Moscow Sunsets

Southeastern Summers

My parents' pond at sunset

Johnson Farm at the Peaks of Otter on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Otter River

I grew up in the Southeast.  As a teenager, I was involved in a summer tennis league.  Our practices were from nine to eleven in the morning.  I would bike home from practice and turn on the garden hose and soak myself in the freezing water to cool down prior to going in for a shower.  It was that hot and muggy.

When we traveled back east to visit family last week, the weather was unbelievably well-behaved.  It had rained all summer, so everything was verdant.  The temperatures barely reached into the 90s at their worst, and in the mountains, the temperature one morning never exceeded 70.  Perfect.  While I can't say I have any regrets about moving to the Northwest and having dry summers with cool evenings, I will say I do occasionally miss the lazy, warm summer evenings.  And it goes without saying I miss the trees and the flowers and the abundance of water.  I also had forgotten a lot of things about southeastern summers.  For instance, I had forgotten that if you take a hike in the morning, your sneakers will be soaked with the morning dew.  Your feet and ankles will be covered with fresh cut grass snips or leaf bits.  The same dew also makes the really outrageously ginormous spider webs visible.  Except when it doesn't, and you walk right into them and spend the next 30 minutes trying to pick off bits of sticky, hoping against hope that the spider wasn't home at the time you crashed into its domicile.  And gnats.  I had completely forgotten that gnats existed, until they made their presence known via kamikaze runs into my eyes.  But I loved the streams bubbling in late summer, and the squishy ground, and the moss covered trees.  I loved the butterflies and the hummingbirds, and the fact my mom's rosemary looked like a sequoia compared to mine.  Yes, the northwest is home now, but what a lovely southern visit!!  

A Better Way to Travel

Earlier this week, I took an Amtrak passenger train for the first time in my life.  It's true.  Even though I'm from a train-crazy family, I had never been on a passenger train (outside of subways) in the United States.  

It was a mistake.

I have traveled extensively for work the past few years and I have my airline routine down--what I put in my carry on, what I wear, and maximizing outfits out of a minimum of clothes and shoes.   I am used to the drama of delayed flights and middle seats and short layovers.  No problem.  But I hadn't really realized how far airline travel had deteriorated with respect to comfort until this week.  Until the train.

Admitedly, my sample size is small and I traveled a relatively short distance on a non-holiday.  But the absolute ease of the boarding process, followed by the roominess of the seats almost instantly won me over.  And I could go on and on from there!  No worrying that the DVD player will run out of batteries before your child runs out of movie, no "seat belt light" preventing you from taking a trip to the (much larger) bathroom, snacks and drinks any time you want...well, you get the idea.  Three hours on a train with a small child is much shorter than three hours on a plane with or without the child.  As one of my friends put it, it is a more human pace of travel.  Our collective love affair with automobiles and airlines have relegated the trains to the poor stepchild of travel, but we have been deceived!  Those of us in my generation, who have so little experience with trains, did not know what we were missing!  No more!  I am already planning my next trip!!

Rain in Culpeper, VA

The Crescent Line:  New York to New Orleans!

Union Station in Washington DC

The Potomac River in DC, at sunset

      

Solo Rides

I've taken some solo bike rides lately.  I enjoy them much better than I thought I would.  The only drawback is that I have no judge about how fast or slow I am going.  Wait a minute, is that actually a drawback??

Summer Rains...

...are weird if you live on the Palouse.  The first few days of August were unseasonably cool and RAINY!  I'm not sure what to make of it--volatile weather patterns to say the least!  But rain when it's been so dry is much appreciated, even as it disturbs you with its unpredictability.

Yesterday I did something that I hope will become a more regular habit--solo bike ride!  So lovely to ride to Troy and smell the ripening wheat and the pine trees!  Even the spring wheat is turning golden, so summer is truly winding down.

