Christmas is over for this year

Another year almost past and on we go down the river of life. This morning Karen and Krista had to go shopping for those all so special after Christmas sales so it's quiet around Karen's house at the present time. Yesterday we had a house full with her grand kids and their respective ladies and Debbe and Eric came by in the evening.

It's a balmy 5° outside and the snow is as bone dry as it can be. It's interesting how the snow gets so powdery when it's so cold... well at least I find it interesting. Driving over here this morning the roads around town are still snow covered in most places and I suspect that will be the case for a long time to come if it doesn't warm up. That's ok, it's to be expected around here so you just deal with it. At least the sun looks like it might make an appearance and I can see a little blue sky out there but the sun doesn't have much heat in it this time of year. One good thing though, the days are starting to get longer again since we passed the winter solstice. Ya gotta love that, don't you?

Class is over!

Today was the last day of class... well, sort of. We have one more training day on January 2nd when we have what they call the dress rehearsal. That is the day we find out how they do things in the respective offices that we work in. My office is over on 1st St. and the only person there that I will know is my boss Peggy. That's going to be a weird day for me to be sure, but I'm feeling pretty good about knowing how to do my new job so we will see how things go.

The weather forecast is calling for snow starting tonight and continuing through Tuesday. We have church tomorrow afternoon but after that we are planning on getting a few movies and watching them for something to do. I am terrible at remembering the names of movies I see but I have a list that I take with us of the ones we've seen trailers on that looked interesting. Last week we saw The Cube, Shattered Glass and Rounders. All of them were pretty good and we even got another one that was a good one called The Canyon. (I had to go consult Karen to remember the name of that movie.) So, big sigh of relief that tax class is over and now on to the next tier.

Warmed up some!

Things warmed up a little around here. There is still 3-4" of snow on the ground and I assume that will be here till spring, but at least we got out of the single digits for a while. Tonight we have class, this being the last Tuesday class. I'll really be glad when this is over, I'm a little burned out with all the stuff I've had to cram into my head the last couple of months. From now until after the first of the year I have to try and remember all that stuff so I'll be able to do taxes. Karen assures me that it will come back when I need it and I certainly hope so.

Christmas is coming up and Krista and family are coming for a couple of days. It will be nice to see them but I guess I wish I was getting to see my kids too. I used to go to Tracey's on holidays but now it's a little too far for me to do that without going on a major trip. One of the down sides of living so far away I guess. Well, we are into the winter doldrums here even though winter is still a few days away officially but you know, ya gotta love it anyway!

Man, it's cold!

Well, seems like another indoor day to me. Actually I don't think getting out and riding my bike will be in the cards for some time. It's between 5 and 8 outside right now and as you can see the forecasted high for today is 6°. We have to go to the Post Office but other than that no need to get out today and that suits me just fine. Global warming, huh? Yep, no doubt about it, the global icecaps are melting but they are reforming here in Idaho. Ya gotta love that!

Winter wonderland

Yes, it's a winter wonderland here, but I think it's that way all over the western US so don't get me wrong, I'm not whining. This is a picture I took out the window of Karen's office a little while ago as well as the current temperature here. You can't tell in the picture but it's snowing lightly which is something I wasn't used to when I moved here. I mean that when it's this cold out west it normally doesn't snow because it's too cold and the air is too dry, but back here it can snow it seems no matter what the temperature is.

So today Karen had to work and I need to get out and finish shoveling the walkways and go shopping. Once I get those chores done I'm just going to stay in and keep warm. I checked the pond in the backyard this morning and I had to chop a hole in the ice to see where the water level was. The ice is thick enough for me to walk on and I need to get the heater and aerator in there to keep the fish alive. Water stays solid this time of year here since it hardly ever gets above freezing during the winter. Did I say winter? It's still not officially winter but it's close enough for me.

Final exam!

