The Great One

Days 5 - 6, Denali National Park to Wasilla, AK

This trip to Alaska is not our first, but we have been looking forward to it for a long time.  One of the things we booked was a tour within Denali National Park. (www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/shuttles) There is only one road into the Park, and driving a personal car is limited to the first 15 miles.  Shuttles and tour buses are the only way to get deeper into the Park.

There are several shuttle options and we decided to take the green shuttle, which is a basic school bus with more comfortable seats, pack your own lunch and hopefully the driver will offer some insight into what we are seeing.  We got very lucky!  Our driver has been driving these tours for 23 years and offered just the right amount of commentary.  The destination for the day is Eielson Visitor Center, 66 miles down the Park Rd.  The hope for the day is to see Denali (Mt. McKinley) and wildlife, especially bear.  Let’s get the suspense over with . . . we didn’t see the mountain and we didn’t see a bear.  But, we did see moose, many caribou, eagles, and Dall sheep.  And, we had a wonderful eight-hour drive through dramatic and beautiful Denali National Park.

Flag over Denali National Park

The word “Denali” means “the Great One” in the native Athabascan language.  At 20,320’ the mountain is the highest peak in North America.  It was originally named after President McKinley in 1897 by a local prospector and is quite often still referred to as such on many maps and registers.  Denali is more than a mountain; it is six million acres of vast wilderness and inspiring landscape around every corner.  Not only is the mountain “the Great One” but the Park is a great national park.

Park view

Park view

All bus tours take off from the Wilderness Access Center (different from the NPS Headquarters and Visitor Center) and each type of tour travels the same road, just varying distances.  Our choice to go to Eielson was based on having a full day of tour without it being exhausting.  It took us 4 hours to get to Eielson, we had about 40 minutes there, and about 3 hours back to the WAC.  The day was overcast but not cold or drizzly.  There had been a number of fires in Alaska and the valley’s air quality was not great so we pretty much knew our opportunity to see the mountain was doubtful, at best.  The Denali Park Road parallels the Alaska Range, going west into the Park.  There’s not a better side of the bus to choose, because there is only one road; going into the Park you will see one side of the road and coming out you will see the other.

As mentioned, the first 15 miles of road are open to the public.  At mile 11 there is a wide-open viewpoint where on a clear day you can see Denali . . . we didn’t see it but we did get our first sense of how big this Park is.  It’s worth noting that both Bob and I felt a great sense of tranquility while riding down the road in a modified school bus; I think most of the other people on the bus felt the same sense of quiet and solitude.  The operative word in that statement might be “most” and I found myself wondering what the foreign tourists thought of some of the American tourists.  Having lived internationally, we are rather sensitive to that perspective.

A short distance from the WAC is the Savage Campground, where campers and hikers can wave the bus down and get a ride deeper into the Park.  Mile 15 of the Park Rd. is the end of the pavement where the road crosses the Sanctuary River, and also the point where a NPS ranger comes on board the bus to welcome us.  Our ranger said she had grown up in the Park; Denali is her sanctuary.

A bit further down the road we came to our first rest stop (mile 30) just past the Teklanika campground.  The facilities are quite nice and of course after an hour and a half on the bus we were all ready for a brief stop.  Again, there’s no shortage of scenery and opportunities for photos.  Look in any direction and it’s beautiful.

It’s worth noting that throughout this trip we saw wildlife.  The big four are bear, moose, Dall sheep, and caribou.  We had actually seen a cow moose and her babies the day before alongside the road just inside the entrance to the Park.  On the bus ride we saw many caribou and were excited to see several Dall sheep.

Dall Sheep

Eagle

 

 











In particular, one Australian gentleman had an eye for spotting wildlife and everyone’s eyes were peeled for the hope of a bear sighting.  Our driver had told us to shout out “stop” if we saw anything of interest; he would then position the bus, backing up if necessary, so that we could get photos. 

Departing the Teklanika rest stop we began to climb in elevation to Polychrome Overlook.  The name comes from the kaleidoscope of colors from the exposed volcanic rock that you can see from the high overlook.  The Polychrome portion of the drive is dramatic, rising quickly with many tight turns, and the views are equally dramatic . . . and colorful.  The bus did stop at the overlook area so everyone could take plenty of photos.

