GETTING READY FOR TWO TRIPS

We are trying to get things ready for two separate trips, but yesterday Donna wanted us to drop everything and go to Carrie Blake Park. It was such a beautiful day. Donna fixed us a nice picnic lunch. We just sat and enjoyed our lunch and watched all the ducks.
After we ate, we took a short walk in the park. You can't walk all the trails right now because the park is under construction for Soccer fields.

I think we have things pretty much organized for our trips. We got the paperwork done on the Kia so now the Kia is officially Diane's.

Actually I am going to be making three trips. Sunday, the 31st, Donna and I will be all packed to drive to Portland. We will eat lunch after Church and head to Portland. We are going to take care of the girls and Christopher while Janet goes with David to the Cub day camp. We will be heading for Debbie's on the second of August. Donna and I will be at Debbie's until the 4th, then Donna and Laif will head to Silverwood. I will be going to Salt Lake with Debbie, Kent and Erik on the 6th for Addie's blessing. Kent and I will come back to Renton on the 7th . Erik is staying in Salt Lake for a few days and Debbie has to fly out for work. Then on the 8th Donna will be picking me up and we will be heading back to Sequim. In the evening of the 9th we will be heading over to Renton again after Donna's meetings. This time we will have the Kia and we will be leaving Renton for our road trip to Atlanta on the morning of the 10th. Hopefully, we will be in Atlanta on the 19th or 20th. We will be flying back on the 23rd.

This is going to be a lot of traveling for me. I am looking forward to it and I hope I can keep my energy up.

Donna has still been having a lot of pain in her thumb so yesterday after our picnic lunch she went to the doctor for a Cortizone shot. She has to keep her hands working. We will have lots of driving. We have a couple sites picked out that we want to see on the way. We will probably see a few more things. Donna got some maps from AAA that shows different sites along the way.

Wish us luck on our big adventure.

SEEING THE USA IN MY KIA RIO

No-These are not pictures of my Kia Rio. These are pictures of my brand new Toyota Corolla.

I can hear all of you sighing and saying "why does she need a new car". Well, I just wanted a new car. Yesterday after we went visiting teaching we took my car to Port Angeles so my car could get some exercise. I said to Donna why don't we just look at new cars. I didn't really intend to buy anything. I just wanted to look. This is the first car I looked at. I took it for a test drive. It is so quiet and rides so nice and the seats are so comfortable. We looked at some Nissans and some Fords and some Volkswagons and some Hondas but in the end I came back to this one.

Then I still couldn't decide about buying a car because I was afraid it might cause hard feelings no matter whether I gave the Kia to someone in the family or sold it. Donna who always thinks I should spend money said Diane needs a car more than anyone else right now. I called and asked Diane IF I bought a new car would she like my Kia Rio and she said she would.

So--I bought the car and drove it home and Donna drove my Kia. This sounds quite simple so far,right, but since Diane lives in Atlanta we were going to have to get the Kia to her so it was no longer simple.

We are finally working on our road trip to Atlanta in my Kia. I know that it is a long way and especially in my little Kia. Donna told me yesterday that she has always wanted to do a road trip and this will be the ultimate road trip. We plan on a week to get to Atlanta. We are going to stop along the way if we see something interesting. We are going to Mansville, Missouri for sure to see the Rocky Ridge farm that Laura and Almanzo built and lived there until they passed away. Many of the original possessions are in the house including Pa's fiddle.

We will have a weekend with Diane and also Monday so that we can get my car transferred to her.

We will fly from Atlanta on Tuesday, August 23rd and will arrive at Sea-Tac at 1 pm. Then we will be taking the Rocket shuttle from Sea-Tac at 3pm and it will take us right to our door in Sequim. I don't know just when we will actually get home because there will be other passengers on the bus to drop off.

I am going to the baby blessing for Jennie's new baby on August 6th in Salt Lake. It seems like a lot of traveling in a short time. We already spent a week in Cancun. Baby blessings are special and I am looking forward to going.

Donna and I were up until one am this morning working on details for our trip. I am going to bed now and get some sleep.

SUN IN CANCUN

I have been waiting to get some Summer pictures in Sequim. I will just use one of my Cancun pictures to remind me that the sun is still out there somewhere. This is a picture of our last full day in Cancun. For lunch we were just being lazy. We didn't go to the dining room. We just sat by the pool enjoying the sun and ordered lunch brought to us. By the pool they keep coming around taking drink and food orders.

I know I have not posted anything since our trip so I thought I better put a few words on. We got back from our trip on June 30th and July lst Steven, Janet and their children came to spend the fourth of July. They left on the 5th. It was so nice to visit with them.

Things are somewhat back to normal, whatever that means. There is always something going on here. Donna had to make a couple of trips to a specialist about her thumb. She now has a special made guard for her to keep her thumb in the right position. She has Degenerative Arthritis in her right thumb. Donna also got sick after we got back from Cancun so had to go to the doctor for antibiotics. She was actually starting to get sick before we left. That girl has more problems. She is much better now.

Friday was the start of the Lavender Festival. I went with Donna Friday morning to the park where she had to make announcements at the park. (Not on the radio). I walked around and looked at some of the booths. It was very nice Friday morning but by afternoon it was starting to rain. It rained on Saturday and even rained some today after Church.

Probably the most exciting thing that has happened was that the Ross store here finally opened. We went to the soft opening Friday evening. The grand opening was Saturday. I am really glad we went on Friday. Of course, I found some things I really "needed".

Of course, the most exciting thing of all is that Jennie had her baby girl. She now has two beautiful daughters. I am going down with Debbie, Kent, and Erik on August 6th for the blessing.

EL REY RUINS IN CANCUN

This is a picture of me with my taxi driver, Alfonso. He was so nice. We had him the day before when he drove us around to see some of the city. Alfonso works out of the hotel so I asked for him to take us to the Ruins. At the ruins, they let him in free to walk around with me. A picture of an Iguana. There are hundreds of them. They are very tame. They are fed by the museum keepers but if I had known we could have brought food for them too.

Another picture of the ruins. I walked quite a bit of the field. The grass is easy to walk on and besides Alfonso helped me everywhere.

Picture of the ruins. It was such a neat experience to walk here. It was just like you could feel how it was like for the ancient people who lived here. It is so close to the water I am sure they did a lot of fishing and also since the climate is warm all year around I am sure they grew crops.

Donna climbed clear to the top of the bigger wall here. She was having a little trouble coming down but Alfonso went right up to help her. Donna is at the top in the white top and blue pants.

Below is an article I got off the internet about the El Rey Ruins.

One of the most breath-taking sites in Cancun is within walking distance of most of the popular hotels. Amidst Cancun's bustling hotel zone are the ruins of of El Rey. Remains of an ancient civilization that used to be where the hotels now stand. Because they are so close to the hotels, it is almost unthinkable to leave Cancun without visiting these ruins. The most startling thing you will find when you get to this "Little Escape" from modern culture is the literally hundreds of Iguanas sunbathing among the stones. This is their Island paradise in the sea of traffic and tourism that is the Cancun hotel zone. Unfortunately, when the hotels were built, these Lizards lost their natural habitat. The El Rey Ruins became their new home. The Park workers feed the Iguanas, so they are quite tame. El Rey is extremely small. There are no large Pyramids to be found and explored here. However, there are large platforms and also round columns that Archeologists believe once held up large roofs.