Well, I finally took the final exam tonight and like I expected, I passed it. I only got an 86% overall for my final grade after all the tests were totaled but I'm happy to have gotten that good. Doing taxes is a stretch for me but now that I got through the textbook part of it I think I will be able to sharpen up some on the areas where I'm a little weak before tax season actually starts. It's a relief to have that part of this training over.

So I get a flier for Dave Molina's retirement in my email. I talked to him last summer and I'm surprised that he's retiring, I could have swore that he said he had several more years to go. Makes me wonder if he got in trouble or something, I guess I'll have to call Rene' and see what's going on. I won't be making it to the party since I have a class to attend and it's a fair piece from here, you might say. Oh well, maybe next time... But I'm done with my tax class! Yahoo!

Tomorrow's the final

Yep, tomorrow I take the final test in my tax class. I spent a couple of hours today going through my book refreshing my memory in preparation and I'll do the same tomorrow before class. I'm confident that I'll pass it unless I really screw it up, so I'll be taking my time to make sure I don't. Once that one is done then we have another couple of weeks of office/organizational training and then that will be it till tax season starts.

It still feels weird for me to be doing people's taxes instead of putting out their fires. Time will tell if I like it or not and if I don't I won't be doing it again next year. I'd rather find some piecework computer fixing jobs so maybe between now and after tax season I'll get a line on some work in that field. But then who knows, this job might turn out to be fun in it's own way, I'll just have to see how it goes.

The snow that fell over a week ago hasn't melted off in the shady spots so that tells you how cold it has been around here. I walked Karen down to the office where I'll be working (she had a meeting there today) and found it's about a 25 minute walk, 17 blocks. It was pretty cold but don't get me wrong, I'm not whining about the cold... not yet anyway, it was just nice to get back to Karen's nice warm house. And winter has not even started yet. Ya gotta love Idaho... I guess!

Time marches on

So they say! Well, I'm finally down to my last tax preparation class and all I have left to do is go take the final on December 1. I'm not worried about passing it but I still need to bone up some before the test. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Karen and I plan on staying in and having a nice day by ourselves. We were invited to have dinner with a couple of different friends but having it alone together seems like the best thing to do for both of us.

Karen's video card finally showed up this evening so tomorrow morning I'll spend a little time getting it installed and see how that nice big monitor she got is going to look. Since the cold has set in here, it's not very comfortable going out but if the sun is out we might take the dogs for a walk or something.

So time marches on and if you listen very close you can hear the footsteps.

Winter has arrived

Well, we drove to church on Saturday night on slippery icy roads. It snowed light snow showers throughout the day on Saturday and there were a couple of inches on the ground by evening. Just enough to make the roads really icy and indeed they were. I have to give it to folks that live around here, they know how to drive in that stuff and you don't see too many people spinning out or driving too fast like I used to see in Susanville all the time. But then we are in the cold white north here and since the winters start early and stay late, the fools who don't know how to drive in the snow and ice are soon separated from their vehicles.

So today the sun is out and it looks nice outside as long as you have your Nanook of the North uniform on... with gloves and long underwear. Maybe I'll stay inside since I really don't have any reason to go out anywhere.

Last night I ordered a new video card and 22" monitor for Karen's computer so we can upgrade hers a little. She has a puny 17" monitor now and her video card wasn't capable of running the right resolution for a nice big monitor so she will be good to go before the week is out. It cost less for both of those than I originally paid for my 22" monitor... prices come down on electronics, quite unlike food, gas and other commodities. Maybe it's time for me to build another system. Mmmmmmm.......

Mid Term Exam day!

Well, today I took the mid term exam for my tax class. I was a little disappointed that I missed 7 out of 42 questions but that still gave me an 81% for that test. Now if I can only get that good on the final and I'll be home free. The final is happening in the first part of December so I have a little less than a month to go. Today we had a chapter on business expenses and Schedule C. Man, talk about over my head! I didn't understand much of what I read today so I need to do a bunch more studying to get an idea what the hell they are talking about. At least I am feeling like I'm starting to get it, we had to do a tax return for today's exam and I got that right the first time. That one had sale of stock, dividend income, interest income and student loan payments. Ok, maybe I can do this... we'll see!

