Judy. Within one week, we experienced the beauty of three natural elements: Earth, Water, and
Air.
Earth—Leaving Olympia, Washington, we detoured to Sequoia National Park to see the trees
we’ve hoped to see for years. Climbing into the park, there were a plethora of redwoods, but
interspersed were majestic red-barked, enormous, ancient trees: Sequoias. We drove to the
grove where the General Sherman tree, 2,200 years old, rose above the redwoods. Both this
tree and others around it display marks of forest fires. These ancients can survive all but the
hottest of forest fires. As a lagniappe, a mama bear and her cub wandered right through the
tourists. Definitely an experience all around!
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| There was evidence of many forest fires |
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| But General Sherman survived |
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| Easy to see where they were burned |
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| Mama and baby walked right past us, up close and personal |
Water—From Sequoia, we drove to visit our friends Nancy and Mike in Santa Barbara. On
Sunday, they took us to a beach restaurant for breakfast, then for a walk along the Pacific (my
favorite ocean). Dipping my toes in the surf on this rugged beach was a true joy.
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| Love the mountains down to the shore |
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| Mike and Nancy are great hosts |
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| Dipping our toes in the Pacific |
Air—Or the Universe. From Santa Barbara, we drove to Flagstaff, Arizona, and went directly to
Lowell Observatory, one of the oldest in the country, and the observatory where Pluto was
discovered. In the afternoon, we looked through a filtered telescope at the surface of the sun,
with its storms and flares. Later that evening, we experienced stars and star clusters and a ring
nebula, hundreds of light years away, despite a full moon and scattered clouds. There was
even a “moondog” that night, visible to the naked eye, and a close view of the moon through a
telescope.
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| Some of the telescopes at Lowell |
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| Checking out the Hercules Cluster, half a million stars, 300+ light years away |
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| The moon through a telescope and the rare "moondog" ring around her |
Three amazing experiences, all in one week. How fortunate are we???
