WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!

So you're probably wondering... all three readers....where I have been. Or, you probably don't because you know me in real life and know exactly what I've been up to.

But for those who don't...

Let's start with where we left off... Yellowstone. We had such an amazing time. From there, we spent the night with two family friends who have a beautiful house in Missoula, MT. (The picture is their view of the Clark River!) Even though it was a year and a half ago, I still remember the delicious salmon for dinner and the scrumptious Russian creme for dessert!

We drove across the Idaho panhandle the next day and stopped for some dinner at Coeur d'Alene. There, we solved the mystery of where Santa goes when he's not working at the North Pole. We had to be stealth about it so Mickey's shoulder is taking up most of the picture. This is the only picture we took in Coeur d'Alene.

Then, into Washington! We both agreed we were surprised at the landscapes around us east of the Cascades. We drove through rolling wheat fields to a campground at the banks of the Columbia River. Our BEST camping experience to date! It was so warm and dry that we didn't need our rain fly! (Much different from our Wisconsin experience!) We kept on chugging west until Seattle. We stayed with another set of family friends (Mickey's family is super popular) and we got a fly-by tour of the city courtesy of Michael, our host. We also set out on our own in the beginning of the evening, our first stop being--where else--Pike Place Market. We saw the guys catching the fish and everything.

Seattle was a cool town. So hilly! And very sunny when we were there!

The next day, we drove up to Anacortes for the ferry to the San Juan Islands. On the way, Robert popped out of fifth gear. Uh oh. We got an estimate at a garage in town and they said $1200. Yikes! Mickey and I both telepathically agreed to protest this, ignore the estimate and proceed to the ferry and escape our problem.

Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands was an amazing highlight of our trip. We stayed with MORE of Mickey's family friends! They bought an old farm house and are in the process of renovating it. It's in an old orchard and the plums that we had were unlike any plums I'd ever tasted. Our hosts, Terrilyn and Will, showed us an amazing time. We went to an alpaca farm, had life-improving fish and chips, ate honey-lavender ice cream and got to see the Orca park. (But, alas, no orcas!)

We had to press on and Friday Harbor was hard to leave. We drove down (South! We'd made a big left turn! No more West!) to Oregon that evening (holding Robert in fifth gear the whole way. Ugh.) and stopped at the Rogue Brewery! Believe me, with Robert issues, we needed a beer. OR three.
We camped that night at an Oregon State park by the ocean. We had gotten there after dark (we'd switched over from the 5 to the 101 because we'd given up on fifth gear). As we set up our gear, a strange noise echoed in the distance. We were so tired and angry with Robert that we just went to bed and paid no attention. The noise continued through the night. Upon waking, we had to figure out what the heck was going on. We asked the ranger and she said it was a SEA LION PARK! Well, we had to see this. And you need to, too.


So our Oregon adventure continued on to Portland for a quick overnight stay with Mickey's cousin, Shawn. Portland was great! Even hippier than Seattle! We really only spent the night but this is definitely on my return list!

From there, we made it to CALIFORNIA! Yay! Even though our best camping experience was in Washington, our most beautiful has to be the Redwood Forest camping night we had in CA. I swear, I thought I was going to wake up with Ewoks....So I'll stop here for now. Our story of Robert's demise is one for a full blog. There were much tears and even some new-found friendships because of it! Be back soon!

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