We left Truckee and drove to Las Vegas. Pete's sister Denise and her husband Todd hosted us both at the start and end of the trip. We enjoyed dinner at their favorite sushi restaurant.
They have two cute Schipperke dogs. This is Ruff, who is never far from a toy.
And this is Ready, who is very friendly.
But it's their cat Pavarotti who is the boss.
There is a Korean bathhouse in Las Vegas, and we were happy that Denise and Todd wanted to try it. Here we are looking relaxed after soaking while waiting for our dinner to be ready.
The whole place was very authentic, including the delicious food. This is spicy pork and the accompanying side dishes are called banchan and included kimchi, bean sprouts and tofu salad.
Next we spent an afternoon at the Grand Canyon National Park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Kristina had hiked to the bottom and back with her Mom, Aunt Marge and cousin Cynthia years ago, but Pete had never been. He was understandably awestruck when he saw the enormous canyon.
We hiked part of the Hermit Rest trail, eagerly descending down through different colored layers of rock and craning our necks to peer into the depths.
It was steep, but the views were incredible, and we pretty much had it to ourselves.
We also walked part of the South Rim Trail, enjoying different views into the canyon.
It was great when we could see part of the Colorado River, continuing to carve the rocks as it has for half a million years.
The Grand Canyon Park includes parts of three deserts: the Mojave, the Sonoran and the Great Basin Desert. The plants that grow here have adapted to strong winds and dry weather. This is a Canyon Rose.
We walked through the pygmy forrest and saw pinyon pine trees like this one.
Then we drove to New Mexico to experience land art created by Walter de Maria in 1977. He named it The Lightning Field because the 440 poles attract lightning during the summer rainy season. After seeing the Grand Canyon, where we spent hours looking down a mile into the earth, here the sky felt immense.
We spent hours walking the land and watching how the installation and surrounding landscape changed with the movement of the sun. The stainless steel poles are placed 220 feet apart on a grid that is one mile long and one kilometer wide. Unless we were very close, it was hard to see the poles.
This is not an easy place to photograph, but Pete enjoyed the challenge.
Then about an hour before sunset, the tops of the poles started catching the sunlight and twinkling like stars.
As the sun was setting, the full length of the poles became shining and brilliant.
These Chihuahuan Pronghorn Antelope saw us but weren't concerned, perhaps because they knew they could outrun us. They are the fastest land animals in North America.
The show continued once the sun was below the horizon and painted the clouds in pink and purple hues.
We appreciate de Maria's approach: the only way to experience The Lightning Field is to book ahead and spend a night in the cabin there.
Built from the bones of a homesteader's cabin as well as salvaged logs and lumber, the cabin was charming and comfortable.
We shared it with four other simpatico people, including two artists from San Francisco. This is Peter Max. He is painting in gouache.
We were inspired to get up before dawn to watch the sun rise. Again the sky felt immense, the light was beautiful and seeing the poles light up was incredible - but it was cold.
All too soon our time there was up, and we headed south into Texas. Along Highway 60 in New Mexico, we saw the Very Large Array (VLA), which is one of the premier radio astronomy observatories. It has 27 radio antennas like these, which are on tracks that enable them to be moved into different formations.
We got caught in a dust storm near El Paso and the visibility was low. Then the dust cleared a bit and high in the sky were rainbows.
The next stop on our road trip was Marfa, Texas. We wanted to tour the art installations of La Foundacion de Chinati created by Donald Judd.
Judd was both an art critic and an artist trained in New York. But he started to feel that New York City had a culture of "know-nothingness" about art, and that the art critics and curators there were snide and condescending towards the artists he valued. So he moved to Marfa in the early '70's. This is one of his studios that has been preserved.
La Mansana de Chinati, or The Block as it is currently known, includes the above studio as well as others plus living quarters. All Chinati information is written in both English and Spanish, out of respect for the high percentage of Latinos there. Judd believed in living with art, so his house looks like a gallery and a home.
