Thanksgiving at the Martin's

Shannon and Christian did a fantastic job of hosting the family for Thanksgiving Dinner. Everyone brought their best potluck dish and the food was soooo yummy. I was grateful to spend the holiday with so much family. All of the kids except Christine and half of the grandkids. We even stopped at my brother Arnie's on the way over and got to see Arnie, Jean, Garrison, Heather, McKenzie. Alta & Snoopy were there with Stacy, Chris and Lydia. I am all filled up with warm and happy family holiday memories.

Thanksgiving - more pictures

Take me to the sunshine! More Camp Hosting pictures

What a fun surprise. The weather has been very cold at night, mid 20s. But on Friday we woke up to several inches of beautiful white snow. My sister and her husband were visiting, so she made the rounds with us in the snow. Great time!

Camp Hosting at LL Stub Stewart Oregon State Park

Did you ever wonder what it is like to be a camp host in a state park? Read on.

We are planning to spend the winter in Tucson enjoying the sun and the fun community of RVers at Desert Trails. Before we go we needed more family & friend time around the Portland area. So we thought we would give camp hosting a try. We sent in the applications and had an offer right away. Since we were looking for a position in November near Portland, we didn't have to fight a crowd of volunteers. Not too many people want to spend a month in the woods in the NW in November. So far we have been lucky though. Today is our 11th day and more than half the time the weather has been relatively nice. Some sun, very cold, and not much rain. The weather forecast says that is about to change though.

The job is pretty easy. Mostly we hang reserved tags at camp sites and then clean up the sights when campers leave. Cleaning the sites involves raking the gravel, cleaning the ashes out of the fire rings, and picking up any trash that is left. Luckily most campers are very responsible and leave the sites in good shape. In the evenings we sell firewood. Other than that, it is mostly talking with campers and giving them information to enjoy their stay. The only real drawback is that for 5 days a week someone has to be on site.

We have been lucky that the weather has been lovely on our days off. The first week we made a day trip over to Nehalem Bay, Cannon Beach and Fort Stevens to check out campgrounds for next summer. It was blue sky and sunny with no wind and we took several short walks and one nice long one. Most days in between chores, we walk the trails in the park. Stub Stewart has over 20 miles of trails, both paved and dirt. All the trails are multi use (hike, bike, horses). There is a beautiful horse camp here and two Frisbee golf courses. The park is less than 5 years old and the facilities are beautiful. Full hookups in all the RV sites, plus nice meeting rooms for groups. But come on a dry day because the fun is outside.

In May & June of 2012, we have another camp host job at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend. During that time, Benny will be going to the State tennis playoffs and graduates from high school so we had to be around to cheer him on. The job at Fort Worden is working in the Coast Artillery Museum. We will take admission, sell gift shop items, answer questions, and do research. It will be quite different from the Stub Stewart work and fun in its own way. We are at the museum 14 hours a week each and the rest of the time is our own which will mean more freedom to spend time with LeAnne and Benny. It will be fun to compare after the two assignments.

So far we like camp hosting. It gives us something to do for a couple hours a day, sometimes more. The other camp hosts are a lot of fun and we have even had a party already. I found a buddy to do yoga with and both John and I are getting lots of exercise between hiking and the work in the camp sites. Come see us, this is a great park!

Catching up in Vancouver

We left Port Townsend on a beautiful day and stopped to have lunch with Bob and Bergetta who we haven't seen in far too long. Then we had a terrific time at Alta (sister) & Snoopy's home in Centralia. Both girls and all the grandkids stopped by for a short visit. Dick came up for dinner so it was a fun sibling evening. The next morning Alta and I had a great sister walk and talk followed by burgers out with the guys.

This trip to Vancouver/Portland we decided to try a new RV park. The park we have stayed in before is clean and convenient but not much fun for an extended stay as it is basically a parking lot behind the Toyota dealership. Our new favorite place is the Columbia River RV Park on Marine Drive, right across the street from the river and just a short way from a great bike/walking trail. The spaces are big with grass and lights. It even has a rec room and an exercise room which is great on rainy days. It is centrally located for visiting family and friends in the area.

