Happy Labor Day from Yellowstone

In the beginning of August, we left the beautiful state of Oregon and entered into the beautiful state of Washington.  Unfortunately, a good  deal of the time we were there the state was overcome by wildfires and because of the smoke and the limited visibility that it caused we weren’t able to see as much as we would have liked, but we will see more of it soon……..more on that later. We did however, get to spend time with our daughter Carly and her family.  We also stayed at Carly and Randy’s home while they were in Texas for work and a family visit. We pug sat and enjoyed our time living in a house for two weeks and of course, spending time with our sweet pea McKenna.

After Carly and Randy’s return to Seattle we spent a nice weekend in the lovely town of Bellingham, a couple of hours north of Seattle. In Seattle, we met up with my cousin Michelle, and her family, who were visiting from Dallas.  While in Seattle we took advantage of being in a city and kicked off our hiking boots in search of city life. Of course we visited the famous Pikes Market and the Space Needle. It was great to be walking the city streets and feeling the energy that a city like Seattle offers.

Dallas Family

Amazon Spheres

Pikes Market

Pikes Market

Space Needle

Pikes Market

During our stay in Seattle we took the ferry up to the Olympic Peninsula and went to the small town of Port Townsend and visited the Northwest school of wooden boat building.  The school is one of a few in the States that build wooden boats. Jeff poked around a little and by the time we left that day, he had managed to get a volunteer position at the school and also a position at the Wooden Boat Education Center.  After some discussion we decided that we would spend the winter in Port Townsend and that Jeff will be enhancing his craft of wooden boat building. For those of you that don’t know Jeff built his own wooden boat in our garage over a 3 year period. It’s a great opportunity for him and we will both enjoy living near the Olympic Peninsula which is on the Pacific Ocean and just 30 minutes from Olympic National Park.  Another benefit is that we will be 2 hours from Carly and her family who will be expecting their second baby in January.

Below are a few few pictures of Jeff’s boat.

Seattle Wooden Boat Museum

The Boat

The Boat

The Boat

The Boat

We were excited about coming back to Ann Arbor in November, but this is really a great opportunity to live in another part of the country and enjoy life on the ocean.  We are planning to stay in Washington until the first of April.

From Bellingham Washington, we moved into Idaho and then onto Montana and spent a few days in Missoula.  Missoula is a nice college town and truly made us feel like we were in the West. We spent a few days exploring the town, doing some hiking and visiting the National Bison Range.  You can feel fall coming on fast here in the West, the nights are cool but the days are sunny and warm.

From Missoula we headed to Yellowstone which is where we are currently.  The park is busy for Labor Day weekend.  During our trips into the park we have seen a lot of wildlife and have done some nice hiking.  We are in Grizzly country and are a little concerned with that, but we carry bear spray and have yet to see any signs.  We have seen numerous bison, elk, eagles, swans, and antelope. Today we are letting all the early visitors head into the park and will head out early evening in search of the illusive grizzly and possibly wolves.  We will be here for two more days and then will head to the Grand Tetons for a 5 day stay.

Below is a slide show of a few of the photos we have acquired in the last few days. Enjoy what our parks have to offer.

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I can’t say enough about our National Park system.  We have been to several during our trip and each one is more spectacular than the last.  If given the opportunity, I would recommend taking a vacation to a National Park!!

Wishing you all a happy fall!!

 

Erin, Jeff………and Ola!