In June of 2010 Robin's brother was getting married in Northumberland, England. Robin and I could both get a lot of time off work and decided to go early and just call it our honeymoon. We'd only been married a year, and since we traveled to Arizona for the wedding itself, we didn't really feel like more traveling right after that.
Robin had been all over the British Isles (and elsewhere), but it would be my first trip abroad. For a long while we planned nothing. About 10 days before our departure I looked through a photo-copy of a guidebook excerpt on the 95 mile West Highland Way. My mom's friend did it with her husband a few years ago and passed the article our way. After reading through it a few times we decided to go for it.
Both of us had done quite a bit of backpacking, but neither of us had done a trip that would involve lots of trail walking and staying close to civilization. As a result, we did a horrible job packing. Of course, it didn't help that the first half of the trip would be us gallivanting across Scotland, and the second half of the trip would involve wedding stuff and fancy clothes. We also did the final WHW packing in our hostel room in Glasgow, while suffering from some pretty bad jet lag.
As a result our packs were probably around 25 to 30 pounds, as opposed to the sub-20 pound loads we were planning on carrying. The list of items we schlepped through the highlands is rather embarrassing, so I won't include it. The surprising thing is that our packs were still smaller and lighter than many hikers who were staying in hotels along the way. We're not sure what they were carrying. What we are sure of is that next time we will go super minimal. Somehow I got it in my head that I might want a few extra items with me since we'd be in a lot of towns. In reality, we needed less than what I'd carried even on my most minimal over-night trips (like 10 pound pack weight kind of trips). You've heard it before and you're hearing it again, don't over pack.
Despite our moderately heavy loads, there were a number of things that made the WHW a wonderful walk. I'll try to categorize these, as opposed to giving a day by day walk report.
Ease of Access
The trail starts in the small town of Milngavie, which is about 8 miles outside of Glasgow. We flew into Glasgow the day before, enjoyed dinner and beer and picked up some stove fuel, and then caught the train from Glasgow to Milngavie. It is cheap and easy. There is no reason to rent (or 'hire') a car, and many hotels will hold your extra bag for a small fee (our hostel charged us a pound a day to keep our enormous duffel bag). Of course, if you don't have a wedding to go to you could do the hike without worrying about an extra bag. And when you finish the trail in Fort William you can hop aboard a ScotRail and be back in Glasgow in a few hours.
Non-Demanding Route Finding
The trail is ridiculously easy to follow. Plenty of people along 'the Way' had guidebooks and maps, but we simply brought the photo-copied article I mentioned above. I should say that the article itself says it is no substitute for a true guidebook. Well, that might be true for some of the other hikes the authors write about, but for the WHW, I'd say save money and weight and leave the guidebook at home.
Nevertheless, we were still a little worried from time to time. When we were on the train to Milngavie we had no idea if we would even be able to find the trail head. Our grand plan was to just ask someone, but when we stepped off the train this is what we saw:
Don't worry, the whole trail isn't signed like this. But it did make for a welcoming and comforting start. Most of the time you'll be following markers like this:
There was only one point on the 95 mile trail that we were slightly confused. We were coming out of Rowardennan after a nice lunch (which included a few ales) and the trail was just kind of meandering through a park and then all but disappeared. It turned out the only way you could go was down a dirt road and lo and behold that was the WHW. Disaster averted.
Diverse Trails
If you do the walk from South to North (which is what we did, and is what seems to be most common), you walk from the pastoral low lands, into ancient forests along Loch Lomond, and get deeper and deeper into the Highlands. The terrain gets craggier and harsher as you go. In some of the moors it seems that hardly anything grows.
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| Rolling pasture just south of Drymen on the first day. |
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| This little section is along Loch Lomond. It was possibly our favorite. |
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| Soft pine covered trail through a nice forested section before Tyndrum. |
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| Ben Dorain, welcoming us to the Highlands. |
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| Me and a lone tree on Rannoch Moor |
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| Robin in "full Hobbit mode," still on Rannoch Moor |
I would really characterize the WHW as a series of really cool day-hike length trails that are connected by old droving roads. At times the roads can get a little boring, like this one:
But at other times the views are rather spectacular, and a little boring section of old road is hardly even noticeable:
The Towns
Most of the hiking Robin and I have done in the past has been in the US, particularly in the southwest of Arizona, Colorado, and Utah and the northern midwest in Iowa and Minnesota. In neither of these places do you have the chance to come across many towns along a trail. But on the WHW you pass through a small town every 5 to 10 miles. And every town has a pub. Many times a pub/inn is the only thing a town has, but that was always more than enough for us.
