Here is a Navajo weaver whom we met on last year’s August Best of the West trip in her hogan inside Canyon de Chelly.  A hogan is a six sided structure with the door facing east to greet the new day’s sun.  This weaver’s family is one of a dozen Navajo families who return to the canyon each spring and continue to live the traditions of their ancestors.  They raise their own sheep and pick the wool and spin it as you can see in the photo.  They use roots, leaves and rocks to dye the wool and they use the same basic looms that have been used for centuries.  You can buy rugs direct from the weaver as one of our travelers did.  Our next Best of the West trip in June 8 – 17 with seats available.

Sunny and I guided Pink Jeeps together 17 years ago.  She told me that she could always draw in high school but there were no art classes back then.  When she retired and moved to Missouri she decided to take classes from Rob Howard in Boston and Frank Cavino closer to her home.  Sunny has sold many of her pieces and paints portraits of people and pets on commission.

Harriet has been our graphic artist here at Canyon Calling since 1996, responsible for the production of each of our brochures over the years. She’s been very involved in sculpture but when she retired she picked up a paint brush and you can see an example of her wonderful work in this photo.  I’m lucky enough to have two of her pieces hanging in my home.  One is a smaller version of this painting and the other is a painting of the most scenic place I’ve ever seen – Moraine Lake in the Canadian Rockies.

Fay is a long-time Canyon Calling customer and today she sent me this picture of her painting copied from a photo she took on her Sedona Sojourn trip four years ago.  It won first prize at a local show near her home in New York!  Those of you who have visited Sedona will recognize Red Rock Crossing.

Keep it up ladies – very proud of you!  For those of you who suspect that you have a talent for art or in any other capacity – all I can say is go for it!

If you need inspiration, please visit the web site of my friend Adele Earnshaw (adeleearnshaw.com).  Dell has made her living as an artist for the best part of her working life and her specialty is wildlife, primarily birds.  Her paintings have been exhibited at the Natural Museum of Natural History in New York and she designed the duck stamps for the New Zealand government.

On last year’s Best of the West in August we lay outside our tents mesmerized by the annual Perseids meteor shower.  Its fun to sit around the fire and hear Daniel’s stories of his Navajo ancestors and especially wonderful to leap into Lake Powell at first light.

Almost everyone tells horrendous camping stories  from their past – most involving awful weather.  The Southwest summer weather is perfect for camping.

This trip is perfect for those with only a week’s vacation to spare and for active ladies who enjoy seeing lots in a short amount of time.  Each day is split between enjoying a favorite activity and covering some very scenic miles.  There’s always time for happy hour before dinner in one of our relaxing lodges.  We rotate roommates each night and this contributes to great group cohesion.

I enjoy the discussions each night about how tomorrow’s scenery just couldn’t be any more spectacular than today’s – and then we find ourselves having a similar conversation the next night!  We soon realize that comparing the spectacular is a futile endeavor.  Each experience stands alone until we have seen a whole year’s calendar of WOW in one week!  Join us May 14 – 20, 2011!

A year later, I needed more – which brought me on her trip to New Zealand. It was the second day, while jetting up a glacial river that I thought it couldn’t get any better than that – but each and every day brought yet another adventure and another awesome experience. Never was there an experience that felt like a guided tour; each experience was personal and Cheryl’s passion and energy was living in each activity. In two weeks, I experienced walking across a volcano, hiking on a glacier, sea kayaking in the Tasman Sea, spending a day at sea aboard an almost private yacht watching dolpins and blue penguins and breathtaking sights — and so much more.

I made a book of my experiences, and each one I show it to says every page is a picture perfect postcard.

Being the one who normally plans vacations, it was an added pleasure to have someone plan and execute all of the details for the trip so that I could just enjoy the experience.

Also, being able to share this with the other women on the trip made me feel like part of a family! What a wonderful way to share experiences!

So, I just learned this New Zealand trip is noted by National Geographic as a trip of a lifetime! I knew this before the article was published!! So, put this trip on your Bucket List!

Bay of Islands sailing

“I’d LOVE to go to New Zealand but I just couldn’t go THERE without my husband.”  Over the last few years I’d heard similar comments, and in any business, listening to your clients is important.  So I offered a co-ed trip to NZ and led the trip this past February.  It was successful and we all had a fun time – but it is unlikely that we’ll offer future co-ed trips on our schedules.  The trip reminded me that I started this company because I love the team nature of traveling with women throughout the world.  With coed couples, folks tend to go off on their own when activities are over, and guiding such groups becomes a lonely endeavor.  One of the joys of vacationing with women is to watch everyone let their hair down and just totally relax and be themselves.  But women act differently when the guys are around, choose what to say and if they’ll speak or not and oftentimes defer to what the guys wishes are.  All that is fine – but that isn’t why I started this company.  Besides, there are thousands of trips for coeds and relatively few especially for women.  So many thanks to Paula and Bill and Mary and Steve for a fun two weeks.  But Canyon Calling is going to stick to the knitting and do what we do best – design and lead multi-activity, soft adventure worldwide trips for moderately-fit women.  Cheers!