More of summer 2011

After the Grand Canyon and Pat's trip to Minnesota it was on to California and Yosemite. From there, we continued westward to San Francisco for a visit to daughter Lyn and her family in Novato. Then we continued up the California and Oregon coast to Washington, seeing things we had never before encountered. Talk about scenic overload! Regrettably, one of the reasons we're so late with our blog updates is because of a photo problem. Actually, it's a computer problem. My laptop "crashed" and I don't have all of the pix from the last six months recovered yet. Doing the best I can with what there is to work with.

One of the incredible mountain lake/waterfall scenes in Yosemite National Park.

Lyn's family in Novato CA. Noah, Lyn, Hayden, and husband, Joe.

 Beach scene along the Oregon Coast. Pat and Annie fairly well being blown away.

Just a delightful little cafe along the Oregon Coast highway, The Greasy Spoon.

Home cooking, for sure! We try to take the road less traveled as often as we can.

While in McMinnville OR we visited the Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose. There I found a Grumman Mohawk on display, one of the aircraft I flew while in US Army Aviation back in my youth.

Here we are at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

This is the Spruce Goose. Made mostly of plywood, with 8 engines. It never flew successfully.

After leaving Oregon, our first scenic stop was at Mount St Helens WA.

We joined up with Pat's sister, Fran, and her husband, Jerry near Poulsbo WA. There was a Civil War re-enactment nearby so we spent a day there soaking up some American history. That's Jerry on the right, you might recognize the guy he's shaking hands with.

There was a lot of shooting, but nobody was killed permanently.

The participants really get into the life as it was in 1865.

Sisters, do I need to say more?

After we escaped the Seattle area we headed across WA to the eastside, Newport to be exact, where we lived since 1999. This is Dave with Carol Mack, left, and Janet Lambarth, right. Worked with these ladies in the county extension office until retirement. It was great to visit them after more than three years since retirement.

Upcoming: Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota.