Our growing Family

Our Vega grows and learns something new every day She is sweet and happy . . . And steals hearts as babies do.  She is learning to adore her big Sister just as Audri dotes on her. Our two new little Hof's are settling in and doing fine in Craig and Traci's loving, consistent, safe care. We are making Vivienne and Owen's acquaintance.  Owen and Bella are great buddies. They play and plan and plot !! and are busy almost every moment. Vivienne is eating well,  growing and sleeps well at night. She will out grow her early evening fussy time soon. She smiles and coos. We will love these two well, as long as we are able.

Almost home, last day of driving

 

 

 

 

We saw fields and fields and fields full of sunflowers in

North and South Dakota. 

The flowers were so full of seeds the blossoms

all hung their pretty heads.

 

 

Missouri River and big sky in South Dakota. 

 

We had 14 great days on our Road Trip. 

We only had one bad spell when I was mad

and whiney when I realized we had to go home.

Himself just rode it out until I worked it out

of my system and then we pulled together

again and drove it on home.

 

15 Days

5500 miles

11 States and 2 Canadian Provences

 

Iowa

Nebraska

Wyoming

Utah

Nevada

California

Oregon

Washington

British Columbia

Alberta

Montana

North Dakota

South Dakota

Home

 

Montana to North Dakota . . . and a Black Hole. I have lost a day.

Yellowstone River in North Dakota

 

A sad old farmhouse. 

 

 Give me a home where the buffalo roam (or used to) in Montana.

 

A forgotten old church just inside western North Dakota. 

A pretty sunset in Huron, South Dakota.

I missed writing about one day but at this point, I can't seem to go back and sort it all out so I will leave it as is.  I will have a miscellaneous post or two so as to pick up some of the pretty places we visited but that didn't make the daily cut.

Montana, Day 12

Wow, we went through all kinds of weather today . . . but just a little of it was sunny weather.  We started off early with a side trip into Glacier National Park.  Himself always loves it when we get into a National Park free because he is a card-carrying member of the senior citizen National Park crew.  In July and August there was a great, rapid forest fire in the park.   We drove in a ways knowing we would hav to turn around but what remains after a forest fire is always an eye opener for us.  Today, there was enough snow in the mountains to close the park roads above 14 miles.

 

 

From Glacier we went east on Montana highway 2.  We went from mountain driving, to ranch land, to grass land.  We had lots of rain in the morning and Montana still wants rain and snow to resolve the dryness so we couldn't complain about all the rain.  Um, snow, not so much!  just kidding

 

Cows were free ranging for a hundred miles, I think. 

We didn't see many right out by the road but we saw some. 

Found this little church in a little town of Starr School, Montana.  We think this town is on an Indian Reservation.  In addition to this church and a small town, there were two large buildings (unused now) that must have been school buildings a few years back.

Tonight we are put up in Havre, Montana and tomorrow night we will stay in Sidney, Montana on the east line of Montana.  Tomorrow we plunge into North Dakota.  We are getting closer to home each day.

 

Today we were in Indian territory. We bought hamburgers from young Native Americans in a Burger Nation.  We saw signs for Indian reservations and casinos.  And we saw this tepee! 

British Columbia, west, Day 11

Today was not quite 'leisurely' but there were no dates or time frames except a late check in time at a little B&B in Grand Forks, British Columbia Canada.  We enjoyed our seven-hour drive. 

 

We would drive up the mountains, zig zag around curves and over hill and dale, then plunge back down into a valley to find vegetable and fruit market, wineries and vineyads.

 

 

An old school bus.

 

A lake in a valley.

 

An old farmstead; the house is gone. 

 

We had a picnic lunch along a mountain stream and stopped at a vegetable stand so I could buy tomatoes and cucumbers.  I could have bought apples, pears, melons, grapes, jellies, honey, celery, herbs -- you name it!  all grown locally.

 

 

 

Birch Bay and Blaine, Wa Day 10

 

 

We got up to pouring rain. Himself had a whopper of a headache. Thunderstorms kept rolling through so we laid low. We did have to get up and go to an odious owner's meeting at 8:30 and what was supposed to be a one-hour meeting took almost two hours. We came back to our comfy unit and curled up with a book, the TV or our security blanket. About 4 pm we got up and dragged out to investigate Blaine, a tourist town north of Birch Bay that is snuggled right up to British Columbia. We found a great little deli where we ate chicken . . . But couldn't conjure up any mashed potatoes and gravy. Back at the condo we resumed our positions.  Lol. I did laundry; packed up what I could and researched wi fi and gas prices in Canada. We will get up in the morning fresh,  prepared and ready to roll into Canada.

Birch Bay, Washington Day 9

We slept in this morning;  I think Himself slept until almost 7 pm after being up awhile in the night. We cooked our breakfast of bacon and eggs in our beautiful one bedroom condo.  We have been lucky and have had use of condos three times and have two more reservations here at Birch Bay. 

