Tour Notes

My husband and I returned Wednesday from a driving tour to visit far-flung family. According to MapQuest, the trip involved 52 hours and 36 minutes of driving time to cover a distance of 3,424.43 miles. I did all of the driving. My husband did a lot of snoozing. This driving feat was a personal triumph for me. I’d always thought I couldn’t drive more than four or five hours per day, but it turns out I like to drive longer distances and eight hours isn’t too difficult at all.




We started our odyssey March 12 and made a big triangle, traveling from Seattle to Gooding, ID, on to Salt Lake City, then to Albuquerque and finally to Reseda, CA, in the San Fernando Valley, before heading back home. We went through eight states and saw spectacular, ever-changing scenery. The geographic diversity in the U.S. is truly awesome.

Shoshone Falls near Twin Falls, ID. The picture at the top of the page is the Snake River just beyond the falls. At 212 feet, Shoshone is higher than Niagara Falls and is the most powerful falls in the Northwest.























The red cliffs in Utah and New Mexico are stunning. I’d visited Arches National Park on a previous vacation, but the photos here I took at rest stops along the highway.
We visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. This is a wonderful museum for learning about the Pueblo Indian people and the nineteen pueblos in New Mexico. Photos, artifacts, dances, interactive exhibits and modern examples of art, jewelry, basketry and pottery instruct, and you can eat breakfast or lunch at the Pueblo Harvest Café for a taste of the Pueblo and Spanish food that has come to be known as Native New Mexican Cuisine.




Listening to Amauta in Albuquerque’s Old Town plaza was fun and relaxing. In the it’s-a-small-world category, the original founders of Amauta were from Seattle.























Our sons and our fantabulous grandchildren at the last stop on our trip.