View from Polychrome Overlook

View from Polychrome Overlook

Winding our way off Polychrome we entered the Toklat, a broad valley with a braided riverbed, and our last rest stop.  The steep cliffs are often dotted with Dall sheep and we were lucky enough to see some.  The riverbed is lined with tundra leading up to the steep slopes of the Alaska Range.

Toklat braided riverbeds

View from Toklat

A few minutes later and we arrived at the Eielson Visitor Center. (www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/the-eielson-visitor-center)  Named for Carl Eielson, a famed Alaskan aviator, the visitor center is outstanding.  It is partially bermed, and the buses park on the roof.  The beautiful facility incorporates many sustainable features and has been recognized architecturally and within the National Park Service.  The displays are informative and there is a nice art museum featuring some of the works by Denali artists-in-residence. 

Tundra sod roof @ Eielson

Not Denali but beautiful!

Way behind this mountain is Denali

Weather forecast for Eielson

On a clear day, the view of Denali is unsurpassed.  We didn’t see it . . . and if any consolation, we were told only about 30% of all visitors to the Park see “the Great One.”  

The return bus ride was equally as beautiful as going out to Eielson.  It was a great day viewing Denali National Park even though we didn’t see the mountain or bear!  However, we had two more chances to see the mountain, and bear can be anywhere, so we are still hopeful for the next day’s drive.

Driving south from Denali National Park, the highway has two viewpoints of the mountain.  They are appropriately called the North and the South views.  The north yielded nothing and by the time we reached the south view, the clouds began to part.  While we were walking down the pathway, just for a moment, the tip of the mountain (20,320’) was visible.  By the time we got our cameras ready, it was obscured again. 

South Viewpoint along Denali Highway

We cannot complain.  I’ve been to AK twice before, once in 1977 with my brother, and again in 2004 with Bob.  On both occasions I saw Denali in all its magnificent glory.  While Bob was working in the Aleutians, he saw Denali from the air.  Spectacular!

The Great One, Denali, 2004 from Talkeetna

Denali, 2004, from Talkeetna

One of my favorite Alaskan villages is Talkeetna.  It’s a favorite gathering place for Denali climbers and it has become a common day-trip for tourists from Anchorage.  I was surprised at how busy little Talkeetna has become!  We enjoyed lunch (the restaurant had an “I Can See Russia” burger on the menu), and a walk around the hamlet, appreciating the historic buildings and character but being very aware of how much it has changed over the years.  I miss the Talkeetna of 1977 and 2004!

 

We had a perfect ending to our day of driving from the Park.  Our lodging reservation was at Wasilla, which has become one long strip mall of a town.  But the Agate Inn (www.agateinn.com) was indeed a hidden gem and we arrived just in time to help the owners feed their reindeer!  We wished we had planned to stay longer in these comfortable accommodations.

Reindeer @ Agate Inn

Another great day in Alaska!

Land of the All Night Sun

Days 1 – 4, Seattle, WA – Denali National Park, AK

After a fun 4^th of July weekend with family it’s time for us to take another trip!  Our flight from Seattle to Fairbanks had been delayed two hours prior to the date of departure but then was delayed again so we didn’t leave SEA until nearly 11:00 pm Sunday.  Flying up over the coast of Canada and above the Inside Passage of Alaska was beautiful and made us excited for what we would be sailing through in a couple weeks.  We landed in Fairbanks, retrieved our luggage, and walked outside to get the shuttle at 1:30am AKDT . . . and it was still dim daylight, or sort of dusk.

 

Fairbanks @ 1:34am

Alaska is often called the Land of the Midnight Sun but as we tried to settle down for a good night’s sleep we discovered the sun filters in around the hotel’s blackout curtains and it’s pretty much dusk all night long with sunrise at about 3:30am.  According to the weather sources, Fairbanks is experiencing nearly a 21 hour-long day this week.  That’s quite a difference from our 15-hour day in Southern WA.

We were off to explore Fairbanks and started at the Alaska Coffee Roasters on Geist Rd.  www.alaskacoffeeroasting.com  You know it’s going to be good coffee when people are standing in line outside the door and patiently at that!  The coffee was very good, but they also have an extensive food offering; we enjoyed sharing a raisin walnut cinnamon roll, homemade of course!  Thanks to either the coffee shop or a patron but someone turned in my prescription sunglasses, which I’d left on the table.  Glad I didn’t lose them!

