Friday, we traveled a different road, Route 2 into Washington, Lots of fruit trees near the Columbia River. Drove up into Stevens Pass, 4061 feet, snow and waterfalls. Down the other side of the pass and we discovered Leavenworth. A delightful Bavarian Village. Of course we had to stop, walk around and reminisce. We had wurst, kraut and German potato salad. It is a place we will have to visit again. Of course it will go on the bottom of the list since we have so many new places we want to see.

We arrived at Paige's brothers house in Snohomish at 3:30 and that evening we went to the Raging River Saloon to hear his band, the CD Woobury Band play. Great fun, great music.

Saturday, a second cold and rainy day, we headed to the Museum of Flight in Seattle with Don, Holly and Griffin, their son. It was a wonderful museum- too much to see in one afternoon.

Sunday, cold with some showers, We headed to Seattle Center with Don to spend time at the Folklife Festival, a three day event with amazing music, dance, singing and an Arts and Crafts show. There were many bands in a half dozen venues, lots of street performers from jugglers, musicians, belly dancers... crazy... also, food venders with ethnic foods from all over the world. We heard some great music, African, Brazilian, Middle East; saw a Chinese Dance troupe and lots of great drumming. People watching was just as fun as over 100,000 people attend each day. We saw some very interesting outfits, hair styles, and tattoos. People were zoned, stoned, doing yoga, meditating, wearing signs around their necks saying " free hugs"! It was wild.

Sunday, another day of showers. We said good by to Paige's brother's family and drove north and then on to Whidbey Island through part of Deception Pass State Park. Very Picturesque. At Fort Casey we took the 12:00 ferry over to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. After lunch we drove through part of the Olympic National Park where Dave got another stamp in his Park Passbook. We drove up Hurricane Ridge, very steep, windy, rainy and foggy. At the top there was a lot of snow and unfortunately it was too foggy to see much.

Tomorrow we get the ferry over to Victoria, Canada, where we will spend three nights. I am not sure what our internet capability will be from now on. We will try to update the blog as often as we can. Keep checking in for more adventures.

Yesterday was travel day. We drove over 600 miles through Montana and Idaho. Again beautiful scenery. Montana is ranch land, huge spreads. I can't imagine living where your closest neighbor is 20 to 30 miles away and going food shopping means driving over 75 miles. An East Coast mentality.

Near the border of Montana and Idaho is Look Out Pass, a windy road with Mountains on both sides of the highway. What is surprising is the tiny towns wedged between the Mountain and the road. I wonder where they work? Where do they shop? Very desolate, but amazing scenery.

We spent the night near Spokane WA. Today we head to Seattle where we will spend the weekend with Paige's brother Don and his family. Don is a drummer in a band and we are going to his gig tonight.

More adventures!

Wow! What a spectacular day. We started the morning driving through the Black Hills National Park. The rock formations were amazing. At Mount Rushmore we gazed upon the four Presidents in the morning sun; very impressive, we went through the visitor center and watched a film about how the were carved by Gutzon Borglum and a large crew of workers. It took 14 years.

Then we drove south to Custer State Park, a huge reserve for prairie wild life. Again beautiful scenery. We saw many deer, mountain sheep, ground hogs and lots of buffalo. We even had to stop the car for one standing in the middle of the road. We drove by a field full of hundreds of prairie dogs hopping in and out of their holes doing little flips. They are very hard to photograph.

Our next stop was Wind Cave National Park. Where we took an hour and a half tour 200 feet underground. This cave is the 4th longest in the world at this time. They have explored and mapped 131 miles of passage ways and geologists think that that is only 10% of the cave. Each year the park rangers are able to map another 6 miles. It was fascinating. This cave is unique because it was once an ocean and there are many fossils. The surface inside the cave is Boxwork, very rare. Google it to find out what that is.

By 3:30 we were making our way into Wyoming. Another change in landscape with more amazing scenery.

The land is very rugged with lots of red bluffs, many hills and canyons. It is ranch country with lots of black cattle dotting the hills. We went through a storm where we could see the lightening all around us. When the rain stopped and the sky cleared we could see the Big Horn Mountains snowcapped in the distance and there was a spectacular sunset in front of us and the moon behind us! Just a perfect day.

Before we left Mitchell, SD we had to check out

the world famous Corn Palace. Here it is folks, all made from corn and husks. We did not go inside, thought it might be a bit corny.

Then off to drive through the Badlands National Park. Just amazing scenery and rock formations.

We drove the Loop road, about 26 miles long.

We arrived in Rapid City mid afternoon and spent a couple of hours at a Subaru dealer to get our AC fixed. Then we toured the city. We made a stop at the Prairie Edge Trading Co. a huge three floor Native American Dept. Store that is like a museum. Lots of art, crafts, books , music, clothing and other Native items. A fun place. There is a lot of things you can do in this area, some tourist traps and others real natural gems. Tomorrow we will visit Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Park. Dave is taking full advantage of his "Gold Card" that gets us "seniors" into the Parks free.

Thought I might add that part of the fun of a driving adventure is the car snacks. We are on our second jar of peanuts.

Stay tuned

We had a great weekend at Jason and Jenny's with our Grand-girls. We all went to the zoo where Ava had a great time making all the sounds of the animals she saw. Her favorite part was two times on the Carousel. We also took them to the park and had lots of playtime.

We left Chicago this morning around 7:30 for the beginning of our Adventure to Alaska. We drove over 600 miles to Mitchell, South Dakota; home of the "world famous Corn Palace". Boy Minnesota sure is long and flat! It was very hot, 80's and our AC decided to be cranky. It was also very windy, 60 miles an hour gusts. We had a book on tape so that made the drive easier and it is always fun to watch the scenery of a new place as you drive along. We are now at our hotel and there is a sever thunderstorm and tornado warning " we are in a sturdy structure" and awaiting the storm. An Adventure!

Stay tuned

COUNT DOWN! We leave for our trip to Alaska on Thursday, May 20th. We have been planning this driving trip for over a year. We will spend the weekend in Chicago visiting Jason, Jenny and the Grand-girls. Then we will head to Seattle stopping at Rushmore, Bad Lands, Wind Cave and maybe other National Parks. Dave has his "Gold Pass" and is on a mission to see how many Parks he can tick off in the next 30 years.

So keep checking back on this blog to follow our trip.