Happy Labor Day

Yipee, it’s Labor Day!  What are we going to do today Sequoia?

Even though it’s supposed to be foggy today we decided to roll the dice and see if the fogs burns off.

It’s hard to identify where we are but my roommates and I are near Mt. Rainier Nat’l Park in Washington.  With all of this fog we probably won’t the mountain but you never know.

I can see clearly now, the rain, um I mean fog is gone....

This  tree is just my size. 

Ah lunch.  What no trail mix?  What no cheese? At least we can see Sheep Lake in the distance.  We hiked by Sheep  Lake to Sourdough Gap (who names these places)  and ate at the gap.

The fog never cleared but on a good note we didn’t get rained on either and periodically the fog lifted and we could see the scenery around us.

Being that the first day was foggy we decided to tempt fate and take a drive to Sunny Yakima.  Yakima is on the other side of the mountains and it has over 300 days of sunshine. 

Their arboretum is in full bloom.  Look at these flowers?  

I bet this is what Jerry's garden looks like.

Spikey

Well, it’s time to start heading home.  Looks like we have time for one more adventure.  Off to Mt. St. Helen’s national monument.  

The mountain is out today and even though there isn’t much snow on it, it definitely looks grand.

Spirit Lake is looking good.  It got “moved” when the mountain erupted in the stone ages but it’s recovering well.

The viewpoint we went to was called Windy Ridge and as you can see….it’s windy.  Sequoia likes the wind so it was right up his alley.

I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Labor Day.  Does this mean that summer is over?

Mail call

Oh, hello everyone.  I was discussing with Sequoia our next adventure this afternoon when my sekrebeary informed me I received some mail. 

Where should we go this week?  The beach?  The mountains?  Dog Park?

Let's see what we have.  The first letter is from Droopy.  I must say Droopy has done a good job of training his sekrebeary in handwriting, it's beary good.   

These stickers are awesome!  I am always a sucker for pictures (or stickers) of animals hiking and being outdoors.  Thanks Droppy!  

It also seems I received some cards from vacationing stuffies.  Jerry and Ben shared a cool card with a bear on it.  Are there lots of bears in Northern Minnesota? 

I have heard Minnesota has lots of lakes, mosquitoes ,and a SPAM museum (southern Minnesota if anyone is interested) and it seems that they have bears in MN too.   In case you were interested in the Spam Museum (come on, you know you are kind of interested) here is the link 

 http://www.spam.com/spam-101/the-spam-museum

Anyway, I digressed.  Ajdin also had a great trip in Ohio.  I wonder if he had time to see the topiary of French people or the Arnold Scwarzenegger statute?   Perhaps Jerry and ben should visit Columbus.  Ben would probably enjoy the topiary of French people and I bet Jerry could film an on location show of Jerry's corner.  

Check out the link for the topiary people:  http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11390

Thanks for the awesome mail everyone!

A little adventure

Have you ever been to the biggest building in Tillamook, Oregon?  Well, if you were to ask me that question a few days ago I would have said "no" until my latest adventure.

What do you store in the biggest building in a small town?
Cheese? 

Salmon?

Fine Wine?

When the building was built during WWII it housed blimps, yes blimps.  Now a-days the building is home to the air museum.  I would consider this a "museum in progress" as they are working to build their collection.  

The first plane I explored actually let you go inside the plane.  It was a cargo plane used for transporting some sort of cargo.  Probably fresh smoked salmon from Alaska. 

You could sure fit a lot of salmon in here. 

Besides the large cargo plane they had some smaller planes on display too.

This one looks in good shape.  Now how do I convince my roommates I need to take flying lessons?

Does everyone remember Jerry and Ben's friend Karl the University student from Canada?  I believe he was studying "Arctic Studies" at some college way up north in Canada.  I bet this plane is used in his universities fleet to study about the Arctic. 

Unfortunately the sun didn't cooperate for my photos but the plane says "arctic research laboratory"

Who knew a town known for it's cheese also had a nice little  museum.  Speaking of cheese I am off to the factory for some free samples....