After experiencing the Great Outdoors and fabulous weather at the Grand Canyon earlier this week, we were forced indoors today due to a very impressive snow storm.  We drove to Flagtaff and visited the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Riordan Mansion in the morning.  The museum features the art, geology and anthropology of the Colorado Plateau region and has one of the finest museum gift shops we've ever seen (and we've visited a lot of museum gift shops). The Riordan Mansion was built in 1904 for a prominent Flagstaff family and is a remarkable example of Arts and Crafts architecture with some great furniture by Gustav Stickley and other well known A&C craftsman.


After our tour of the mansion, we immediately headed east to avoid being snowed in.  The snow turned to slush as we descended 2000 feet and stopped just as we entered the parking lot at the Great Meteor Crater, the world's best preserved meteor impact site.  It's on a flat plane in the middle of nowhere and you can't see it until you practically fall into it - it's as deep as a 60 story building and a mile across.


Made a brief stop in Winslow to pay homage to The Eagles and visit Mary Colter's La Posada Hotel - see photos below.

Here are a few photos:

garden detail at La Posada in Winslow, AZ.

Standin' on the corrner in Winslow Arizona we were such a fine sight to see

Marty and I are taking a break in our trip due to Marty's family emergency.  We will resume in a few days. 

Spent a day at the Grand Canyon and there are no words to adequately describe it, so we are including photos.  It's awesome!!

Bright Angel Trail--a difficult hike!

Hoover Dam was an extraordinary engineering  feat for its time (1930's), and is very beautiful. The guides went a bit overboard with the dam jokes, however.  The dam tour was terrific and our dam guides let us take as many dam photos as we wanted.  The dam holds enough water to cover the entire state of Pennsylvania to the depth of one foot.  Dam that's a lot of water!   

The new bridge from inside the dam

Lake Mead, behind the dam, with intake tower.

 However, we were on the dam, so no pictures of it.

Terrazo floor

 Instead, we have some of the 1930s art deco that decorates the outside of the visitor's center.

                                                       

Retirement looks better every day.  We spent yesterday evening sitting outdoors at a bar on historic Route 66 getting our kicks drinking local beer and listening to live music.  Marty wore the tie-dyed tee shirt she bought from the "Peace Guy" at the Farmer's Market in San Francisco. 

This is what retirement looks like.

We're off to discover America! This is the start of a blog reporting Marty and BJ's cross-country road trip.  We are starting in Las Vegas, that quintessentially American town.  So far, we've seen the Eiffle Tower and Petit Palais in Paris, the Doge's Palace and gondalas of Venice, Greenwich Village in NY, NY, got lost in Caesar's Forum (a complex so big we got lost and had to ask several times to find our way out)-- all this without leaving Vegas.  !

This fine lady is dressed in chocolate and caramel.  Could this be heaven???







Tomorrow:  Hoover Dam.