Having fun yet?

Yep I am, believe it or not. Yesterday Karen and I took a nice ride up in the hills east of here and had a wonderful drive on some dirt roads in the trees. I didn't get any pictures while we were up in the forest but along the way there are some windmill generators and I got this picture with the Tetons in the background.

As we were coming back into town we came across this beautiful canyon at the bottom of Wolverine Creek. You can see the Jeep there in the picture and get some idea of the perspective.


So weekend before last Krista and Curtis came up from Logan and we had a big breakfast on Sunday morning. I made waffles and Karen took this last picture that morning. I really enjoy seeing Krista and we had a nice visit with them.

Holey Moley!

What have I gotten myself into? This tax class is starting to humble me a bit... ok, a lot! I'm completely swamped with forms and schedules and tax tables and what not. Yep, lots of what not. Last night I had a nice little diversion trying to give Bob some advice on a computer issue. Now those things I know about. Taxes, dividends, taxable interest, publication 17.... ugh! I'm going to learn this one way or the other but man.... it's not easy for me. I don't know if it's an old dog new tricks thing or what but I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water. Good thing I have a snorkle named Karen or things would be even worse. I have to give it to her, she knows her shit! Now if I can just keep mine together, then things will work out. One thing springs to mind almost daily... how in the holey hell did the tax laws get so convoluted? Why can't this all be simplified? Unanswered questions of our time!

Idaho fish

So we are working in the yard today and a friend drops by to show us the fish he caught. Brad is a friend of ours who likes to fish and catches some nice ones in the Snake River. He came by to try and get my goat today and show me this nice brown trout he caught this morning. This thing weighed around 5 lbs and he had another around 2 that he brought home to eat.

Brad told me he caught 9 or so fish in about an hour and this one was the biggest. He uses rapala's that he has modified and I am thinking that the jig and bobber combo I used to use in Eagle Lake might work well here. You know, sooner or later I'm going to have to get a fishing license and go fishing since the Snake River runs right through town. So I guess you could say that good old Brad was successful in getting my goat and seeing a nice fish like that makes me want to quit procrastinating and get out and catch a few. I have been here long enough now that I can legally buy a resident license and they aren't very expensive so I've got to put some thought into that even though the end of the year is coming up. Thanks Brad!

Back to work...

Well, sort of. I applied for a job with H&R Block and even though I was late to my interview, they still hired me. I have never been late to a job interview or much else for that matter since I hate to be late for anything, but it is true, I was late for that.

So last Saturday was my first day in tax class and the book we have to go through is really thick so there is a lot to learn. Karen is teaching the class but I don't want any special treatment other than the fact that I have her to answer the many questions I keep generating as I'm going through the class. I was a little skeptical that I could even do taxes when I started but I'm beginning to believe I can do it and having a little faith in one's ability is a big hurdle so I think I'm over that one. Now all I need to do is pass the class and that's the next hurdle. Unfortunately we will be doing this class virtually until the end of the year. This basic tax class is done early in December but then there is another class I have to take after that, that doesn't finish till late in the month. Then work starts on January 2 and runs till April 15. I have some plans for after the first of the year so I'll be making sure they don't schedule me for work during those times.

Who knows how this is going to turn out. Give me a chain saw or shovel and show me where you want me to put that fireline and I'm good. But put me in an office and I'm a little out of my element, so time will tell how this new experience will turn out. Stay tuned.

Zion revisited

Last April Karen and I made a trip to Zion National Park. Since it was spring there was a lot of runoff from snow melt and the Virgin River was very full and the narrows were closed. The narrows are a well known attraction there and we really missed seeing them so we decided to come back in the fall, so that's what we did.

