Slowly

It's coming together, but will still be a while before we feel like we belong here.  One very important thing happened - cable, phone and internet, with lightening fast speed.  Life is good.  Now I can click "add to cart,"  and wait by the mailbox for packages to arrive. 

New chairs for the office/den.  Some assembly required.

Washer and dryer from those nice people at Sears.  They pulled up my account and they asked if I lived on Union Street or Lombard Street.  It kind of made me homesick, but also happy at the same time to clear out the old and start with the new. 

Which is the hot?
This was last night, just before he discovered that the cold water hook-up faucet was leaking.  At 8:59.  Home Depot closes at 9:00.  Today he was able to practice his plumbing skills and
tomorrow I can do laundry!  Not in a laundromat.
 Who knew something so mundane would make a woman so pleased?

Not a perfect picture (still using the old camera) but pretty good seafood platter.

Dig for the clams.

Dawn and Peter were very influential in our move to Sequim so it's only appropriate
that they were our first dinner dates. 

Lemon bar was yummy.

Can you see Al's spoon impatiently waiting to dig into the berry parfait?  

Home!

Yesterday on the way to Sequim, we just had to stop for nourishment after getting estimates for the repairs to Homer from the Ketchikan ferry incident. 
Butter in chowder?  My new favorite.

This - - -

goes into this.
It was kind of fascinating to watch.  Sorry you weren't there.

 

Now we're at our new little house, getting settled.  Today has been spent cleaning and rearranging stuff from Homer to the house.  There is still a lot to do, but patience is a virtue, right?  I've been looking for the Moving Fairy to appear but that rapscallion must have higher priorities and doesn't have me on the top of her list.  Just wait until she needs help. 
Al reminds me that having a house is an on-going, never-ending project,
so I shouldn't ever think that everything will ever be done.
That's part of the fun, right?  RIGHT?

Hay!

The friendly fire hydrant at the RV park said good-bye as we left Couer d'Alene,
departed Idaho, and headed across Washington.  Hwy 90 goes through Spokane and miles of productive and lush farmland.  I'm not sure I've ever seen so many hay bales in one place.  

We crossed the Columbia River and saw the enormous gorge through which it flows.

Just a bit more information.  Aren't you getting tired of all this knowledge?

We arrived in Issaquah (just a little East of Seattle), with plans to have dinner with cousins Bob and Laurel, but poor Bob isn't feeling well.  We forced ourselves to dine without them and hope that he will have recovered enough tomorrow to partake in a bit of nourishment. 

Crab bisque.  All that pepper was Al's preference.  I had to taste from around the edge.

What would a wonderful meal be without chocolate cake? 

Ho, ho, ho

I forgot to show you this -
Al went to the fair and picked up a hoe.
(He thinks that is really clever and was disappointed that I didn't include it yesterday.
Makes you kinda proud to know him, doesn't it?)

Al's part

He wants me to show you that hanging right over this slumbering pig

are these inspirational posters.  So what could he be dreaming?

 

Look how much he grew in 94 days.  I think I could do that.

North Idaho

Today we are in Couer d'Alene and went to another fair.
Did your Granny have one of these?
  Would she love to see a current Maytag with all the fancy cycles? 

Then we went to the horses log dance.  Neither of us have ever seen this before and don't know exactly what it's called, but these beautiful teams of horses pull two logs in and out between the orange cones, always staying between the rope borders.  They have to make really tight turns and it's a deduction if they hit a cone.  Winning is based on speed and accuracy.  It was fun.
From the stands.  With popcorn.

 

Then came the pulling contest.  The sled is loaded with ever-increasing weight and the teams pull it for 15 feet.  When all others have given up, the winner is the team still standing.  Today the final weight was 7500 pounds, more than double the combined weight of the horses! 

In real life these beauties are used for farming and logging and you can see how powerful they can be.

Butter or sour cream?

Do you see Porterhouse or T-Bone?

 

Self explanatory.

Downtown Couer d'Alene is very pretty.  Clean and friendly, lots of hanging baskets of petunias, sculptures on nearly every corner,  and this humongous boardwalk.

 

Just a little bit more

Poor photo skills, but interesting facts.
And it proves that the Canadians have a pretty good sense of humor, eh?

 

 

 

There are twenty-four of these Large Animal Bridges to help the creatures get over the highway.
How do they know?  We didn't see any moose in traffic control uniforms.

Above is a bit more information from the Canadian Rockies which I had a tough time posting with a poor internet connection.

Now it's Friday and we are in Couer d'Alene, Idaho.  Today was driving from Whitefish with a stop in Wallace for lunch.  Al wants me to tell you about a retired miner we met there.  He worked in the Sunshine silver mine for 38 years as a hoist operator, and left us with these statistics:  the bottom of the mine is 3800 feet below sea level;  the surface temperature of the rocks is 168 degrees;  the relative humidity in the  mine is 238%;  the elevator ascends with ore at a rate of 2,000 feet per minute, and lifts men at 800 feet per minute.  (He says the average building elevator is 200 feet per minute, but I didn't verify any of this.)
 There were five brothels in Wallace and he told us that when the last one locked their door
 they put up a sign that said "Closed.  Beat it."  

What Color is your fish?

This is a very pleasant town, with tons of civic pride.  It's clean and pretty and very tourist-friendly.  Last night we went to the Farmers Market, scored some beautiful produce,
 and wandered around the town for a while. Cocktails might have been involved.

 

Today we went to the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park World Heritage Site, which in 1932 the governments of Canada and the United Stated linked to form the world's first International park.  We didn't get to the Canada side this time, but enjoyed the magnificence of the American side, which included crossing that ubiquitous Continental Divide a few times.     

 

 

 

My eyes are weary now from all that beauty, so I have to rest them with some knitting.