Minnesota

Beautiful view from our cabin

Enjoying a late afternoon fire

Loved working the puzzle in the evenings

 We spent a week up in northern Minnesota - about 20 miles northeast of Ely on Lake One of the BWCA.  One of the most beautiful, peaceful places in our country.  We loved our time there...reading, canoeing, working puzzles, and riding our bikes.

Jason on our dock

This picture doesn't show it well, but the leaves were amazing.

Us in our bathrobes :)

Chicago Basin

For our 4th anniversary, we took the Duragno-Silverton Train and got off at Chicago Basin to do some hiking.  We had beautiful weather and given that it's a holiday weekend, it wasn't crowded at all.  Beautiful scenery in the backcountry of Colorado - so what if your anniversary dinner was cooked on a campstove!

Jason basking in the sun

The train arriving to our stop in the backcountry

Lots of mountain goats in the area

View from our campsite

Ready to board the train

The ride on the train

Ready to start hiking

Closing thoughts on Summer 2009

Well, after 39 days, 11 states, 4 National Parks, and several other wilderness areas we're back home. So many new things and places on this trip... There are many places I already know I'd like to go back to in the future. That's the way it always goes - sometimes places you really want to go, once you see them you only want to go back!

I learned quit a bit about John Muir in Yosemite. Here's a quote that sums it all up:

"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."

Yosemite

Another place that has been on my list for a long time. Unfortunately, late August is not the best time to visit Yosemite. It was really hot (~100) and some waterfalls were barely a trickle. But, I'm glad we went and was very impressed - definitely will go back again!

Sequoia National Park

I've always wanted to see Sequoias - and I was not disappointed. Such amazing massive trees. Look closely at the pictures for points of reference (people, cars). We saw two bears, each with two cubs, in different areas of the park.

Big Sir

The beach at Pfeiffer Big Sir was beautiful, but really windy. Our campground was in the woods across the street, so much more comfortable there...

Monterey

The drive around Monterey was beautiful. The picture of Jason is during the day at the wharf- there was alot of smoke from the fire (actually worse than Santa Cruz). Once we got a little south of the city it cleared up quite a bit (my picture).