We walked down to the marina and shore.  I picked up shells and we took photographs. 

We packed up and drove out to the ferry to get in line in plenty of time. Then we walked around the little harbor town browsing in souvenir shops and finding a delightful cup of homemade clam chowder in the little island market.

 

Himself saw this little water plane sit down and so we waited and waited for it to take off again.

Of course, it took it paddled away down the river from us before lifting off.

 More sailing harbor photos.

 

Birch Bay World Mark

 

 

 

Our World Mark 'home away from homes' have been spacious and comfortable.

This one happens to be a two-bedroom unit as it was the only unit available. 

We will be here two nights and are able to get our laundry done and organized again.

 

 

We are lucky to have a big lovely king size bed and two twins in another bedroom.  There is also a murphy bed in the livingroom so wish you were all here too!  We'd have room for you 

 

There are two roomy bathrooms.

 

And everything we need in the kitchen.  Our unit last evening didn't have a dishwasher but otherwise, we always have a dishwasher and just have to run it before we leave.

Tomorrow we will explore the area and stay another night.  Thursday we will get up and head out another direction.  Right now we are not sure what direction that will be. 

Washington State and ferries, Day 8

We got up at Surfside Condo on the western peninsula of Washington State and tonight we will sleep on Orcas Island part of the San Juan Islands north of Seattle, Wa.

We took I5 east and north (and right through Seattle) to get us to the Ferry in time and then when we got there, we had 4 hours to spare.  It was a wild ride through the city.  At least it wasn't rush hour but it was raining and it was city traffic but we made it.  Since we were so early, we were able to change our ferry reservation and leave 4 hours earlier . . . but that entailed waiting in line and sitting in the Jeep for over an hour. 

Himself and I are getting a geography lesson.  I think I mentioned that we learned last evening that our condo, World Mark Deer Harbor was on an island and could only be reached by ferry or small plane.  Since we knew the small plane was not an option, we got on line and read about ferry travel, schedules, what to do and what not to do . . . and be in line an hour ahead of time.

We have ridden ferries before but always just from one side of the river to the other. 

Long story, short, we made it!  We caught the ferry, we got the car on and got it off again.  We found our resort.  It was cold and windy and drizzly today so in the morning, I will go walk on the beach before we load up and move to our next condo at Birch Bay outside Bellingham, Washington. 

 

Deer Harbor pioneer school at Deer Harbor on Orcas Island, San Juan Islands.

 

 

Deer Harbor Church

 

from the ferry

 

off Anacortes ferry port

 

                                I love looking at sail boats.  Would love to have a ride on one.

Washington State, Day 7

We are in Washington, on a peninsula on the west coast.  We don't have cell phone service and we don't have our Jeep internet.  So we bought some for the night thru World Mark, our condo owner.  Anyway, we are well, interested, learning, and pooped!  Who ever knew that driving and riding would wear a person out?

Tomorrow night, we found out about an hour ago, that our resort is on an island and we will have to take a ferry.  For goodness sakes, it was a good thing we got around and was digging out information.  What if we had gotten there tomorrow after the last ferry of the day?  We'd been out the money for that condo and we'd have been sleeping in the Jeep.

By the way, I came prepared to sleep in the back of the Jeep if need be.  I've been telling Himself that we might have to, before we get back home.

Anyway, photos from today!

 

We met Doug for lunch and would loved to have met Chris too but that wasn't to be.  We had a good visit.  Mary Pat wasn't able to come as she was having to drive son Mike to some friend get together.

 

I love the Oregon and Washington coasts. 

 

This is the lovely bridge over the Columbia River at Astoria.  It is so very high above the water. 

 

This is another view of the bridge.  In addition to being high, it is also very long.

But not as long as the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel Bridge

 that we took our children through, way back when. 

 

 

 

I have so many more photographs but it is late, I'm tired and I'm still learning windows 8.1 on this laptop.  I have not figured out how to transfer photos so I am copying them one at a time.  

Oregon, Day 6

We finished up the last 20 miles of California today and plunged into Oregon.  We are driving Oregon 101 highway and I am enjoying every minute of it.  The wind howled inland today, 40 miles per hour (I'm guessing).  We heard that at Newport Oregon, the wind peaked at 57 mph or thereabouts. 

I think I have finally lined up some photos to put in here so I will do that and call it a day.

The Oregon Coast. 
It was overcast at times and perhaps even smoky at other times.
We also had beautiful sunshine but always the wind blew today. 

We had many beach stops and lots of exploring.

Cape Blanco, a working lighthouse but since it is electrified, there is no lighthouse keeper anymore.
 

A redwood stump but not a big redwood stump.
 

The wind was so strong and cool that I wore a winter coat on the beach.
 

In this area, Newport and south, we saw a half dozen of these 1920s Art Deco bridges with cement and metal ornamentation.  I love this one.  It looks like a gothic church.

Tomorrow we will meet Doug, finish up the shoreline of Oregon and stay at a World Mark condo in Washington State.