We are alive!!!

Just have been on the go too much to blog yet:) full post later, but for now, some random shots 

Des Moines, wa

Seattle from the Big Wheel!

Ferry ride!!

Oyster Bay, Bremerton

More later! Time for a swim!

We're Alive! Let's blog :-)

Hi there people! Day four of vacation, and I have decided that its time to post some photos and such. Sorry for the days of quiet, but we needed days of quiet...and we definitely got what we were looking for!!

As you all know, we don't make reservations more than a day or two ahead of time for this trip - and many times we are not quite sure what we just rented, but the pictures sure were purty ;) This was one of the times that our planning style paid off in a big way - meet Tumalo Lake Lodge







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Location:Bend, OR

Kayaking all day today.

The weather and water are perfect.

Happy Wednesday

I've already had my coffee and Kirstin is still sleeping, so I might as well do something constructive and update the blog.  BTW, have I ever mentioned that Kirstin sleeps like the dead?

The house we are now at has a private beach, dock, gazebo on the beach, and a fire pit.  It's insanely perfect for our last few days. 

Very limited connectivity out here, but if I walk to the end of the dock, I can probably get this to actually post!

Our new spot on Long Lake.

I think we can handle this for a few days.

Sunset at Loon Lake

Gorgeous evening!!

Loon lake

We came down the mountain and ended up at loon lake in Washington.

And here is our cute little cabin.

Heading up the mountain

On the road again

And we definitely are not going to Utah!

Drinks on the street!! Wow!

Did you know that in parts of Montana you can stand out on the street with a drink?? We didn't, but we catch on quick ;-)

Bigfork, Montana - wayyyyy more our kind of place :-)

OK, when we left the quaint motel, the owner, Janet, told us about Bigfork. She said it was Whitefish without the plastic pretentiousness and was only 20 minutes from where we were...so off we went!! Half an hour later found us in the cutest little village. Laidback, mellow vibe with great shops and nice people. We are staying at the Swan River Inn - from the outside doesn't look like much, but wowsers is it our kind of place!! Margrit, the owner, is from Switzerland and a very kind woman. We got a tour of the place so we could pick which room we wanted (they are all theme decorateed - and yes, this usually scares the hell out of me). We chose the Art Deco Room - one of the most comfortable hotel rooms EVER we think!! Shades of purple everywhere, antique furniture and truly art deco inspired decor. Just gorgeous and comfy and and and!

The food here has been awesome!!! Last night we had dinner at Showthyme, based on Yelp and Trip Advisor reviews - and boy were they right!!! Truly one of the best meals that either of us had ever had - every single bite and flavor was just about perfect. I had cedar plank salmon and Terri had the house speciality, Toothfish with a thai curry sauce. YUMMO!!! After that, we wandered shops a bit more (no honey, I haven't purchased any shoes ;-) and then hit "Sweet Peaks" for ice cream - salted caramel and fresh waffle cones!! YAY!

Here's some photos around Bigfork. We will get some hotel shots before we checkout tomorrow and head to...somewhere else ;-)

excuse the finger blocking the corner - this is how the whole main street looks - just perfect for Montana!




It was Terri's turn to model the latest in apron fashion. She really didn't wanna ;-)



Had lunch here today!! Tasty!



View from the rooftop garden deck at our hotel :-)


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Location:Bigfork!

Huckleberry Days in Whitefish, MT!!!! Or not...

As we got through the Lolo National Forest yesterday and started to near Kalispell, we started noticing that everything looked...well...a little bit too nice...too new...too, well, Stepfordy. But we continued - cause we had decided that Whitefish would be our next stop - Huckleberry Days are this weekend, and we had heard it was a cool place to check out with the beautiful Whitefish Lake nearby for kayaking.

We got to Whitefish around 7:30 and after wandering a bit through the town, we found a cool basement bar with a great looking tapas menu so decided to have dinner - awesome garlic shrimp, awesome hummus, and then RAW pork meatballs!!! WAY raw. Second effort was a bit better and while we pondered how much raw pork really needs to injest to die, we figured that as it was after 8pm, we should start looking for a hotel. HA!

As for the Stepfordy feel, it never went away. Whitefish felt snooty, fake, and too "perfect". Main Street felt like a movie set. Even the bikers looked like they were "placed" there. ick. not.our.scene.

Apparently Huckleberry Days are a BFD around here!! Call after call and all hotels full for 30 miles...it was starting to look like we would be sleeping in the car as we had been on the road for almost 10 hours and we were getting tired. Finally found a Super 8 that had rooms - we drove there and as Terri walked into register, they were calling to let us know that they really didn't have rooms - apparently their national reservations folks had been overbooking them all evening. Goody! It's now 9:30 - where in the hell are we gonna stay?? That's when the desk clerk gave us the number for the Sunrise something motel in Lakeside (only 30 miles away), and they had one room left!!! Janet, the owner, offered to stay up and keep the light on for us and off we went. 30 minutes later we were in our little, quaint, little motel room.


Here are some pics of the day :-)




Tapas bar - great atmosphere!




We forgot to ask why we weren't supposed to blow our noses with the kleenex ;-)



Didn't know anyone still used 15inch TV's!! Usain Bolt still looked fast, just tiny!



Epitome of quaint right here folks!!

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Down by the river

As we were driving along 135 there was a really cool river along the highway

 
 and we found a great pull out spot to take a walk   .... down by the river.

 

 

The cheesiest (and biggest) gift shop in Montana!

Nope, no cheesy prize for guessing this one :-) We were driving through some of the most beautiful country in the land, when we suddenly started seeing signs for the "50,000 Silver Dollar" gift shop. Now who can resist stopping at something like that? Plus, we had to get cheesy gifts for our cheesy blog contest ;-)

Oh ya, quick random note - lots and lots of "casinos" in Montana. However, from what we can tell so far, most of these "casinos" are bars with video poker. Back home we just call them "bars with video poker" ;-)

A couple photos from our visit...









Had this been a Mason jar, I totally would have bought a set for Terri. Kind of a nice redneck touch to wine drinking...alas, they were Ball jars and that's just not as much fun :-)




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Location:Uhhhh...Montana

Ooooh. purty

On the move again... Here are a couple of hints as to the direction we are headed.

Hint number one.

Hint number two:

Kirstin here...in Spokane!

Well, after yesterdays meandering wander of Washington state, we found that the sun seemed to be east. Wayyyy east. Got into town, then called bekah for drinks!! I haven't seen her in 3 years and Terri hadn't met her before, so we all went to Twigs, a martini bar :-) funtimes!!!

Mike and Anthony were at the house, so we got to see them too. Then we stole bekah :-)

Terri, the dog person, with Checkers. Checkers loves everyone. Sort of a kitty whore in that way. Had she really known Terri...


Me and Anthony!! Our once every three years pic




Yummy food at Twigs. No twigs in the food though ;-)



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Sprague rest area

You'll note that this a "safety" rest area.  Just wanted to reassure everyone that we are being safe at all times!

Still searching

Clouds everywhere we turn.

Kirstin is turning over a new fashion leaf at Dickie Farms