Swan Valley Idaho

Next on my journey, I got to drive up to Swan Valley, Idaho with Boo. We stayed there with Richard for 2 weeks...and wish it could have been longer. I had to get home to Provo, because my old roommate Bonni was coming from Kaua'i to stay at our house for 10 days.

Swan Valley is beautiful. We'd never been there before. We stayed not far from the Snake River and just 5 minutes from Lake Palisades. We went fishing with Clint and Darcy, and Richard caught a fish that kinda freaked Boo out. It was almost dark, and Richard stood in the water w/his bare feet and legs and almost froze them off before he caught his trout.

We got to see a lot of beautiful country. Wendy and I drove up to Jackson Hole for my first time, and we ate at a cool place and got some sunglasses and stuff. It's a cute town. Darcy and I went to Lake Palisades and hung out on the dock. Her and Boo went swimming and had a blast. This is where Boo began dock diving...he absolutely loves it! He loved playing fetch in the water with Darcy. We also went photo hunting....and found some beautiful places to photograph, like this haunted house a few miles down the road.

Wendy and I drove up to Driggs and Victor with the kids to check out the towns....they look alot like the Heber Valley and we saw the magnificent Teton Mountain Range. We ate dinner at an Irish Pub that Richard and I like. It was fun to explore the towns and visit the cool little shops. I got Boo a stuffed whistling birdy at the general store that he loves to play with. A while later when we were home, there was a birdy in our trees...whistling the same tune. I think Boo thought it was just me mimiccing his toy. :-)

Richard and I got to drive 45 minutes north and go through the Rexburg, Idaho temple. What a beautiful temple! That town has grown a ton! Some of you have seen the book I made and got published of Swan Valley photos with poetry. I chose this place to publish my first book about....because of it's magnificence! I'm having a blast making videos and doing projects with my photography! Definitely fun projects to work on when we're on the road.

Coming Up........

Next on our tour is Swan Valley, Idaho, Apache Junction, Arizona, San Francisco, CA, and Hawaii, though Richard has been traveling to Washington, New Mexico, Petaluma, CA, and Sacramento, CA, but for now....I've posted this video in Hawaii at the PCC for Jasmine on Oahu. ALOHA!

PCC

My Little Stonehenge ..... In Provo Canyon

I got to be home for a while! Woohoo! On the way up Provo Canyon to Sundance.

It was wonderful to be home for a while! I attended some fun ward activities and my buddies who are the ward activities planners asked me to be their photographer. It was quite fun. I won't post those photos for the sake of privacy. Coming up....Apache Junction, Arizona (in the Phoenix valley), San Francisco, December in Hawaii... I will post another clip of hawaii for now....so my brothers can see the big wave surfers on the North Shore of Oahu. Love you guys! (my brothers...not the surfers).

Back Home in Provo

Spring, this little guy hung out in my tree all day.

I think this is Springville...on the way to Provo

After a time in Tehachapi, we came home to Utah for a few weeks before Richard went on the road again. Whenever I see my mountain range, I feel in awe, and at home. I love Provo! It's beautiful here. It was so great to be back in our ward here and see our friends and family! It just feels so good to home when you're on the road a lot!

We drove up to Park City, and had dinner with my brothers. We went shooting on the west side of Utah Lake with some friends We got to shoot some really cool 45s and an AK47, and an Israeli Assault Rifle. We love to be among our friends at home, and fortunately for us we travel on the road with friends, too.

Tehachapi, California elevation 5500

Alas, back to So Cal, but not by the beach. We left Isleton in January and headed south on the 5 for Tehachapi, California where my old roommate Bonni is from. I'd heard cool things about it, and I got to see if they are true. Yes. We arrived in Tehachapi blanketed by the previous night's snow storm. It seemed as if we might as well have been arriving back in Provo, Utah where our home is. It was beautiful! Boo hadn't seen the snow in a while, and went a little crazy for it when we let him out of the truck! I think he thought we were home in Utah.

We made our home in Indian Hills Ranch which is about 5500 feet high. That's approx. 1000 feet higher than Provo. Tehachapi is a very spread out high mountain valley. It is up in the mountain range between Lancaster and Bakersfield. The downside, there is not a Target or Wal Mart, only a KMart. It definitely has a smalltown feel. Boo and I went hiking up the hills, and it was a little difficult to breath at that altitude.

Almost every house has dogs in their yard. I gather that Tehachapians are a dog loving people. We saw deer and elk quite a bit. People were very friendly at church, and I even met some people who grew up with Bonni. It was cool to see the famous train that makes a 360 degree loop. Richard took me to the Apple Shed for a romantic Valentines Dinner. I guess that’s where the old train station was pretty interesting story… http://www.appleshedonline.com/aboutus/

Tehachapi is a charming, beautiful town! Richard and I both felt at home there, and entertained the possibility of moving there someday. However, neither of us are enticed by California's politics or the current economic situation there. I think we'll keep our home in Utah!

