Vancouver WA - 2023

We made the drive from Mountain Home, ID  to Vancouver WA via a stop at our favorite winery.

Once we got to Washington, we made a day trip to Multnomah Falls and hiked to the top with Eric, Jessica and the pups.

Looking over the edge at the top

We ate a really yummy dinner at Kyoto.

They had a cotton candy making machine which was pretty cool.

I snapped a picture of Mount Hood.

The first week we were in Washington, I started a new project in the RV. I love the way they turned out.

Here are what our window boxes looked like. We removed the sides and kept the valances.

Living area 

Dining area

Bedroom

The window boxes on the drive and passenger seats were covered with a dark gray vinyl so I recovered them as well since I had some material left.

Drivers side window

Passenger side window

This is how many staples each window had that I had to pull out to get all the old material off.

The highlight of our trip to Washington was a side trip to Seattle to see George Strait, Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town at Lumen Field. It was an amazing concert! Both Little Big Town and Chris Stapleton played for just over an hour and George Strait came on around 9pm and played 2-1/2 hours including 6 songs in an encore. I am so grateful the rain held off because it was 54 degrees by the end of the show.

We stayed at a Harvest Host, LeMay America's Car Museum in Tacoma.

Check out some of the cool cars....

Back in Vancouver area, we went to Lucia Falls and recreated a picture we took 2 years ago.

Our last night in Washington, we went to a Murder Mystery Dinner. We enjoyed it and actually had a couple of the actors at our table. It was also Eric's birthday.

Mountain Home ID - 2023

We were able to get quite a few sites in while in Mountain Home visiting family. Our first adventure was to Malad Gorge State Park and Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. 

Malad Gorge - Devil's Wash Bowl

Malad Gorge downstream

This bridge on I 84 eastbound is where a truck pulling a travel trailer went over the side of the bridge, click on the link to see the article. Couple goes over bridge

Waterfall downstream

 

 

 

Family

Echo sporting his new shades.

Cousins

Waterfall at Woody's Cove

A little bit about Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. The visitor center has casts of the fossils that were found but you can't actually get to the fossil bed. The bed contained the largest concentration of Hagerman Horse fossils in North America. It is considered a national monument because it protects the world's richest known fossil deposits from the late Pilocene epoch, about 3 to 4 million years ago.

Our 2nd adventure was to Massacre Rocks State Park, Register Rock and City of Rocks National Reserve.

Massacre Rocks is pretty cool, they have a disc golf course, an educational hike, a nice campground that we think we will come back and stay in. There are places to get to the water to fish. There was also a .8 mile hiking path that takes you to a part of the Oregon trail. The path takes you through two tunnels under I-84. 

Cool rock formation

John E on a rock

Cousins on the rock

                  Guys on a rock                                            Girls on a rock

Looks like an animal crossing the river, but it is rocks

Tunnel to the Oregon Trail

Next stop was Register Rock. It is a giant boulder on which many emigrants stopped to sign their names. As you can see, the rock is protected by fencing and a pavilion.

Our next adventure was to City of the Rocks National Reserve. We actually went twice because the first time it was raining.

I was in awe of all the ways the rocks were altered.

Echo posing on a rock.

Our grandson Clay climbing up to get through a hole in the top of this rock.

Looks like an angry bird.

Looks like hearts carved into the rocks.

Looks like a bird and at the time the picture was taken a bird landed on it.

You can see someone climbing the rocks in this picture.

Here's another picture showing how altered the rocks are.

Gayla, John and the boys in Window Arch.

Us in Window Arch.

Our last adventure was to Little City of the Rocks for a hike. We were expecting to run into water but only found a couple of small pools.

Looks like a giraffe.

There was a distinct smell and at first we couldn't figure out what it was. I thought after touching it that it smelled like celery salt.

Our time in Mountain Home came to end too quickly. We sure enjoyed our time with our family!