 
The sun was blazing hot in Fairbanks with temperatures reaching about 88° F, which is quite high for July.  Also, we could feel the 46% humidity, which was rather surprising.  However, we didn’t let the weather deter us from exploring Georgeson Botanical Gardens at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

Delphiniums

Peonies

Lovely!  It happened to be peak Peony time and the flowers were amazing.  Also, the vegetable gardens were quite impressive.  It’s true that cabbages are huge in Alaska!

Cabbages

 Probably the “must see” site at Fairbanks is the Museum of the North, also on the grounds of UAF.  www.uaf.edu/museum  The building design is beautiful, reminiscent of mountains and glaciers. 

Museum of the North @ UAF

The museum houses a very interesting history of Alaska, focusing on five geographic regions of Alaska and featuring the natural and cultural history of each region.  We were particularly interested in WWII, when Japan attacked the Aleutian Islands.   Bob worked for a couple years (2002-04) on Shemya Island, the next to the last island in the Aleutian chain so he has a keen interest.

In addition to the historical presentations at the Museum of the North, there is an impressive art gallery featuring 2000 years of Alaskan art.  The museum also offers special exhibits and unique collections.

Alaskan Native Kayak

Native Masks

Our second day in the Fairbanks area was a bit cooler and very smoky.  The news said there were over 3 million acres of forest fires burning throughout Alaska.  Several large fires were burning near Tanana, northwest of Fairbanks, and dense smoke was filling the valley compromising air quality.

We drove about 8 miles northeast of Fairbanks to view the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).  There is a nice viewing area with informative displays along a section of the pipeline.  If you are tall enough you can reach up and touch it.  Bob was impressed by the pigs!  What?  A pig is like a big industrial bottlebrush that cleans out the pipeline, assuring that the oil continues to flow its 800-mile length.

Retired Pig

TAPS

 



Our destination for the day was to relax at Chena Hot Springs.  The springs feed a small lake lined in large boulders, which we favored and also an indoor swimming pool.  The water temperature is about 105° F so soaking time is limited but the waters are said to be very therapeutic.  Being long-time fans of hot springs, we both thought this one was heaven.  Discovered in 1905, the springs have been known for their curative powers for over a hundred years.

Chena Hot Springs Rock Lake

To cool off, we visited the Ice Museum, also on the resort property.  Resident ice artists, Steve and Heather Brice have won world championships 16 times (combined) and their representative work is impressive.  Bob enjoyed stepping up to the Aurora bar for an Appletini (Vodka and apple juice), served in a take-away ice sculpted glass, obviously not a long-term keepsake!  Chena has taken advantage of their geothermal source and is partially operating the resort using their own power.  We were able to take an informative geothermal energy tour and also view their impressive outdoor and greenhouse gardens, which provide most of the produce for the resort’s restaurant.  The owners use the hot springs water to generate about 80% of the power requirements for the facility - a very unique system using only 165 degree water.

Bob enjoying an Appletini

Ice sculpture Aurora

 The 56-mile drive to/from Chena is a very straight but beautiful road, traveling through the Chena River State Recreation Area.  Keep an eye out for moose; we saw three in three different locations!

Day three in Alaska found us leaving Fairbanks, driving south toward Denali National Park.  Again, the forest fire smoke obscured the views but we enjoyed what we could see.  We took a brief stop in the village of Nenana, which holds an annual spring ice breakup lottery, called the Ice Classic.  This has been an Alaskan tradition since 1917 and this year the pot grew to $330,000!  We may have secured our future by purchasing a couple tickets!  In addition to the Ice Classic, 

Nenana Ice Classic Tripod

Nenana has a rich history having been the place where President Warren G. Harding drove the Golden Spike to mark the completion of the Alaskan Railroad in 1923.  Rumor has it that this may also have been the place where he contracted pneumonia, which he died of just barely three weeks later.

Golden Spike

 



We arrived at Denali National Park in the mid-afternoon and enjoyed the displays and films at the Visitor Center and the Wilderness Access Center.  Denali is the third largest National Park, encompasses over six million acres and had about 531,000 visitors in 2014.  It’s an impressive number because most of the Park in only accessible from mid-May to mid-September.  We are looking forward to seeing more of the Park tomorrow but on our way out of the Park we came across a Mama Moose and her two babies . . . exciting!

