Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas from the Deep South!

2016 turned out to be a very hot year. It was not unusual for it to be so hot over the summer, but the heat remained into October and November with mid to upper 80s and 70s when each month should have been ten to fifteen degrees cooler. On November 18th I went out walking in the early evening wearing shorts and a T-shirt. I am usually wearing long pants and long sleeves by October 18th! It was 73 degrees and sunny on Thanksgiving. In the evening Mike built a fire in our firepit and neither of us needed to put on a sweater or a jacket. We fell just short of a record set in 2011 for the number of days at or above 90 degrees. There were 90 in 2011. This year we had 88 or 89. The average is 37 days at or above 90 degrees. Much of north GA is in extreme drought despite a very wet winter and spring. North GA had two horrible forest fires that raged for weeks. The smoke from the Rough Ridge-Cohutta fire and the Rock Mountain-Rabun fire reached the Atlanta metro area. It was not until the first week of December that the firefighters got the upper hand when the first measureable rain in over two months arrived.

Kristin, Jim and the girls were here for Easter. The weather left much to be desired. We had to dodge rain showers, but we still managed to get in two Easter egg hunts – one in our backyard and one at our club.

The biggest and best family news of the year was the arrival of Eric and Amber’s first child and our first grandson, Ethan Eric, on June 7th. He weighed 9 lbs. 12 ozs. and was 22.5” long. Two unanticipated situations arose. The first was a delivery by C-section followed by three days in the NICU for Ethan. The NICU is so restrictive for visitation that it might as well be called baby prison. When we got to see Ethan and hold him, it was a case of “love at first sight”. Mike made a cradle for Ethan and I crocheted a baby blanket for him.

In August we were in Rincon to celebrate Lily’s first birthday. She is quite a good-natured baby. It is hard to believe she is already a year old. Alexis started kindergarten at the same time. We went to see the progress on Jim and Kristin’s new home. At that point the house was framed. Thankfully, the recent hurricane Matthew did only minor property damage to their existing home and the one under construction. It was necessary for them to evacuate before Matthew hit. They stayed with friends in NC. While they were there, they bought a generator because they knew that Rincon would still be without power when they returned.

After we celebrated with Lily we continued our trip at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, near Jacksonville, FL. Many of our recent trips have been marred by bad weather, but not this one. We had wonderful weather which is a key factor in having a good time at the beach!

On October 9th we returned from our trip “out West”. We logged 1209 miles on the rental car. We decided to do the trip at the end of September-early October to avoid crowds and to take advantage of good weather. We were wrong on both counts. There were crowds due to numerous tour busses everywhere we went. We had a surprising amount of rain for being in a very arid part of the country. Aside from that, everything else went according to plan.

We were able to get good non-stop airfare on Southwest to and from Las Vegas. We are not huge fans of Delta, but since their hub is in Atlanta, we usually fly with them. We were happily surprised by Southwest. We picked up the rental car in Las Vegas and drove to St. George, UT, a distance of about 120 miles. St. George is the site of the first Mormon temple. It was dedicated in 1877. Most people think that the first temple is in Salt Lake. That one is number four. The second and third temples are in Logan, UT and Manti, UT. Atlanta’s temple is number 21. I toured it in 1983 before it was dedicated. Once a temple has been dedicated, only Mormons in good standing may enter. There are now 166 temples worldwide, with another eleven announced.

The next two stops were at Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. At each place we stayed in the western cabins. They were designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood in 1927. Thankfully, they have been modernized, but still no TV. The cabins have the distinctive curved green roofs. In Zion all of the sightseeing starts at the bottom of the canyon and you look up or hike up. At Bryce, it is the opposite; you are at 8000-9000 feet in elevation. You look down or hike down into the canyon. We were able to walk numerous trails at Zion. We ran into some truly strange weather at Bryce. We were at Inspiration Point when it started to thunder. We were above the lightning, which was strange. Next came heavy rain followed by snow, sleet and fog. After the storm moved on, the rain and heavy cloud cover persisted. This caused us to miss a unique feature of Bryce. It is a “sanctuary of natural darkness” due to its isolation from populated areas. We were there on a moonless night. If the sky had been clear, we should have been able to see 7500 stars. We were disappointed in Zion and Bryce. Each is a small single-feature park. They could just as easily be classified as National Monuments. The hoodoos in Bryce are distinctive, but they can also be found in Grand Canyon National Park. Hoodoos are tall thin rock spires of variable thickness. They look like totem poles.

