Got My Name in the Paper!

...and not for a traffic citation. Click here and scroll down to near the end of the article to find my name - but don't believe the "incredibly" part!

Roadside America & Rusty People & Animals

In and near Raymond, WA, we enjoyed seeing the town's unique metal sculptures, and above is a photo Jen took near Raymond's Dairy Queen. (Oyster burgers are a specialty at this Dairy Queen according to its reader!) Online, is a fun site with info on these metal sculptures and oodles of other unique roadside tourist attractions across the US that you'll enjoy browsing: RoadsideAmerica.com

Watch for Smart Cars in Seattle

According to Seattle Times columnist Nicole Brodeur's article http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/
vortex/display?slug=brodeur04m&date=20070904&query=smart+car in January we should be seeing a lot of Smart Cars! Above is the photo I took of the first Smart Car that I saw - which happened to be in Baden Baden, Germany in 2003. (Baden means "bath," and that's where Dave and I and some of our tour cohorts had our nude spa experience.) When I spotted this car not too far from our hotel, I had to get a photo, and conveniently the owner came out of that drugstore to smile and proudly pose for me - while Dave was letting me know that our tour bus was ready to pull out.

Buckley From Mt. Peak's Peak

Yup - we made it to the top of Mt. Peak (aka Mt. Pete and Pinnacle Peak) where there are views of Enumclaw, Buckley, White River and, of course, Mt. Rainier. This was our fourth trip and we plan to go back and investigate some of the side trails. Our first trip up (because we didn't know any better) was the "almost straight-up. one-mile front trail with 1,ooo ft. elevation gain"! That took us well over an hour because we had to stop many times to ease our panting. This was after a guy at the trail head told us it took about 25 minutes to get to the top! Well, our last two trips have been up the back trail which is a somewhat gentler 1 1/2 miles! Woo-hoo!

Lighthouse at Long Beach, WA

Our family - Dave, me, Laura, Bryan, Kara, Justin, Rod, Ivana, and Jen (Patrick and Dustin were there in spirit!) celebrated Dave's birthday and enjoyed a late August weekend in Long Beach, WA. One of the really fun things we did was tour this North Head lighthouse. Our cameras were put to good use, and this arty photo is by Jen.

Angela & Matt's Wedding Dance

Angela's wedding reception in Iowa City was held at Old Brick, a former church, across the street from the apartment house (still standing, but needs paint) where Dave and I first met in 1961.