There was still a fair amount of water coming down the river and in one place we had to wade a spot that was about waist deep which got us pretty wet as you might imagine. Some people a little smarter or better prepared than us were wearing waders and that would have been a good thing but we didn't have any and had planned on the weather being warmer than it turned out to be.

Needless to say, it wasn't very warm and being wet really didn't make it any more comfortable being up there but the scenery was breathtaking and it was worth the discomfort.

We made it about a mile up from the end of the paved river walk and it was for the most part a wading hike. After the first part where the water was waist deep, the rest of what we went through was knee deep at best and not too difficult. Both of us decided that next time we do this hike we will get some waders or do it when the weather is hot.


The Ranger at the visitors center said the narrowest part is about 2½ miles up so we didn't get to see that but as you can see it still was quite spectacular. Along the way there were some plants trying to change colors with the fall season and one of my favorites was the one in the last picture, poison ivy. There wasn't too much of it and it was easy to spot so we didn't get into it.

The second day we were there we had a 16 mile bike ride and Karen made it the whole way, I was so proud of her!

I have the rest of our Zion pictures posted on my web album. Here's the link: Zion

Experimental dinner

So Karen and I go to a sale the other day at Shopko and they have this waffle iron on sale so she gets one. It's a cool little item and works great. Of course we had to have some waffles the day after to try it out and that we did. But Karen is thinking that there might be other uses for it too so she starts looking on the web for recipes where we can use the waffle iron and she finds Potato Waffle Bread.


Well, we were planning on having tacos for dinner so we decide to try and utilize the recipe she found and think, why not make some waffle bread and do a tostada type of thing instead. So that's what we do. I have to say that it was a huge success and even though it was not really a simple procedure to make the waffle bread, it was worth the effort and tasted very good. Ya gotta love the good old waffle iron.

Here's the recipe:
Rosemary-Garlic Potato Waffles

2 Potatoes
2 large eggs
1 cup flour
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
⅔ cup milk
4 garlic cloves minced
1½ tsp minced fresh rosemary
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
2 tsp baking powder

Peel, wash, and cut the potatoes into small pieces and boil with a pinch of salt. Cook until soft enough to mash. Reserve about ½ cup of the water.

While potatoes cook, heat olive oil and add minced rosemary, onion, and garlic and cook over low heat just until the onions turn clear and soften. Transfer the potatoes to a large mixing bowl and pour the oil, onion and garlic mixture over the drained potatoes.

Add milk to the still warm skillet- just to take the chill off (we used buttermilk)- then pour milk over potatoes. Mash potatoes with a masher or mixer. Add ¼ cup of warm potato water and mix until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Preheat waffle iron and finish batter by beating eggs into potatoes. Whisk together flour and baking powder and add to potato mixture.

lightly coat waffle iron with butter or Pam (you can skip this step if you have non stick grids on your waffle iron. We used Pam and that worked very well even though we had non stick grids.) Add batter to waffle iron and spread evenly almost to the edge of the grids. Bake until brown and crisp, on ours it was about 5 minutes. You might need to adjust according to how your waffle iron works.

Kind of an interesting experiment and we had fun doing it. Next time we are going to add some corn meal to the flour and try that.

Back in Idaho

Well, we got back yesterday after what seemed like a long trip. The drive up here from Logan was not all that long, it only takes a couple of hours but we stopped in Pocatello to do some shopping at Costco along the way, so maybe that was it. One thing that seems apparent to me now that I have done some major traveling is that no matter where you go, it seems to make you appreciate where you came from a little better. When I came back from Ireland I was thinking how I appreciated being back in the US, and now after being in DC for over a month, it actually makes me appreciate Idaho a little more... weird, huh?

Now that we are back here it's cold and the leaves are turning quickly. Looking out the kitchen window at Karen's house this morning it reminded me of getting up and going hunting or fishing back in Susanville like I used to do all the time. Seems odd to have little things like seeing some leaves on the lawn remind you of other things, or smelling a certain smell reminding you of past experiences. Life, the final frontier, I guess I'll never figure it out.

