Grandpa's Funeral

While we were on our voyage with my wife's family my Grandpa died. He had been in the hospital for a few weeks after heat surgery. He had gone up and down quite a bit it seems. He was doing better one day and worse the next. We went and visited him twice while he was there. Once when he was asleep and the second time when he was so drugged up that he was pretty delusional. It was hard for me to see him like that. My grandpa has always been a very sharp person. He always made time for his family and made it a point to spend time with each and every one of his family members (and they are not a few in number!). That was about all I could handle. It's not that I didn't want to see him. It just wasn't enjoyable for me to see him like that. We were about to be on our way home and my mom called and told me that they were going to let grandpa go. We all kind of knew this was coming so it wasn't a big shock. In a way we are all happy that he isn't having to struggle to hang on anymore. The sadness comes from grandma being left alone for a time until she can rejoin him when the time comes. Grandpa had been in the Navy in World War II so Grandma got a folded flag and a few of the Navy detail to help with the burial.

This one is a real heart breaker to me.

Grandpa we will all miss you and look forward to seeing you again. We love you.

Bryce Canyon and Zions

About mid August we went with my wife's family in the motor home to Bryce Canyon and Zions. We also crammed four dogs in with us. I had never been to Bryce before. We stayed at Ruby's Inn at the campground. The weather was quite pleasant. I felt like I was in a foreign country most the time because the native language seemed to be French. When hiking around only about 1 in 50 people we passed spoke English and most of them tended to have an accent. It was fun hiking around and exploring a little bit. I took quite a few pictures. We stayed two nights at Bryce.

We saw this furry little critter on the trail.

We all had a grand ol' time at Bryce. Fun was had by all. We packed up and went and stayed a night at Zions National park as well. We then entered a difference foreign country. We were no longer in France, but Korea. I guess a lot of foreigners get the chance to cruise around and tour a lot of the country.

Needless to say we didn't try the soup of the day.

After having a good hike the day before and getting to Zions we were already a bit tired. Add on the fact that it's a burning inferno at Zions and that pretty much kills the rest of the energy that you may have. We just did a short little jaunt up to the lower pools and back. The motor home had A/C so we all crammed snugly into it to squeeze what we could out of the air conditioner. It was fun but it's always good to get home as well.