20th Annual King Harbor Boat Parade

Saturday evening was the 20th Annual King Harbor Boat Parade in Redondo Beach. After spending the day at the Mooneye’s Christmas car show and drag races, I packed up the camera and Tanya and headed down to King Harbor. We decided to have dinner at On the Rocks since they were located at the perfect location to watch the parade. The Christmas boat parade consisted of various boats that are docked in Redondo Beach, getting decorated with lights and sailing in a circle around the marina. It was a little difficult to determine just how many boats were participating, but …

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Yellowstone National Park

Shortly after leaving Cody and the Buffalo Bill Dam we entered Yellowstone National Park’s East Entrance. I had not visited Yellowstone since I was a youngster, maybe 45 years ago. Since Yellowstone is extremely large and we only had one day to see as much as we could, we took the long way around the park. From the east entrance we drove alongside Yellowstone Lake to the Fishing Bridge junction. After a nice lunch we took Grand Loop Road to Canyon Village, across to Madison then dropped down to Old Faithful and eventually out the south entrance leading to the …

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The Cody Nite Rodeo

Day four of our journey ended in Cody, Wy. We were taken aback when we discovered that Cody was a very difficult town to find an available hotel or motel with a vacancy. We eventually found what passed for a motel, but I think they borrowed beds from the jail display at the Old Trail Town. When we asked why rooms were so scarce we were told that Cody, the “Rodeo Capital of the World,” had the Cody Nite Rodeo which was held every night June 1st through August 31st. That was all my cowboy cousin needed to hear. Since …

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Photos from Arkansas and the Ozarks

Thursday, we woke up somewhere around Oklahoma City. This was day five of our trip and I was contemplating washing the car to attract some rain. I watched the weather channel and their storm chaser was having the same luck as I, so I could not feel too bad. I had to make a decision, go north into Kansas or go northeast into Arkansas and Missouri. The forecast looked a little more promising east but one thing I learned was that they are not very good at forecasting them more than an hour or so ahead of time. We headed …

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Photos from the Painted Desert

After leaving the meteor crater we headed towards the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert is the entry to Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. Since the day was drawing to a close and I have visited several petrified forests in the past, I decided that we would skip this one and just enjoy the beauty of the Painted Desert. I have seen it from the opposite side, but it was nowhere near as nice as this. After photographing the Painted Desert we headed on to Springerville, where we enjoyed a great meal at the Safire Restaurant & Lounge. They make most …

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Photos from Arches National Park

Our last day in Utah, we decided that we would go ahead and venture into Arches National Park. We had visited it last year, but Tanya’s storage drive failed and she lost a significant number of the photos she took. Since there was a threat or rain, the clouds were moving in; and while clouds can add an interesting perspective to photos, they also dampen the bright colors that might otherwise be available. Tanya said she just wanted to drive to the first arch, then we could leave. About three hours later we decided we really should head out before …

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Photos from Natural Bridges National Monument

I am not really sure what happened. The last I heard, we were going to Arches National Park. After all, that is why we stayed in Moab. Right? Apparently not. I guess Tanya was surfing Google images after we got settled in. She found a couple places we had not yet seen that appeared to be quite photogenic. The fact that it was a four hour drive each way mattered little. One of the locations was Natural Bridges National Monument. Discovered in 1883, it is Utah’s first National Monument. It is also a location that we will return to. In …

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Photos from Hovenweep National Monument

When we left Cortez we saw a sign pointing to Hovenweep National Monument. As we had never heard of it before, it sounded like a new destination. The Monument consists of six clusters of Native American ruins. The natural foliage made it a picturesque setting. These photos are from the Hovenweep area. Back to Hovenweep Photos Back to Hovenweep Photos

Photos from Four Corners Monument

When we made our trip last year, we had no direction. We had somewhere we had to be on a certain date and the route we took to get there was of no consequence. There was one thing I wanted to do and it was stand in four states at once at Four Corners Monument. Somehow, we completely missed it even though we had to have been within 50 miles of it. I have no excuse, I must have missed the sign. Luckily, it was directly on the route from the Grand Canyon to Cortez, CO. I mean, I did …

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Photos from the Navajo Nation

Since we ended up doing a loop around the Grand Canyon, it dropped us off in Navajo land. It is really beautiful there. It is pretty obvious that there is a lot of poverty, but the people I spoke with truly appreciate the land their reservation is on. One of the highlights of the drive was coming across a roadside attraction that had dinosaur tracks, bones, eggs and droppings. It was very cool. I also had an epiphany and could totally relate to how pissed the Native Americans must have been to have a railroad cutting through their land. Had …

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