about a few top picks on “LZ’s List of What to See” and do while you are there. The first one is also the photo on the top of my blog. It is not only the tallest thing in the city, but it is also the most noticeable part of the skyline. If you know anything about the Minneapolis skyline, you may think that this is the Wells Fargo Bank Building, but it is not. It is actually another bank though. It is called the First National Bank of Omaha. If you ask very nicely the security will actually let you in the lobby there where you can admire the architecture from the inside. Additionally you can see what they have done in there too. The thing that I thought was very cool was the fact that the building that they tore down to build this bank building was partially saved (at least the façade) to re-use inside the lobby as an historical adornment. I’ll try and post one of those shots too. The lobby was also very cool because it was kind of like a greenhouse with all glass on both sides of the building. There were also very neat brass sculptures both inside and outside the building. The sculptures seemed to all be of prairie dwelling animals that Lewis & Clark may have found here as they mapped out a way to the Pacific Ocean via the Missouri River. This bank is privately owned by the Lauritzen family. (This will have significance much later in my post.) The Missouri River is not only the Eastern border between Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa, but it is also where the Eastern edge and border of the City of Omaha as well. They have almost completed a pedestrian bridge that runs from just a few hundred yards out of the back doors of the Qwest Centre and then over the Missouri River and back inside a park in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was just a pity that it was not completed in time for the meeting! I am sure that Warren Buffett would have wished for it too? But I think they said it will be completed by November of this year. There is also what is termed as the "Lewis & Clark Riverwalk" right along this same area, where we found a nice restaurant called "Rick Boatyard Café." This place looked like a knock-off of the styling of the Coronado Inn on the Coronado Isle just off of San Diego, California (for those of you familiar with that landmark hotel) . I don’t think this styling was by accident. But, it was a nice place to relax and have lunch, and although it was the Missouri River and not the Pacific Ocean, it did have a certain beach feel to it. Another place on the list of things to do and see was the "Old Market" (as it is called). This area was full of restaurants, boutiques and my favorite a real outdoor market that they called the “Farmers’ Market”. This happens every Saturday morning from late spring through early fall. While this was primarily farmers bringing stuff that they grew in their fields, it was also full of stuff that other vendors like bee-keepers and florists brought to sell as well. I’ll put in a shot or two from the “Farmers’ Market” as well. What would any trip to Omaha be without a trip to the world famous “Boys Town” made famous by the 1936 movie of the same name by Spencer Tracey and Mickey Rooney? When in Boys’ Town, you can see not only the farm, the schools and churches on the property, but you can take a car tour from a CD or cassette tape that will guide you around the huge facility and give you enough time to stop in each and every area that appeals to you. While on this trip you can also see the breathtaking Dowd Chapel and Father Flanagan Shrine, and discover how Father Flanagan sparked a revolution in childcare at the “Hall of History”. When you are back at the Visitors Center, you can learn even more about Boys Town’s history and see all of the things of a historic nature relevant to the evolution on Boys Town. In 1916, Father Flanagan opened the Workingman's Hotel in Omaha, a place for homeless young men to live while they looked for work. What you see on this wonderful campus today all came from a Catholic Priest (Father Edward Flanagan) who had a philosophy that “There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking.” Another famous quote made famous by Boys Town was not from Father Flanagan, but instead directed to Father Flanagan, when one of the boys who was carrying his brother on his back stated; “He aint’ heavy Father, he’s my brother”. You will also be able to see a statue or two around the campus that depict that quote and in fact it may even be a trademarked symbol of “Boys Town”.Another compelling visitor choice is the Henry Doorly Zoo. This zoo is just packed full of things to do like many innovative facilities and exhibits to not only preserve a broad array of species, but to also vividly present them to the public. These facilities are exemplary to zoos throughout the country and the globe not unlike my last post about Australia’s Zoo. The Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom