The Conversation and Other Matters

Rebecca intercepted this exchange in the backyard earlier this week.

As "Head of Ranch Security" Cookie is diligent to patrol the premises daily to keep the squirrels and bunnies in line.

Happily, we have seen no snakes so far this year. 

We have noticed a fox or two and a coyote skulking about the neighborhood late in the evening or early in the morning. Not in our yard, though.

In case you were wondering, these pictures are not part of the Photography Challenge. Yesterday's challenge was too take some low-light pictures. By the time I took mine (around 9:00 p.m.) and got home, I was too tired to post, so I didn't get them entered. Besides, I wasn't that impressed with them. Low-light is something I need more practice with.

Today's challenge is to take some action shots. I haven't done much action photography. However, I like to use the action setting on my camera to take pictures of waterfalls. It shows the "splash" better than the regular setting, which mainly just makes the water a blur.

This is one of our favorite spots in the Idaho panhandle. It's called Fern Falls, and we visited it several times while we lived there. This picture was taken in the summer of 2011.

In other news, I'm getting ready to move my blog to my own domain: www.roadstoeverywhere.com. You can take a peek while I'm working on it, if you like. Just know things will be changing frequently as I set up housekeeping. I'll let you know when I'm actually ready to move.

Helen Hunt Falls

We had company for the 4th of July weekend this year. Two of Lyle's brothers and their families were in the area. On Saturday we drove into the mountains outside of Colorado Springs to hike along Helen Hunt Falls.

Some of us only made it up to the bridge over the falls looking out over the parking lot.

 It was lovely shady place to sit on the rocks and enjoy the splashing stream tumbling over the rocks.

The men and kids hiked on up the mountain. I'm not sure where it took them and or what they saw, but I guess it was a pretty good hike.

They stopped at the bridge on the way back down.

No telling what the brothers were talking about... but they enjoyed being together. They don't get to see each other very often, since one lives in Kansas, one in Idaho, and one in Colorado.

We look forward to finding other pretty places to hike around here.

Early Spring

Our beautiful spring weather continues. Easter was a bright, sunny day with balmy temperatures. A lovely day for worshiping, relaxing, and fun family activities. We opted not to go to the early service or breakfast at church, due to the long hours Lyle had worked last week. After putting in 77 hours, he decided that it might be wise to sleep in a bit.

Late in the evening we went for a walk in Falls Park. I thought we might see some ducklings, but maybe it's still a little early for babies yet. We'll be sure to check back soon.

 But look here! See the tiny yellow flowers in the grass? Spring is officially here! (Still no blooms in my yard... but Falls Park is only about 2 miles away, so it can't be long.)

 Lots of water flowing over the dam, but it's still not at full capacity. One side of the gates was not completely open. I expect the snow on the mountains will be melting pretty quickly now, if the sunny days we're enjoying continue.

Happy Spring!

Multnomah Falls

 In the summer when we came to Oregon we weren't able to stop at Multnomah Falls because the parking lot was full. That was disappointing, but probably just as well, because no doubt the observation deck and trail was as crowded as the parking lot.

Yesterday when we stopped we practically had the whole place to ourselves. It was a damp, overcast day, but the autumn foliage is beautiful. I thought I would just snap a few pictures of the falls and then we would be on our way. But no....

"Since you're in shape from walking, you can hike up to the bridge with us, can't you?" Lyle wanted to know.

Last time we stopped there, I waited at the bottom while he and the kids went on up to the bridge. It still looked like quite a climb to me, but I agreed to try it.

I'm glad I did. The trail is beautiful.

The view from the bridge is really neat, too. 

You can see how few people were there.

And then we headed on down the road.

Camping in September

We got off to a late start with our camping this year, due to a really wet spring and a busy homeschool convention season. However, we've been making up for lost time this month, with the gorgeous Indian Summer weather we've been having. Believe it or not, we've been camping for the past 3 weekends in a row. Well, Lyle and the kids have, anyway. One weekend I was gone to my writer's retreat, but Lyle and the kids went camping. So that counts, right?

Three weeks ago we went camping "up the North Fork" (of the Coeur d'Alene River) with some friends. The river was quite cold but the younger set braved it anyway. I do admire their courage. Or their determination. Or whatever it is.

 The campground is close to one of our favorite short hikes to Fern Falls and Shadow Falls, which we did Saturday morning.

 And then we went mountain climbing! Okay, I have to admit... it was in the truck. Cougar Peak is another of our favorite spots... a mountaintop accessible by road. We ate our lunch on the rocks and admired the view. Fires in the area have made the skies hazy for the past few weeks.

