The most incredible thing I've ever seen

Yesterday I drove north from Phoenix, stopping at Montezuma's Caste National Monument.  It wasn't built by Aztecs, so the European-given name isn't really appropriate, but it's a wonderful example of cliff dwellings.  The Verde Valley of Arizona was a popular trading route, and the Indians who lived here 700 years ago were farmers and traders.





From there, it was about 100 miles to the Grand Canyon.  I planned a trip to the Canyon about 20 years ago, but had car trouble on the way and couldn't complete the journey.  I'm so glad I was able to see this place, finally!  No words that I could say here can add to what anybody else has said to describe it.  It is simply the most beautiful place I have ever seen.  To walk around with hundreds of people who are feeling exactly the same thing is an amazing experience as well.  Surely, God is by far the greatest artist ever!

Crossing the desert

On Saturday, I drove across the desert from Southern California to Phoenix, Arizona.
Here are the pictures...



As I drove through southeastern California, there were beautiful mountains to the right.  These are the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.





After passing Palm Springs, with its "oasis in the desert" look and its entertainment complexes, the Joshua Tree National Park is just to the north of the highway.  It's actually a combination of two deserts.  The one farther north, which I didn't drive through, actually has the Joshua trees (they kinda look like combinations of a tree and a cactus).  Apparently, the temperatures aren't as consistently high up there, and they can survive.  The lower part of the desert (the Colorado desert), which I saw, was very dry and very hot.  It had some scrubby plants, but nothing much higher than your head.

As I crossed into Arizona, I saw a dust storm blowing in the distance.  It was probably about the size of a house, not much bigger than that.  Sometimes drivers have to stop for big ones.

I had never seen a great big sajuaro cactus growing in the wild.  There was a section of I-10 where they were growing all over the place on both sides of the road.  I couldn't get a picture until I stopped at a rest area.  They appeared to be about 15 to 20 feet tall.



Temperatures on the highway rose to 111 degrees!  At night, it only fell to about 82, even though it was 104 at 7:30 and 102 at 8:30pm.  They expect EVEN HOTTER days this week!

Two libraries, two days

On Friday, I visited the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California.  Yorba Linda is in the eastern part of the Los Angeles area, just above Anaheim.

The visit starts with a film specially made for the museum.  President Nixon actually narrates quite a bit of it, which is kinda spooky, but cool.  What I liked about this museum was that they didn't sugar-coat the Watergate affair; it was addressed at length.  In the film, Nixon is candid about his successes and his failures.
He and Pat's gravesites are at the end of a beautiful garden path, and just beyond that is Nixon's birthplace, moved here from nearby Whittier.

Flag from President Nixon's casket

Nixon was an accomplished pianist.  He often
played at White House gatherings.

Chandelier from mock East Room

Nixon always said he was "born in
a house my father built."

Presidential limousine

Richard on left, Pat on right

I had hoped to be at the southeastern border of California by nightfall, but a traffic jam on the freeway leading in that direction forced me to backtrack to the Anaheim/Fullerton area for the night.  While standing outside the hotel room about 9 p.m., I could see fireworks in the distance.  It was Disneyland!