Las Vegas

Since we had seen the fabulous creations of God we thought we would take in some of the creations of man. So we went down to the strip in Las Vegas.

Some of the things that we found all the buildings share:

• They are easy to find your way in but not always out.

• Along with the above, you always seem to end up at the casino part.

• They all have lots of shops inside also, like a mall.

• They are huge, taking up at least a block on the strip and going even further in depth.

We saw some of the street productions. The volcano at the Mirage was pretty good. They use lit up water for the eruption along with bursts of flames. You could feel the heat from it. The grounds are very tropical looking with lots of plants and waterfalls.

We took in part of the Treasure Island show, but weren’t impressed due to the dress and context of some of the show. And this is a family show?

We went into the Caesar Palace and about got lost. The ceiling paintings and statues are great.

We also went into the Venetian. There is a ‘canal’ inside and another outside with gondolas that you can take a ride on. The shops are laid out like a Venetian street scene. The ceiling is domed and painted like the sky. With special lighting on it which changes, it looks like the real thing. We also saw some live statues in this area. The eyes blinking gave them away.
Our favorite place was the Dancing Fountains at the Bellagio. These are also outside. We stayed and watched it three times. Each was different with different music.

In all, it is impressive. I could do without the card passing out along the sidewalks, the adult shows opened up onto the sidewalks, and the dress of many of the people on the streets. (We stayed out of the casinos with the exception of when we got lost and funneled into them.)

Maybe the reason I liked the fountains was because it wasn’t trying to appear to be something it wasn’t. All the others were created to look like something else or to deceive the onlooker. It sort of reminded me of Satan’s enticements. So I have to say, give me God’s creations any day to savor and enjoy.

Zion Park

As we entered Zion we saw some interesting formations. I didn't get a picture of them but it looked like someone had built a wall using blocks that decreased in size. After a few layers like this, they reversed and went the opposite direction, again starting with larger going to smaller. It was strange looking.

We also stopped along the road where the whole hill was just sand stone. You could see where the sand had drifted before it turned to stone. You can also see where stone has collapsed to form an arch. There are a lot of these throughout the park.
The next pictures are in the same area and show another part of the hill. You can really see the sand stone layers.

This just shows some of the colors up close.
On some of the sandstone in this area are black spots. B thought that these may have been iron deposits. It is the iron that has oxidized that gives the sand stone it's red color.
There was also a lone rock with markings or deposits on it that looked like the formations that we saw in the Wind Cave in South Dakota. In the cave they were called box formations, made from dissolved limestone seeping through. It was only on this one side of the rock.
We drove through on the highway until we came out on the other side. Then we took the shuttle up into the park. The majority of the park is seen by shuttle.

Zion park, compared to Bryce, is just majestic. The cliff walls are much higher and steeper. They go almost straight up. Since the road is in the bottom along the Virgin River, it is hard to get a picture of a lot of it because you can't get back far enough.

We did get off the shuttle and hiked up to Emerald Pools. Then we hiked to the next stop on up the road. There wasn't much water going over here at the lower pool. As it was, we got sprayed as we followed the trail around to the other side. There are some people on the lower right side.
For size comparison, note the people at the bottom of the next picture.
We saw this while hiking to the pools.
There are lots of trails here to hike also. If they aren't right in the bottom, they are on the rim or going up to the rim. We took this while we were on the trail going to the next shuttle stop.
The shuttle route ends at the Temple of Sinawava. This picture was taken just before this area.
From the end of the road, we went a ways on the trail that goes on up the bottom. We saw a deer and her fawn. They are smaller than a white tail.
The next two pictures were taken along this trail. We didn't go all the way because it was after four o'clock at that time.
It gets dark early down in the canyon.

Bryce Canyon

I can now say that I have been to the steps of the Colorado Plateau. The first step is Bryce Canyon. It's base, some 600 plus feet, is the same formation layer and height as Zion's rim. The floor of Zion is the same to the rim of Grand Canyon. Each has it's own special sites.

The Colorado Plateau covers most of Utah, about one fifth of Colorado, about half of Arizona, and one fourth of New Mexico. The first step includes what they call pink and gray cliffs. The second step has white, vermilion, and chocolate cliffs, and then the third step with all it's colors. The geology of this whole area is interesting and can be looked at on the internet.

We first drove the rim of Zion and stopped at some of the lookouts. These are some of the things we saw.