We camped out all but one night, so our normal day to day hiking routine would be to get up, snack on nuts and raisins while packing up camp, and walk a few miles until we hit a town. There we would enjoy a nice cup of tea and perhaps a pastry if we were feeling indulgent. Then we would walk a few more hours until we hit another town where we would put our feet up and enjoy a couple pints and maybe a hot snack (the meat pies were my favorite). Then we'd walk on a bit more until we wanted to set up camp and cook dinner. This routine made for extremely civilized walking.
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| The Bridge of Orchy Hotel where we enjoyed a lovely cup of tea and a bisquit |
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| Approaching the Inn at Inveroran, where more tea was consumed. |
On the second to last night we splurged and got a room at the wonderful Kingshouse (we were exceptionally lucky as there was a cancellation just moments before we inquired about vacancies). It was a dreary, damp night, so we were thrilled to have a warm room and a cooked meal. We also made sure to indulge in some excellent Scotch (Highland Park, Oban, Ben Nevis, and Bowmoor).
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| The Kingshouse |
Wild Camping
Scotland has a right to roam law, which as far as I can tell means you can camp just about anywhere you want to so long as you don't stir up any trouble, don't leave any trash around, and don't leave any gates open so the sheep can escape (actually the variety of gates you encounter on WHW is interesting enough to warrant its own post, I just wish I took pictures of all of them). There are many excellent campsites, and it seems that most people are staying at inns, hotels, and hostels, so it isn't hard to grab a gorgeous spot and have it all to yourself.
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| We had two wonderful campsites right on the beautiful, and long, Loch Lomond. |
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| High and dry as we approach the highlands. |
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| Staying out of the mist at the foot of Ben Dorain. | | | |
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The other wonderful thing about camping on your own is that you avoid most of the crowds. We did the walk in mid-May (which we heard, along with October, is the best time of year to go), and there were quite a few people. However, we didn't see too many while we were walking. We attributed this to starting and ending our days in between towns. The day after we stayed at Kingshouse we ended up starting with the masses, and as a result, that was by far the most crowded and least enjoyable day of hiking we had.
The Weather
OK, this is probably not true for everyone's Highland experience. But we won the Scotland weather lottery. It misted a few nights, and on the second day we walked for about an hour in a light rainfall. That was it. Every Scotsman we encountered told us they had never seen such a string of good weather. Even the sheep agreed.
In Short
This is a very fun, doable walk. The ease of getting to the trail and staying on it, along with the excellent stops, made it a wonderful first international hike for us. We are now ready to get out and explore other wonderful walks in the world.
The only disappointing thing about the trail was the end. After 95 miles you get to a busy intersection that has only this:
Whoop-de-do. It was noisy and not at all picturesque. We were also shocked that there was no pub near that sign. Someone is missing out on a serious business opportunity. In our opinion there should be a fine pub next to that sign where hikers can toss their packs and enjoy excellent cask ales while they catch up with all the other hikers they leapfrogged over the past many days.
But the trail does end right near Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK. I got up extra early the next morning to bag the summit before we caught the train back to Glasgow. Visibility at the top was not much longer than the arm's length from which I shot my self portrait.
But things looked quite nice on the way down. And while I wasn't thrilled to get up at 4am to begin the hike in the dark, I was very happy to be off the mountain by 7 as it was already getting very crowded.
And the booksbikesbeer.com address will be no more. For those of you still interested in reading my increasingly infrequent posts, be sure to add ".blogspot"after the beer.
After a lovely weekend with my parents visiting, Robin and I went for a walk to the library and grocery store on a cloudy but relatively warm Sunday afternoon. On the way we found 30 dollars in the street. We didn't really know what to do with it at first, as anyone could feasibly claim it was theirs. And with no one really about, we decided to go out for happy hour. Our intentions were to go to the Sanctuary, which we have not visited in some time. But they are closed on Sunday. So on to Orchard Green we went. They had a new (to us, at least) Belgian Blonde on tap. I forget the name of it, but I know it starts with an "A" and it is yummy. I recommend. Even though we stopped at the store for food we decided to save that for Monday and stay for burgers, they were practically free afterall. We left the bar in a happy haze. Kind of like how I felt in the photo below, except the tippsyness came shortly thereafter. 