Mama Moose

and her babies!

We are staying in Healy, a small town about 10 miles north of the Park.  Our evening ended with dinner at the 49^th State Brewing Co., (http://49statebrewing.com) which served a good variety of cold beer, and offered an interesting menu item. 

Yak Burger, anyone?

The bus from the movie “Into the Wild” is on display on the grounds of the 49^th State Brewing Co. It’s a sad story but serves as a strong reminder that Alaska is wild . . . and there is inherent risk in exploring the back country.

Into the Wild bus @ 49th State Brewing Co.

We’ll take a safer route tomorrow . . . we signed up for a Green Tour Bus to Eielson Visitor Center, 66 miles out the Park Road.  Come along for the ride . . . Denali may be in sight!

We are doing okay . . . or at least we think we are!

When we decided to start blogging we wanted to be very transparent and offer insight into our retirement by sharing our experiences and emotions during this transition.  We consider ourselves to be fairly normal people, at least among our colleagues and friends, and most of us are at the same point in our lives  . . . either approaching retirement or recently retired.

We have saved and invested our money fairly well; once in awhile we bought high and sold low and once in awhile we bought low and sold high.  We are grateful for our health; there have been challenges and issues and we’d like to get off our blood pressure meds but all in all we are healthy.  We have a wonderful family; not without some challenges and issues, but overall we are very blessed.  We like each other most of the time, and on most days!

Most of the family!

A couple of months before Bob retired we started our blog and titled it “Our Retirement InSight” because the date was in sight but also because we wanted to be able to offer some insight into this transition period.  Our post-retirement friends shared with us that retirement was going to be an adjustment and we thought we might as well document our experiences.  It’s been an interesting two months since Bob retired and we are doing okay.

Financially, we planned for retirement and we hope the nest egg holds out.  Of course, as soon as we stopped earning an income the stock market has gone through a bit of a downward turn.  It’s hard to look at our portfolio every day and see it drop a little bit but we have to keep the long-term, bigger plan in mind.  Bob’s better at that than I am!

On a daily basis our life is pretty easy.  We live in a ranch style house (no steps!), which is easy to maintain.  We are both good about keeping things picked up and like a clean but comfortable home.  Bob loves to garden and enjoys puttering outside so the shrubs and beds are maintained.  Weekly we have a yard service that mows and edges, and keeps an eye on our koi pond if we are gone.  Our neighbors are great and are willing to watch the house if we ask.  We are lucky.

Our family is very encouraging and wants us to have a good time.  There’s a bit of a role reversal because now we are the ones who need to check in with “the kids” and let them know our whereabouts and travel plans.

I think it’s good that we had a plan for how/where/when we want to spend our time during this new phase of our lives.  For now our sense of wanderlust is still strong and we are eager to go places, meet new people, and experience life differently.  It’s not really our intent to make the blog into a travelogue but of course when we are traveling our posts are blogging about the journey . . . but actually life is a journey and retirement is part of the path.

Last weekend we started out on a day trip to see some of the lakes in Central WA, and ended up doing an overnight stay.  I think we are catching on to the idea that we don’t have to stick to a strict schedule and the only restrictions are ones we put on ourselves.

Soap Lake

Pot Holes Reservoir

Dry Falls

Blue Lake

Banks Reservoir

 

Moses Lake

We have been blessed to reconnect with friends and this weekend we will spend time with our family.  Sunday evening we get on the jet plane and go north to Alaska . . . retirement is good. 

North to Alaska . . . But which way do I go?

Long before I retired, Le Anna and I had agreed that our first big trip would be to see the Inside Passage to Alaska.  We had talked about taking a normal cruise, which would be the easy way to do it, but we wanted to spend more than a few hours in each of the small towns along the Inside Passage.  So we had decided that the best way for us to go would be on the Alaska Ferry,  which stops at all the towns on a regular schedule.  Here is the link to the Alaska Marine Highway website http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/ .  Thus began our study of various options for the trip.

Alaska Ferry

I worked in Alaska earlier in my career, and we had both seen the Anchorage area and Kenai Peninsula.  Our goal for the next trip was to see Fairbanks, Denali, and more of the interior in addition to exploring the beautiful Inside Passage.  We also wanted to visit Whitehorse, Yukon, and possibly the gold rush town of Dawson.  The more we talked about it, the more options came up.