The first stop was at the southern end of the rim, from which one has a good view of the amphitheater. They call these pink but I call them red and orange with white or gray layers.
Our second stop was at Rainbow Point. We were greeted by the welcome committee leader. Note the elevation. The previous stop was even higher.
This is the view looking east. Highway 12 goes through a valley out there before the distant ridge.
This shows some of the Hoodoos. I'll let you look that up.
Looking down into the bottom.
More formations from other view points.
From here one looks back to the area where we were on the second stop. Note the small hole in this picture.
At Bryce, approximately 200 days a year, ice and snow melt during the day and refreeze at night. This works on the cracks that were formed from uplifting and faulting. Monsoon rains remove the debris, helping reveal the fins. When frost wedging cracks the fins, holes or windows open. These in turn are broken by water freezing and collapse, forming hoodoos. There are some interesting shapes.
I think this is the one they call Thor's hammer.
Do you see the lady in white holding a baby.
In some areas one can look down towards the bottom.
When we reached Sunset Point we decided to stop and not drive the rest of the rim as it was getting around noon. This is were we wanted to enter the canyon to do the Navajo and Peekaboo loops. It was 12:45 when we entered. As we entered on the Wall Street side, there were switch backs and it dropped into a crack. See the people in the bottom.
The walls showed not only the red color but also some yellow. You have to look close to see it.
Looking back up at the switch backs.
Looking back from inside a crack.
The crack narrowed but wasn't as steep. I wouldn't want to be here during a flash flood.
There are trees growing down in these cracks. One wouldn't think that there was enough water for them.
Looking back up was a different view. It was hard to keep track of just where we were.
There are lots of shapes that make you think of different objects. This one made us think of a lady with a lion on it's hunches towards her back.
This is an area that has two 'bridges' left from erosion. They are made of a harder rock that got left behind. We saw this on the trail we took when we hiked out.
Some of the rock 'melts' and flows with the water. It looks like formations that you find in caves. They refer to this as slip. That is also what you call the very watery clay when you throw pots on a wheel.
This shows the rim from down on the trail. It shows some of the color. We hiked around in those points sticking up.
See the two and a half large urns in the top left corner? There are even some plants growing in them. After spending four hours hiking the almost five miles of trails we returned to the top. We went back to one of the southern view points to try and figure out just where we were hiking. If you look at the center right side (above) you can see some of the trail that we hiked. We came to a junction with a one mile trail that went to this lookout. Instead we took the two mile trail back to where we entered. It would have been an eight mile hike back to the truck from this stop. What a pretty hole.

Missoula Children's Theater

While we were still in Montana, one afternoon Bob and I went into Missoula to see his cousin Don. He met us at the Missoula Children’s Theater and gave us a tour.

The building had been a school, now converted to a theater with basement storage for props, costumes, furniture, risers, scenery, and everything else that is needed for a theater. A lobby for the theater was the only addition to the building. The upstairs houses all the business offices, sewing room, etc. that is used to run the Missoula Children’s Theater.

The first time that I met Don, I believe it was just before Bob and I were married, he and his first wife were involved in getting the Missoula Children’s Theater going. As we toured the building, he told us about the program and how it has evolved.

In 1970 an out of work actor from Chicago, Jim Caron, was on his way to a friend’s wedding in Oregon. Just outside of Missoula his VW bus broke down. While he was waiting for it to get fixed, he saw a poster for the casting of “Man of La Mancha.” He tried out for the part of Cervantes and got it. Don was playing Don Quixote. When the play was over, Don talked him into staying and working with him to put a group together to take plays to schools that had no drama program, to “bring the theater experience to children.”

They did this for a few years. As Don said, it wasn’t making enough money to support two families. So he ended up in Seattle singing with the Seattle Opera. That is another story in itself. Don maintained contact with Jim and was a sounding board for him. Don again works full time with the MCT and spends part of his time in Seattle and part in Missoula.

The touring group consisted of ten adults. One February, Miles City called to see if the group could come to their school and do “Snow White.” Miles City is 480 miles away and it was winter roads. However, since they were so strapped for money, the answer was yes. Don was in Seattle at this time. Not everyone in tour group was able to go, so it was decided to try and cast the dwarfs with kids from the school, if they could get enough kids whose father, from this cowboy town, would let them try out. They notified the school to try and get some kids together.