10,000 The number of skiers who competed in the various ski events over the weekend. 5,079 The number of skiers who completed the marathon distance. 1,433 Classic skiers went the distance. 298 My overall position in the classic marathon category. 54 The number of kilometers in the classic race. 35 As in VG35, the base binder I ironed into my skis. This stuff is sticky, and it was perfect for the old, hard, and fast snow. 8 Layers of kick wax. I put down 4 layers of Violet Special, put the skis outside to cool for 20 minutes and then put down 4 layers of Blue Extra. Kick was good until the last 8k or so. Then it was herring bone up the hills and a lot of double polling. 7 The wave I started in. 3:43:38 My time. And I'm pretty happy with it. Under 4 was the general goal. 3:30 would have been amazing. So being in the middle is just fine by me. 2 The wave I can start in next year.
That's my excuse for not blogging, anyways. The season has been great. 48 skis so far this season. That is by far my best year. A few seasons ago I got in 38, but it is not even mid-February and I've exceeded that by 10. Plus we've got about 10 inches of great snow on the ground. So I should have no problem getting over 60 skis this year. That will be a fun milestone. The rest of my time has been spent horse shopping. After nearly two years of riding Steen with Robin we started to talk about getting another horse. We rode this nice Paint first, but he was big and sluggish and expensive and he might have been lame. Then we rode this very goofy looking and slightly untrained Saddlebred-Paint-Arabian. He was too much horse for me. Finally we went to the Meyer Horse Co. They had a lot of nicely trained ranch geldings. I rode a couple and really liked this big, bay named Shamrock. I decided to call him Sham, for short. He arrived on Thursday, and he's got his own blog now. It will not be a highly exciting blog. Especially if you're not a horse person and don't feel like reading about someone fumble through their rides and training. But I imagine it will be highly useful for me to keep track of my progress. Unfortunately, it probably won't help me update this blog more regularly. I'll try to work on that, though.
When you have a wife who builds websites and knows art, you get cool designs. After I got home from skiing today Robin said, "I've got something for you." I had no idea what it could be. I just had a birthday, so I certainly didn't expect new gifts. But when I walked into the study I saw three newly designed icons. And I liked them. A lot. So she put some finishing touches on them and now they're here to stay. Enjoy.
We've been getting some steady, light snow all day. So after work I headed out to Ashton for some skiing. I was doubly excited because not only was it my first ski, but I also had a super cool new camera in my pocket. A great birthday gift from the Stephen family.  A few people got there first, so I had some tracks to follow.  Eventually I caught up to them and was surprised to see it was Sean, Finn, and Grant. I skied with them a bit. Sean and Finn were having super stick issues, but Grant and I were gliding fairly well. The snow was quite wet. Hopefully the temps will drop a bit in the night and firm it up. Now I'm sipping a beer and basking in the post ski glow. It feels great. 
Years Old. Today. That is me. And it has been a great day. I drank many a fine beverage with my wife, rode a horse, went for a run, did a little reading, and generally just relaxed. And I am super excited to see that snow has just started falling. For the past four years I have received flakes on my birthday. It has been great. Only one of those four years was the storm big enough to ski on, but I'm not complaining. And by the looks of it, I could be skiing all week. Wow the fall has gone quickly. Nearly two months and no post. I have been a bad blogger. I think only for the first year was I a good blogger. Probably more like a mediocre blogger, really. Who knows what the future has in store. Sometimes I think of leaving the e-books, e-bikes, e-beer behind. I will never dump the real goods, don't worry. But that day has not come just yet. And to catch you all up to speed I can say the last two months were, well, so so. I got the flu. I had my wisdom teeth extracted. I hardly rode a bike. I was temporarily moved up to the oh so inhumane 40 hour work week, which ends Tuesday, thankfully. I went to Arizona for Thanksgiving (check out Robin's blog for a rather dramatic video and the Clegg's blog for some pictures, including some nice desert mountain biking shots (scroll down to the Thanksgiving post)). And now it is December. The weather reports say ski season is upon us. Perhaps the blogging will come back. We'll see.