Pavilion, Lozier IMAX Theater, and Cat Complex all showcase fascinating wildlife and other exotic places. The Scott Aquarium and Lied Jungle, Desert Dome, Kingdoms of the Night, Hubbard Gorilla Valley and Hubbard Orangutan Forest provide immersive environments that display animals in their natural habitats and are all worth the visit. If you don’t run out of time while doing the above, you can also check out right next door to the Zoo, where they play the College World Series each year at a place called Rosenblatt Stadium. This is where the College Worlds Series has been played every year for the last 50 years. Rosenblatt Stadium is also Home to the “Omaha Royals” which is a farm club for the Kansas City Royals. There was some buzz around town about building a new stadium for that purpose in the not too distant future. My last suggestion is a very beautiful place (may be the prettiest in the city). Do you remember at the first part of this post in which I discussed the family that owns First National Bank? Well that family is part of the reason for this next item. It is called the Lauritzen Gardens. It is also called Omaha Botanical Center as well. But most of the money that built this wonderful place actually came from the then wife of the President of the bank. Mrs. Lauritzen has passed away recently, at a fairly young age, but they say she never lost her love of the gardens. I just loved the miniture Railroad that they have there which has the skyline of Omaha replacated using all natural items. I've never really seen anything quite like it before. Lauritzen Gardens exists as the result of a unique public-private partnership. The garden has held a long-term property management agreement with the city of Omaha since 1993. In 1998, a 30-acre site, with prime visibility and easier vehicular access from Interstate 80, was purchased on the south end of the current property. This new addition increased the garden's total acreage to 100, and paved the way for the visitor and education center. Construction for the 32,000-square-foot center began in 2000. A year-round facility, it opened to the public in October of 2001 and features a floral display hall with seasonal flower shows, a unique gift shop, café, a resource library, banquet and meeting spaces, and classrooms. To keep this beautiful and thriving organization running, the garden is privately funded, and relies on capital campaign contributions, event sponsorships, admissions, memberships and facility rental income. Nearly $20 million has been invested in the attraction to date. Lauritzen Gardens was so named following a generous contribution from the Lauritzen family, a family that has played a significant role in Omaha's history and development. I haven't even mentioned the truly wonderful pink marble Joselyn Art Museum which was packed with beautful art from everywhere (and from every artist) you can imagine. To say nothing about the Heartland of America park with its Memorials and huge fountain and lake. Or what about the Durham Western Heritage Museum which is actually a converted Railroad Station in the days when train stations were in palce to be. It even had a working "Soda Fountain" like those that would have been around during World War II. For those of you who thought, what in the heck is there to do in Omaha, Nebraska, like LZ and 31,000 of my closest “new friends”, you can now say; “There’s a lot to do in Omaha! You’d be surprised!” I know we were! Oh! and by the way... for those of you who are going to attend Blogstock '08 in Tekamah, Nebraska this is the city you will perhaps even stay in and certainly will be flying into. “Without God at the beginning, there can be only confusion at the end.” “No race that does not take care of its young can hope to survive—or deserves to survive.” ~ Father Edward Flanagan                                    
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 One of the other things “To DO” in Brisbane is actually included here is this post, but it really isn’t in Brisbane, but Brisbane happens to be the closest real city to it. But really, my purpose in this post is not to try and take a side or even give much insight other than my opinion of this truly wonderful park. We were so impressed with this zoo, that we wished we could have spent more than just a day there. I have wanted to do this particular post for some time now, but because not too long after our visit to Steve Irwin’s Australia’s Zoo, Steve lost his life while doing what he loved most, (communing with nature). When that happened, I really didn’t want to blog about our expierence because it seemed almost disrespectful to his loss. But the pain of that world wide grief from Steve's loss seems to have subsided and won’t be mentioned much again until the next yearly milestone of his death. The zoo is in the city of Beerwah which was only about an hour’s bus ride from our hotel in Brisbane. Australia’s