Tags
camping, Hiawatha Bike Ride, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Northern Idaho, Trillium Lake, Wallace Idaho
I can’t believe it has been a year since I retired from my 9-5 job of 34 years! We have been so busy with camping adventures, a fun new photography outlet for me, visiting both my sisters in Washington and Boise, Idaho, and several creative projects along the way that I hardly have time to post to my blog it seems.
We had a scare earlier in the year when our sweet Izzi dog had to have surgery on a ruptured disc in her neck. It was a long recovery for her and we have had to make several changes in what she can and can’t do (jumping on and off furniture, and running up and down our steep farmhouse steps). I bought an airline carrier so I can carry her up and down our stairs so she can still sleep in our room at night, and she is slowly understanding she must wait for me to pick her up and put her on the couch next to me. She is back to her cute lively little self now which is such a blessing!
I am now doing real estate photography for residential listings and am loving it. It has been quite the learning process as it is so different from landscape and floral photography which has been my preference in the past. I still have my Etsy site for custom pet portraits and my listing on the Portland Calligraphy website, so these keep me busy too.
Steve, Izzi and I took a nice two-week camping trip in Northern Idaho in late July. We went on the Hiawatha bike ride again, then spent several days checking out the historic town of Wallace which we both enjoyed so much. We stayed at campgrounds near the Wallace area most of the two weeks, enjoying a cruise on Coeur d’Alene Lake, rode the Kellogg gondola, drove up to Sandpoint, and enjoyed a lot of relaxing and biking. We ended the vacation camping on Mt. Hood near Trillium Lake with our daughter Kym and her husband, Adrian. The weather was absolutely perfect every day of our 2 weeks! Here are some photos from this trip:
Over Labor Day weekend, we went camping with all our kids and grandkids near Mt. St. Helens and it was right after they lifted the burn ban, so we had awesome campfires each night with lots of crazy times and everyone singing theme songs from old TV shows, that was a kick! We went up to Johnston Ridge one day. The weather was good enough to see most of the terrain, however the top of the mountain was socked in so not as breathtaking as on a clear day. We also stopped at Coldwater Lake near the mountain for some canoeing (in a gorgeous hand-made canoe by our son-in-law Dan!) on our way back to the campground. Here are photos from this trip:
Now with the holidays fast approaching, I am looking forward to fun holiday crafts and decorating. The Fall season and the holidays are always such a magical time, I can hardly wait!
