Wow pictures of the day!!

Well worth the trip to see this sight. Tomorrow we plan to go see Klamoth Falls and then head south to California
This is a shot of Crater Lake in Orgeon. It is absolutey beautiful!! Almost to the point of making one speechless. It was a volcano that had erupted and then the top collapased and formed this lake. It is such a beautiful blue.

Blessings of the Day-Aug 6

We saw alot of these flowers along the road even in the fog. They were so pretty I had Mel stop to take a picture of it. We also saw large bushes of flowers- purple. I think they may have been hydrangias
As we drove along the coast Rt 101 today we could get views of the ocean. It was nice but would have loved some sunshine to view it with. They said down in California, we will get the sun along the coast.
We drove to the coast to Newport, Oregon. We had a ocean view motel. This is the view we had out the window. They said it was very foggy and dreary all day. We could hear the ocean when we opened the window. Temp was 56 degrees.
I really enjoyed the hanging baskets of flowers in the west. We started noticing them in Idaho. They are like big balls.
Made it to Oregon. A real quick picture as we passed under it.
Mt St Helens- was a litle more hazy. The one guy said he doesn't know if it is just hazy, or smog from Portland or smoke from fires.
Picture of Mt Rainier taken yesterday.

West Coast

We visited Donna and Nelson in their home also. A very pretty log house. We enjoyed getting to know Larry and Ruth's family much better.Today we drove to Mt Rainier and also to Mt St Helens. It was very nice and pretty again. We were a bit disappointed with ST Helens. They have so much closed due to lack of funds, but was nice anyhow. Mel stated he has never seen such big evergreens. I think they were Douglas Firs. We drove over to Newport, Oregon, along the coast for the night. We have an ocean view, but can't see due to the overcast conditions at this time. Hopefully will be nicer tomorrow. We have had wonderful weather so far. Temps have been anywhere from 50-92. Now we have about 65. Will try to post more pics tomorrow.
The swinging bridge we walked over at the Kootenai Falls. Very pretty there! This si where we sat and watched the kyaicing
The deer come right up to their front lawn. It was fun to watch the fawn jump around.
This is the Champ home in Idaho. The view from their living room and the deck is so beautiful. Larry did a good job at designing it for the view!!

Hello from Washington!!

We left Larry and Ruth's this morning and put in a good day of driving. We heard the coyotes howling again last night. I told Mel they sounded pretty close this time. We tried to get the sounds on the video camera even if we couldn't see them. Ruth said she also heard them. It was again amazing how the landscape changes from one mountain to the next!! We drove through alot of wheat fields, hay fields and then around the mountain, very barren mountains for long stretches at a time!! We stopped for lunch at a Denny's and decided that was the main meal of the day. We drove to Yakima, Washington and are staying here for the night. I am having trouble in posting pics tonight. It may be the net services here. Hopefully I can tomorrow night. We are hooking up the video tape to watch tonight that we are doing as we travel. It will be a good review for us. We hope to go to Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens. Good night!!

Weekend in Idaho

Hello there everyone! We got to Larry and Ruth's on Saturday afternoon about 3-4. I am so confused as to the time because of the time zones. We are now 3 hours behind you. Larry said as we entered Idaho, it changed. We did some walking at a Falls close to Larrys and then drove to their place. Their hospitality is absolutely wonderful. We wanted to take them out for supper so they drove us over into Canada to BC. It was very good. We told them if we can't get back into the US we won't go along! :0) Larry had called the Border before we left. We needed to show our drivers license and we got a little talk that we should work at getting a passport etc. We went to church with them this am. We were so surprised to see any one else that we know. Charity and Faith Oxley were there and came up to us after church and gave us a big hug and said-what on earth are you doing here. These girls were in Arizona when we were there with the youth group. Ruth had a wonderful lunch of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, applesauce, apple pie and ice cream. While in Canada, we bought some tomatoes, so I sliced some of them too. Right now we are at Donna's (Larry's oldest daughter) place, so I thought I would jump in a update a little. Thanks Darwin and Martha for encouraging us to stop here!! We will leave in the am. Not sure where yet, but will let you know tomorrow eve.

Leaving for Idaho

Good morning! The weather is very pretty here in Montana this morn. There is blue sky and real puffy white clouds. The temp is 49 this morning, but is to warm up to 79. We are headed out for Idaho this morning. We are going to Larry & Ruth Champ's this afternoon and spend the night there. Larry told us to unpack our bags and stay as long as we want. We plan to go to church with them in the AM. I am not sure if we can blog or e-mail from there, so it may be that I won't have anything on the computer until Monday. If anyone needs to reach us, Carla and Doug & Tammy have the number to reach us. Larry said the cell phones don't work at their place. You all have a great weekend. Remember the God that sees us here is the same God that loves you there!!!!It is amazing that we can see the same sun and moon as you all do!!We love and miss you all. Today especially--HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DOUG $ TAMMY!!

Awed by beauty!!

One hug we received today was on our hike back down the mountain. Up aways we thought we heard music but weren't sure. As we came down further, we saw this couple playing the Swiss Alps horns. Beautiful sound in the mountains!! We talked with them awhile. They live in the area and said they enjoy plaing on the mountain. Today was Swiss Alps day and they wanted to play their horns again. On quiet, nonwindy days, they said they can hear a 15 sec echo, but today was too windy for the echo. We were blessed and thanked them for sharing with us in this way.
Welcome to Glacier National Park! What a wonderful day. We were once again awed by the Creator of all and at one point we even sang "Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the world Thy hands have made".Pictures just don't really show what we saw, but we will share a bit of the day. We are tired tonight, but have felt hugged by God in many ways.
We found this friend along the path. It is called a "hoary marlot". Mel thought it looked like a groundhog with a squirrel tail.
Silly grandma, wearing sandals and hiking in the snow!!
Hey Dawson, Jasmine, Alia, Owen--here is grandpa throwing you a snowball from Montana. Did it hit you??
Creatures we saw on our hike up the mountain. These mountain goats were up in the grass and then walked out across the walkway. We enjoyed esp watching the baby goat
We went hiking at Logan Pass up the mountain 1.5 mile one way and then back down. Oh what a hike. If we had known that included going through 5 drifts of snow, we would have changed shoes! We had sandals on, but just continued because it was too far to go back. We laughed and laughed. It was well worth the hike. It was cold and windy and we were thankful that we grabbed the hooded sweat shirts before we started.
We needed to drive through several of these tunnels
There were quite a few different size waterfalls along the road.There was also a waterfall that was called the weeping wall and we needed to drive very close to it. It sounded like it was raining as we drove through there. Very pretty!
We drove across Glacier Park on the Going-to-the-sun road, approx 58 miles. It got very narrow and was one way at places. Once in awhile I told Mel to stay over because my side of the road had a very small stone wall and then dropped waaaaaaaay down!
What a beautiful sight!