This summer has been a little different than planned. With Sacha training to be a raft guide and driving and trying to save the world by taking public transportation we have had little time for fun. Finally two weeks ago we decided to strike out for Yellowstone lake to remind ourselves why we come out here and live in the car every summer. It was a success! This week are taking a quick stint down to Jackson Hole to visit our friends there. Then in just two weeks we are headed back to Washington.

Home Again

After a short days drive with our friends Oscar and Audra we are back living in our car in Big Sky, Montana. The Gallatin has been especially high this year so Sacha has been either rafting or working every minute she has. We finally got a day off today and are hitting up all of our favorite spots in Bozeman. We started with a much needed soak in the hot springs and a shower for Sacha - really the car was starting to smell like river. We are having a great time enjoying the scenery and hope to get some good hikes in soon!

Changing Seasons

With only a week left on the peninsula we are packing up the little cabin on the play field and moving out to Le Sage across the lake and far away from the children. It has been a good spring full of adventure, relaxation and realization for both Sacha and I.
In preparation for another summer of dirt bagging Sacha made a hat and spent about 6 hours trying to get a decent picture of it.

We are wondering what another summer of car living will bring. Sacha is looking forwards to climbing and volleyball at the half moon. I am looking forwards to the drive out with our friends Oscar and Audra as well as meeting up with the ravens again. We are also beginning to wonder if we should explore some other areas of the Northern Rockies. We are excited to come back to Washington in the fall and again in the spring. However as much as we like it, there is too much missing for us to think about staying "forever." We need snow and Sacha needs rocks to climb. Though Montana has all of that it just hasn't worked out to stay long term, or even to come back for the winter. We may be doing some scouting of other possible mountain towns that are just right for a fashion forward bird and his often un-bathed home girl.

Welcome to this decade

We are really getting settled in here in Washington and thoroughly enjoying it. Sacha has been living it up, visiting Seattle, going to hot springs and just having a good time in general. Her job seems pretty good too. There are lots of local birds here that I am having fun getting to know. We even joined this decade and got an actual digital camera! It can go under water and everything. As of now we are planning on getting to Victoria, BC at least once this season. It is so close, we see the ferry every week. We will be back in Montana for the summer with plans to return here for the fall. Life is good out here in the Olympics.

Flying Clocks

Wow! We have been back west for almost two months now. We just got back from a great trip to Utah with many friends from Montana. Oscar and I really lived it up. Both Sacha and I agree this is probably our best road trip yet. For as far away as it was and as much as we did, it was very relaxing. We will have pictures up soon!

Too Much Adventure

This recent trip was just a little over the top. We will be resting up excessively.
So from the beginning...
Tuesday Feb 5: Sacha got done with her WFR class and we drove home to Ohio. It rained and we had to drive in the dark and pay tolls. This was only just a taste of what was to come.
Wednesday Feb 6: We packed. Put Sue Bea's new plates on and generally relaxed.
Thursday Feb 7: 18 hours on the road of tolls. That is what the drive between Cleveland and Sioux Falls, SD was.
Friday Feb 8: This day was about 15 hours. We stopped at Wall Drug in South Dakota. Highway 212 was miserable between the snow, darkness and the mountainous terrain. Then we got to Bozeman (lucky for us our friend Becky was there and we had an excuse not to drive down to Big Sky). We went right to the Molly Brown, and that's where I and Sue Bea slept.
Saturday Feb 9: LONG. The drive in between Missoula and Cour D'Alene was snowy, rainy and also involved lots of hydroplaning. Then we got to Ellensburg, WA after making great time only to find out that Snoqualomie Pass was closed. So we went to sleep, Sacha in the drivers seat at 7pm. We woke up every hour to check the road conditions.
Sunday Feb 10: 2am saw us driving over the pass. Luckily we only had 2 hours to get to Seattle where we stayed with our friends Oscar and Audra. We slept some more, explored the city and then drove over to Port Angeles. We are still getting settled in to our new cabin.

Chesapeake Bay

We survived the first stretch of our trip. Last night we returned to Cleveland from 10 days in Maryland. We stopped off for a night in Reston, VA with Sacha's Aunt and Uncle. I met all sorts of new friends there at the feeders.
Next Sacha had a Wilderness First Responder class in Bishop's Head, MD on a tidal Island (it is only an island when there is high tide). The class looked like lots of fun. All the people kept talking about how the house was haunted. They didn't even know the half of it. Being an old hunting lodge there were too many ghost ducks to get much sleep.
We are glad to be home now for a rest. Tomorrow we set off for North Dakota.

Finally!

I'm not really sure if Sacha forgot about me or what. She went on all these hikes and to greenhouses and didn't bring me. Although I guess it was important for her to spend time with her family. I did get to relax and catch up on the gossip of the local birds, something I haven't done in a while.




We have packed up the old room and are about to get on our way! We have a big trip planned. Today we leave on phase one: We are going to DC to visit Sacha's Aunt and Uncle then going down to Maryland for her Wilderness First Responder Class. Sacha has a new shiny four square ball for study breaks and books to read about the Olympic Rain forest. That is where we will end up after all this traveling. I am just excited about meeting some east coast birds for now and hoping we get to see some cool stuff on the way. Also I am planning a little rendezvous with my friend Oscar in Seattle, so that should keep me occupied while she is in class.