This weekend was Iowa's homecoming. So Robin and I decided to leave town and visit my parents in the Chicago burbs. We think it was a great decision. Our house was not burned down, or even singed, in our absence. And we had a fantastic trip full of immediate and extended family hang out time, amazing dinners, and copious amounts of beer, wine, and hot tub time. Just before we got back into Iowa City on Sunday we veered north and went to the barn. Last Sunday's ride was so fun we decided to go for a repeat. In general the riding was not quite as good. Our horses did not always agree with us on pace or direction, and we had two big spook sessions (don't worry, we both stayed on), but the grooming and other bonding moments were quite nice. Cal and I are getting a little more used to one another, so with each ride we should see continued improvement. And though the riding was not quite as good as last Sunday, the light was much better. So Robin snapped a few more pics of Cal and I.  In this next one it actually looks like I'm in charge of deciding where we go. 
 I have a horse! Well, I have a horse I can use. She isn't mine, but at the moment, I appear to be the only person riding her. She has been at the barn for many a month now, and her owner has not done much with her. Despite her recent inactivity, though, she is a somewhat highly trained and reliable horse. Her name is Cal, and she is a red dun somewhere between the age of 10 and 15. A few days ago Robin and I entered into a rather loose agreement that allows me to use Cal as long as we take care of her during the farrier visits. This pretty much entails getting her from the pasture, holding her while her feet are trimmed, and covering the expenses. It is a true a bargain. So on Saturday, we went out to the barn to see how Cal and I would get along. I would say she tolerated me. After a slow tack up and some very questionable ground work (all on my part), Cal and I went for a nice stroll with Robin and Steen (you can see another picture of Cal and I here) on a misty, gray, October day. And it was great. We did lots of slow walking and a little bit of trotting. Then we called it good. Today we went out again and though we had a slow start, it was an even more successful day by the time we were done. Cal and I walked, trotted, and even did a fair bit of loping. And we stayed out for over an hour. As time passed she became more responsive to my fumbling cues and I started to pick up on her little habits, like dropping the trot if I would talk to her in an even, relaxed voice (everyone talks to their horse). Hopefully this is the beginning of a nice riding relationship. But don't worry, I rode my bike and drank some beer today, too. So this won't turn into a horsey blog.
That is what we have in our house, in the shape of tiny airborne particles. Don't come over; Robin and I have been hit with the Swine flu. OK, so it probably wasn't the swine flu. But it seems that everything in the media is flu = swine flu. Either way, it was enough to lay me out for 6 days and I'm still not 100 percent better. Poor Robin caught it second and is still working through it. I mostly enjoyed my days off work. I was not so sick that I couldn't do any reading. So I did a whole lot of reading but not much else. Maybe this weekend I'll try to go outside and do something to elevate my heartrate. We'll see.
 My favorite season. Of course, I often say that at the start of every season.
My beer explorations have steadily continued this week. Monday was my night to cook dinner, and before picking up the food I made a trip to John's beer room for the liquid. One of their knowledgeable staff members was there giving out samples of Weihenstephener Korbinian (a rather tasty doppelbock that I picked up) and their Hefeweizen. It tasted like a pretty good Hefe, but I am not really a fan of those, so I passed on it. Then we got to chatting about Saisons and Pilsners. I was disappointed to learn that Saisons don't really travel well, hence the reason the three I have had recently were brewed in Kansas, New York, and Iowa rather than on the Franco-Belgium border. As the weather was a little warm and sticky I asked for some recommendations on a smooth, crisp German Pilsner. He pointed out the Ayinger Jarhundert Bier, which is one of his favorites.     Many of you might recognize the Ayinger name as they are the brewers of that great goat ornamented doppelbock, Celebrator. The Jarhundert was shockingly good. A super clear pilsner that somehow packed in an exhorbitant amount of flavor. I can't wait to pick up another one. It might become one of my favorite summer beers. The beer man also recommended a Dunkel by Spaten which had just come off the ship and was thus very fresh. This dark lager was quite a shift from the crisp pilsner we tasted first. The intial sips were somewhat dissapointing, but after clearing the pallet (which I should probably do some other way) I found the beer to be sweet and smooth. It had a big malty caramel flavor, quite similar to many Oktoberfests. I will definitely get it again. While consuming these great brews I was reading Charles Bamforth's Grape vs. Grain, a cultural and historical comparison between wine and beer.  Bamforth is a food science prof at UC-Davis, but is originally from England. He has that wonderful British sense of humour, and he makes no qualms about his goal--to raise beer up to the level of appreciation and sophistication that wine has enjoyed for numerous decades. And he makes a pretty good case. The book is a quick read, and for anyone who wants a brief but still thorough history of beer and beer making, it is a great place to start. I also found the wine chapters interesting, but I mostly ended up skimming those. They were equally as informative as the beer chapters, but Bamforth's tone is slightly anti-wine (though he still enjoys his fair share of it). So if you want a less scued history of wine, you might want to look elsewhere. Tonight is date night, and with some damp, rainy weather on the way I'm thinking it might be a appropriate for something Belgian.