Our first preference was to load up our car and hit the road, driving up Vancouver Island, putting the car on the BC Ferry at Port Hardy, and going up the Canadian coastline, switching to the Alaska Ferry at Prince Rupert, BC.  Here is the link to the BC Ferry system -  http://www.bcferries.com/.  We’d take our time and enjoy getting off/on at the small towns along the Alaskan Inside Passage from Ketchikan up to Skagway where we could drive on the mainland again.  We could tour the interior as we liked, and return to the US via the Alcan Highway through the interior of BC.  What we discovered when we dug into details, was that advance reservations would be required for each leg of the ferry, and there was really no place to go with a car at most stops.  Then there was the cost, which would be over $900 for the vehicle cost on the ferry.  We concluded that this option would be too restrictive and expensive.

The Inside Passage

We thought about some variations, like leaving our car in Juneau and taking the fast foot ferry to Sitka, but that was only a slight improvement.  We also looked at driving through BC up to AK first, and coming South down the Passage on the ferry, but this was essentially the same trip with the same inflexibility and comparable costs.

after this, we started thinking that the better approach would be to just walk-on the ferry and rent a car in Skagway or Whitehorse to tour the interior, then fly home from Anchorage or Fairbanks.   Ideally we would prefer to return the car to where it was rented to avoid the one-way drop-off fee, but in this case it was very difficult and costly to fly home from Whitehorse.  We looked at every option we could think of – including taking the ferry straight from Bellingham, WA to Ketchikan, AK before starting our stop-offs at the small towns up the Passage.  

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

Skagway, Alaska

At this point the engineer in me decided we needed to put the scenarios in a spreadsheet to do a proper assessment of the options.  I ended up with 5 different options, listing each day of the itinerary, with columns for all the different costs for the day.  Surprisingly, the total costs for each option did not vary as much as I had thought they would (although it was still going to be a pricey trip – over $6K).

It was time to consider making some trade-offs and setting priorities.  We gave up on going to Dawson but kept Whitehorse and Skagway on the tour, and put a priority on having a couple days in each of the Inside Passage villages that interested us.  We could skip Anchorage since both of us had seen it on more than one occasion.  In the end we decided on a fly, drive, and ferry combination, starting in Fairbanks and coming south.  It made a lot of sense, kept our travel time under four weeks, and was in the mid-price range of all the options.   

We will fly to Fairbanks from Seattle (cheap tickets), then rent a car to tour Denali and the interior, drive eastward through the Matanuska Valley to the St. Elias/Wrangell parks, over to Whitehorse and then drop the car in Skagway, hop on the ferry as foot passengers and come down the Inside Passage at a slower pace. There is a large drop-off fee for the rental car, but less than taking a personal car the entire distance on the ferry.  We decided to stop our tour in Ketchikan and fly back to Seattle in order to save a few days of ferry travel.  We plan to do the BC Canada coastline on another trip.

Denali National Park

Once we got the itinerary roughed out, we started looking at accommodations along the way.   This was another challenge since we were going in peak season for Alaska, and motels are limited in many of the places we wanted to see.  We ended up having to pre-book everything about 6 months in advance, including the ferry and the rental car.  This was contrary to our initial thought that once we were retired, we could take off at a moment’s notice and hit the road.  This trip required very detailed day-to-day planning long in advance of leaving.

We will start the Alaska trip next week, so stay tuned to our blog.  Thanks for traveling along with us!

The Homeward Stretch

Day 25 ~ Bend, OR to HOME!

We’ve been on the road for over three weeks and now it is time to head home!  Central OR falls behind us as we head NE through the small farming and rangeland towns of Madras, Shaniko, and Grass Valley, OR.  While driving we remembered the mid-1980’s scandal when the Indian guru Rajneesh and his followers settled in a commune not far from Antelope, OR.  This evolved into a high profile battle between the “Rajneeshies” and the locals.  Eventually the commune collapsed but the legal battles and the emotional upheaval lasted for a long time.  (www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/index.ssf/2011/04/part_one_it_was_worse_than_we.html) The entire situation seems very unlikely when you pass through the tranquil wide-open spaces of this part of OR.

Eastern OR

The countryside was familiar to us and we kept our eyes open for the first glimpse of Mt. Hood to the west of us.  Soon we had also sighted Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier, both in WA, and we knew home was just down the Columbia River Gorge and slightly to the north in south central WA.

