Summer Vacation 2011

We left in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday headed towards Ashland Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior to be with Dan.  Dawn was just starting to break through as we headed out of Snohomish a light fog was in the air.  We headed down Hwy 9 towards Hwy 522.  As we were turning off of 9 and onto the 522 Hayden speaks up from the quiet, I forgot to go to the bathroom, can we stop?  After a lecture on why we needed to have done that before we left we pulled off in Woodinville.  Back on the road again not more than 5 minutes later and about 3 times as many cars as when we got off the freeway.  We made it through Bellevue and out onto I-90 headed East to our first big stop of the day, Spokane. 
While driving along the gorgeous Columbia River I saw a sign for a scenic lookout at Wild Horse Monument.  I immediately changed lanes as I wanted to take full advantage of the beautiful river.

I would love to wake up and

fall asleep to this view!

Of course, there was also the

monument we stopped to see.

I imagine we could have hiked up there but

really lets be honest I was there for the view.

Trying to get one of the 3 of us was challenging

to say the least.

The upload connection here is really slow.  I will try and post more pics from the rest of our trip tomorrow while we are in Fargo.  For now we have been having a great time, seeing cities we would have never visited, climbing mountains in 90 degree weather, crawling through a cavern and taking in all the beauty of Eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana.  The terrain from state to state is amazing.  The vivid blue rivers and lakes of Eastern Washington and Idaho were like nothing I have ever seen before.  The rivers and lakes in Montana are a similar green color that we have in Western Washington and the landscape is amazing.  The layers and layers of rocks the deep gorges and high mountain peeks.  We even met a group of people traveling back to Kent today and Hayden made friends with a boy named Joe from Michigan.  They exchanged address' and are going to be pen pals.  So far this has been an amazing experience and its only been 2 days.  I am looking forward to tomorrow and what North Dakota brings. and ultimately Friday when we arrive in Ashland and get to see Dan. 

                                                     Spokane Riverfront Park

                                                                   Day 1

Walking by the splash pad offered a

little relief from the heat.

Excited to ride the Carousel

The carousel was hand carved in 1908.

So pretty.

Getting ready for the ride...

It was a fast and over quickly

This was a pretty neat goat.

When you hold garbage or whatever

up to its mouth it sucked it up.

There was a mini donut stand in the park.

Of course we had to try them and

they were really good.

Such a pretty girl!

It was about 90 degrees.

Hayden was trying to cool off.

Somewhere in the short amount of Idaho

we drove through the kids needed something

so we pulled off the highway and this is what we found.

Sunshine Miner's Memorial

On May 2, 1972 a fire broke out in the mine.

Only 87 miners made it out alive and this was

the worst hard-rock mining accident

in the country since 1917.

There were about a dozen or so squirrels

running around the memorial

gathering. 

After a long day of driving we finally made it to Missoula Montana.

There were probably 50 or more of these little bikes riding down the road.