Isleton, California on the Sacramento Delta

So we finally make it to Isleton. This place is a trip! We stayed on the Sacramento Delta (Sacramento River) across the bridge from Rio Vista. This is largely an agricultural town, but the loop on the Delta where we stayed is where tons of people congregate spring-fall to vacation on the river. It is a few miles long with many resorts along the levy road. Some people live there, and some even live on their boats.

The Delta is very resorty – which I kinda liked. It was a little like being on vacation year round, just with less people (and more rain). Also, it reminded me of the vacation spot that Baby’s family went to in the movie Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swayze.

The only thing I didn’t like, is that we lived below the levy (so below the river) and we had a lot of rain, and lost power for 3 days. Our cool neighbor Kevin hooked us up to his generator so we didn’t have to suffer too long. What a kind guy (Also Richard’s boss). There was some flooding, and I didn’t like the feeling that we may be stuck if the river overflowed or the levy broke, because there was no other way out, accept that skinny levy road.

I attended a lunch group with the ladies from church at the country club, and it was a blast getting to know them for the short time we were there. We ran into some old friends in Lodi, met some new friends (shout out), and had some good times. I give a shout out to them and say, “Hey, wassup?” If I’ve said it once, then I’ve said it a thousand times… this world is a small place. I really have seen the six degrees of separation.

My brother was with us for our first few weeks in Isleton. We’d already viewed the entire first several seasons of Grey’s Anatomy when he visited me in Utah – he’s the one who got me hooked on Grey’s, so we had to find other things to do in the middle of nowhere. We took lots of photos and played ping pong in the clubhouse while doing our laundry. He is wack at ping pong…why didn’t I know this before? Hmm. Thanks Bro for staking out with us.

We drove to Stockton and Lodi for shopping and movies. Richard worked across another bridge in Antioch (towards Concord) at the power plant. Richard took my brother and I to The Lighthouse, a cool fancy restaurant on the Delta, for my birthday. I had the best salmon dish (with green olives)…yum! Thanks Honey. We also got to see the lighted boat parade which runs every Christmas. The Isletonaires dress up their boats as Christmas icons, like a Halloween costume party for boats. I have to say the docks are pretty wobbly with a tripod and camera pack.

When we took my brother to the airport in Sacramento, Richard and I got to go to Old Town in Sacramento. While that is a really cool place, never eat at an all you can eat pasta/pizza buffet if it cost less than $10/person. We made that mistake (because a guy was passing out coupons. HELLO! First clue! Besides, there are plenty of cute bistros and restaurants in Old Town.

From Gig Harbor, WA to No Cal

Point Defiance Park

Space needle from our sail boat

From Metolius we went to Gig Harbor, Washington across the Narrows bridge from Tacoma. Richard drove to Tacoma for work everyday, but I’m glad we lived in Gig Harbor. Although I swear the taxes were higher there than even California, Washington is a beautiful state with lots to do and more plush green than you can find anywhere else (accept Hawaii). Gig Harbor has it’s own charm.

While in Gig Harbor, we explored a town by Tacoma called Renton. We drove the 5 Mile Drive, discovered Point Defiance Park and the lookout above the Puget Sound where we saw our Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the photo above. That 5 Mile Drive is Gorgeous! Wow! Talk about plush, green forest...and right by the water. Just breathtaking.

I picked up my brother from the SeaTac Airport the day before Thanksgiving, and took him atop the Space Needle. I really wanted to take him to the Experience Music Project, but it was closed….he would have loved it! He came out to make the drive down the Oregon Coast with us, because he’s always wanted to see it, too, and after seeing photos of our vacation there, he decided he didn’t want to miss it. He also wanted to go through the Redwood Forest with us.

So we packed up Thanksgiving Day and moved to Isleton, California. On our drive we traveled down the Oregon Coast and staid the night in picturesque Crescent City, California. http://www.crescentcity.org/

We hung out at the beach in Brookings, Oregon just across the border. http://www.brookingsor.com/

This area looks a lot like Bandon Beach in Oregon with all the rock formations like in the movie Goonies. Check out Bandon by the sea @ http://www.el.com/to/bandon/ and awesome place to vacation if you get the chance.

The Oregon Coast

While we were living in Metolius, we were able to travel to the Oregon Coast for Labor Day weekend, another dream come true.

Ok, so I grew up by the SoCal Coast, and I've been to beaches all over Florida, and I have never seen such beautiful beaches as we saw on the Oregon Coast! Just Gorgeous.