 Last weekend we camped at Farragut State Park. The highlight of that camping trip was the hike we took along Lake Pend Oreille.

During World War II, Farragut was actually a military base. We had fun exploring the remains of a building from that era.

 Laura was taking a close-up shot of the stones in the chimney...

 ...when I noticed how well her hat blended with the stones.

I wonder if the military personnel wore camo like that back in the day?

The weather is still holding, with beautiful sunny days and crisp nights, but I guess we'll be staying home this weekend. We do plan to go to the buffalo round-up in Montana next week... and then in two weeks, we'll be going on vacation to the Oregon Coast.

You know how we are... always ramblin' somewhere.

Falling Water

Happy Independence Day!

It's 7:00a.m.-ish and the temperature is currently 44 degrees. My parents arrived for a visit yesterday. They live in Arkansas where it has been oh-so-much hotter and drier. This morning when we got up my dad told me that our air conditioner works good. Ha. The only air conditioner we have is a small window unit that's not even currently hooked up. I love living where we can have the windows open all summer long. I do feel for those of you who live in other parts of the country where the weather is at the opposite extreme. We have had so much more than our share of rain this year. I would gladly send some your way if I could.

On Sunday we took a day trip to visit some more water falls in the area. (We had visited Copper Falls the week before while we were camping.) Some of the rivers are at flood stage, so the falls are pretty dramatic this year. 

Our main destination was Kootenai Falls which we have visited several times before. The river was so high that the falls were almost hidden. That's an awful lot of water.

The other one we visited was a new one for us. Lyle had referred to hisWaterfall Lover's Guide for directions to Snow Creek Falls.

We found Snow Creek but couldn't figure out where the trail was, according to the book. Finally, we had given up and were headed back to the main highway when I had the idea we should check to see if there were any geocaches in the area. Turns out there was a micro-cache on the trail to the falls, so by following the directions on Geocaching.com we finally did find the trail-head. The directions in the book were simply out-dated.

It was quite a hike to get to the viewing points for the Lower and Upper Falls. Not only that, but it was a damp day and kept trying to rain. The tree coverage was pretty heavy so we didn't get soaked, but it was definitely an adventure. We never did find the cache. I'm not sure why anyone would bother with a micro-cache that deep in the forest. There are a gazillion places it could have been, and the satellite signal wasn't much help with so many trees.

My camera battery had died so Laura was the one taking pictures. She snapped one of Lyle and me standing in front of the falls.

After she took it, she realized that her dad's face was too shadowed by his cap, so she asked him to adjust it so she could take more. And she did, but I still liked this one best. 

I usually don't like pictures of myself. (Do any of us?) I thought the picture I had been using for my Facebook profile was just a little too posed. This one was much more natural. I decided to crop my face out to use for my profile. I used Photoshop to lighten it up a little. I was surprised at how many comments I got after I posted it. One friend even said she liked my hair. Which made me laugh because I had done absolutely nothing to it that day. I had washed it that morning, ran a comb through it, and let it air dry. By the time the picture was taken it had been scrunched and wind-blown, and I had just shoved my sunglasses up on my head. I guess I'm just a natural kinda girl.

Now we're off to celebrate our independence with lots of festivities. Talk to you later.

Snoqualmie Falls

 We took "the scenic route" Sunday. That's become our tradition each year-- to find something interesting and a little out-of-the-way to stop and see on our way home from the homeschool conferences we go to in the Seattle area. This time Lyle decided on Snoqualmie Falls. We have visited several waterfalls in the Northwest over the years, but this is one we hadn't been to before. We parked on the opposite side of the highway from the falls and crossed through a covered pedestrian bridge.

 At the first observation deck we came to we could see the top of the falls, but not the full length of it. We felt a little spray as we stood there snapping pictures. The main observation deck was further down the river so I figured the spray wouldn't be as heavy there.

I was wrong. Either that or it was raining at that end.  I think it was just a low rain-cloud over that deck, but Lyle argued that he thought it was spray from the falls. Several other sight-seers had umbrellas. We didn't. We got wet. And we didn't get very good pictures because of the heavy mist.

It was still worth stopping to see. I'd like to go back on a prettier day, but then the waterfall is probably most dramatic in the springtime.

I got Lyle a book for Christmas, Waterfall Lover's Guide: Where to Find Hundreds of Spectacular Waterfalls in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. I know we haven't been to "hundreds" of waterfalls yet, so I expect we'll be searching out more when we get a chance.

Enjoying the adventure!