Up and at it this morning.  Decided to hit Arches National Park for a hike or two.  After looking at the choices we settled on  Devil’s Garden.  It was rated as a “difficult hike” but after reading the description we decided it was definitely within my range.  Drove the 18 miles to the trailhead and were not disappointed!  Awesome views and although there were lots of people there, the further away you got from the trailhead the fewer people you saw.  There were several times when you actually had the sensation of being alone on the trail.  Took lots of amazing photos.  Yes, I huffed and puffed my way up the inclines but I noticed lots of people were doing the same and I’ll be they didn’t have an esophajectomy a few months ago!  We hiked for about 4 hours and arrived back at the parking lot.  We were walking to our vehicle and I was looking at this woman eating an orange and thinking to myself how good it looked when it suddenly occurred to me it was Caroline!  How amazing is that?  Yesterday I wrote in my blog that I thought Caroline and Don were here today and wouldn’t it be cool if we ran into them.  You have to understand how incredibly lucky this was.  There are literally thousands of people here and there are a multitude of hikes so the possibility of us encountering them was infinitesimal!  We decided to meet and go out for supper later in the day!  It was such a treat!
Caroline and I go back a long long way.  When I was little I took piano lessons from Leonard Leacock as did Caroline and her sisters.  Mr. Leacock used to have these horrid Sunday afternoon recitals that my Mom just loved.  I detested them!  The hall was always hot and he arranged his students to play in order of ability.....from worst to best.  You had to bow and play your music from memory and God help you if you forgot.  He would make a scene of walking to the front of the auditorium to place your music in front of you so you could carry on.  I must confess I do not think I was one of his favourite pupils but I can tell you the Dofoo girls were.  There were and still are fabulous musicians and they always played last.  My mother just loved to listen to them while I would sit there and pray it would end and we could just get out of there.  I didn’t know the girls at all but I used to dread it when they would play because it always seemed like their songs went on forever, they never made a mistake and then I had to listen to my Mom rant and rave for days after the recital about how wonderful those girls were!
Well, my piano lessons soon came to an end and I was allowed to pursue my true love......sports and horses!  A few years passed.  I graduated from university and got my first teaching assignment at Sir John A. MacDonald Jr. High School up in Huntington Hills.  Arrived at the school on the first day and went into the staffroom.  Just about fell over!  There in front of me was the new music teacher!  Caroline Dofoo (now married and a Parker).  I couldn’t believe it!  Well, once given the opportunity to get to know and work with Caroline we forged a fast and solid friendship that has endured for over 30 years!  I, like my Mom, have come to appreciate Caroline’s fabulous talents and feel lucky to call her my friend!

Just wanted to share that little side bar with you but will get back to the day which was really terrific!
We wandered around the devil’s garden and as usual I was snapping pictures galore.  Bill said a couple of times that Kelli would probably kill him for taking me on this hike.  I’m pretty sure he got some pretty strict instructions on my care and control before we left Calgary.  At one point I wanted him to snap a picture of me on a high point.  As I stood there with arms extended upwards there was a huge crack of lightening!  Later Bill confessed his first thought was “Oh great...Kelli will kill me if Leslie gets struck by lightening and I was the one photographing it.”

We saw several stunning arches.  There are over 2000 of them in this park!

Yes, that’s Bill at the top of the arch!  He scrambled up there for this picture!

I have so many great photos but they are sooo slow to load tonight and I’m falling asleep at the table.  Love the hiking but I’m pooped at the end of the day.  Mind you, it’s a healthy kind of pooped!  Like you’ve had a day of exercise and fresh air!

Tomorrow we will do a couple more excursions in Arches National Park and then will head over to see what there is to see at Canyonlands.  A person could spend lots of time here and stay pretty busy!  I see you can go skydiving......might just consider that one too!  (kidding, Kelli!)