A Hectic Summer in an RV

It sure has been quite the hectic summer around here. I sat yesterday and thought, "WHOA! It's almost over...when did I blink and miss it??"Quite a lot has happened. The first cool thing that I wanted to share is that I got to meet some of YOU...my blog followers and readers. This was just an awesome experience for me and Bob. Holly and Myiah decided to vacation in Washington in Long Beach. Well, that's only an hour away from me, so I knew I wouldn't miss this opportunity for the world. Bob and I got to the beach and went out for some breakfast. I had been texting back and forth with Myiah all week. It turns out that they decided to have breakfast just 2 blocks away from where we were. I couldn't miss the opportunity to surprise them...
I will always remember this picture. I walked into The Loose Kaboose restaurant and there they were. I took their picture and it took a minute for Holly to realize that it was me...this was hysterical!
I really loved meeting you all and I hope we can get together super soon!
Another exciting thing to see was Bob making a bit of history with his new job. This is a TV camera man from Fox 12 news.
This is a picture of Bob on the small barge that took him out to the job site.
Even the sheriff's office showed up to give an escort. The camera man is in the back of the boat.
This is the little tug that could...
And this is a plague of the project that Bob is working on.
You can't really see it, but that little tug boat is pushing that huge FSC (fish sorter-collector) down Swift Reservoir from the spot where it was built to it's permanent home at the dam. This has never been done before. There is one other FSC that has been built but it was built in place and not moved. This is why I said Bob made some history that day.
Of course, I easily get sidetracked by log trucks.
This is a shot of the barge at the end of it's 12 mile journey down the lake to it's home.
And it's getting closer...
And, finally, it was there! That was quite the Friday!! It was pretty exciting to watch and, yes, Bob was on it for the entire ride :)
The following week, I got my early birthday present/vacation at the hotel up in Cougar, WA. I really liked this place...I love rustic! I think Puppa was diggin' the whole gig, too!
For 4 whole days, the dogs got their own bed and we got our own!! This is heavenly!!
Sasha thinks these things are the funniest looking dogs that she's ever seen...she goes nuts because she wants to go and play with them. This was right in downtown Cougar. Ok, so Cougar is one of those towns that if you blink while going through it, you'll miss it...but, hey, I like the residents!
The FSC
We are so close to Mt. St. Helens up there!! I was driving Bob up to work and back every day for about 5 or 6 weeks. The mileage would have been just too much to come back home, so I just hung around up there. I was totally ok with that because I got to be where I love.

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Another view of Mt. St. Helens.
Mt. St. Helens from Yale Lake.
Swift Reservoir...the funny thing is that Bob worked on a different lake and in a different county than where I would spend my days.
The dogs had a blast up there!
Mt. St. Helens area...up past the Ape Cave.

Swift Reservoir
Up by Mt. St. Helens
Self explanatory...
Yale Park on Yale Lake
Foggy morning on Yale Lake
Foggy morning on Swift Reservoir
The dogs find new friends to play with them everywhere!

This is one side of the dam where Bob works (it's 513 feet to the bottom)
And this is the other side (Swift Reservoir)
This is The Trail of Two Forests. A little background: Mt. St. Helens erupted 1900 years ago and this was all lava flow.
The "holes" are small lava tubes (the Ape Cave is a huge lava tube and about 2 miles away) and they are also tree casts. I'll explain that a little further down.
You can still see the ripples of the cooling lava on the ground.
It was really fascinating.
Almost ethereal...like this belonged in The Hobbit movie or something.
This is a cast. What's that? Well, when the lava flowed down from the mountain, this was a huge forest. The lava encased the trees, which promptly burned. The burned stubs of trees that were left standing were charcoal. Eventually, the lava cooled and the charcoaled trees eroded away leaving these holes...hobbit holes are what they reminded me of...I don't know why. I could spend every day up there in The Trail of Two Forests.

More ancient lava flow.
Up by Mt. St. Helens close to the Lava Canyon. I did not go on the hike...the rocks and so forth would have been way to hard on the dogs' paws.
Mt. St. Helens still in the fog



Yale Park on Yale Lake
Yale Lake
Yale Park
Some serious morning clouds
Mt. St. Helens
This is Bob's view every day from where he works.
Sunrise over Swift Reservoir.
Peaceful afternoon on Yale Lake
I loved to spend my sunny afternoons in the park, under the trees, engrossed in a great novel.
Tons of people enjoy Yale Park
I hope you enjoyed my summer, so far...I do not have to drive Bob to and from work anymore because he busted his butt, did what he was supposed to do and is the proud owner of a driver's license that he obtained last Saturday. YEA, Bob!!!

Peace!