You know the best part of a vacation for me is spending time with awesome people like these. Hanging out with the family was the funnest part of the trip for me. I loved playing games every night (even though Jethro and Robyn won every game we played). I loved going to the beach with Toni and Ben and Anna and Bus. I loved having great food prepared by everyone. I loved preparing food for this most appreciative group. You guys are so much fun. Thanks.



While the art inside the Getty Center is astounding, (I asked Jethro to paint me this kind of a still life 3 years ago...I'm still waiting)


The real beauty is to be found in the gardens surrounding the big campus of buildings.
These are made out of painted rebar with beautiful flowering plants inside of them.



Thanks Mr. Getty for allowing us to see your art displayed in an unforgettable setting. And mostly for not charging us an arm and a leg to see it. ($8 for parking, that's it!)

Another day another vacation done. I know, its a hard life but at least I took some pictures so you can enjoy the sunset vicariously. Bus and I walked down to the beach one night to take some pictures and enjoy the time together. We saw one couple at a vista lookout with their roasted chicken picnic and wine. There was a guy out surfing below us. Some Asian kids walked by us while we were relaxing on the bench. This is looking north from Crystal Cove State Park south of Corona del Mar.

This book seems to have a lot of interesting lessons. When I finished it my head was spinning at how the story wrapped up. As I have been thinking about the message I have been wracking my brain trying to come up with my personal legend or what my main goal in life is. According to the alchemist whatever your personal legend is the Soul of the World conspires to make it happen for you. You have to be aware of the omens or little things that guide you towards your goal. Most times they are quite subtle. I will be thinking about this for a while and see what I can come up with. If you have read this story tell me what your impression of the message is. There were examples in the book of those who ignore their personal legend or don't want to put the effort forth to accomplish it. There were many other lessons to be learned from the shepherd's journey. So many symbols. I would love to hear your thoughts about this book.

Guess where this is? Believe it or not this is what the Sacred Grove looks like in early spring.
Maybe one day I will see it in color. There is still a very special feeling here, much like what one feels in the temple. I loved contemplating what happened here. We all separated and walked through alone. There are benches placed on the many trails through the trees. It is quite a bit larger than what I imagined.





The Palmyra Temple sits just east of the two farmhouses on a hill across the road but easily seen from the historical farmhouses.

This is a shot of the inside of the cooper's shed where the plates were hidden by Joseph Smith one time.
This is the hearth that they dug up to hide the plates another time. I have always loved that story and the ingenuity of the prophet for thinking of this.

This is the Old North Bridge outside of Concord Massachusetts where the American colonists faced down the British soldiers at the beginning of the war. Its hard to imagine something so violent taking place here. It is very beautiful and serene.

Today's pictures are from the Boston Marathon. We selected a spot in Wellesley about mid point in the race to watch the runners. These army guys were the first people we saw on the marathon route. We weren't sure how long they had been marching or how far they would go. They were carrying pretty heavy looking packs on their backs. I was just glad I wasn't part of their group.

The herald of the runners were the motorcycle cops. We knew when we saw these guys that things were going to get serious. We had been waiting for about 10 minutes before we saw them.
The wheelchair athletes are the first to go. I think we may have missed the winners of that group since she was the only person we saw in that category. She is buff.



These were the first women runners we saw.
Here's Dorothy cheering on her man. I'm afraid he may not have seen these wonderful signs though. We didn't see him until he was almost passed us and he was running on the other side of the road. I was so busy trying to get his attention that I forgot to take his picture. Sorry John. We were sure proud of him though.





These were the Kenyan runners that eventually won the race in a little over 2 hours. They were pretty much sprinting past us.


Here are the first real group of women runners. There weren't that many in the initial group.


This is the picture that describes the main part of the race. We watched a river of humanity running past us for the next hour and a half. The numbers on their jerseys went as high as 26,500+ .There were occasionally some guys dressed up in costumes that passed by. One was Minnie Mouse, another was dressed in full fairy regalia. Sponge Bob Square Pants passed by as did a shark. One masochist was in a complete Yankee baseball uniform. We didn't ever really get tired of the parade which is unusual because I generally dislike parades. We enjoyed shouting encouragement to the runners, many had their names on their shirts. Some pushed their handicapped friends/loved ones in jogging strollers.

This is what the Hill Cumorah looks like from the bottom by the visitor's center.


This is at the top on the north side. These are the great people we traveled with. As you can see we were there at a pretty good time. Not too crowded!
This is Moroni


This is Phil



This is one of my favorite people.


Have you ever wondered what the other side of the hill looks like?


We were surprised to find that there is a campground for the host missionaries on the other side.

Here are some pictures of my favorite Smithsonian exhibit. These were taken in the botanical garden. Take a deep breath and enjoy.





There is a small stream running underneath these beauties!

This shot was taken on our way out of Canada but it gives an overall view of the falls. The closer falls on the left are the American Falls. They are separated by a land mass to the right. The big misty cloud is hiding the Canadian Falls on the right.
This is at the top of the Canadian Falls The interesting thing about this is that the camera picked up the frozen chunks. We could not perceive them with our eyes at the time. I didn't realize they were there until I saw the picture today. The water is going very fast right here.This is looking down at an intermediate falls. The chunks of ice are very easy to see now.
This is looking downstream at the American Falls and the Niagara River.

There really is a lot of water here. The mist makes it hard to see the whole falls but it was spectacular nonetheless.





Here are the falls on the Canadian side just below the hotel we were staying at.

This is looking upstream of the Niagara River. You can see that the land is really quite flat until it falls at this point.
This is my favorite picture.

So this is what happens when important people like the Pope come to Washington and head for the White House. He was staying in an embassy on Massachusetts Avenue that we stumbled upon while leaving Washington the next day. But this time we were stumbling all over the Mall looking at monuments. When the police started closing down the streets and yelling at innocents who just wanted to cross the street we decided to stick around and see what was going to happen. I wanted to look closer at what was captured on my camera to see if we could see a face etc but I will have to wait until my tech savvy people come home for that to happen. A few minutes after witnessing this parade we were crossing the lawn west of the Washington monument and heard a woman singing the Lord's Prayer over a loud speaker. We looked north and there was the White House with a lot of people outside on the back lawn and a big projection screen with video on it. That night on the news we saw it from the White House side of things with the President and the Pope sitting on chairs in front of the gathering. I felt just like Forrest Gump.