Heading home

Heading toward home, I think fondly of the places we’ve been. We’ve seen glaciers, sand dunes, waterfalls, jagged peaks, prairies, rivers, beaches, rainforests, and rolling hills. We’ve walked in the snow, kissed on the sidewalks in San Francisco, ridden in a skypod, watched the foliage turn, enjoyed romantic meals together, crossed a suspension footbridge, hugged a redwood tree, and gazed through a glass floor at the city below.

We’ve seen elk, deer, mountain sheep, coyotes, bald eagles, Canadian geese, hawks, ravens, magpies, a white peacock, pelicans, dolphins, rabbits, chipmunks, and black squirrels, all in the wild. We also saw farms with llamas and ostriches. At the aquarium we watched sharks, bat rays, sea otters, and a number of sea birds, including puffins and others that dive for food.

We’ve watched the foliage change across the continent, and back again. The east coast's brilliant crimsons and fiery oranges gradually give way to shocking yellow... this fades to be replaced by green pines striped with dramatic white cedars. The tan and brown skeletons of other trees take over from there. Finally, even the hardiest trees surrender and the landscape is dominated by grasses and plains. Then as you approach the mountains, the process begins in reverse. Of all of these, first prize goes to the maples, found especially in Canada, who have apparently decided to specialize in scarlet. Every stunning shade of red imaginable is represented on their boughs, and they sparkle like rubies in every forest and town. Second place goes to a type of tree we saw only in and around Santa Rosa, California. Rather than sticking with one color, they’ve chosen to represent the entire continent in each tree. Topped with a vivid red, the shades gradually change through the brightest oranges, yellows, and greens before their full branches yield to the brown trunk. This makes for an opalescent rainbow effect that is, like the maples, a sight to behold.

It’s been a spectacular journey! Thank you so much for sharing it with us!

I'll load our pictures to an online photo album for easy viewing, and post the web address here.

Nickie has some thoughts she would like to share about our trip. Keep an eye out for this, coming soon. Her writing is exquisite, regardless of what she may tell you!