painting on the road

I have been doing a little painting while we have been travelling these last few weeks. The first painting is from a photo I took some time ago. I hope folks who were with us on the Baja trip recognize these fellows in the second photo. They were a common site all over Los Barriles. The coffee sign was on the back wall of a wonderful restaurant in the little village of El Triunfo. I have also been reading a lot... what a life! We cut our stay in Cultus Lake short and have retured to Birch Bay. Tomorrow we head back to Puyallup for a short stay. I did a couple of 'backgrounds' for paintings today, as well as the cattle painting. Hope they will inspire me to keep at it. Meanwhile... happy trails....

Seeing BC

Today we took a drive to Harrison Hot Springs, BC. Beautiful day. We had lunch in a cafe on the street that faces the lake. Lots of folks were on the beach, walking the street or checking out the little shops. Not many boats on the lake and just a few signs of snow on the highst, most far mountains in the distance. Fall is in the air a little here though. We notice a few trees beginning to take on color and the air is just a little fresher here. This TT park is full and very busy. I had photos of the luau and dinner that were put on Sat., but internet is slow so will not get them up. Tomorrow we will try the very nice short 18 hold course right next to the entrance to the park. They have a one price/all day fee that is reasonable and we are going to see how we do! Great to have some sunshine and blue skies. Happy trails....

La Conner/Birch Bay 8/12/10

Our friends in Casa Grande will recognize the name on this farm... however, it does not belong to our good friends Marge and Bub Schuh, who live in Illinois. It is a farm outside of Mt. Vernon WA where we stopped and bought blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. I took photos of the garden, flowers and pumpkin patch, and we enjoyed peach cobbler ice cream, made right there at the farm. My third photo is of our camping site at La Conner, which is a heavily wooded Thousand Trails perserve. The last photo is of our current site in Birch Bay. You can see how diverse the perserves are. The sun has come out at last and it is beautiful here. When the tide goes out, it goes out a LONG way! There is a daytime state park here with a long beach line with many tables along the beach. We checked it out on Friday and the road was full of cars, families picnicing, kids playing, flying kites and digging in the sand. Boats were out in the shallow water (wind and waves a little rough though) and folks were also tending crab pots. Many boats were stranded in the sand however, due to the low tide. We almost made a trip into Canada without our passports, when looking for the closest Walmart. Fortunately we turned around just before hitting the last turn to the border! Roger is loving his new GPS so a road trip anywhere and he's ready. We will be here until Thurs., when we head to Canada and TT Cultus Lake perserve - with our passports in hand! Hope you are enjoying the great weather .... Happy trails....

Kayaking La Conner 8/3/10

We arrived at the La Conner Thousand Trails perserve on 8/2/10, meeting up with Baja Buddies Ronda Evans and Bruce McComb. We were fortunate to get a site right next to them, so getting together for plans or a meal is easy as pie. Bruce and Ronda have a two seater (tandem) kayak which they had taken out in the Sound a couple of times before we arrived. They were our leaders in our first venture out into the sea, going about 1/2 mile over to the island ( don't know it's name). You can see in the first photo we are looking back at the beach and launch site we started from. We had a great lunch, saw an eagle nearby in the fir trees and took in the view. While Bruce and Ronda paddled on after lunch, Roger and I headed back to our launch site at the park. We had a little breeze, kelp and waves to deal with, but we made it back just fine. I confess I am not any where near as strong as Roger and Bruce, so it took me a bit to make my way, but it was a grand adventure. Yesterday Ronda and I took a girls day and went into La Conner to see all the shops, art, and waterfront. We topped the day off with ice cream cones! Weather was perfect and it was not too crowded with those 'tourist'! We hope to take in the Arts Fair in Anacortes on Friday. This perserve is fairly large, well wooded, and has quite a bit of waterfront footage. We are in the circle with full hookups so we have it very nice. The only drawback is little tv coverage and no cell coverage at all in the park. However, we do have wifi in the lodge here so we can stay 'connected'. Hope you are 'connected' too! Happy trails....

July Events

The family got together on July 8th to celebrate Roger's 70th birthday... Mexican restaurant in Enumclaw. Not all of the Enumclaw group could make it, Ryan working, older kids had soccer, but the rest of us enjoyed good food, "Happy Birthday" in Spanish by the crew in restaurant and an English version too. Senor Koehn took it all in stride. Later in the month we visited our 'Baja Buddies" Danny and Linda Peterson at their place in Naselle WA. We ooh'd and awwww'd each other's boats and bragged about how we would really paddle ourselves all over the Sea of Cortez! We took a side trip to Astoria, just across the Columbia River for lunch one day and a trip to Costco. I got a little Acer notebook so I can cruise the internet at the same time Roger does. After this visit we spent the rest of the month in Puyallup taking care of coach business and getting in a few rounds of golf. Next on our agenda, is moving north to the La Conner Thousand Trails park (where I am currently writing this page). More photos to come. Hope you are having a good time too.
Happy trails.....