Vancouver, Wa

We spent about 5 days with my family in Vancouver before we moved up to the north. We took one day and came up and found an apartment, and we were able to move in at the end of the week. We are mostly unpacked. Anyway, we had a great weekend with the extended family, eating good food and spending time together. Then, mom and dad had the kids for the week, so T and I played with them and helped cart them to all their activities. It was fun, and a little tiring too. It is always good to see family. The drive up here from there is beautiful, and the day I came the fields had low fog.

Weather Changes

We left the desert and made really good time into Idaho. Unfortunately, I was in shorts from the desert and we drove into snow. It was kind of fun. The trip from Idaho to Washington was really pretty. We drove along the Columbia River, and the highway is right along it, which is beautiful. There isn't much fast food, so be prepared to stop and eat at one of the local establishments. Very nice, but plan it in to the time.

Druid Arch and part of the Joint Trail in Canyonlands

Landscape Arch

Destination Dragon at Delicate Arch

Our friend E has Peak Penguin, who can be seen in other posts on the blog. T and I decided to have Destination Dragon, so he could go to more places than just peaks. Here he is at Delicate Arch. It was a fun hike, but there were a lot of people. It is kind of crazy how dedicated people are to getting nice pictures there. It includes booing anyone who stands in front of the arch too long.

Arches National Park

This is Double O arch and a picture of a spot in Fiery Furnace. We got a little bit lost in Fiery Furnace, but that was part of the fun! Actually the bottom one is Sand Arch.

Colorado to Washington

On our way to Washington, we went a bit south to Southern Utah....Canyonlands and Arches National parks. We had a lot of fun, and even though it was the high desert, it was pleasantly warm. We didn't have to sleep with the fly on our tent, except one night when it rained a bit. This is a beautiful area of the country. Arches was pretty crowded, and you could do all the good hikes in about a day. Then we went down to the backcountry in Canyonlands which had less people. It is definitely difficult to carry in all the water you will need, if you are unsure about the chances of finding water back there. The sunsets are beautiful!

We have Arrived

I know it has been awhile, but we have finally arrived in WA and moved into our new place. So, start looking for updates on how we spent our last few weeks. It is beautiful here, the leaves are changing colors, the salmon were jumping in the inlet down the street, and the joy of stepping on crunchy leaves abounds. Will catch you up on more later!

Colorado

We have been enjoying our time with T's parents here in CO. WE went hiking up to Flat Top Mountain yesterday and go to see aspen changing colors and new snow on the peaks. I'll get some pictures up here at some point. We had a great 9 mile hike, but I ended up getting a headache once we got to the car, so there were a few not so nice hours, but it cleared up in time for an excellent dinner of grilled salmon and twice baked potatoes. We have been loving home made food!! I think it will be quite a while before we take that for granted.

Today, T and I were just able to relax for the morning and run errands for our upcoming backpacking trip on the way to WA. This afternoon, we went on a 20 mile bike ride around Loveland with his mom, and we are having homemade pizza tonight!

The Cross Country Drive

Our drive to Colorado was beautiful. We missed an exit or two in the couple of days, but it all worked out. Pennsylvania was beautiful...there were swaths of trees turning color for the fall, and it stopped raining once we got to Ohio I think.

We took some time to visit T's grandma, who has Alzheimers and is living outside of Chicago in a care home. It was an adventure. We had a good visit, but as we left, we asked one of the workers to get us into the elevator. It is a locked ward, so to get there one must have keys or codes. A guy was in a shuffle wheelchair and when he heard us, he started shuffling as fast as he could toward the elevator. Then, I was startled when something brushed my hand and I jumped. It was a little old lady who also wanted to escape, and she grabbed onto my arm as best she could with the little coherence she had. I told the orderly it looked like he had a couple of escapees, and he took care of it. It was a little sad though.

We have also decided that Nebraska is way more interesting to drive through than Kansas, and it might have helped that we only had to go through the short bottom portion to get into Colorado.

The Last Night

On our last night in CT, I was awoken to the sound of something over the base PA system. I wasn't sure what it was, and then, it started playing that emergency broadcast sound. As I lay there, I thought through the possible problems that could be warned about. Hurricane, Tornado....and then it came to me...The area we were in gets its power from a nuclear power plant, as do the boats on base. Hmm....so, I woke Todd up, thinking nuclear disaster would be a good reason to be awakened.

As we turned the TV on to find out what natural disaster was occurring, the system started playing morning colors...the Star Spangled Banner...Huh? that didn't seem right, especially when it proceeded into Taps. So, Todd called the front desk. No disaster, no danger, just a faulty system. so, for an hour we heard rounds of the air raid signal, the emergency signal, morning and evening colors, and one other sound we couldn't identify. It made that last night memorable.