Field Trip Part 2: Utah

The first three photos were taken at or near Zion National Park in southern Utah. The trees here are so different from what I'm used to.

This is the view from the porch of our hotel room (below). We checked in after dark and woke to this breath-taking scene in the morning.

These sand dunes are in Death Valley National Park. We got up before sunrise to take photos here. I'm not a "morning person," but for this, it was worth it!

Field Trip to Death Valley!

My husband and I recently visited Death Valley National Park in California. Out in the middle of nowhere we saw an intersection called "Teakettle Junction," and I had to stop and take this photo to show you. Unfortunately we didn't have a teakettle to add to the collection. Some people signed and dated their contribution. Evidently someone had a spare pair of shoes to add to the mix!

I haven't seen one of these in a while! The cell coverage isn't very good out there, so a "real" phone comes in handy. These were in the "town" of Stovepipe Wells. I like the names.

The Salt Flats area (above) at Badwater, is 282 feet below sea level. It's the lowest spot in the western hemisphere. Also noteworthy is the complete silence here. Just an occasional airplane.

In the summer it's blistering hot, but it was very comfortable this time of the year. We even had a little rain! Very rare indeed. Oh yeah, we got a flat tire way out on a dirt road, but my very capable husband saved the day. Yayy, Jason!

See Part 2 tomorrow.

Let's Take a Short Field Trip to NYC

Isn't this handbag amazing? All texture; no color. It caught my eye and I wanted to show it to you. It was in a store window at Rockefeller Center (just 5 steps from the scene below).

This is the statue of Prometheus which is just above the ice skating rink. It's such a popular tourist spot, you can hear many different languages as you stand there. This was a delightfully warm evening recently, especially for March!

This was the scene on 5th Avenue as my husband and I walked to Grand Central Station to take the train back to White Plains. The building with the nice big window used to be Scribner's, a wonderful bookstore with a spiral staircase to a balcony on the second level. The store was paneled with nice dark wood, and it was an elegant, old-world destination when I was in college. Above that nice window it still says "Joseph A. Scribner's and Sons." Now it's disappointingly a bright and modern Sophora, which sells make-up or something of the sort.

So, there's a little taste of NY. It only took a minute and didn't cost a thing! What a deal.

Selvage Quilter's Field Trip to Block Island

I recently visited Block Island, a small charming island off the coast of Rhode Island near Connecticut. I was delighted by the abundance of stone walls, their sometimes "lacy" construction, and someone's clever method of preserving their wall from the wear and tear of foot traffic! The bottom photo was taken from the porch of a hotel near the ferry landing, now deserted for the winter season.

If you lived here you would have to quilt all the time because everything else is a one-hour ferry ride away! Sounds like paradise to me. Savoring the beauty of places like this "fills our tank" for artistic expression in our quilts, don't you think?