Adventures outside of Gulf Shores....

We spent most of our time in and around Gulf Shores.  However, a couple of days we did venture out of Gulf Shores to do a little sight seeing.

 

 

One adventure was to go to Pensacola, Florida to visit the Navy Air Museum.  This is about an hour drive from our house along the gulf coast.

 

Before we actually got to the museum, we visited the Pensacola Light House which is on the Navy Base just across from the museum.

 

 

Welcome to the light house.

 

View from the light house.  We climbed the 177 steps to the top!

 

 

I am climbing to the top of the light house.

 

I had to take a rest!!

 

 

 Don had to really duck coming down from the top!

 

 

 

 

This is a view of the stairs!... Pretty narrow!

 

 

A view of the light house grounds from the top.  It is a long way down!

 

Looking out one of the windows in the tower! 

 

 

 This is a view of the air museum from the light house.... this is our next stop.

 

 

A close up view of the entrance to the Museum..

 

 

Jet out front.

 

 

We had lunch at the cafe there inside the museum.

 

Presidential Helicopter.....

 

 

Inside the Helicopter....

 

 

There is so much to see here.  We spent the whole afternoon looking around, would have stayed longer, but they were about to close!

 

 

One of the views on our way back to Gulf Shores.  This was a good day.  The Air Museum was great and we learned a lot about the air craft there.

 

 

 

 



View of the Gulf Shores Beaches.....

Beach views are beautiful.  I get really relaxed when I look out onto the ocean and listen to the waves as they wash up on shore!  Following are some of my favorite Gulf Shore beach views, some during the day, and some beautiful sunsets!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See and hear the ocean waves!

 

Now for some sunsets!

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

This was over the lagoon behind the house.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to February at the Beach

I just booked 2 weeks at a beach house in Gulf Shores, Alabama the middle of February.  We will actually be there for Fat Tuesday.
Partly what brought it on was that we are going to be in Little Rock for grand lodge 2/6-2/9 so we thought we would just head on south for a little beach vacation.  It won't be really hot there but hopefully a little warmer.  We have rented a house on the beach (between a lagoon and the Gulf of Mexico)
 I do not really know what to expect at the beach during this part of the year.  It will not be summer warm that is for sure.  I will be happy if it is in the 60's and 70's or so.  I won't mind a little rain if we have some sun thrown on there.
As for the house,  I hope it is as pictured on the Internet.  It looks really bright and cheery just what I need for this time of the year.  It looks like just the right size for Don and I. It does have two bedrooms, one with a queen bed and one with twin beds.  We can use the second bedroom for a dressing room.
Now I have the pleasure of planning for our two weeks away.  I have been researching things to do while there.
One thought is to take our bikes and ride on some of the trails there.  There are also sme old forts that we will probably tour.

I

The joy of riding my bicycle

I love all the new trails that are being built all around Bentonville and Rogers!   A great workout for me is to get on my bike and ride for a couple of hours a around town!

Today, Don mentioned that he wanted to go to the Rogers Wellness Center to do a weight workout.  So I said, maybe we could ride our bikes to Rogers to get our aerobic work out in and then do weights.  It is about 9 to 12 miles from the place we parked just South of Bella Vista, following bike trails and sidewalks.

We got up this morning and ate a pretty good breakfast so we would have enough energy for the bike ride.  I packed a snack of crackers, cheese and apples.  We also make sure we had plenty of water.

We left the parking area at 9:00 and took off down the trail.  We find that there is a lot of gradual inclines all the way to Rogers.  The wind also made it a little more difficult to ride.  It seemed as if we were riding into the wind the whole way. 

After an hour and a half of bike riding, we made it to the Wellness center.  After resting and visiting with a few people, I did a weight workout.  After our workout, we had a little snack before heading back to the truck.

We found it was easier going back to Bentonville because the wind was mostly at our backs and we were going gradually down.  We got to coast quite a bit on the return trip and it took us a half and hour less to do the return trip. 

I do feel good, but and also feel like I did a really good work out today!

I hope this is something that we can do more before it gets really cold.

Autumn in Arkansas and Trip to Ponca

October 18, 2012---Thursday,
,
One nice thing about being retired is that we can take a trip during the week when places are not so crowded.
The leaves have started turning to their fall colors so we decided to drive to Ponca, Ar (by the Buffalo River) for the day to look at leaves and take a short hike.  It was a very beautiful fall day, eventhough it became very windy by day's end.

The pictures are some of the ones I took during our outing.


This is one of the pretty hill sides in Boxley Valley

Don and I on the Hidden Valley Trail going to Eden Falls.

 

Some of the Trees along the trail..

 

Looking up from the valley floor.

Pretty bluff and trees.

A little water dripping off of a plant.

 

Just a little water was falling from Edan Falls.

 

 

Another pretty tree.

 

 

 

Views along the highway on our way home.

 

The last picture of the day.  We had a great time with great weather!  I can't wait for our next day trip.

 

 



Day two at Yosemite

October 4, 2012--Thursday

We have been away from home 4 weeks today!  WOW!!!

Today we are up early and just had coffee and a power bar on the road.... We have a lot to see today.

Our first stop today was what they call tunnel view in Yosemite.....

Pictures are a little hazy because of the fire, but still beautiful...



El Capitan in fore ground and half dome peaking out in the back.

 

 

 

After viewing this for a while, we went on up to Glacier Point!  Even more beautiful than this.  It over looks the valley with interesting views of half dome and of Vernal Falls, which was the only falls we saw running while in the park.

 

 

Half Dome from Glacier Point.

 

 

View of the valley..... at the bottom is where mirror lake would be.

 

 

Here we are!!

 

 

 

View of the waterfall viewed from glacier point.

 

 

This interesting view is of the back side of half dome.

 

After staying at Glacier Point for a while enjoying the views, we are on to the Meriposa Grove where the big Sequoia trees of Yosemite park are.

 

 

Big trees, bigger than the redwoods.

 

 

 

Standing tunnel tree.  People used to drive their old cars through this tree.  Now just people go through it.

 

 

This is the fallen tunnel tree.  It fell in 1962 after many years of wagons and cars passing through it.

 

Don and I beside the fallen Tunnel Tree.

 

After viewing these big giant trees, we drive back towards camp, stopping at the Tunnel View one more time.  The view was a little clearer this time.

 

 

We then went on down to the valley floor for a last look at El Capitan!

The interesting story here is that rock climbers make their way up the face of the mountain.  It takes them about 3 days to get to the top so they have to spend the night on the face of the mountain on cots that hang from the mountain!  It is said that at night you can look up the mountain and see the lanterns from the climber's cots along the face of the mountain.

 

We saw about 5 or 6 climbers this time around. 

 

 

Look closely and you can see one of the climbers going up the face of the mountain.  That below him is his gear that he will haul up with him.

 

We have had a great day here at Yosemite National Park.  Tomorrow we will slowly start for Arkansas.  It has been a great vacation and we have seen many wonderful places and things.

However, great as the trip has been, we will be very happy to sleep in our own bed.  There is truly no place like home.

 

Until the next Journey through Life!!!