Tour of Illinois and Trip West (Arches Nat'l Park)

Well, after touring Illinois with my mom and sister Kay and a revisit to Minneapolis (to pick up our bicycles and camping equipment), Carolynn and I have headed west in direction of home. On the way we stopped for visits with Mike and Tammy Pavich in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Mike and Tammy seem to doing very well and are getting prepared for yet another RAGBRAI (Registers Bike Ride Across, Iowa). We also made stops to visit Don and Pat Kingsley in Hastings, Nebraska and Nathan and Kathryn Scott in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Don and Pat are the parents of Katie Kingsley a good friend of ours in Honolulu. Nathan Scott is a Bell family friend (his parents whom we visited with in Washington, DC are Carolynn's godparents) and is the director of 'The SAGE Program' is a VERY interesting global program that works with schools across the country and specializes in educational overseas trip for teachers and their students in middle and high school.

Since my last blog entry, there have been no school related business (except for a parent informational meeting on a school's sex education program that I attended in Chicago and a lengthy discussion about The SAGE Program with Nathan Scott). There are no immediate plans for any visitations for the duration of our trip. We know that May, the last month of school, is a very busy month for schools and purposefully decided to leave schools alone. So, most of this blog entry is a brief description of the tour of my mom's birth state of Illinois, and our current trip in the Arches National Park.

It was an absolute joy for me to accompany my mother Elsie and sister Kay on a 5-day trip throughout my mother's birth state of Illinois. One of the highlights includes visiting Abraham Lincoln's home, museum and tomb in Springfield, Illinois. On this trip CC and I have visited many presidential museums, homes, tombs, libraries, etc., none better that The Lincoln Library. If ever in Illinois, it is worth the effort to see this amazing place. There is an interactive program with a live actor interacting with special effects and holograms describing Lincoln's library. Truly an amazing performance!

Other highlights of our Illinois tour included a visit to the Tuttle farm in Plainville, Illinois (just outside Quincy), visiting Illinois College (college that my parents attended and, interestingly enough, my colleague Terry Woody), visiting both sets of grandparent's graves in Quincy and Pinckneyville on the same day, and watching my mother interact with her cousin Dean and seeing a few of her elementary school friends in Pinckneyville. This trip ended with a quick visit to Campaign, Illinois for my mom to visit an old Illinois friend, Nan, and a very nice day and evening in downtown Chicago. If any of you are wondering where Carolynn was during this Illinois tour, I put her on a plane to Minneapolis to spend more time with her mom, on the day of my mom's arrival in Chicago. My sister and mom were able to spend a few more days in Chicago exploring museums as I drove back to Minneapolis. This Illinois tour will certainly be a week to remember!

While in Minneapolis, CC and I were able to spend more time with CC's mom, attend a Minnesota Twins baseball game, and get ourselves prepared for more camping out west.

Speaking of camping … currently, CC and I are camped just outside of Arches National Park in Utah. Yesterday we spent the day exploring the UNBELIEVABLE rock formations throughout the park. I'm certain that the accompanying photos do not come close to showing their true beauty. Today we plan to go back into the park to spend the day hiking. We will be in the Moab area for a few more days so that we can explore Canyonlands National Park that is just up the road. After leaving the Moab area, we plan to explore the American Indian cliff dwelling ruins of Mesa Verde, Colorado, spend four nights in the Grand Canyon area, and visit both Bryce and Zion National Parks in Utah before heading back to our starting point in San Diego. More on the National Parks experience later. Hope you enjoy the pictures of Arches National Park (below). Aloha ... looking forward to going home!