Wall Street Mit Joshua Tree.

So many reasons to take this trip.  Sun, hiking opportunities, and warmer winter weather than back home.  Today we are focusing on the hikes.

According to the sekrebearies notes 5 hikes were completed in 6 days. 

All of the hikes were desert hikes (don't worry I made sure they prepared with water, sun screen, and tons of salty  snacks..  

First up is the Wall Street Mill Hike.  This mine area was a nice desert hike out to a historic location - 

Came across a few old buildings - this is a remnant of the Wonderland Ranch.  This ranch was owned by Worth Bagley a competing rancher to William Keys.  Both early homesteaders in the area. 

The Wall Street Mill was pretty cool - very well preserved. It was used sporatically to process gold that was either mined by William Keys or milled for other miners. 

Professor Thomas at the University will be very pleased with this hike.  Professor Thomas is a challenging professor for my desert archeology 203 course. 

Keys and Bagley did not  care for each other.  According to one source Bagley ambushed Keys near the Wall Street Mill and Key's killed Bagley.  They did not care for each other.  Keys apparently created a tombstone where Bagley died:  Here is the inscription:

"Here is where Worth Bagley bit the dust at the hand of W. F. Keys, May 11, 1943.

  Keys spent about 5 years in prison for the crime then went back to his ranch at Joshua Tree till his passing in 1968. 

Vacay for a fox

This little fox finally got a winter vacation.  Any guesses where we landed? 

 

A very chic part of California.  Home to many old-timey celebrities (Sinatra, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Liberace, Dean Martin, Elizabeth Taylor) and the like.  Did you guess Hollywood? Good guess but it's Palm Springs. 

The final destination was the desert - this fox like to hike at Joshua Tree National Park. 

A holiday trip to downtown

 Hiya Blog World - 

Little Fox and Navy here.  Just us two today since Cocoa Beanie booked a cheese tour of the pacific northwest and is out traveling to different creameries and tasting all sorts of cheese. 

We decided to head out to Portland's living room (aka Pioneer Courthouse Square) and the Christmas tree is all lit up.  

So much public art in town, this one is a hat sculpture.  It's called "Will Martin's Hat" and Will Martin was leader of the team that won the design contest for Pioneer Courthouse Square in 1980.  There were over 160 submissions - way to go Will!

The Benson Hotel does an amazing job every year for Christmas.  The tree is well decorated but we always come for the Gingerbread display. 

This years masterpiece is Germany's Eltz Castle. All the gingerbread is homemade (over 50 pounds).

Next stop is a pop up store in the lobby of another fancy hotel.  The stores were pretty quiet but had some cool stuff.  In the basement of the hotel they had free arcade games, we played a round of Rocky and Bullwinkle Pinball.  So fun. Our score was in the millions!

Finally, a few more stops around town and we came across the Portland Therapy Llama who was out and about. A long line for therapy so we enjoyed the fireplace and the fake snow.

Onward team.  Where too next? 

A trip to olive country with a couple of mice.

Hiya Gang.  Little Fox took us out on a day trip to Durant Vineyards and Olive mill.  Today we are focusing on olive oil tasting.  

A crazy group of birds flying over the vines today. 

Cocoa Beanie is very interested in the olive trees growing in the nursery.  Cocoa wonders what customs and immigration would think about importing an olive tree to Canada. 

All the oils were on display today for tasting - even the expensive (ok, more expensive) ones. 

Of course one needs vinegar if you are going to taste olive oil.

Cocoa and I wandered around the gift shop and found this jar of bitters with a fox on it.  Super expensive, but it does have a fox on on it so it's probably worth it. 

They even had an old truck on display. 

Next stop is lunch, the olive oil place was offering some food but the roommates think they can find a good lunch in town as well (Cocoa and Navy are hoping to find a cheese shop for lunch). 

 

Mail Call!!!!

Hiya Blog World.

LF and the gang here processing some mail on a rainy November day.  

First up is a letter from Snoopy, oh wait it's actually from Jerry and Ben. It's a super awesome Halloween card from the gang in the midwest thanking us for joining the Halloween contest. Us west coast stuffies think we should be thanking them for hosting the contest.

Little Fox got a postcard from team midwest (AKA Jerry and Ben). Quebec City has always been on LF's bucket list and according to J +B it's a great place.

Ben got to practice his French (comme c'est cool) and Jerry got to taste a maple syrup cheesecake.  Sounds amazing, LF doesn't have the French skills but could certainly check out the Quebec City cheesecake situation.

Sandy and Canadian Crew sent us a great Halloween card.  On the cover are animals decorating for a Halloween party.  

Sandy mentioned that I might want to supply the mice with some Cheetoh's to keep the mice out of mischief.  I need to add Cheetoh's to my list. 

Hmm, this is interesting It looks like Sandy sent a road map from 1959 of BC.  Is he hinting that the roommates should take me on a trip to BC?????IF so, Sandy might need to be more direct with the roommates.

Oh wait, Navy turned the map over and noticed a letter was written. Apparently, the map was sent to Sandy from their cousins in Germany and Sherlock Sandy deduced that his grandparents sent the map as gift wrap to the family in Germany.  That is so cool.

Sandy got back from Vegas and had an amazing Smoked Scottish Salmon Platter on toast with capers and tomatoes - yum.  Also, tried a few beers or two.  Apparently Sandy's humans realized that Budweiser is sold in resealable beer bottles.  Interestingly, Sandy said they don't have these types of bottles in Canada but in the USA, that's surprising since this seems like a more Canadian idea compared to a US idea.

Sandy mentioned that the humans went ziplining on Fremont street.  He did not make the minimum height or weight requirements.

LF always wanted to see the Neon Museum near Fremont Street.  LF's roommate said the last time he was in Vegas Fremont was still a neighborhood in transition - seems like things have come a long way.

 

Seattle - Part 2

 Another nice fall day in our trip to the Seattle area. We are staying in the town of North Bend, WA.  It's a cute little town on the edge of the mountains.  

Did you ever see the TV show Twin Peaks?  If so, a lot of the scenes of the town where the show was set was filmed in North Bend.  We stayed near the Twedes Cafe diner that served "Damn Fine Coffee" and many of the other sites were within driving distance. 

Enough movie locations today Navy Beanie is taking the lead on the hike.  We are off to Little Si a quick little hike about 10 minutes from the Air B and B.

Along the hike there are many rock climbing spots.  

Navy was all intrigued with some of the mushrooms.  Is this one edible? 

Quickly moving along the trail, after the hike there is more exploring to do. 

Getting close....

Made it to the top of Little Si.  We didn't get rained on either - what a day.

It was determined after a few beers that the stuffies needed a rest. Luckily there is plenty of room on the bed for all of them.

Time for a trip!

 Little Fox told us it's time for a trip up north and who are we to question.  I do think this Kind Bar Mini is a little small for three stuffies to share but Little Fox says there are many Kind Bars around for us to snack on.

Once we arrived in North Bend (near Seattle) we knew we were going to get some good hiking in.  Sure, it's November but its not raining too much and the forest is so amazing right now.  First  

Cocoa is going to take the lead on this hike. 

Many-a-overlooks on the way up to Cedar Butte.

Made it, a short little hike in the morning.  The Cascade Mountains are so amazing in Washington. 

Cocoa is quite the adventurer and she wanted to go to downtown Seattle. Of course, most tourists check out Pike Place Market.  Little Fox mentioned Pike Place has a heck-of-a cheese monger.  Cocoa is ready to find him.