Well the rest of April just slipped by and I didn't even get a blog in. That is some bad blogging practice, and I will try to be better in the future. In those two weeks Robin and I went to the Chicago burbs to celebrate my grandmother's 80th Birthday. It was a grand time. And I took a super easy week on the bike, which was very much needed. In fact, I will credit the easy week as the reason I was able to finish the ride on Thursday night. There were some other reasons, too. It was mostly a straight out into the wind and then a straight back with the wind kind of ride. Those are generally easier to stick with than the rides of many crosswinds. Still, there were hills. But then there was the fact that I only took one pull (not counting the times when we were riding a double paceline). I look forward to increasing that number by many multiples in the future. As some of you may know, Robin and I have been talking about buying a house (though we have recently talked about waiting, as the market here is a little crazier than we are). This means we have been working really hard at saving money. Some weeks are better than others, of course. On one of the better saving weeks I decided to save on beer. While perusing the hundreds of fine brews in the John's beer room, I could not find a deal that pleased me. But then I somehow convinced myself that a 12-pack of PBR, for just over 8 dollars, would be a worthy substitute for a similarly priced micro-brewed 6-pack. It was an interesting experience. I, of course, have downed many a PBR, and enjoyed it, too. And the PBR again did a pretty good job. It certainly is priced right. And a cool, crisp, inexpensive lager is a nice thing on a warm day. And as long as you don't directly compare PBR to a brew in another league, you are fine. But then last weekend we shared some fine brews with our good friends Steve and Cody. We had some quality pilsner, got torpedoed again, and explored the Boulevard Smokestack Series. We had brought the Saison, and Steve and Cody brought the Sixth Glass. About two-thirds of the way through the lovely evening we explored that Sixth Glass (it might have literally been our sixth glass, it was hard to say) and wow is that a knock you on your ass strong brew. PBR will not knock you on your ass. It will, admittedly, increase the likelihood of putting you in a position to be knocked on your ass (like friend bowling or the buffalo crack, but those are stories for another day). After that Sixth Glass we were not able to fully explore the others. So Robin and I tried the Saison a few days later and absolutely loved it. It was crisp and clear and super hearty with little citris spices. I had experienced brews similar to a saison, but now I am somewhat of a convert. So after the week of 'PBR,' I entered the week of 'much more expensive beer.' We tasted a much cloudier and wheatish saison from Hennepin. And then we also had a special brew from the good folks at Sierra Nevada called Wet Hop Harvest Ale. Strong, dark, and hoppy. It was another style that I had never truly experienced and I really want to go back soon. Apparently they harvest the hops at a certain time in the season when they are still wet and immediately start the brewing process. Very interesting. Does anyone know a great Cultural History of beer? There is so much I don't know. Anyways, this is getting wordy enough. And I need to start eating breakfast, because in a couple hours I'll be suffering on the Amana ride out to Maifest, where there will no doubt be some more fine brews consumed. I cannot guarantee that there will be more pulls at the front of the ride, though. That might take a couple more weeks. disclaimer: After linking many of the fine brews, I am now realizing that they might not work as you will have to verify you are of age. They work on mine, though, so I wish you the same good reader.
On this beautiful Thursday morning, at about 7:45, I was surprised to see that I was the ninth cyclist rolling down College St. toward downtown, work, school, or wherever. I know part of this is certainly due to the fact that spring seems sprung, but I also hope last night's highly successful bike rally in Des Moines was a part of it, too. I am sorry I missed it. It is not everyday you get to ride down a street with 8 other bike strangers, but it is even more rare to do so with 500+ riders. Hopefully there are more to come, but hopefully the need for such rallies does not increase. In the meantime I'll keep living the daily bike life here in Iowa City. For the cyclist's perspective on the Des Moines Rally (since the normal media is not doing much to cover this) check out the write up at 30th Century Cycles.