Take me out to the ballgame...

So I guess Steve has season passes for the local ball games and we decided to go to one on Saturday even though rain was predicted. Now anyone who knows me is aware that I am not a fan of any organized sports so going to a ball game that doesn't have one of my grand kids or daughter playing in it is usually totally out of the question. However, we did in fact go and I had a pretty good time even though it started raining about an hour after we got there.

As luck would have it, a pop fly foul ball came almost right to me and I ended up giving it to the lady in front of me since it actually came to rest in her seat. Having no idea what the protocol for that sort of thing is, I figured it rightfully belonged to her since she had gotten up to catch it and it ended up falling in her seat after bouncing out of someone's hands. I should have given it to Steve since he is a fan, but he kept telling me he didn't mind that I gave it to that lady... oh well, live and learn, huh?

On our way out there was a picture opportunity with some old dead presidents and Karen made me get in it with her so here it is. After the rain started we ended up leaving before the game was over and went to one of the museums to see some art and stay out of the rain. All in all it was a very nice day and a first for me... going to a ball game... go figure!

Last few days in DC

I thoroughly enjoyed a trip out to Arlington National Cemetery the other day, contrary to my first thoughts of visiting another cemetery. I guess if you're going to Washington DC and are going to visit any cemeteries at all, Arlington is the one to see. I did learn some things about the place that I had not known. The land that the cemetery occupies was originally the estate of Robert E. Lee's family. The north seized and occupied that property during the civil war and started using it to bury war dead and that started the ball rolling. Now its quite the place to see, acre after acre of crosses. The hill overlooking the land is where the house that Robert E. Lee used to live in stands and that is now a kind of museum piece that you can walk through. The park service runs it and they were in the middle of some restoration while we were there.

From the hill you can look out toward the Jefferson Monument and the view is nice as you can see in the second picture. You're looking across the Potomac River but the Washington Monument and Capitol are to the left out of the picture.


Yesterday we took the Metro out to Alexandria and saw that town. It's very old and was first surveyed by good old George Washington when he was a teen. I guess that makes it quite old. There are many of the old buildings still standing since brick was the building material of choice and some of them were very interesting to me since they dated back to the 1700's. Some of the old cobblestone streets still exist too, but mostly in the ally's as you can see in this picture.

We started at the warf along the Potomac River and walked back up to the Metro and tried to visit as many of the old sights as we could without making too many detours. The old City Hall was built in the 1700's and is still used today even though there have been some renovations. We went inside and looked around a little but since it is still being used we didn't stay too long.

This picture of the City Hall was taken from across King Street looking over the courtyard. They had a flag on the building for some reason, or maybe it's there all the time, I don't know. Nevertheless we had a wonderful day poking around in some of the old churches and looking at all the old headstones of the people buried there, many dating back to the 1700's.

We head back to Utah on Wednesday so this is the last weekend here in DC. I'm not sure what we are going to do for the few days we have left, we saw almost everything we could think of except maybe Mt Vernon. Both of us have been pretty tired lately since we are going somewhere each day I guess so maybe we will just take it easy, we'll see.

Great Falls

Yesterday Karen's brother Steve suggested that we borrow their bikes and go riding along the tow road that goes along the C & O Canal. The old road is now a nice hiking/biking trail that runs from Georgetown going north. It passes a place called Great Falls which was a place we had been told was a cool place to visit so we walked out the trail that overlooks the falls. They have an interpretive sign there that explains why the falls are there so I took a picture of it.

I saw people fishing along the shore but even though we saw some fish in the water, I have no idea what species are in there. The ones we saw looked like bluegill or maybe perch but I also saw a guy bottom fishing so there might be catfish in there too. It was a wonderful day and there were people playing in the water and kayaking but it wasn't warm enough for me to go swimming.