In the early '80's, Judd and the Dia Foundation purchased an abandoned Army base in Marfa to use the buildings for exhibiting art. He wanted to keep the buildings as they were, but decided to add metal dome roofs to two gunsheds, to create a symbiosis of architecture and the art inside. He described his intention as "to form a unified aesthetic entity of works and space".
He left the concrete bumpers that were installed during WWII to facilitate loading trucks, but changed the gunsheds' roll up doors into huge windows that let in light and reveal the landscape.
Inside these two buildings are 100 Untitled Works in Mill Aluminum. The aluminum boxes have the same outside dimensions but each rectangular cube is perfectly crafted and unique in how the space inside is divided.
Donald Judd created permanent installations with lots of space around the artwork. Chinati doesn't allow photography, because they want the works to be experienced. (We photographed the postcards we bought at the museum store.)
Another work of Judd's is 15 Untitled Works in Concrete. These large, perfect concrete boxes were poured in place.
Judd planted hundreds of Fremont Cottonwood trees to extend the art so that it includes the tree landscape.
Judd's best friend and fellow artist Dan Flavin designed artworks for six of the Army base buildings. We were sad to learn that both Judd and Flavin had died before these striking installations were created.
Carl Andre made this piece called Chinati 13. He believed art should be experienced so we walked across the rusted steel plates.
The Judd Foundation still owns almost a dozen buildings in Marfa, including the original bank.
Still a thriving artist community, there is also something of a food scene. This is Food Shark, a Mediterranean-by-way-of-west-Texas food truck.
We especially liked the pork tacos served with sweet potato salad.
Marfa's City Hall building was impressive since the town is so small.
We drove past the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and learned it has the world's largest fossil reef.
We didn't stop since we had booked a tour at Carlsbad Caverns. In preparation for this trip we watched the Ken Burns documentary on America's National Parks, and so we have an appreciation for all the efforts it took to preserve the parks. We highly recommend the documentary film!
The caves are unbelievably enormous and filled with many different types of ornate structures.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. We have been keeping track of our visits to UNESCO sites, and this is our 50th!
Created over thousands of years by dripping water that contained calcite, the stalagmites and stalactites have formed unique, intricate shapes.
Called "draperies", these formations were formed by water collecting on the ceiling, then slowly solidifying into thin sheets.
This ladder is the original used by Jim White to explore the deeper caverns. He was a local cowboy who was the first to go deep here. By comparison, we took a high speed elevator down 800 feet to get the caves. White's promotion of the caverns' natural beauty helped to designate Carlsbad Caverns as a national park and he served as the first chief ranger.
This time of year the desert is in bloom. This is prickly pear cactus that was growing near Carlsbad Caverns.
We also saw lots Saguaro cacti as we drove through New Mexico and Arizona.
We think we found the best food in Alamogodo at the Hitch-N-Post, a no frills BBQ joint. Kristina had a pulled pork sandwich and Pete enjoyed the three meat plate - both with coleslaw, of course.
We went to the White Sands National Park in New Mexico at sunset. Wow!
Animals and plants have adapted to living in the sand dunes. This yucca plant grows a long stem to keep its leaves out of the sand.
We went back the next morning to enjoy the dunes in daylight. We learned that gypsum sand is extremely rare and dissolves in water. It only exists here because rainwater collects in the dry lake bed of Lake Lucero, then dries into sand that is blown into dunes.
We thought the contrast of these purple flowers against the white sand and blue sky was stunning!
We had fun climbing the dunes, slipping back almost as far as we climbed with each step.
Since we appreciate James Turrell's art, we stayed a night in Tempe to visit his Skyspace on the ASU campus.
We've been collecting stickers of the places we've visited and putting them on our SkyBox.
This was our first road trip this year, and we learned a lot that we will put to use on our big road trip this summer and fall. But first we'll stay with Pete's folks for a month to help them while his mom recovers from knee replacement surgery.
