Day 853

When we woke up this morning we had two choices.

Downtown Seattle and Pike Place Market or drive to Mount Rainier. You can tell by the pictures what we chose.

Check out the rainbow in the falls.

 If you look really carefully you can see climbers coming out from behind the tree on the left.

Yep, Scooter made it too.

How lucky are we to have this beautiful mountain in the background for our picnic lunch? (Except his apple had a little bump along the way. I accidentally knocked it off the table and it rolled. And kept rolling down the little gully of spring runoff. He had to chase it around the bend to finally catch up to it. Oops.)

Everywhere we've gone I've been adding things to my scooter. Charms, stickers, bracelets, jewels. I was about to choose a cute little sticker while up at Mt. Rainier but hubby found one that worked even better for my particular situation. 

Day 852

I don't like using the words bucket list. To me they suggest that your life is over. Or at least near the end. I still come back to the sucking out the marrow tour.

Mt. Hood, Timberline Lodge. Check.

Tillamook Cheese Factory. Check.

Cannon Beach. Check.

Mount St. Helens. Check.

All places I've wanted to visit and never did it. Until this trip. In just a few days time. Today was the Mount St. Helens Day.

In 1980 I was in California and hubby was in Fruitland, Idaho, his hometown. When Mount St. Helens blew, Fruitland - hundreds of miles away - was one that received ash. 

Now Mount St. Helens has trees and shrubs and wildflowers in some places and is still pretty desolate in others. I even caught some steam coming out. I took tons of pictures and these are my best.

Day 851

You could say Portland, Oregon is an interesting town. A town full of interesting people.

Portland Saturday Market - held on Sundays too - is a great place for people watching. And music listening. And food eating. We did all of the above.

Music listening and people watching.

I thought food eating was going to happen when I stood (sat on my scooter, that is) in the long line here:

And picked up an apple fritter for me:

But hubby had another idea for his doughnut. When I found him sitting in the shade and gave him a Mango Tango doughnut he had already started on his own unique lunch combination.

A dark beer, a plate of fries, and a mango-filled doughnut. 

Guess I'm married to one of the interesting Portland people.

Day 850

Every day just gets better for Scooter.

First she stopped at the Forest Service office and ran into Smokey the Bear.

She then found a suspension bridge behind the building. Too wide and secure to invoke much fear.

While on the suspension bridge she caught several butterflies frolicking.

Scooter then made a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Where she shared some of the factory's tasty ice cream with Deb and Ed.

She then discovered a view of Rockaway Beach.

And ran across a Pirate Festival where Captain Jack Sparrow took her for a ride.

She watched Ed collect seashells at Cannon Beach.

Quite a spectacular day.

Day 849

My life is flippin' awesome. 

How can it not be when you start your morning off with a free breakfast on the outside patio overlooking the Columbia River?

How can it not when you see a sign for a lavender farm and decide to stop to take a look?

And find poppies in bloom, too?

How can it not be when you stop at a fruit stand that also sells bakes goods, like the marionberry hand pie? 

How can it not be when you get as close to Mt. Hood as you'll ever get?

How can it not be when you get to see Timberline Lodge, the hotel that was seen in The Shining?

How can it not be when, while at Timberline Lodge, search and rescue crews work on the ground and the air to find a hiker missing for the last few days on Mt. Hood?

How can it not be when you see a banner for a quilt show in a town's old high school and you get to see spectacular quilts?

Look at the tiny fishing lure someone made on their quilt.

How can it not be when, while at that quilt show, your ticket number was called to win a door prize - a DVD and a pattern of your choice? (Hubby pitched in for the rest of the goodies.)

It's amazing the gifts life has to give - in just one day - when you slow down, take a leisurely drive, and appreciate everything that comes your way. Oh yeah, and when you work on sucking the marrow.

Life is flippin' awesome.

Day 848

Did you know?

Did you know that when you stand under huge power poles like these

that they emit an electrical sound? Not a hum, not a buzz, but a noise that sounds like, well, electricity? A bit scary sounding. I only know this because the Suck the Marrow Tour Part Two took us down into the Columbia River Gorge to see the John Day Dam.

Did you know that when you are on a Suck the Marrow tour you try things you might not usually try? Like a sip of a local amber beer hubby had at dinner at our hotel. On the patio. Overlooking the Columbia River.

Did you know that logs are brought down the river on barges?

And did you know?

Thanks for the sticker, you know who. It's on my scooter.

Day 847

When you see a weather forecast like this on the news it means close up the house, crank up the air, and stay inside.

But for someone on a live deep and suck the marrow kick that won't do. Only a spur of the moment, last minute, spontaneous as spontaneous can get kind of decision will do. How last minute? It was decided this afternoon.

Stay tuned. Part two of the suck out all the marrow of life tour begins tomorrow.

Day 846

There are a lot of benefits to having a place in Boise, like the 11 minutes door to door to hubby's class downtown. Another benefit as much for me as for my daughter is the babysitting aspect. Maybe someday in the future - the far future she tells me - there will be grand babies. In the meantime it's cat babysitting while kiddo and fiancé are up camping.

Her kitty and I got along just fine. She's such a cutie. (Albeit a bit chubby, just like the rest of us.)

Day 845

Check out what I picked from the Boise garden!

Day 844

Darn. I thought I had a great picture today. One that showed how I've been dragging, how I'm slipping back into icky-ness. Although the picture doesn't show it as much as I expected, I guess it'll do.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Maybe the car is telling me I should keep my chin up - otherwise by butt will look too big. (And goodness knows it doesn't need to look any bigger than it already is.)