We drove to the north rim of Grand Canyon NP next. Because it is in the proverbial “middle of nowhere”, the north rim gets only ten percent of the traffic that the south rim gets. On average, the north rim is about 1000 feet higher in elevation than the south rim. We stayed in western cabins there as well. We did the scenic drives to Cape Royal and Point Imperial. We were there a week before the north rim closed for the season. The south rim stays open all year.

After we left the north rim we stopped at Navajo Bridge on the way to Lake Powell. The bridge crosses the Colorado River at Marble Canyon, near Lee’s Ferry and Glen Canyon. The original bridge was replaced with a steel bridge that opened in 1995 to accommodate the increased traffic. We were fortunate to see two California condors that have made the bridge their home. At one point they were almost extinct, but now there are over 400 of them. From the Navajo Bridge we drove to Page, AZ and Lake Powell. It is a reservoir in the Colorado River on the UT-AZ border. It is the second largest manmade reservoir. The largest one is Lake Mead. Temporarily, Lake Powell has more water in it due to the greater demands on Lake Mead. Lake Powell was created in 1963 by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the Glen Canyon Dam. The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell, a one-armed American Civil War veteran who explored the Colorado River via three wooden boats in 1869. We took the Antelope Canyon boat tour which took us into the high-walled, colorful, Navajo Sandstone slot canyons.

The next stop was at the south rim of Grand Canyon NP. We had been to the south rim on another trip, but we did not see as much of it then as we did this time. We entered the park on the east side at the Desert View Watchtower and over two days we made it to almost every stop along the way to the west side at Hermits Rest. The Desert Watchtower, Tusayan Museum and Ruin, Moran Point, Hopi House, Lookout Studio and Kolb Studio were very interesting and scenic. Each time we stayed at the El Tovar. It dates to 1905 and was built as one of the Harvey Houses in conjunction with the Santa Fe Railway. It has had numerous upgrades over the years, but the lobby is largely unchanged. And there is no elevator. Our room was on the third floor. Even walking up without luggage can be a lot of work because at high elevations there is a lot less oxygen in the air than we are used to.

En route to Las Vegas we exited I-40 at Williams, AZ so that we could drive a small section of “Historic US Route 66”. Mike had read about a “not to miss” restaurant in Williams called the Pine Country Restaurant. We found it and had a great lunch there. They are famous for over two dozen varieties of pie which are made fresh on site daily.

We ended the trip with a few days in Las Vegas. This time we stayed at the Mirage. Our room overlooked ”the strip”. Before we returned the rental car we went out to Red Rock Canyon. For the rest of our time there we walked to the shopping, restaurant, casino and show venues. We saw one of the Cirque du Soleil shows called Love. It features much of the Beatles music along with their well known artistic athleticism. We have seen many Cirque shows and this one was our favorite.

Predictably, Mike liked the time in the parks best. I can die happy if I never set foot in another one again! I enjoyed St. George, Lake Powell and Las Vegas.

Over the summer Mike had some unexpected and expensive dental work done that involved periodontal surgery and a bridge replacement. In June I took advantage of a Silver Sneakers Cardio Fit class at a fitness center very close to home. It meets twice per week. I discovered that I had enough energy left after class to use some of the wide array of gym equipment. I work out on the treadmill and there is an updated elliptical that I want to try as well. Now that the weather has cooled somewhat I have resumed daily walking in addition to the Silver Sneakers. At the beginning of November I was quite sick with walking pneumonia. I have no idea where I picked it up. And I have had the pneumonia vaccine as well as Prevnar 13. In early October I got a double strength flu shot - so I should not have gotten so sick. At first I thought I had a bad chest cold, but when I had difficulty breathing I went to the doctor. I got prescriptions for antibiotics, cough medicine with codeine, an inhaler and steroids. By Thanksgiving I was as good as new.

Once again we are highly disappointed Braves fans. I wonder if the tide will turn when they move to their new stadium in Cobb County in April 2017.

We send our best and hope you have a happy holiday season.