They have two cute Schipperke dogs. This is Ruff, who is never far from a toy.
And this is Ready, who is very friendly.
But it's their cat Pavarotti who is the boss.
There is a Korean bathhouse in Las Vegas, and we were happy that Denise and Todd wanted to try it. Here we are looking relaxed after soaking while waiting for our dinner to be ready.
The whole place was very authentic, including the delicious food. This is spicy pork and the accompanying side dishes are called banchan and included kimchi, bean sprouts and tofu salad.
Next we spent an afternoon at the Grand Canyon National Park, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Kristina had hiked to the bottom and back with her Mom, Aunt Marge and cousin Cynthia years ago, but Pete had never been. He was understandably awestruck when he saw the enormous canyon.
We hiked part of the Hermit Rest trail, eagerly descending down through different colored layers of rock and craning our necks to peer into the depths.
It was steep, but the views were incredible, and we pretty much had it to ourselves.
We also walked part of the South Rim Trail, enjoying different views into the canyon.
It was great when we could see part of the Colorado River, continuing to carve the rocks as it has for half a million years.
The Grand Canyon Park includes parts of three deserts: the Mojave, the Sonoran and the Great Basin Desert. The plants that grow here have adapted to strong winds and dry weather. This is a Canyon Rose.
We walked through the pygmy forrest and saw pinyon pine trees like this one.
Then we drove to New Mexico to experience land art created by Walter de Maria in 1977. He named it The Lightning Field because the 440 poles attract lightning during the summer rainy season. After seeing the Grand Canyon, where we spent hours looking down a mile into the earth, here the sky felt immense.
We spent hours walking the land and watching how the installation and surrounding landscape changed with the movement of the sun. The stainless steel poles are placed 220 feet apart on a grid that is one mile long and one kilometer wide. Unless we were very close, it was hard to see the poles.
This is not an easy place to photograph, but Pete enjoyed the challenge.
Then about an hour before sunset, the tops of the poles started catching the sunlight and twinkling like stars.
As the sun was setting, the full length of the poles became shining and brilliant.
These Chihuahuan Pronghorn Antelope saw us but weren't concerned, perhaps because they knew they could outrun us. They are the fastest land animals in North America.
The show continued once the sun was below the horizon and painted the clouds in pink and purple hues.
We appreciate de Maria's approach: the only way to experience The Lightning Field is to book ahead and spend a night in the cabin there.
Built from the bones of a homesteader's cabin as well as salvaged logs and lumber, the cabin was charming and comfortable.
We shared it with four other simpatico people, including two artists from San Francisco. This is Peter Max. He is painting in gouache.
We were inspired to get up before dawn to watch the sun rise. Again the sky felt immense, the light was beautiful and seeing the poles light up was incredible - but it was cold.
All too soon our time there was up, and we headed south into Texas. Along Highway 60 in New Mexico, we saw the Very Large Array (VLA), which is one of the premier radio astronomy observatories. It has 27 radio antennas like these, which are on tracks that enable them to be moved into different formations.
We got caught in a dust storm near El Paso and the visibility was low. Then the dust cleared a bit and high in the sky were rainbows.
The next stop on our road trip was Marfa, Texas. We wanted to tour the art installations of La Foundacion de Chinati created by Donald Judd.
Judd was both an art critic and an artist trained in New York. But he started to feel that New York City had a culture of "know-nothingness" about art, and that the art critics and curators there were snide and condescending towards the artists he valued. So he moved to Marfa in the early '70's. This is one of his studios that has been preserved.
La Mansana de Chinati, or The Block as it is currently known, includes the above studio as well as others plus living quarters. All Chinati information is written in both English and Spanish, out of respect for the high percentage of Latinos there. Judd believed in living with art, so his house looks like a gallery and a home.