Zoo was actually opened by Bob and Lyn Irwin (Steve Irwin's folks) in 1970 under the name Beerwah Reptile Park. Bob Irwin is a world renowned herpetologist, who is also regarded as a pioneer in the keeping and breeding of reptiles. His wife Lyn was one of the first to care for and rehabilitate sick and injured wildlife in southeast Queensland. Bob and Lyn passed on their love and respect for wildlife onto their children, especially to their son Steve Irwin, who had helped his parents since childhood to care for crocodiles and reptiles and to maintain the growing number of animals in the zoo. Over a decade later the park was renamed to the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park and the area was doubled with the purchase of another four acres. In 1987 the Crocodile Environmental Park was opened in an effort to aid saltwater crocodile protection. By the 1990s the Crocodile Environmental Park had become very popular and was seen as unique for its display of crocodile feeding within the park. In 1991 Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin overtook management of the zoo. In 1992 the park was renamed again, becoming Australia Zoo. Currently, the zoo maintains more than 1000 animals and over 550 staff. The zoo has encompassed a large area of 72 acres which will be expanded to over 500 acres over time in the areas in which many of the animals live. In order to reduce long walks, a 'modified trailered bus' has been utilized, named Steve's Safari Shuttle, which operates on a reasonably narrow bitumen roadway circuit. At the zoo there is also a stadium, named the 'Animal Planet Crocoseum', which has a capacity of approximately 5000. At the time of its construction, it was the first in the world where snake, bird and crocodile shows were conducted. Australia Zoo calls these shows 'Wildlife Warriors 101". One can also view a crocodile feeding and even participate in an elephant feeding (the elephant feeding can be participated in during the mornings on the roadway circuit at the first crossover to the internal section of the zoo or in the afternoons at 'Elephantasia' (Australia's largest Elephant exhibit) around the back of the zoo near tiger temple). There is a running space for kangaroos that you can feed, and there is often an opportunity to pet a koala. The zoo's sponsored charity Wildlife Warriors also run a rescue operation and care station for any native wildlife who may be injured in accidents outside the zoo. As of the end of 2006, the elephant enclosure was expanded, the water pool had just been completed and 'Elephantasia' officially opened in December of 2006. Furthermore, a construction of an artificial island (to represent the Island of Madagascar), began in 2006, and accommodates African animals such as tortoises, lemurs and other species not yet represented. The South-East Asian Precinct will also be improved with the introduction of Orangutans, and transfer of the Komodo Dragons, which inhabit an enclosure near to the entrance to create a more complete Bio-Climatic Asian Region. A number of high-profile people have contributed to or supported Australia Zoo, including Justin Timberlake and the Dalai Lama. Speaking of celebrity types, they had a guy there at the park as an entertainer playing many of the aborigines’ musical instruments like the didgeridoo and then more contemporary instruments like drums, guitars, keyboards, harps and flutes. His name was Matt James (also known as Matty). Matty's songs were very unique, and even though I thought about buying one of his CD’s, (and retrospectively wished I had) because I could not find them for sale outside of the park. I thought for sure I would be able to find them once I got back to the states, but I was not able to find them anywhere here. Mrs. LZ was almost scared to death when we were in the ‘Animal Planet Crocoseum' and the zoo employees started walking around the Crocoseum with snakes, asked everyone to pet them. Mrs. LZ said; “No thank you!” And she meant it! If you happen to follow news from "down-under" about the Zoo, you may know that in March 2008, the Zoo was accused of animal 'cruelty' and of breaking Australian law 13 times by not releasing koalas within their prescribed habitats. The Environment Protection Association said that they are now monitoring and investigating why the Koalas were not released correctly. Recently a staff member told a local paper ("The Sunday Mail") that American-born Mrs. Irwin plans to sell the tourist attraction to US television channel Animal Planet and move back to the United States with children Bindi and Robert. The speculation surrounding the sale and move was believed to be behind the recent rift, which saw her father-in-law, Bob Irwin, leave the zoo he started 32 years ago. The zoo employee said the rumored sale and $100 million Disney-style wildlife theme park was common knowledge among the zoo's current 550 staff members. However an Australia Zoo spokeswoman said the leaked information was incorrect. She said Australia Zoo had not been sold to Animal Planet and Mrs. Irwin had no plans to leave Australia. The spokeswoman refused to comment on future plans that might involve Animal Planet. As you can see from the attached shots I too there, we had just a wonderful day at the zoo and were extremely impressed with how friendly all the employees were. As a very positive review from me was how clean this park was. Much like you would expect from a “Disney type” park. “I believe our biggest issue is the same biggest issue that the whole world is facing, and that's habitat destruction.” ~ Steve Irwin              
