Acclimation and Move! Since we arrived, the weather has been fabulous every single day---cool in the mornings, sunny and 70's to 80's every day, and light until nearly 10PM. We went downtown by Pike Place Market, and had lunch outdoors at Elliott's--finally, great, fresh, colorful, delicious food and warm, crusty bread here in Seattle (I had a sandwich with salmon and salad, Rusty had a taco)! We have been exploring our new neighborhood (Laurelhurst)---one of the first places we went of course was the grocery store. Grocery stores are different in Seattle--they all sell wine, an [View Full Entry]

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Moses Lake WA to Seattle Final day of traveling was only half day! We visited Blue Heron Park in Moses Lake with the hounds. The landscape is desert-like, but on a nice man-made lake. I was surprised that eastern Washington state is so dry! We drove through mid-Washington, crossed the Columbia River, stopped for pics of the view, and then drove past many farms and field of hay, onions, wheat, potato, and alfalfa. We took the Snoqualmie Pass, and the landscape changed to tall, tall pine trees. Then we started to see the signs for Seattle (nickname "Emerald City") and we [View Full Entry]

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Drive from Montana to Moses Lake WA! Day 8 Had great drive over passes from Livingston MT, through Coeur d'Alene ID, Spokane and to Moses Lake WA. Stopped for hound run in Montana near Clark Fork River along 90! Rivers moving fast. Fortunately hounds know how to swim! Mainly a driving day from Livingston MT to Moses Lake WA. We stopped in Bozeman MT (home of Montana State Univ) for a nice city park with a fenced in dog park by a pond. The mountains in the distance were snow capped and craggy. Then we headed back to I-90 and drove [View Full Entry]

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Critters in Park Here are a few animals that we managed to get pictures of in Yellowstone. We saw coyotes, pelican, osprey and many buffaloes. The hounds were excited! See text in previous blog! [View Full Entry]

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Geysers at end of day Here is a link to map of park! Pictures from West thumb, Grant village, Old Faithful and road to Madison. http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/interactivemap/index.htm See last pic! [View Full Entry]

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YELLOWSTONE Spent a long day in Yellowstone and are now back in Montana! We went to Yellowstone National Park. We drove through Red Lodge MT, found a city park and a national forest for C and B to romp in a river. Then we took a scenic drive (Bear Tooth Pass) up, up and over the mountain. At the top, there are glaciers, snow, and a spectacular view. It was windy, clear and cool at 10,000 ft plus. We arrived at Yellowstone's NE entrance, paid the $25 entrance fee (good for a week at both Yellowstone and Grand Tetons to the [View Full Entry]

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Wyoming to Montana transit From Black Hills went to Deadwood and Lead WY near Sturgis! Then traveled for several hours through eastern Wyoming into southern Montana heading west during thunderstorms. Snow covered real mountains in background! Tomorrow Yellowstone! [View Full Entry]

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Black Hills SD and Mt. Rushmore Day 6: Rapid City SD to Columbus MT. We had breakfast at Arnold's, a 50's diner in SD where the waitresses wear pink poodle skirts, and headed for the Black Hills National Forest. It's beautiful! Tall ponderosa pines, and winding mountain roads framed by perfectly clear blue sky. We stopped to let Cleo and Bandit have a run in the pine scented forest, and then we visited Mt. Rushmore. Mt Rushmore is very impressive up close--where else in the world has a sculpture been carved out of a mountain?? It is a monument for the [View Full Entry]

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Badlands Great additional diversion off main road! Highly recommended! [View Full Entry]

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Luverne, MN to Rapid City, SD via Badlands Day 5 of our trip: Good dogs visit the Badlands! We crossed the border to South Dakota, and left the Midwest. A sign said "Welcome to South Dakota, watch out for jackrabbits." South Dakota is full of rolling hills, lots of cows, fields of bales of hay and a western aura--cowboy country. We stopped in Sioux Falls SD. They have a nice downtown sculpture display; otherwise, SF SD is pretty quiet--the Visitor's Center was closed on Saturday! We found a leash free dog park for Cleo and Bandit, and they ran along [View Full Entry]

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