One thing it was warm enough to do was bike riding and walking and that's what we did. As you can see from the last picture, the trail is flat and as wide as the Bizz Johnson trail in Susanville and that was a good thing because there were a ton of people out there enjoying the day. As we rode along the trail we saw several species of turtle sunning on the logs, some of them were quite large and that was pretty cool to see.

The National Park service runs the park where we drove in and they maintain the trail system. They also have a boat that they run through the locks with passengers on it and the folks running it dress in the garb of the day. I took a couple of pictures of it but I'm not putting any on here right now. The canal was originally created to move goods and they towed the boats along with mules or horses, thus the tow road. A very cool day, thanks Steve!

Back from Ireland

Our last trip around Ireland before returning to Washington DC was to a little town called Kilkenny. We took a train to get there since the thought of renting a car was really stressing me out, with driving on the wrong side of the road being the norm in that country. I think that was the best way to see the countryside anyway since neither one of us had to do anything but sit and look out the window. The purpose of this trip was to visit Kilkenny Castle, which dated back to the 12th century. It was a cool thing to see and we took the tour but it was self guided and we would have preferred to have taken a guided one. They had offered guided tours here recently but discontinued them maybe as a cost cutting thing, I'm not sure. Anyway, the castle had been renovated and the decor was 19th century which was not as old as I would have liked it, but very interesting nevertheless.

We didn't have much time to walk about as they say there, but we had to walk from the train depot to the castle so the next picture is what one of the streets looks like and some signage.

There was this cool oak tree on the castle grounds so I had to take a picture of it. It's obviously very old but maybe in the hundreds of years and not as old as the castle itself. It had a label on it that said it was an "evergreen oak." I never heard of one of those before, maybe idigenous to Ireland.

We also had a family day and went down to the local fish pond and did a little fishing. The goal was to take little Krishna fishing but I ended up doing the fishing since Krishna found other things to do. We had to rent the gear and bait which was maggots. It was about 12 euro for that, and the rules were that you had to release any fish you caught. Unfortunately both times my bobber went down I had the pole laying on the ground... wouldn't you know it. There were many types of fish in that pond, some I recognized, some I didn't. The guy said there were brim and carp, so the brim was what I was after. I did see a few big carp but they weren't biting maggots that day. Still it was a nice family day and the sun was out.

So now we are back in the states after getting back to DC yesterday. It was a grand trip and quite an experience and we had a great time with Edie and her family.

I posted a bunch of our pictures in my web album, if you want to see any of them, go to this link. http://picasaweb.google.com/lvfire68/Ireland#

Sightseeing in Ireland

We took the train out to a place called Howth, which is near Dublin. Since we wanted to see the ocean, and Howth is surrounded by water being located on a penninsula, we chose that destination after it was recommended by Edie. It turned out to be a wonderful choice and just the kind of scenery we wanted to see.

That first picture is looking back at the town after starting on the trail along the cliffs. It was a lovely day, nice and warm and both of us were over dressed. We ate lunch at a little cafe near the train station and it was quite pricey, costing 29 euro which converts to about $45. The exchange rate changes daily but it has gone up since we have been here and since we have been using plastic to pay for most things, the costs are also changing daily. I was a little surprised that one place we went to asked if we wanted to pay in euros or dollars, so we had a choice. I'm not talking about paper money, it was a card purchase.

The last picture here is one I took in the train station. If you look on the right side of the picture you'll see the bathroom sign, "WC" which we found to be very different from the states. Most of the public bathrooms are identified as "toilets." We even found one that charged us 20 cents to use it, having a guy at the door who took the money. Karen had to take a picture of that and got one of the guy and the sign. You should have seen the looks of the people coming out as she was taking those pictures.

So it was a wonderful day out exploring and walking along the ocean side of the Irish Sea.

