Retirement Travels

We had an amazing time visiting my cousins in Ferndale, WA and Lynden, WA. My cousin Kay and her husband John just bought a house in Lynden where there daughters and grandchildren live. I thoroughly enjoyed helping her paint a few rooms in their new house and helping get a few things organized once they got moved. We spent a day and drove to North Cascades National Park. We saw Ross Lake, Diablo Lake, some pretty waterfalls and the craters were pretty cool to see. Lake Diablo From Washington Pass Overlook We ended up in a western looking town called Winthrop, WA. We did a little shopping, had lunch and stopped at this Brewery to get some favorites. Mount Baker can be seen from many locations around Bellingham, Ferndale and Lynden WA.

A staple view on our drive from Idaho to Washington is Mt. Hood.  Eric and family had a great fireworks display on the 4th of July along with an aboundance of food including his famous smoked tri-tips. This was on his neighbors roof. Fireworks Our granddaughter Di-Adra and her husband Cameron and our great-grandson Wayne were visiting from Oregon. Wayne was only 6 mos the last time we saw him. We got to spend the day at the Oregon Zoo, we were pretty impressed by this zoo. The animals were active and we saw animal activities we hadn't seen before. Bears Relaxing in a hammock A Ruddy Duck The condor was really interested in this little girl We got to see a baby elephant cooling off and playing in the water and then watch  him/her throw dirt over their body. A pretty bird - Coracias A Desert Tortoise  A Bongo We got to watch this giraffe play with a ball suspended from a pole. These pair of tigers were pouncing and playing with each other. We spent a day at Seaside OR and E...

We spent 2 weeks in Mountain Home, it was very heavy on all our minds that Casen was missing from our precious times together. But, we talked about him and reminisced about past memories which had us laughing and crying. Our first weekend in Mountain Home we drove to Hailey, ID to pick Clay up from camp. We stopped at the Snow Bunny Drive-in for lunch. After lunch DeHanna and Daniel took us rock hounding. We were up in the mountains with some amazing views. We went to the Emmet Cherry festival in Emmett, ID. Ernie and I shared a delicious piece of cherry cheesecake. We also drove to Silver City, ID. Silver City is a historic ghost town and mining camp. Visiting the city is like going back into history. There is no gas, electricity, or reliable cell service and you have to pack in your own water and supplies. The drive to Silver City is a remote drive up winding dirt roads. You can only visit from Memorial Day weekend through mid-October due to snow cover.  The boys wanted to go rol...