Things are still a little unsettled around here, much like the weather.  Hopefully we will have more certainty and "settledness" once I start to feel the chill of fall in the air.  The drama of the day was that our washing machine died--mid load, if you can believe it.  Lovely.  We made ourselves feel better by completely reorganizing our son's room, to much success.  I guess you win some, you lose some!

Garden Beauties

Relic of a railroad age on the Latah Trail

Made it to Troy!

Moscow Mountain

 

May the Fourth Be with You

We made the traditional July 4th pilgrimage to the Johnson, WA parade.  You never know what you might come across...

Han Solo, giving new meaning to "this thing is a piece of junk!"  Ok, well maybe not actually, but it is made of a trash can!

Han Solo, frozen in carbonite, accompanied by the green skinned dance hall girl.

Whoever came up with this AT-AT idea deserves a medal!

Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?!?

Being a Jedi Master is hard work, and sometimes you need to take a little cat-nap when being toted around by Jedi's in training.

In addition to what I felt was the most creative group in the parade, there was the usual mix of classic cars and restored tractors.  Some were quite impressive!  Altogether, I felt it was one of the better Johnson parades I'd seen in a while!

 

Rainy Day Exploring

 

We have been exploring on this rainy weekend.  My husband participated in a bike "ride" (it was not a race!) in Leavenworth, WA, so we joined in for one big family road and camping trip.  The rain mainly came overnight, so it didn't bother us in our nearly-new family camping tent.  My husband had a whopping six flat tires on the 85-mile ride, and his riding partner was besought with a gear shifter malfunction and chain issues.  So we were pretty amused when hubby won the grand prize in the raffle drawing:  a toilet paper roll dispenser made of bike parts (quick release changer, no less).  

While they were riding bikes, the rest of us were exploring Wenatchee State Park.  Four little boys, one very cold lake.  A long, flat beach perfect for swimming--if you could take the freezing temperatures.  The boys couldn't resist, even as their lips turned blue.  Luckily, when they got cold, there was lots of shoreline exploring and fort building to be done.

This is definitely a spot we will have to adventure back to!

Backroads Road Trip

We just returned from an epic road trip.  1,500 miles in five days through some really remote (and some not so remote) country.  Redfish Lake and the Sawtooth Recreation Area, where have you been my whole life?  The area made me fall in love with Idaho all over again, Idaho's other shortcomings notwithstanding.

The trip to Park City (via Stanley and Redfish Lake) was just my son and I, my little buddy, as my husband had a work-related meeting.  He was such a great road trip buddy, I can't even begin to describe it.  Never, well, hardly ever, complained and so helpful.  The kind of road trip buddy that will roll down his window so you can take a picture of the sandhill crane.   And on the way home, a complete family with hubby included, and this time I didn't have to do the driving!  I could finish my bike yarn bomb for Moscow's Artwalk and knit a saddle blanket for "Neigh Neigh."  

Park City was nice, but I loved Stanley, ID, population 63.  The winters are pretty rough though.  Luckily we caught it in a mellow June, and not a typical June with snow squalls.  I didn't love Sun Valley and Ketchum.  All those fancy stores, but the yarn shop is hard to find.  I'd take Whitefish, MT any day.     

Here are some of the trip highlights:

We were stopped when a bad accident occurred on HW 55.  For two hours.  The man cub tried to recruit other kids to play soccer with him to pass the time!

Oh, Sawtooth Mountains!

Redfish Lake!

A Sandhill Crane!

"Mom, are the antelope those bouncy things?"

Headwaters of the Salmon River

Rockin' bike trail in Park City, UT

Top of the Wasatch Range overlooking Park City, UT

Bike trail in Sun Valley, ID

Returns at the Sawtooth Hatchery

Australia pt I

Fig or Banyan tree, across from the Opera House

 Here are a few pictures from a land down under!

Our B&B in Sydney

Sydney Harbor at Sunset

A cormorant in Sydney Harbor

I Heart Art Museum Sandwiches!

Rainbow Lorakeets, not pets

The Nobbies on Phillips Island