Winnipeg (near the Longitudinal Center of Canada)

After leaving North Dakota, we drove north a couple of hours to Winnipeg, capital of Manitoba. We enjoyed our stay in a classic old time big hotel, the Fort Garry Hotel (four weddings were held while we were there).  We walked up to the legislative building, a huge nearly 100 year old building.

Inside the capital lobby huge bison guarded the main staircase up to the legislative chamber.  The capital building is also the main government building for the province.

Where the 57 legislators sit, each representing 22,000 people.

Manitoba does not have a lot of people.

Along the Red River that runs through town there is a park. Bears, painted in a variety of schemes, are a theme in a part of the park. Indian totem poles also mix in.

And a replica of old Fort Garry, a French trading post and settlement from fur trading days.

 We most enjoyed the Human Rights museum in town, an amazing museum that traced the meaning and evolution of the understanding of human rights through time and various violations of rights that have involved citizen groups in Manitoba. It is an amazing museum, extremely well done.

As we left town driving east on Canada Highway 1, the TransCanadian Highway, we passed a sign announcing the "Longitudinal Center of Canada".  This is what it  looked like a couple of miles down the road. We were doing about 70 mph and did not go back to get a photo of the sign or the exact spot. The sign was about 20-30 miles east of Winnipeg if you just have to know.

Driving across the west to North Dakota

Leaving Fort Collins, Colorado we drove north into Wyoming. Stopped near Guernsey where the Oregon Trail cut deep ruts into the sandstone and left less distinguishable trail through the prairie.

Fort Laramie, an old US calvary post, has been maintained and reconstructed in the prairie. It would have been a desolate post.

Crossed into South Dakota on a back road. Saw this sign. Decided to buy gas in Newell. Luckily they had some - most towns we saw were just a crossroads, about every 35 miles would be a slightly larger town with some services.

Stopped at an Indian Reservation for lunch in South Dakota and the drive, the geography and agriculture were more interesting than the above photo seems to indicate. The towns, however, did not get much closer together despite our not going all the way to Watertown.

 Driving into North Dakota and Napoleon from the south, we drove by Erick Oman's homestead site.  This was the view across the street.  A wheat field, a large one— as they tend to be.

And the former site of the Oman homestead, now a hay field for the cattle in the next quarter section.  That is the street - dirt road to the right in the photo.

Downtown Napoleon has not changed much since the '20s and '30s. This brick building has a new facade but is basically the same one you see in that old photo we have of Erick and others working on the original wooden structure.

One of the delights of our visit to Napoleon was visiting Carolyn Sperle, a 100+ year old who remembered 'Mr Oman' as a Raleigh Products salesman. We met her on a visit to Napoleon in 2006 through a connection from a friend of Matt's father Luther.

Mrs. Sperle is one of the more interesting people you can meet. The daughter of Russian German immigrants from Odessa she told us stories of old Napoleon and of being a volunteer in the local senior citizens home. Yes, she is a volunteer at the old folks home. And she will make you laugh too.

We also went by the town cemetery and visited the grave of Lawrence Pershing Oman who died July 31, 1920, a month short of two years old.

Leaving Napoleon behind, we kept our tradition of driving on back roads (like we had a choice) and got stuck behind a cattle drive. They finally left the road and I got this photo. One pick up truck, one young woman on horseback, two four wheelers and two dogs, about 60-70 cattle.

The roads are straight.

The sunflower crops are bright and fill a field.

In Grand Forks, we had a great visit with Matt's parents, Luther and Jan. Originally we had planned on going fishing at Devils Lake, but high winds changed those plans. So we went into northern Minnesota to Lake Itasca to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

Crossing those rocks, the water exiting the lake, the Mississippi starts its way to the Gulf.  It takes 90 days for this water to get to New Orleans.

The four of us. Patt and Jan with wet feet too.

and now off to Winnipeg the to the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Deer Mountain Hike, a 10,000 foot mtn, no small thing either

Early in our time in Fort Collins we hiked Deer Mountain. These photos have languished on my desktop ready to be posted for several weeks so finally after we left town and the kids are safely back in Asia, here it is. This was one of the first of many big hikes with elevation.

The two littles are ready to start up hill. A party of about 12 or 14 of us went on this hike. Two families in addition to us.  

Early on I was getting favor of a hiking partner- I liked it.

and as we got higher and a bit spread out, on the switch backs, the views got broader and better too.

and hiking partners changed around which was nice

or none at all, also nice, especially when I was huffing and puffing.

At one point it rained, hard! very hard! We just put on our rain coats and stood under the trees to get what shelter we could. Finally it did clear and the humidity being nonexistent we dried out rapidly as did the trail.

Though a bit cloudy, no more rain the rest of the day, a bit cool at the top though where we picnicked.

and we got a photo with all the Asian grandchildren.

a strong hiking crew and a great hiking place 

check out the back drop of this photograph

We like the views from mountain tops.

Some trails get a bit steep with lots of switchbacks. This one was.

Hard to beat Rocky Mountain National Park for a vista or a backdrop for a photograph.

