Miscellaneous 2019 Spring and Summer Activities

The following is a few random activities that we've been doing this spring and summer. There is no particular order.

 Mila and I drew each other for the annual Easter egg toss in Tacoma this year. I think we came in third. Not bad considering that we were a team of one the oldest and one of the youngest individuals there.

 Hiawatha rail trail is just a short distance from my house, about 40 minutes. I tend to ride it fairly often. On one of the trips this year Mona and I rode with my daughter Teresa, her husband John, and there almost three-year-old son Canaan. The first part of the trail is a ride through a almost 2-mile tunnel.

 It's really dark in in the tunnel and was especially muddy this year. Canaan was riding in the trailer and was complaining early on about getting wet. Towards the end his complaining had risen to a almost tantrum level. No wonder, we had forgotten to put down his windshield on the trailer. All the way through the tunnel he was getting peppered with the mud coming off of John's rear tire. Can you imagine standing in front of a hose and getting sprayed with mud? That must have been what it was like.

 This is a picture of a wall at the beginning of one of the tunnels. I thought it was interesting with all the minerals leaching out of the concrete wall. It's a work of art.

 I'm trying to be artsy again. This is a picture at the end of one of the tunnels.

 The Hiawatha Trail is about 15 miles gently down hill.  At the bottom in the summer you can catch a shuttle bus that will take you back up to the top. If I'm by myself, I like to turn around at the 13 Mile point on top of this Trestle above Clear Creek. It makes for really good exercise riding back up.

 Another big event in our family was the birth of Baby James. He is the firstborn son of my niece Kate and her husband Kevin. James is named after his grandfather, Kate's father, who passed away a few years ago from cancer.

 Kevin is sure proud of his new son. He is going to make a great Daddy.

 One of Mona's very good friends is Delia Owens. She wrote the international bestseller "Where the Crawdads Sing". Her book has been on top of the New York Times bestseller list for pretty much all of the year. We attended one of her book readings in Coeur d'Alene. Unfortunately for us she moved back East to be with her family back there. She and Mona stay regularly in touch however. Delia honored Mona by naming her in her acknowledgements in the book.

 Every summer Sandpoint Idaho has their Festivals event. This year Jackson Browne was one of the keynote performers. During the concert Mona drug me past the security guards to the very front row. Have you noticed how several performers of our generation that their voices just aren't nearly as good as it used to be? That is not the case with Jackson Browne or James Taylor for that matter. I think both their voices are actually better now than were they when they were younger. At least I like them better now.

 When we were not doing other things I was laying down new flooring in my house. I just couldn't stand the old flooring in the great room part of the house. The previous owners must have installed it themselves as it was laid down wrong. Most people coming to the house didn't notice it right off but I always saw the flaws and it drove me crazy. Also, the carpets in the two bedrooms were shot and needed to be replaced. I have the kitchen floor to do yet but that's going to be a major task so I've been dragging my feet.

 For a few years now Mona and I have been talking about maybe getting a pop-up truck camper so we can go places where we can't take the big trailer. One night when the subject came up again we happen to notice on Craigslist one for sale that was near by. The camper was not the best quality but it was extremely well cared for and the price was low so we jumped on it. Since then we have used it several times.  We have camped in some incredible places where we never would have been able to get the trailer into, like this spot on the Clear Water River.

On one of the trips we drove part way down the Lolo Motorway. It's a good thing we had a four-wheel drive truck with a pop-up camper or we would have never made it as far as we did.

To relax the next day we hiked into the Jerry Johnson Hot Springs. It's about a mile long hike. We pretty much at the place to ourselves.

 On one of the trips we went up to the Davis Creek Campground in British Columbia. There we met up with some of our friends, Dave and Janet, and went on this great hike.  Dave called this hike a "Stroll".  It was about all Mona and I could do to keep up.  I hate to think what he considers a hike!

 This is the view from our campsite.

 One of the days while we were watching grandkids in Seattle we went up to look at the tulip fields in the Skagit River Delta. This picture is in La Conner Washington. Many years ago Gail and I had this hair-raising adventure at that first dock. I won't get into it now. Let's just say that smoke was coming up from Gail's hands has she tried to hold onto the boat as it started careening down the Channel with her four little children on it!. All ended well with the babysitter still on board bringing the boat, and our children, back to the dock.

 Our friends Russ and Jean, who live in Coeur d'Alene, told us about these weekly concerts they've been going to in one of the small parks in the city. We met up with them at the last concert. Unfortunately, Russ passed away a few weeks later unexpectedly. He was a great guy and is really missed