Wicklow National Park

Yesterday we went up to Wicklow National Park to a monastery that had some very old buildings and an old graveyard. Along the way we stopped to look at the countryside and see some of the scenery. The hillsides are covered with heather and it looked very pretty so the closeup of the flowers is Heather.


The roads up in the hills are really narrow and since you are driving on the opposite side of the road as we do in the states, it was freaking me out every time we met another car.


The area we drove through has been harvested for peat and you can see the furrows from a distance. Paddy stopped and broke me off some peat to show us what it was like. A very interesting fuel source but not used as much as it used to be since there are air pollution issues in Dublin, but it is still burned for fuel in the country. You can see the effects of peat harvesting in the lower photo.

I started this post yesterday morning but didn't get it published and then we went into Dublin for a day of shopping and sightseeing. I took some pictures but I don't have time right now to post any. Maybe tonight...

Ireland

We got to Ireland yesterday after a long plane ride and managed to stay awake until 8:00pm or so. That was quite a feat since both Karen and I were dog tired most of the day. We did get to make it to an ATM and withdraw some euro's which, with the exchange rate, costs a lot. 150 in Euro's costs $215 and change, in dollars. From what we saw in the store, costs are pretty comparable for staples and we saw some pretty good deals on clothes.

Today we are treated to a nice sunny day even though Paddy says that can change very quickly around here. Since it rained most of the day yesterday, that was a nice change to wake up to, and after a good night's sleep I am feeling pretty good this morning. Yeah... Ireland!

Union Station

Took the Metro to Union Station and saw what it is like to be at the big train station. The place is very busy, and not all people traveling on the trains, the Metro stops here and from the station you can go to many parts of the city. There are also tons of shops and lots of places to eat so it seems to be a shopping destination too. I guess this place was built way back in the early 1900's and the architecture matches the rest of the city.



Right next door was the Postal Museum so we went through part of that too. Apparently the Postal Museum used to be a real post office but now it's just a museum and it even has a brewery in it if you need to get something to drink... beer, of course! A natural thing to find in a post office, huh? I didn't take any pictures of the Post Office Museum so both of these are of Union Station, inside and out.

Big Doors

Yesterday we went to the National Archives to look at stuff like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We mistakenly walked up to the front door but that was not the way to get in. The doors were certainly worth seeing though and here they are.

The documents we went in to look at were there and so faded that they were hard to read which is why they don't allow flash photography and the lighting is so dim. Still it was very interesting to see them and the guards were very knowledgeable and showed us misspellings and other little known things about them.

We also went to the National Portrait Gallery which had some very interesting paintings and sculptures but there were just so many that we didn't make it through the whole place. I wanted to see some old paintings made by a guy back in the 1800's of many of the old Indian's and we found them there and that was one of the things we had wanted to see along the way.

Walking down the street I had to do a touristy thing and stand in the middle of the street looking toward the capitol and take a picture. I felt a little weird about standing in the middle of the street in front of traffic (they were stopped for a red light) but Karen and I got a good laugh out of it anyway.

Another interesting day seeing sights in DC.

More DC

Check out the Forest Service Museum. Yep, that's about all of it in that picture of me with the fire video going. Of all the museums we have been to so far this one was the smallest and least impressive. One thing about it though, the receptionist actually knew Bob Shultz from the Plumas and I couldn't believe she actually knew someone I know... small world.

The Lincoln Memorial was pretty impressive too and from the front steps you could see the Washington Monument down at the end of the reflecting pool, the same one I saw in Forrest Gump, I might add.

We even took the tour to the top of the Washington Monument and I took that last picture of the White House from the dirty window.

I was a little disappointed with some of the government buildings including the White House in that they are like armed camps. No trespassing signs should be posted everywhere since they won't let you on places like the front steps of the Capitol or anywhere on the grounds of the White House. I guess that's just the sign of the times considering the terrorist crap going on in the world these days. Every place we went they send you through metal detectors and your pack and camera need to run through scanning devices. I guess that's the price we pay for a level of safety, huh?

