Jellystone!!!

Well today we went into Yellowstone. It was glorious. We stopped at several pullout parking lots and walked to see geysers and paint pots. We saw the Firehole waterfall. It was really pretty. I got a shot of Helena and Papa by the falls. The colorful mineral pools are spectacular. We watched Old Faithful erupt. It was suppose to go off about 5:04. We waited for almost 20 minutes before it really went off. But it was well worth the wait. We drove around some more and got caught in a traffic jam. We couldn't see what was going on, so we just drove inch by inch until we saw the biggest bull bison crossing the road like he owned it. I took the picture over Erv's shoulder and managed to get his big backside. I got a sunburned nose, but we had a wonderful day.

Idaho Falls

We were in Idaho Falls yesterday. We went to see the falls and took tons of photos. We drove over to show Helena where we lived in 1967 to 69. The road to the apartment was all torn up so we had to hunt with the help of Helena's iPhone. Then we drove way the heck out of town to The Cellar to try some escargot. But we were disappointed that they weren't on the menu last night. But the food was really good. Helena chose well. Today we drove to West Yellowstone, Montana. Tomorrow we drive into the Park. More later

Start of trip

We are on our trip to Mall of America with Helena. We started out on Friday and drove to Las Vegas. Helena wanted to see the M&M store on the strip. We parked and then we walked for a mile to see the four stories of the store. It would have been better if the 3D movie had been working. It was closed down until the next day. Bummer! The next day we drove to Beaver, Utah. The town is very small, so we just swam ( all three of us) poor Papa waited outside while we girls took our showers. Today we drove to Salt Lake City. After we got setup we piled into the car and drove to the Great Salt Lake. We went over to Antelope Island out in the lake. It was pretty. Helena wanted to walk down to the shore and wade in, so her and Papa walked down about a quarter of a mile. I sat up top because walking in the sand was hard on my back. Helena ran back quickly because it started to thunder and lightning was coming too close for her liking. But she had a good time. That's all for now. More later

Home again

We are in Red Bluff today. We should be home Tuesday the 24. We are back in the heat. Today it got up to 96. Welcome home!!!

We stopped for three days in Salem, OR. We drove around the countryside one day and the next day we met with Erv's cousin, Bill Perin and he took us through the Mission Mill Museum. He's a docent there and he's a talker. We learned a lot about the mission from 1840's and the mill from 1870's (I think.) We were on the site for about 3 hours. Anyway it was really interesting. And they have a yarn shop in the museum.

We left there and drove down to Medford, OR for three more days. We drove the 80 miles up to Crater Lake. It is beautiful up there. I'd forgotten how big the lake was. We wondered around up there for a couple of hours. The weather up there was fantastic. The temp. was 68. As we drove back down the mountain the temp. went up to 95 when we got down to Medford. Yesterday we visited a few wineries in Sourthern Oregon. I've refilled my cellar again. It was getting pretty bare.

This is the last blog for this trip. And of course these are the last pictures I'll be sending. Hope you all enjoyed our trip. I know we did.

Coming home

We're in Bothell, WA today. We leave for Salem, OR in a couple of hours. We went to Seattle two days ago to Pike Place Market. It was very busy and a great place to people watch. I love it there even though I hate large crowds. They have huge bunches of flowers for $10 and some even larger for $15. Of course I got some Alder smoked salmon, YUM. I also got Mick's pepper jelly to use all sorts of ways. We ate lunch at Pike Brewery. We've eaten there before.

On the way here we stopped in two places in Canada. In Clinton, BC we went to a historical site called Hat Creek Ranch. It's a road house from the gold rush in 1898. but the most interesting thing was there was a Pow Wow held there. That's the only pictures we took after the goodbye dinner, so I didn't take any in Hope, BC. where we also stayed.

The dinner was not much to write home about, but the company was great. We were sorry to have to go.

See you all about Aug. 24 or 25. Can't wait!

Canada on the way home

We're in Smithers, BC right now. On the way here we stopped at a First Nation site and took some pictures of their buildings. We leave for Vanderhoof this morning on our last day of the tour. We should be back in the lower 48 on about five days. I will call you offspring when we get to Seattle.

We were in Stewart for two days so we could go across the border to view the bears in Hyder, AK. There is a stream where the salmon go to spawn, and of course the bears like it there. Well our luck didn't hold to see bears feeding on fish. We went there twice and only saw one bear who was more interested in berries than fish. At least we got pictures of it. One couple saw a Grizzle eating fish there at 7:oo yesterday morning. Dee said it tried to catch a fish and couldn't so she ate one that was laying on the bank. The bear peeled it like a banana before she ate it. I guess the skin is tough. Hyder is a dumpy little town about ready to fall apart in a brisk wind. They have a post office, but the mail only goes out twice a week and isn't delivered to houses. You have to pick it up yourself like the Waltons did on TV. Stewart is just a bit above Hyder. At least it's school is still open for kids to attend.

The road in and out of Stewart is beautiful. We drove by at least eight glaciers in various sizes. We could stop by one, the Bear Glacier, to get pictures. And the waterfalls up there are spectacular. Yosemite doesn't hold a candle to this 25 mile stretch of road. One of the falls had three falls coming down the mountain side-by-side meeting up in a huge fall into the Bear River. We also saw a bear running and I do mean running down the left side of the road. I think a motorcycle scared it and it ran for the bushes to hide. The roadsides are for the most part very dense with brush, so lots of bears could hide and not be seen. This was all while driving, so no pictures. There was no real place to pull over. But at least I have the pictures in my head.

That's about all of the things we've done since last we wrote. See you soon.

Skagway and Juneau

We have had a busy three days here in the panhandle of Alaska. Wednesday we went to a show about Soapy Smith, a con man from Skagway who was shot in a gun fight with the marshall. Then we walked over to the train depot and got on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad train bound for White Summit. The whole trip took about three hours and the scenery was amazing. We could see all the ocean liners in port on the way up. The train goes up the mountain hugging the side and at times it looks like there is nothing holding us up there. It was fun though. After the ride we all walked over to the Skagway Fish Co. and had halibut for dinner. It was terrific.

Thursday we got up at o-dark thirty to catch a ferry to Juneau. It took three hours to get over there from here. On the way we were lucky enough to see bald eagles on trees over looking the fjord about every quarter of a mile or so. They were probably looking for fish (their favorite food.) We also saw six humpback whales feeding. They didn't put on the show like before, but it was great to see them doing whale things. We also saw Stellar sea lions basking in the sun. But the best thing was we were right in the middle of a pod of Orcas. I didn't get any pictures because they were too fast. We followed them for a while, and one of them was right near our ferry. It was pretty cool.

In Juneau we had a bus tour of the small city. I cracks me up that it is the only state capitol that you can't get to from a road. Any way we were dropped off in town, and we ate lunch in the Red Dog Saloon. It was noisy and there was sawdust on the floor, but the food was pretty good. We walked around the five or so blocks of gift shops and then got on the bus to be taken out to Mendenhall Glacier. The visitor center is up a steep hill but the view is fantastic. Some people went for a hike down a trail to see bears eating fish. They saw a bird. Bummer!

We got back on the bus and she took us back to the ferry for the trip back to Skagway. We didn't see many animals except eagles and a group of porposes splashing in the water. We did see a liner go back out the fjord, and it's wake made our little boat ride like a bucking bronco. We didn't get back until 8:30 . The poor dog was glad to see us after 14 hours. Holly was walked twice while we were gone, but she was lonely anyway.

Today was a free day. The staff made us breakfast of omelets and toast, and then our travel meeting. We did laundry and played around in town for a while. Well we have to get going now. See you all soon.