What a fun week we had catching up. We spent lots of time with Shannon, Chris, and Izzy just hanging out and seeing how fast a 7 month old changes. She is super cute and has a big smile for Nana every time I see her. We got to spend a little time with Erik, Arnie, Jean, Del, Joyce, Sue, Trina, Bonny, Kirsten, and Cline before heading out to Stub Stewart for our November Camp Host volunteer job. The best part of which is that it is less than an hour drive into town. More Izzy time!

More Pictures from Port Townsend

Wonderful Washington

What a great time we are having back in Washington with family and friends. So busy that I have neglected my blogging and haven't even loaded up any pictures to post. I will rectify that when we get to our camp host job in November and have full wifi service.

The short version of the last month is that we have caught up with Kirstin & Cline, Annemarie & Cindy, Doug & Diane, Kathy & Bill, Jan & Lonnie, Jan & Bill, Diana, Rose, Dave & Rhonda, Rich & Twyla, Deborah & Mary, Chris & Tom, Madonna & Matt, and others that I have probably neglected to post here.

Mostly we have been in Port Townsend with LeAnne & Benny. It has been so wonderful to watch Benny's High School tennis, especially when he and his doubles partner, Egan won the sub-district tournament!!!! Go Benny and Egan. Lots of dinners, walks, tennis, shopping and just hanging out has been the best. LeAnne has made beautiful updates to her home and yard that are fun to see. Her new patio is spectacular. And we got so lucky on the weather this year. Last year we were in Port Townsend for the month of September and hardly saw the sun due to clouds fog and rain. This year it was glorious. Days and days of clear blue skies, cold and clear with beautiful fall color everywhere. Amazing!

When we got to Port Townsend, Chris, Shannon and Izzy came for a long weekend and we all had a blast. Nana, Auntie Anne, and Grandpa had a night with Izzy so Mama and Papa could have a dinner and movie date night. We also went to the Saturday Market and had some great meals at LeAnne's. Izzy got to know her Auntie and we all had fun family time.

While we were at Fort Worden, we got a new job..... volunteer job that is. Next May and June (2012) we will be volunteers at the Coast Artillery Museum at Fort Worden. We take admission, explain the museum to guests, sell gift shop items, and do research. This is Benny's senior year of high school and the District and State Tennis tournaments are in May. His graduation is in June and we will be here for all of it. Our last hurrah with our oldest grandson while he is still at home.

Back in Washington. Hooray!!!!

After taking Shannon and Izzy to the West Glacier Airport, we continued on our drive home. Highway 2 along Flathead Lake is so beautiful. Off and on views of the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi and cute communities nestled in pine trees. Then through rolling hills of wheat. The last 30 miles from Plains, MT to St Regis MT (just at the Idaho border) was a state scenic byway and followed a river through the mountains. Just spectacular. And the little town of St Regis is very cute and has a nice RV park.

Next day we headed for Spokane which meant three states in one morning; Montana, Idaho (panhandle) and Washington. We had planned to stop and sight see in Spokane and ride their bike path but an ugly dust storm blew through so we just kept going. Arrived at Lincoln Rock State Park, just outside of Wenatchee for our first night back home in good old Washington. Yea! of course it rained the first day but what else would you expect.

We plan to spend a couple days in the area and visit with our friends Kirsten and Cline in Leavenworth before heading to Brier on Thursday. So excited to see family and friends. By the time we are back home we will have been gone exactly a year since we pulled away in the coach. Fortunately we had trips home to celebrate new babies and 50th wedding anniversaries. It is true, home is where the heart is.

We had a "grand" time with Izzy

Hidden Lake trail on the Continental Divide

Lake McDonald with an 84 year old ranger

Too much fun at Glacier with Shannon & Izzy

The week at Glacier National Park with Shannon and Izzy was crazy, hectic, and fun. Some or all of us drove most of the Going to the Sun Road, hiked the Trail of Cedars, Stanton Lake, and the Hidden Lake trail at Logan Pass. Had a beautiful cruise on Lake McDonald with a very informative park ranger. Checked out Whitefish which Budget Travel says is one of the "10 coolest small towns in America". But I think the highlight for Shannon and John was seeing a herd of mountain goats and a hoary marmot along the trail to Hidden Lake. The highlight for me was spending time with the girls, especially our hike to Stanton Lake. Too hectic to write much so as they say "the pictures are worth a thousand words".