Still, it's been wonderful exploring the tourist areas and we have seen all sorts of very cool stuff, so it's all worth it.

Exploring DC

We have been busy the last several days exploring Washington DC and for me, learning about mass transit. The Metro is a great way to get around without a car so we have been using that to get from where Steve lives in Bethesda to downtown. It has been quite a learning experience but all good since it hasn't been crowded at all during the times we are commuting. There are so many things to see here that each day we walk until we start getting tired and still haven't scratched the surface of all there is to do. It rained on us the other day but we had raincoats and since it is so warm and humid, it was a pleasure walking in the rain.

The first picture is of the Library of Congress. The second is the Capitol, of course, and next the reflecting pool in front of the Capitol. The last one was taken in the Botanical area near the Capitol.

Today we are going to try to visit some of the memorial spots and go by the Whitehouse. Also, yesterday there was a big hoopla downtown as Senator Kennedy's body was transported to Arlington and that had us trapped for a time inside the Capitol grounds as they had the streets blocked off for the motorcade.

So far this has been a fun trip and we still have tons of stuff we want to see so the adventure continues!

Off on another adventure!

This afternoon we are leaving to go down to Logan to spend the night at Krista's place and then tomorrow we are flying out of Salt Lake City to go to Washington DC. We won't be coming back to Idaho Falls till October 1 so this will be a long trip. Here we are, going from the big city to a much bigger city. Not exactly what this country boy is used to but it will be good for me to see how the other side of the country looks. I've never been on the east coast and seeing the capital city is really going to be interesting. Hopefully I'll have time to post a few pictures along the way, we'll see...

Heise Hot Springs

We took a drive yesterday out to Heise Hot Springs. That's pronounced Hi-C. The hot springs out there are very commercialized and they have a swimming pool, RV parks, picnic areas, campgrounds, you name it. It costs $8 to use the pool, another $1 to use the hot pool, another $1 to use the slide which looked like fun, or you can pay $15 per person to get everything. There were lots of people and it was a very popular place and not like the hot springs I usually like to go to. Needless to say it was a nice day to visit since it was nice and warm and sunny most of the day. It was a good thing we went yesterday because it's been raining on and off all day today and it's pouring down right now so not a good day to be out driving around.

After we left the hot springs we drove out along the Snake River and followed the road all the way to the end. That was a nice ride and again there were lots of people camping along the river and ATV's running all over the place but still it was nice to be out of town. The picture we took up the river about half way to the end. There were lots of fishermen in boats and on the shore but I never got to see anyone land one. And I didn't take any pictures of the hot springs but then I didn't see too many things to take pictures of there anyway.

Lava beds

Today we took a short drive out toward Arco to a trail that goes out through the lava beds. It's a BLM site and they marked the trail with sticks stuck where ever they could stick them and painted blue ends on them. Quite an interesting way to mark a trail. I say "trail" but there was really no trail at all since the lava is not forgiving enough to make any kind of trail in. As long as you followed the blue sticks, you could navigate but there was no other indication of where to walk.

One of the cool things we found out there which neither of us expected was that there were little fern gardens in some of the cracks in the lava flows. There must be enough moisture down there for them to grow because they were doing very well as you can see in the pictures. The temperature today was in the high 80's to low 90's and it is dry out there so seeing ferns growing so well was a stark contrast to the cactus and bare rock.

We had taken our bikes out there but that country is not made for bike riding so we left them at my truck while we took this walk through the rocks. Some of the cracks in the lava flows are really deep and we had to be careful with the dogs since they could have gotten hurt if they had fallen into any of them.

All in all it was a nice day and there were some nice wildflowers still blooming out on the lava which really contrasted with the rock. I didn't take any wildflower pictures But I did take one of the cactus which looks like prickly pear or beavertail. Junipers were the only trees we found there along with some brush species I recognized and some I didn't.