Meeting Mona

I bet you have been wondering what I've been up to the last few months.  OK, you haven't been.... but I'm going to tell you anyway.  I've met a lady.  She lives and works in Sand Point, ID.  Raised her son and daughter north of Bonner's Ferry, just 6 miles from the boarder.  Her name is Mona and she is of Korean decent.  

I know your wondering how we met.  On Match.com.  Actually she found me.  I had pretty much given up on the whole internet dating thing for a while when I got her email.  Unfortunately, I wasn't too quick on responding so she emailed again to get closure.  We have really hit it off and have pretty much been together most of our free moments.  Hence I haven't been blogging much.

We took a short camping trip to Kootenay Lake just north of where she lived in Bonner's Ferry.  It was spring with all the kids still in school so we pretty much had the whole area to ourselves.

Canada has several free ferries to cross rivers and lakes.  The one on Kootenay Lake is the longest.

That trip went very well.  We had some fun at the boarder crossing.  A good friend of Mona's works for Homeland Security and we lucked out since she was working when we crossed.  She was pretty shocked when Mona popped up from her chair with a high pitched "hi".  She didn't even know that Mona was dating!  She kept her cool and was very professional, although we all have been laughing about it ever since.

The first trip went so well that we took another one a few weeks later to Yachats on the Oregon Coast.

One of  my favorite hikes in the area is called the Amanda Trail.  It is named after a native american woman who had a rather tragic life.  Close to the beginning of the trail is the statue of Amanda.  The locals come hike to it on special occasions and decorate her.  This is the first time I've seen her dressed up.

Mona and Amenda

Waldport, the town just north of Yachats, was having their annual parade.  Captain Jack showed up so we had to get a picture.  This guy was really good!  He had the talk and swagger just like on the films.

 Part of the parade was classic cars.  My kids are always asking me what I want for Christmas, Birthdays, Father's day, and I keep saying a 56 chev like this one but in two tone blue.  Since they are so expensive now, $40,000+ for a good one, one of the kids is going to have the win the lottery before I get one.

  

Heceta Head Lighthouse

Mona has been such a trooper.  I always have taken my motorcycle to get around on trips.  Even though Mona has never been on a motorcycle she has been willing to put aside her fears and ride the bike to get to activities.  One of our trips was to the Heceta Head Lighthouse.  The weather was great and one top of that they were offering tours into the lighthouse.  It was great fun.

 More lighthouse pics

Oregon has lots of covered bridges.  This one is a short ride up the Yachats River.

We just completed several activities over the 4th of July.  Mona just switched to working 3 days a week before we met which means we have 4 day weekends to play when we are both can.  I'll blog next on our July 4th weekend.