The day started with a visit to the Washington capitol in Olympia. It was a traditional capitol with a Tiffany chandelier in the rotunda. The seal is a large relief of George Washington. From the capitol we went to Karpeles in Tacoma. There are 8 different locations and they specialize in original manuscripts. We just missed Einstein's original E=MC. The current exhibit was ancient maps including some of the original maps from the new world and original maps from the Ottoman Empire. Very interesting to see how they changed as empires expanded and more was learned about the new world. [View Full Entry]

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After a restful night at the Best Western at Agate Beach we started the day with a tour the Oregon Coast Aquarium. I touched sea stars and we walked through a 200 foot underwater tunnel with 3 different habitats. The seals were getting fed and the otters quickly became my new favorite animal. They way the lazily swim around on their back made me envious I wasn't in the water with them. Time for lunch and we finally got to eat at Mo's. There are several and we chose the original with the garage door where some lady drove through the [View Full Entry]

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After an hour at Acura of Portland, Sam and his technician informed us the adaptive cruise control was working fine even though they had no idea why it had not been. None the less, they assured us we would be able to tail gate safely across the great Northwest. Seeking serenity, we headed for some the oriental calm of the Japanese Garden at Washington Park. And it was serene. Feeling at one with nature, we strolled across the tennis courts to the International Rose Test Garden and enjoyed the sight and smell of thousands of roses in full bloom. Having nurtured [View Full Entry]

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After spending the night in La Grand, Oregon we learned that you cannot pump your own gas in Oregon. I was surprised to be as outraged that the attendant insisted on pumping the gas and cleaning the windshield now as I was that he would no longer do just that 30 years ago. With a full tank of gas and fresh big drinks, we headed for Portland traveling through Pendleton and down the Columbia River Gorge. The first stop was at the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute. I had picked up a brochure at the hotel and as we were passing it I [View Full Entry]

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Our first stop this morning was to the Idaho State Capitol Building. It is under major renovations so we weren't able to go in it. Its a fairly typical looking capitol building. Guess we'll have to come back in 2010 to see the chambers. Then we headed to Baker City to see the Oregon Trail Interpretation Center. Baker City is a very old gold rush town with lots of historical buildings downtown. The Interpretation Center is out of town about 3 miles on a hill overlooking ruts left from the Oregon Trail. It was interesting to see what these settlers put [View Full Entry]

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Today we headed out to the Golden Spike National Park where the west and east railroads met. Then we took a gravel road for 15 miles (much to Rodney's chagrin) to see the Spiral Jetty. Its one of the few works of art visible from space. After walking a long time out the wrong jetty into the Great Salt Lake we finally found the right one and it was very impressive. This took a lot longer than I had expected but not Rodney. He knew it was going to be a while driving down a gravel road. We finally got on [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Salt Lake City around 11 and went straight to the Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park. The area was very nice and we enjoyed the aviary with lots of different birds. Then we proceded to the Museum of Natural History on the campus of University of Utah. The book we are listening to has a creature called a dire wolf and we saw it's skeleton. Hungry we found The Market Grill. The inside reminded me of a viking ship and the appetizer we had was watermelon drizzled with balsamic vineger topped with basil and goat cheese. Tasted a whole [View Full Entry]

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We arrived July 4 in Green River in time for dinner. The drive from Ruidoso was beautiful, especially after we left Albuquerque. We drove through the Zia, Jicarilla and Navajo reservations. There was very little traffic and the total drive of 623 miles took about 10 hours. We spent the day in the native territory of the Roadrunner with lots of mesas, bluffs, and butts. Our route took us by Monument Valley, the quintessential Western backdrop but we didn't see John Wayne. [View Full Entry]

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We arrived on July 28 bringing in rain with us. The area had been under a drought and had closed the Lincoln National Forest. We were relieved to hear it was opening on July2. Linda, Paul, Rocky and Tribble joined us on July 2 very early in the morning. Paul's parents, Julie and Derek arrived on July 3. Maggie and Rosie are staying with Linda and Paul. It was a big decision for us but its hard to travel in the summer with dogs. I'm sure they will have a lot of fun with Rocky and Tribble and learn a lot [View Full Entry]

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We are starting of on Rodney's Retirement Trip. But first things first. Rodney had the forth flat tire in the morning we were going to leave on his new run flat tires in 3 months. The people at Sterling Acura were nice enough to put on new tires and rims so we could leave on our trip. We plan to spend a week in Ruidoso and then head up to Canada via Boise, Salem, and Olympia. In our travels we have visited 45 state capitols and this should add 3 more with Juneau and Honolulu left. We had hoped to get [View Full Entry]

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