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 I took this shot while we were touring the city. It shows what a real metropolitan area Brisbane is. It also shows the river that the city is named after. As you can see from my photo, the city was very metropolitan, but yet not as large as Sydney. There was also a bridge (the Story Bridge) there, that was designed by the same man who designed the world Famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. Brisbane is actually the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and it is the third largest city in Australia. It has a population of just fewer than 2.0 million and an urban agglomeration of over 2.4 million people. It is a city set close to the Pacific Ocean, and is situated beside the Brisbane River on plains between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range in south-eastern Queensland. (Ask me about Moreton Bay bugs sometime!) They aren't really bugs at all, but rather they are small little lobsters. The flesh of the Moreton Bay bug is reported to be unusually versatile, and can be cooked in a variety of ways, both sweet and savory. The city of Brisbane was named in honor of Sir Thomas Brisbane; the city grew from a harsh penal colony established in 1824 at Redcliffe, 40 km to the north. The colony was moved to Brisbane in 1825 and free settlers were permitted from 1842. It was chosen as the capital of Queensland when it was proclaimed a separate colony in 1859. The city developed slowly until after World War II, when it played a central role in the Allied campaign as the South West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur. When people visit Brisbane, there are the "must-see" places? Where are these places that give tourists a memorable view, an insight into the city, the history and the people of Brisbane. If time is your enemy when visiting Brisbane, try one or two or more of these top picks. Perhaps next time you’re here, you can explore the many other delights the city has to offer on a day trip around the Brisbane regions. One of the guided tour bus tours we decided to take included the Green Mountains and the rain forests there. It also included the Tamborine Mountain area. Tamborine Mountain is certainly not a typical suburban community. The local population numbers about 6,000 people. The peace and beauty of this area has attracted many talented artisans and crafts. Keen gardeners consider it a perfect retirement spot where they can indulge their green thumbs to their heart's content and develop gardens straight out of Eden. Young families choose to live here because they consider it an ideal place to rear children away from the temptations of suburban life. Mrs. LZ and I had a very nice morning tea at a small little restaurant here as part of our tour. It was a very nice open air dining area that we chose to eat in. As you can see from the photo, Mrs. LZ was enjoying herself while we were there. The photo of me outside of the place looks as though I was expecting to pay the bill for everyone on the tour bus. Many professional and academic people also call Tamborine Mountain their home. They consider the daily trip to work is more than compensated for by the delights of coming home to the relaxed lifestyle and fresh clean air this Mountain plateau offers. Farming is still a way of life. Where once this fertile area produced commercial citrus fruits, vegetables and milk, it now produces mainly avocados, kiwifruit and rhubarb. It is also an excellent producer of cut flowers, many exported directly to overseas markets. This small plateau is rich in animal and bird life. Bird feeding is a local hobby enjoyed by many residents. The most friendly and colorful birds are the parrots, especially the aptly named Rainbow Lorikeets. The beautiful red and green King Parrots, the pastel blue and yellow Pale Headed Rosellas and the red and purple Eastern Rosellas are all to be seen in most Mountain gardens. The music of the Mountain is provided by a less gaudy band of feathered creatures. Magpies, Butcher Birds and the shy Whip Bird harmonize from daybreak until sundown. The Mountain is home to the first National Park declared in Queensland and now has a number of separate parks on the plateau and the