Mt. Adams & Mt. Rainier in the distance

We came up onto I-84 at Biggs, often considered the eastern end of the Gorge.  It's common to see barges on the river.

Columbia River at Biggs, OR

Looking across the Gorge are views of wind farms, vineyards and the landmark Maryhill Museum, an impressive art museum with works by Rodin, a large Native American collection, and a nice collection of glassworks. (www.maryhillmuseum.org)

Look carefully across the River and you will also see a war memorial, designed as a smaller replica of Stonehenge – very unique.  (wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryhill_Stonehenge)  Both of these are located in an unlikely location but worth visiting if you are in the area.  As an added bonus, Maryhill has an excellent winery just down the road which puts on great summer concerts in an open-air amphitheater overlooking the gorge. (www.maryhillwinery.com/)

Maryhill Museum across the river

Traveling east we decided to exit the freeway, take the old highway and go through the tiny agricultural community of Irrigon.  They have a nice marina park along the River and we enjoyed a nice walk and picnic lunch.

Marina Park at Irrigon, OR

 
Crossing the River we entered WA, just below McNary Dam.   Home was calling to us now!

Hills near the Tri-Cities, WA

We’d had a great trip, traveled safely, were blessed with good weather and beautiful scenery.  For years to come we would have memories of camping on the OR coast, the Redwoods, Napa Valley, San Francisco, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Mt. Shasta, Crater Lake, and Bend.   Remember the rooftop carrier ~ Bob was ready to ditch it within hours of leaving on this trip but it had turned out to be useful and we’d gotten much better at packing up the carrier and car.  We’d learned a lot about ourselves on this road trip and hopefully we would take the lessons to heart on future travels.  We would not try to combine a camping trip and a conventional road trip in the future – it takes way too much “stuff”!

Home . . . we love our home and it felt so good to walk in the door and feel comfortable.  We’d traveled for 2976 miles over three and a half weeks and though we were “seeing new things and meeting new people” (that’s one of Bob’s favorite mantras) home was never far from our minds.

Home

When we set out to write this blog we wanted to approach all the challenges and rewards of retirement, and during the trip we had encountered both and hopefully gained some insight into our retirement.

Financially we had planned and paid for most of the trip in advance, either through advance bookings or having the cash to pay AMEX when the bill comes.  But we hadn’t planned on spending $1000 to replace a dishwasher two days before leaving on the trip.  We had not planned on spending $500 replacing our koi pond pump while on the trip.  We came home to find a broken icemaker to the tune of $300.  Life happens whether you are home or traveling, and I guess there is some synchronicity to “three broken things.”

Emotionally, part of our trip was spent with family, and sometimes that doesn’t go as smoothly as one would hope.  But at the end of the day, family is family, and again, life goes on. 

Physically, the trip had been harder on us than we had anticipated.  We were tired and we certainly could have gotten more exercise and  made better food choices while traveling.  The long days of driving, sightseeing, and visiting had taken a toll on our bodies and it has taken several days to begin feeling some energy.  There are more trips ahead of us and we need to pay heed to our health . . . if we are going to have a long life ahead!

We’d been good about building some “catch-up” time into our travel schedules but nothing quite prepares you for getting three+ weeks of mail delivered in one afternoon.  It takes time to sort through the junk, correspondence and bills.  There were chores to do . . . unpacking, laundry, house and yard work, groceries and we needed to prepare for houseguests who were arriving in a few days.  There’s always a lot to do and getting caught up makes everything feel like a priority.

Our days at home were full; both of us had medical & dental appointments scheduled and we had made commitments to family and friends.  We were busy, busy, but also our wanderlust had been tapped again.  Three days after coming home we looked at one another and admitted to being a bit bored with the routine of daily life.  Five days after coming home I woke up and told Bob “let’s get out of here” so we took a day trip to Walla Walla, one of our favorite communities an hour down the road.

It has taken us some time every day to get caught up on the blog posts and our photos.  We’ve been discussing whether traveling while retired qualifies as being on vacation.  It seemed like a vacation because we were not home and yet we didn’t have a job and routine to return to.  This road trip was now a part of our daily life and there would be two more big trips over the next three months.  There is lots of adventure to look forward to!  Thanks for traveling with us.