When they got there they asked the principal for a room to do the try outs in. He told them they could use the gym. When they opened the doors, there were 450 kids, from a town of 4,000, waiting to try out. Besides the dwarfs, they tried to create as many other roles as they could to use kids in.
That was a turning point in why and how they would use the Missoula Children’s Theater. On Friday night, at the end of a week of practices, kids who had been made fun of on the playground, received cheers from those who had teased them. Others, who didn’t feel they were good at anything, found out they had accomplished something. From then on the goal became “Teaching Life Skills Through Theater.”

The several tour groups now consists of two people traveling in a red truck that holds scenery, costumes, and everything else that is needed. The costumes are designed to fit many sizes. They are on the road from about October through May with two weeks off at Christmas. There are five different plays on the road. Each year a new play is introduced and one is retired. Sometimes it is brought back and used again. The plays are familiar children stories with music, but with a twist. They take turns directing. When not directing, the other tour member will be one of the actors if needed.

One of the things that the company tries to do is to make the playing field level for everyone. They will not let a principal tell them anything about any of the children. They also try to cast children with handicaps. They use children from Kindergarten and on up.

Don told us about an interesting thing that happened with one of the tour couples that were in Ireland. They had gone to an area that is industrial and poor. There are two gangs, that they call mobs, in the area. After checking in with the principal upon their arrival, and just prior to casting, he said, “I have something to tell you about.” Since they want all to have a fair chance, they cut him off. Twice more he tried, each time cutting him off. So he stopped trying. After the play on Friday and while taking things down, the principal approached them and said that he would like to take them out for a beer when they were done as he had something he wanted to tell them. They accepted his offer.

“A week prior to your arrival, there had been a mob war. Two people, from opposing mobs were killed. We thought about canceling the play because we have kids from families on both sides here. We realized it was probably too late so we decided to leave it up to you when you arrived. This is what I was trying to tell you. The leader of one of the mobs was killed. You cast his son as Romeo. There was also a man killed from the rival gang. You cast his daughter in another lesser role. We knew the parents would be passing each other in the hall as they brought kids to and from practice. We didn’t know what would happen. We had guards posted tonight in case a fight started. Instead, tonight parents were cheering for all the kids. It didn’t matter whose child it was. This was for the children. Afterwards, some of the parents were even talking to ones from the other mob.”

Don also told us of a similar incident in a town in the south that isn’t yet “integrated.” By the end of the week, new friendships were made across the lines of color. His comment was, wouldn’t it be great if we could put on a play in Jerusalem with Israeli and Palestinian children in it.

We have a grandson who is looking forward to his fourth time to be in one of the Missoula Children’s Theater plays. His younger sister is also looking forward to it as last year she got to be a mouse.

Besides the plays during the school year, there are camps in the summer. They are trying to expand their area with these. The company is also becoming involved with a program that the tour couple would present to youth through assemblies in becoming aware of one’s surroundings and getting outside. There are some studies that show that kids who get outside have less trouble with obesity.
Some people may not make a lot of money, but they make a big difference in the lives of others. All kids need a chance to realize that they are special and can succeed at what they try. This is another way for some to learn that.

On The Move

As the weather started getting cold up north, we knew it was time to move and avoid snow. We almost did that.

We went down through the Bitterroot Valley. As we went over Lost Trail Pass, this is what we saw.

We went to the Big Hole Battlefield. Bob had been there when he was real young and I had been there around the time I was in Junior High. Besides being cold, things have changed some.

There is now a visitors center and trails to hike to the area where the Indians were camped and to where the army retreated. There are also tepee poles set up for lodges.

The area where the army had retreated to has very few 'old' trees. When I had been there previously, you could see marks on the trees from bullets. Those trees are gone and there are not as many trees as before. They do have the trenches marked and cleared.

This is the stream that the army crossed when they entered the Indian village. It is about twenty feet across.

We also saw these in the area to which the army retreated.
We went to Rexburg and spent a couple nights there. We met up with two of the guys from home who are in college there. It was great to see them. The morning we left there, Bob had to clear about one and a half inches of wet snow off the top of the truck. The roads were wet but not slick.

We went on to Salt Lake and went to some places there. It was warmer here but there was snow on the mountains.

We spent the evening, after we arrived, at the conference center taking the tour of it. Pictures just don't show how large it is. The statistics on it are something.

We also took in Temple Square, the Lion House, Brigham Young's home, and went to the temple. The temple is beautiful inside. It is understandable why it took them so long to build.

Finally we got to warmer weather. But that will go in the next blog.