Scoping out Glacier before Shannon & Izzy Arrive

Glacier is more than a days drive from Fort Peck, so we made another long drive and arrived in Cut Bank, MT late afternoon. Cut Bank is still in the flat plains part of Montana, about an hour from the eastern edge of Glacier National Park. The Riverview campground was pretty nice so we decided to stay two nights to catch up on internet and also see parts of eastern Glacier NP that we likely won't get to with Shannon and Izzy (S&I). We are on a mesa above the Cut Bank River and there was a nice walk along an old road down to the river the first night. Good stop over spot.

The next day we drove to the St Mary Lake Visitor Center to check it out and also find out about a good hike in the Many Glacier area of the park. They have an interesting video on the history of the Going to the Sun Road that was built in the 1930s and the work they are doing to restore the historical road. Then on to the Many Glacier area which is fantastic. It was a really windy day so we ate our picnic lunch in the car overlooking Shelburne Lake and the majectic Rocky Mountain Front Range with many glaciers (hence the name of the area ;-)) Just awe inspiring! Then a pretty hike to Red Rock Lake and Red Rock Falls. On the way back there was a wildlife jam on the trail. That is where lots of people are all stopped looking into the distance and you just know they have spotted some interesting wildlife. This time it was three grizzly bears, a long distance away across the valley up on a high meadow. Exactly where you would want to spot three grizzly bears on a hike. I was able to see one with the binoculars but the others were hiding in the trees by the time I got there. Very Fun.

Next we took a very pretty drive up a winding road overlooking Two Medicine Lakes. We took a short hike in the Medicine Lake area to a lovely waterfall that comes right out of a hole in the mountain. Of course on all our hikes I am making noise like mad to scare the bears away before we come around a corner.

The lakes in the park looked very low with much of the shoreline about 20% low. All of the national park has been affected by climate change. There is no mistaking how low the lakes are and how small the glaciers are compared to 20 years ago. We can even tell the difference from when we were here less than 10 years ago. The projection is that there won't be any glaciers left in the park by 2010. What a loss.\

Fort Peck in eastern Montana

Left the south unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and headed to the north unit. They have had unusual amounts of rain this year and more than half of the scenic drive in the north unit is closed due to road damage. The Badlands experience a process called 'slumping' which means that whole portions of a mesa will just 'slump' off leaving a whole in the mesa and a corresponding hill at the bottom. As you might expect, this is tough on roads. So we explored the part of the scenic drive and checked out the visitor center and video. The weather was forecasted in the 30s at night so we decided we wouldn't dry camp. It was time to head on to Montana. The drive through eastern Montana is flat flat flat but scenic in its own way. We were near the Missouri River the entire drive but only saw it in Williston where there is a big reservoir. Mostly we signs of a huge new boom in oil and natural gas production. There were wells and natural gas burn off fires all along highway 2. The owner of one of the campgrounds we stayed at said there was enough natural gas found recently for the US supply for hundreds of years. It is truly a boom town, there are trailers and prefab housing everywhere.

After a very long day of driving we finally got to Fort Peck, MT. There is a beautiful Corp of Engineer campground there called Downstream Campground. It sits at the base of one of the largest earthen dams in the world, right on the downstream river with huge cottonwood trees everywhere. The sites are huge and level, the facilities are a bit old but in spotless condition and all for $9 per night. We loved this campground.

There is a terrific interpretive center with history of the dam which was built as one of the first Roosevelt New Deal projects in the 1930s. The area is also home to the first full skeleton T-Rex fossil (found 20 miles from the dam) and many other significant finds of period fossils. The museum has two reconstructed full body T-Rex skeletons plus one T-Rex that has been finished to estimate what it would have looked like alive. Additionally, there were at least a dozen other dinosaur and sea creatures from the period. It was a terrific museum and worth a stop on its own. There is a road across the dam that you are able to drive on with nice views of the reservoir. The reservoir is 134 miles long and has more coastline than the state of California. The scope of this project is huge and hard to envision on the flat eastern Montana landscape with the famous big sky. We thoroughly enjoyed a couple days here. It was just supposed to be a short stop between T. Roosevelt NP and Glacier NP but turned into a fascinating stay.