We stayed in Newport, Oregon then traveled down the coast to Bandon, Oregon. We got to go to a classic car show in the parking lot of the Newport Aquarium (awesome aquarium!) Richard had to push me in a wheel chair the whole day because of a foot injury - that was fun. Especially fun was walking on a cain on the beach ....not real easy. Overall, our trip was fabulous and we can't wait to return.

This is my Boo Radley swimming in Lake Simtustis at twilight.

Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve been by to blat (blog/chat) or I guess I could call it chog (chat/blog). I have good reason, though, but these are my new words I made up for the day. Call it writer’s license. So since this is a travel-blog, I will continue with our timeline.

So for my reasons? I've been traveling of course. Some areas where we stay do not have internet. I can't believe I can actually live without it! I didn't think it would be possible. Actually, it's not, which is why I now have a T-mobile Smartphone. It's a like mini windows computer on my phone and I can have internet wherever I go. We're about to test out that theory I'm sure, as I hit the road again. However, I have been on the internet for 13 years, so I do find it hard to part with my old friend "Reference" for any length of time!

In Hawaii, I had internet a lot of places we went on my phone, even though the map shows no service there. But, oh yea, back to my reasons...I was having to much fun in Hawaii for three weeks to even think about blogging. I guess I was slogging (slacking on my blogging).

About my blog...Where was I? Oh, yes…..back to Central Oregon. We staid for a few months in Metolius, Oregon which is between Redmond and Madras. Incidentally, Metolius is about 1 hour south of Wasco. However, it has a lot more civilization! The people were very friendly. We attended church in Madras, and the members there were oh so friendly. It was a great experience, and I still keep in touch with some friends we met there.

I met the coolest, neatest Lady Loretta, who is a mad-mad quilter; a woman of many talents. When we would talk on the phone, she would be castrating her sheep, and holding her cell phone in one fell swoop! I don’t now how she does it. … No, seriously, I don’t wanna know, but props to her. All I have to say is you are awesome L! She is a true cowgirl, and he husband is a real cowboy! They are awesome,k and she wasn't just multi-talented, multi-faceted, but she was also a comedian. Wow, could she make us laugh!

Loretta sent me off on her 4-wheeler to photograph her 2000 acre ranch along with the 100s of Herfords and Black Angus, and Suffolk sheep (from Scotland), 3 huge, beautiful ,white dogs - Great Pyrenees (one named Happy) and 2 llamas: a boy named Sue and a girl named Lou. I may post some photos of that later. I love the country feel at her ranch, it had a sacred feeling. I renamed her ranch (only in my mind) "Healing Heart Ranch!" It was just a beautiful experience, and Central Oregon is a beautiful area. It looks a lot like Utah.

Another highlight of our time in Metolius was Wendy and the kids. Wendy and the kids were able to come on the road with her husband Clint who works with my husband, and they stayed for a while. Oh Wendy…she’s a great laugh. It seems that’s all we do around them. Come to think of it, we all laugh a lot together, me, my husband, and his crew and their families. What a hoot! Wendy and the kids and I hung out. It was fun exploring parts of Madras and Redmond with them. Boo sure loves those kids. And they get soooo excited to see Boo. Oh, Wendy is a mad-mad quilter, too. She’s got skills. More recently I found another talent she was hiding from me – she’s an awesome painter!

Hey did I mention the “water – water everywhere” factor of Oregon? Within 10 minutes every direction there was a body of water. Boo was in dog heaven swimming in so many bodies of water! East of us were two….Lake Billy Chinook at the Cove Palisades State Park where Richard, Kyle (Rich’s best friend since Jr. High) and me and Boo went swimming; and lake Simtustis. Oh how I wish I could post the photos as I go. I may just be a blidiot (a blogging idiot; beginner) and don’t know how. Anyway, Haystack Resevoir, and Ochoco Resevoir were to the east of us, and the Prineville Resevoir up from Ochoco, Crooked River, Deschutes River (all the way down through Bend, too). We visited the sites above Lake Simtustis at the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

One day I went with another lady to the Redmond County Fair and saw all the 4H stuff, and pett a bunch of animals, then to Smith Rock State Park – what an incredible place to photograph! People come from all over the country to rock climb here. Richard and I ventured down to Bend a few times, and went to some festivals and some farmers markets that were totally cool. I love that town. We went to a street fair and danced at a lived concert street dance in Bend. I think it was 4th of July? That was a blast! Richard bought me the coolest pair of turquoise earrings their that I wear often (thank you, Honey).

Kyle Richard and I took a trip down to Crater Lake (a few hours south of Metolius). That lake is a crater from a volcano that imploded....with no inlets or outlets. It is the bluest water I've ever seen! We checked out the lodge and watched a video about the bizarre occurence of this lake. It was a fabulous and educational experience!