Santa Fe embodies a rich history, melding Hispanic, Anglo and Native American cultures whose influences are apparent in everything from the architecture, the food and the art. With a backdrop of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Santa Fe is at an elevation of 7,000 feet, so come and partake of 320 sunny days per year.   To firmly ground yourself in New Mexico's rich past, see the Palace of the Governors Museum on the Santa Fe Plaza. Built by the Spanish as a government building in 1610, the Palace remains the country's oldest continuously occupied public building. Its exhibits chronicle the history of Santa Fe as well as New Mexico and the region. American Indian artists sell their wares under its historic portal as part of the Native American Artisans Program.  Santa Fe also has long been a center for arts and culture and ranks as the country's third largest art market. You'll find nearly 300 galleries and dealers to explore. Santa Fe has the 3rd largest State Museum system in the country featuring culture, history and traditions of this region and the world.

We visited in 2006 for our 25th Anniversary and bought two paintings, and came with Chuck and Catia Whitmore in 2009 and bought another painting.

Yellowstone National Park is a national park located in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone was the first National Park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world.  The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of its most popular features.  Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468 square miles comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened.  Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in the park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. 

Grand Teton National Park is a United States National Park in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately 480 sq mi, the park includes the major peaks of the 40-mile-long (64 km) Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. It is only 10 miles (16 km) south of Yellowstone National Park.

We meet Rebecca and Family at Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in 2008.

We went to Kauai in 2006 and stayed at a condo on the Poipu Beach.  We went to the Waimea Canyon Park and took a catamaran trip to the see the Na Pali coast.  We saw a US Navy air-cushion landing craft land on the beach.  We found the perfect beach at the bottom of the Na Pali coast after driving through the Pacific Missile Test Range.

Colleen and I went to Hawaii again for an anniversary in 2011.  We went to Oahu and stayed in a Timeshare Condo.  We visited the North Shore to see the surfing and the Polynesian Culture Center run by the Mormons. We visited the USS Arizona and spent a lot of time on the beach.  WE also visited the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park and the Palace in downtown Honolulu.

We spent a week in Carlsbad with the Gilligans:  Joe, Eleanor, Chris, Mike and Alexus.  We rented a condo about a mile from the beach.  We spent a lot of time on the beach, and visited a mission and the Scripts Aquarium in La Jolla.

We rented a condo in Morro Bay in 2010.  The beach was an amazing place for flowers, birds, sealife and sandcastles but alittle cold for swimming.  We also went to the Hearst Castle.

Colleen and I went on a two week trip to Seattle in the summer of 2016.  We spent a weekend with Rebecca and family and they took us on a trip around Mt Rainer.  We spent a couple of days in a condo close to the Seattle Center and enjoyed the city sites.  We went with a old friend, Gretchen, to a cabin the Cascades Mountains over the second weekend.  We spent the last week on the beach close to the Olympic Mountains.