It is also hard to beat Fort Collins as a place to spend the summer. Patt and I truly enjoyed our time here with the grandchildren and Matt and Laura. It was just absolutely great. Hiking, playing cards, biking, meal times, reading, story telling, cooking, playing outside, just talking and visiting, having early morning wake up visitors, sleepover guests, going places and all the fun of being together. A great summer for memories that we will surely treasure.

now we are off to another journey--

ole time summer tradition Putt Putt Golf

Have not played putt putt more than 2-3 times since our kids were this size.  Those times were at az then Long Beach and at a course that is now no longer in existence.

I was in a foursome with Matt and these two. Provided for no end of entertainment. Their 'putt putt style' resembled field hockey at times and searching for lost golf balls included not always on the 'fairway'.

All of our party took to the game with intensity and it was a joy to be a part of. Grandmama talked a big game prior to playing and the kids liked the trash talking too.

Please  note the flight of the orange ball. Good loft off the tee, good distance, several shots like this resulted in good bounces off the stone boundary of the fairways, sometimes even remaining in the fairway.

Remaining even in the fairway was not always a bonus. The course we played was a good challenge.

A hole in one was celebrated and I think each of us got one, even yours truly. All of my foursome got one too! Yes, not that all of the foursome realized just how that factored into the fun of the game as chasing the ball around (great fun for some) was reduced.

We did have at least one of the party who looked the part of a golfer - Luke "taps in an easy one"

The course was family friendly and allowed a five-some.

Next to the putt putt just happened to be a bumper boat pond— with water guns built into the boats  -good idea!!

 

The pond also had a water sprinkler which John Paul thought was real good idea! Me, not so sure.  (John Paul drove the boat towards the sprinkler every time we were close and he had the controls if he was not actively engaged in a water gun fight with one of his siblings).

I liked getting involved too.

And near the the bumper boats pond was a go cart race track with carts that had some cars with two seats. Guess what? -  Matt and I got to go multiple times!!!  

First John Paul and Isaac were our companions and then Lydia and Julianna rode with me and Matt respectively. It was great fun. The kids "drove" like mad, turning that steering wheel. John Paul slipped down in his seat as there was no crotch belt and by the end of the race he was nearly lying down.

Both Lydia and Julianna enjoyed riding with us and passing people. As luck would have it, both Matt and I got fast carts. From watching the earlier drivers you could sorta just pick out that some carts seemed faster than others and I believe we got some fast ones because we enjoyed passing folks.

It is hard to believe that the end to a fabulous summer in Fort Collins has come so soon. But it has.  

One of our wonderful summers with the grandchildren and Matt and Laura came to a close. It ended on a day full of fun together, as many of our days were. A summer to remember!

Visitors from the East — you know Kansas.

The apartments were full!  in more ways than one!  (if you get my drift).  Julie, Caroline, Will and Eric were here.  Much talked about, anticipated and looked forward too.  The excitement, noise and general hubbub was well you get my drift.  It was fun.  and such happy times.  One heck of a full breakfast table too.

The first morning we were off on a "short"approx.  three mile hike into Hewlett Gulch.  A valley we had hiked before and Luke's favorite.  Note his appearance as the photos progress to get an idea as to why.

There are many stream crossings on this hike and the options for crossing are multiple.  I chose to stay dry being on the crotchety side of sixty.  Point should be made that I was not the only one who stayed dry on the trip as two thirty something first cousins did as well.

Help was available for the tricky option of staying dry and was offered freely and eagerly.  Seems as if volunteers were called on to be "helped".

Having an engineer - a studied- engineering- in- college- engineer made for a rather serious design when it came to the locating and building of the lets-build-a-dam moment of creek play.  Impressive to say the least.  The kids did the building, but got some suggestions on placement I am thinking.

the return trip had some threatening skies and a few drops of rain did fall as we got to the trail head and parking lot.

Luke's return trip.  

and obviously not the 

"rocking egg" 

at this moment. 

 Continuing in slow motion, the next morning, an early start got us up and out and on the way to the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Visitors to the Park know that it is full of photo ops.  This was one.  Luke has become interested in and proud of his "take a picture".

Julie and Laura spent a lot of time together and it was nice to see them and their kids together.

there are rocks to climb

grandkids and nieces and nephews to be with

snowball fights to have 

and be a big target.

the former Hawaiians were singularly excited to see snow / slush.  

Wildlife got hoots and hollers.  

and we did go on a serious hike involving altitude too.  Starting at over 9,000 feet going up another 1000 past a series of lakes.

 The views were astounding over the cliffs and points along the path up the valley toward the ice fields.

one of the lakes that we hiked too.

like I said we did have some serious views the afternoon hiking back down from the upper lake.

those would the "the Rangers" checking the water temperature.  Will and Caroline lead the kids into forming a Club and Julianna Lydia and Isaac sure had a good time climbing over rocks and moving through the forest.  Eric felt a little left out at times, John Paul and Luke continued to be in worlds of their own.

Caroline and John Paul were hiking buddies.

Dream lake, the last of the series of lakes, Emerald and Nymph were the first two we hiked past.

and a tired Big E on the trail down hill.

a short, but wonderful visit.  

great hikers, those former Hawaiians now Jayhawks