Grand Canyon & Flagstaff

Nora dressed up as a butterfly for the Halloween party we attended at her school. Fun!

Halloween is also Nevada Day, and a holiday with no school or work! We took advantage of the long weekend and went to the Grand Canyon and to Flagstaff to visit my friend Wendy.

It was a four-hour drive in the car

It felt great to get out of the car and walk around!

The weather was beautiful, and the Canyon is really Grand.

We had dinner (and dessert) at the Bright Angel Lodge on Halloween night.

Nora enjoyed breakfast the next morning at our hotel in her pumpkin PJs.

We rented bikes and biked along the Rim Trail for an hour or so. It was a bit cloudy and chilly, but still beautiful.

We saw an elk close up.

Nora got very cozy with this mountain lion.

We hiked Red Mountain, between the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff, with Wendy and Lian.

Then we saw snow fall in Flagstaff! 

European Conference on Information Literacy: Dubrovnik, Croatia

In October I traveled to Dubrovnik to give a workshop at ECIL, and I was amazed at the beauty of the place. There are mountains, and the Adriatic Sea, and farms and vineyards, and this fascinating ancient walled city. It was amazing. I spent time with fantastic librarians from many different places and really enjoyed the conference.

Day 1: My co-presenter Cass and I spent the day in our swimsuits, recovering from jet lag.

Scenes from a bike tour: Six librarians from Nevada, California, Wyoming and Dubai go for a 10-mile bike ride through the countryside.

Tour of the city: Cass and I had a half-day tour in and around Dubrovnik. I loved the view of the walled city from the top of Srdj (Snow) mountain.

Sunsets from the President, the beachfront hotel, were spectacular.

 And the city was so dramatic at night. What a beautiful place!

Ireland

Limerick

Celebrating at Nancy Blake's pub after a successful workshop

Limerick is not that big of a city, but somehow Cass and I managed to get lost over and over again. Even with plenty of landmarks like this church.

This Pop-Up Museum used a historic Georgian building to illustrate a slice of Limerick's history through the building itself. It was an interesting concept, one that we thought would work really well in our own towns, with their wild West history and buildings. 

Hunt Museum

Celtic Cross at St. Mary's Cathedral

St. Mary's Cathedral, built 1168

King John's Castle (the King John of Robin Hood)

Tea break in Killarney

We took a day-long bus tour of the Ring of Kerry. It was beautiful.

Thatched roof!

Remember that movie, Far and Away, with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise? It was filmed here!

County Kerry

The photos above are from a trip I took in August, to my first international library conference: the IFLA Information Literacy Satellite meeting, in Limerick, Ireland. A colleague from University of Wyoming, Cass Kvenild, and I gave a workshop on Classroom Assessment Techniques for Librarians. The conference itself was great. I especially enjoyed keynotes from Nancy Fried Foster of Ithaka S+R and Conor Galvin of University College Dublin. I was very interested to hear from other librarian presenters about library initiatives and higher education issues from an international perspective. The best part of the conference was chatting with and learning from librarians from all over. (And the food. The food was really good -- at more than one meal I had both mashed and roasted potatoes on my plate at the same time. Delicious.)

Lake Chatcolet with the Bowles Family

Last week we met my parents and my brother Justin's family at Lake Chatcolet in Heyburn State Park for a family reunion. We spent three days biking and canoeing there.

These cute cousins had such a good time hanging out. Nora is still talking about Clancy!

They rode for 13 miles down a bumpy road in this little trailer, through some very dark tunnels.

Nora threw a lot of rocks into that lake.

Hank the Water Dog enjoyed some canoe rides. 

Thanks to Annie for most of these great photos!

The view from the cabin porch. 

The cabin porch was one of the best parts of the weekend. A perfect place for chilling out, chatting, and reading.

We celebrated Mike's birthday with vegan cupcakes from Boots Bakery in Spokane. They were fantastic -- just ask Nora!

After breaking camp at the cabin, Mike and Nora and I went to Moscow to see where Justin and Annie and Clancy live. We loved seeing their cute house and got a tour of the University of Idaho campus. The "gargoyles" on the gym above are football players in old-fashioned leather helmets.

Rose bushes at the Arboretum 

It was great to see everybody and to visit a new and beautiful place.