Tonight I went on my third group ride of the year, and as it happened, the group did the same loop as they did on the other two rides I did--the rather classic Sugar Bottom-Tiffin loop. On the first attempt I opted for the self drop and rode in via the bike paths. On the second attempt some crazy shenanigans occurred involving a tandem and some overly aggressive youngins. On the third attempt I actually did the whole loop, but I didn't quite make it all the way with the group. I did take a few pulls, though. And a couple of them came when the speeds were quite high. But I'm mostly in high spirits because I felt pretty darn good for most of it (and I have two beers in me). After getting dropped on the south side of Tiffin I rode in with a couple of Bikes 2 You guys before we picked up Steve a couple of miles later. Steve and I rode through town duking it out with the cars. OK, so it wasn't quite that dramatic. But still, there was a boxing glove. Hopefully I will be able to make the whole ride on my fourth attempt, but if not, no biggie. In the meantime, while you anxiously await to see if I can finish the next group ride you can check out a selection of our wedding photos here.
For some reason my blog was not online earlier this week. I had my tech person work on it, and now we are back. She is so good I had to marry her. The weekend has been filled with much socializing and riding. I managed to get in three good rides in three days. On Friday I went out in the howling winds with Sean, the only person I know who has an epic four part blog post on the 2009 American Birkebeiner. I encourage you to give it a read, but make sure you've got some time, or at least are at work. After the ride we went to the Hudson River Gallery for an opening for Robert Caputo. It was a really fun and busy opening. We talked with many friends and then later in the night got corralled into going out for sushi. Sushi with Nick is always a good time. Saturday started with a mostly mellow ride from the park. A small group of 7 or so rolled south into the crosswinds for an Eden's Loop. After that Steve, Joe and myself decided to stay out in the nice weather and add on a Sharon Center loop. The sun was shining and I even made the bold move of removing my knee warmers. At the end of the ride Joe invited us over for a beer. Joe homebrews some mighty fine stuff, and last time he had us over we had a few too many pale ales. This time was not too different. We sat around in the sun reliving old bike riding memories and getting drunk on a super crisp IPA half a pint at a time. I spent the rest of the afternoon in tipsy bliss. Sunday I woke up early and started reading the Paris-Roubaix coverage until I could get a video stream going. Robin and I watched it in French. Between Robin's knowledge of the language and my knowledge of bike racing we were able to mostly piece together the narrative of 2009's Hell of the North. As always, the race did not disappoint. Following the race I went out to the park to meet up with Joe and Steve for another Sharon Center loop. It was windier and cooler than yesterday, but it was still great to be out. I have now ridden 8 out of the last 9 days, so hopefully some decent fitness awaits me just around the corner.
Last night I did my first group ride. It hurt. I know I am not in great shape right now, but the ride was more difficult than I imagined it would be. Before the ride started I had pretty much decided to duck out early and take my own, easy way home. So I did not technically get dropped, but there is no doubt I would have been dropped had I stayed. Still, it is fun to learn where you are at and have some goals. Now I get to work at finishing one of them darn College Green rides again. There is no substitute for consistent riding, and there also needs to be some consistent, fast riding, too. I had been neglecting that last part. Oh, and I finally received my new lenses for my sunglasses. They make the world pretty and bright and I don't have to squint. Plus, there is no tape in the way.
 Robin and I have now been married for one week. And I can say that I still love the married life. It is easy to say that when most of that time was comprised of partying, relaxing, and not working. But still, I'm looking forward to hundreds and hundreds of other weeks both similar and different. On Pi Day of 2009 Robin and I said "I do." It was a fantastic day, and we feel really lucky that so many interesting people played a part in it. My best man Tom came in from LA.  International violin phenom Johan Jonsson played during our ceremony. The Tortolita Gutpluckers (including father of the bride on tub base) provided the live music once the party really got going .  National Geographic photographer Dave Edwards decided that our union was worthy enough of his camera. And if that wasn't enough, he also gave us a print of his photo that made the "100 Best Pictures of National Geographic" list. Simply amazing. When it was all said and done, Robin and I ducked away to Hacienda del Sol for some relaxation. We had a beautiful room, enjoyed some desert walks and hot tub soaks, and spent our last night sipping an extremely fancy port (thanks Vic!) on our private patio while we watched the sun set near the Catalina Mountains.  The only down side of the trip was not having sun glasses (mine are getting a new prescription put in). But Robin and I fashioned these lovely temporary sun blockers out of my regular glasses and some spare lenses from her sunglasses:  Not the most stylish things, but they got the job done and were fairly comfortable.  Now we are back in Iowa City and enjoying the early spring weather.
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