In the early '80's, Judd and the Dia Foundation purchased an abandoned Army base in Marfa to use the buildings for exhibiting art. He wanted to keep the buildings as they were, but decided to add metal dome roofs to two gunsheds, to create a symbiosis of architecture and the art inside. He described his intention as "to form a unified aesthetic entity of works and space".
He left the concrete bumpers that were installed during WWII to facilitate loading trucks, but changed the gunsheds' roll up doors into huge windows that let in light and reveal the landscape.
Inside these two buildings are 100 Untitled Works in Mill Aluminum. The aluminum boxes have the same outside dimensions but each rectangular cube is perfectly crafted and unique in how the space inside is divided.
Donald Judd created permanent installations with lots of space around the artwork. Chinati doesn't allow photography, because they want the works to be experienced. (We photographed the postcards we bought at the museum store.)
Another work of Judd's is 15 Untitled Works in Concrete. These large, perfect concrete boxes were poured in place.
Proportion is specific and identifiable in art and architecture, and creates our space and time. - Donald Judd
Judd planted hundreds of Fremont Cottonwood trees to extend the art so that it includes the tree landscape.
Judd's best friend and fellow artist Dan Flavin designed artworks for six of the Army base buildings. We were sad to learn that both Judd and Flavin had died before these striking installations were created.
Carl Andre made this piece called Chinati 13. He believed art should be experienced so we walked across the rusted steel plates.
The Judd Foundation still owns almost a dozen buildings in Marfa, including the original bank.
Still a thriving artist community, there is also something of a food scene. This is Food Shark, a Mediterranean-by-way-of-west-Texas food truck.
We especially liked the pork tacos served with sweet potato salad.
Marfa's City Hall building was impressive since the town is so small.
We drove past the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and learned it has the world's largest fossil reef.
We didn't stop since we had booked a tour at Carlsbad Caverns. In preparation for this trip we watched the Ken Burns documentary on America's National Parks, and so we have an appreciation for all the efforts it took to preserve the parks. We highly recommend the documentary film!
The caves are unbelievably enormous and filled with many different types of ornate structures.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. We have been keeping track of our visits to UNESCO sites, and this is our 50th!
Created over thousands of years by dripping water that contained calcite, the stalagmites and stalactites have formed unique, intricate shapes.
Called "draperies", these formations were formed by water collecting on the ceiling, then slowly solidifying into thin sheets.
This ladder is the original used by Jim White to explore the deeper caverns. He was a local cowboy who was the first to go deep here. By comparison, we took a high speed elevator down 800 feet to get the caves. White's promotion of the caverns' natural beauty helped to designate Carlsbad Caverns as a national park and he served as the first chief ranger.
This time of year the desert is in bloom. This is prickly pear cactus that was growing near Carlsbad Caverns.
We also saw lots Saguaro cacti as we drove through New Mexico and Arizona.
We think we found the best food in Alamogodo at the Hitch-N-Post, a no frills BBQ joint. Kristina had a pulled pork sandwich and Pete enjoyed the three meat plate - both with coleslaw, of course.
We went to the White Sands National Park in New Mexico at sunset. Wow!
Animals and plants have adapted to living in the sand dunes. This yucca plant grows a long stem to keep its leaves out of the sand.
We went back the next morning to enjoy the dunes in daylight. We learned that gypsum sand is extremely rare and dissolves in water. It only exists here because rainwater collects in the dry lake bed of Lake Lucero, then dries into sand that is blown into dunes.
We thought the contrast of these purple flowers against the white sand and blue sky was stunning!
We had fun climbing the dunes, slipping back almost as far as we climbed with each step.
Since we appreciate James Turrell's art, we stayed a night in Tempe to visit his Skyspace on the ASU campus.
We've been collecting stickers of the places we've visited and putting them on our SkyBox.
This was our first road trip this year, and we learned a lot that we will put to use on our big road trip this summer and fall. But first we'll stay with Pete's folks for a month to help them while his mom recovers from knee replacement surgery.