shelves surrounding it. Six of these sections have walking paths in them of varying lengths and degree of difficulty. If you can find the time to walk through some of our National Parks you will hear many other bird songs and see an amazing range of Australia's bird life. The Brush Turkey inhabits the rainforest in this area and home gardens. The hen Turkey is the perfect female liberationist. The male builds huge mounds of leaf mulch then she lays her eggs in the mound and walks away leaving him to manage the entire incubation process. Notice the cool bridges high in the air going from trees to other trees? I thought that they were very cool and something that you just don’t see much of in the states (at least that I am aware of). Also if you wonder what Mrs. LZ is looking at inside that tree, it is a tree that has actually been taken over by what they call a strangler vine, which basically "takes over" the tree from both the outside and the inside. It only keeps the tree alive for its own nourishment. In fact the next shot after Mrs. LZ's picture looking up the inside of the tree, is actually the same thing that she saw looking up there. The bright areas in the center of the picture, are actually the top part of the tree (with the sun showing through) that the stangler vine has taken over from both the outside and the inside. Is that wierd or what? I have put together this little "LZ's list" of major things not to be missed while you are there: Mt Coot-tha Lookout ~ Even if you only have an hour or so to spare, you can take the drive up to the top of Mt Coot-tha to get a view of the whole of Brisbane city. You’ll see the curves of the river, the lines of the freeway, and the skyline of the CBD. Plus, on a clear day you can see south-west to the distant ranges, east towards Moreton Bay and miles in every other direction. Enjoy the facilities of a cafe, restaurant and lookout at the top. South Bank ~ Where did people gather in Brisbane before South Bank was created? It’s hard to imagine the city without this destination. Every visitor to Brisbane will enjoy South Bank’s sandy beach, the open grassy picnic spots, the shops and dozens of eating places. There are the cinemas, regular free live entertainment and many festivals and fireworks throughout the year. The Cultural Centre ~ From here you can enjoy Queensland’s arts and theatre at the Cultural Centre, South Bank. Spend time at the Queensland Art Gallery, Sciencentre (especially popular kids), State Library of Queensland and brand new Gallery of Modern Art . Get tickets to see a play, opera, ballet or dozens of other performances at the Cultural Centre. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary ~ Visitors from overseas will just love the abundant and easily seen Australian wildlife at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. You can hold a koala, feed a kangaroo, (or as Mrs. LZ did) pet a wallaby, hear a talk about our reptiles – it all makes for a great day out. A trip on the river ~ Even the locals love to get out on the Brisbane River and it’s so easy and cheap to do with a journey on the CityCat. One of these shots I took looks out over the bow of one of theses as we were crusing the Brisbane River. For just a few dollars, you can take a cruise up and down the river, stopping where ever you like along the way – South Bank, University of Queensland, New Farm...The City Cats glide over the water and we saw million dollar houses. We travelled under the Story Bridge (that I mentioned above and have included a shot of here) and get a whole new perspective. The ferry guide gives you a lot of information about the city as you cruise along. This boat trip up the river was actually very fun and helps you really see the city from many different perspectives. We stopped along the river and enjoyed a lunch with a couple who were vacationing here from New Zealand. It was very nice and at our tour guide's urging, I enjoyed their famous local beers "XXXX Gold" as it was called. Then we cruised back to where we had stated the boat ride. Brisbane is a very nice city and well worth the visit if you get up to Southern Queensland. A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton                 
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Moving yet further north on our fall foliage trip to Minnesota we found ourselves almost into Canada. In fact, we brought our Passports with us just in case we decided to cross the U.S. / Canadian border as we passed through International Falls, MN. But this particular Rainy Lake Visitor Center was up at the Northwest end of the park and was actually the only one (of the three) that was open at this time of the year and I wanted to make sure that I got my “National Parks Passport” stamped and you can only do that at a parks visitor center. But we did manage to visit the two other visitor centers (Kabetogama Lake and Ash River) in our travels through the park. 
