4 day Week-end!

It's been a while since the last post. We've been busy building a sidewalk from the driveway to the front steps. Hopefully you don't want to see it because I still haven't taken a photo of the finished product. That's mostly because it's not 100% finished yet. Patience!

Autumn is here for sure! I just came in from raking leaves and I had to wear a light jacket because it was chilly! Hurray!!! No mosquitoes!

I love raking leaves. Well, I love working in the hard in general. I'm looking forward to a winter of digging and prepping for more gardening in the Spring. Some fruit trees should be delivered here within a week or so plus I have some Blueberries and Blackberries waiting to be planted. They're not going to get into the ground any time soon if we keep running off on the week-ends.

Last Wednesday, after work, we drove to Gatlinburg for a few days of rest and relaxation. We had accommodations at a Resort there and oh are we spoiled! This was a two bedroom apartment that was apx 1000 square feet or more. It had a gas fireplace in the living room and an mostly adequate equipped kitchen (no salt and pepper; humph!). Carl and Karen arrived just minutes after we did and stayed with us until Saturday morning.

While there we "hiked" (in quotes, because it was more like a stroll than a hike) in the Great Smokey Mountains and strolled down the very busy touristy main drag doing some window shopping, making sure to check out each candy store but never buying any candy (only ice cream). On Saturday, Larry and I went to Dollywood and played. I rode two of the most thrilling roller coasters I think I've ever been on. One was a very large wooden coaster. The other was a dare devil coaster with tracks that went 100% up and 100% down in parts. Whoohooo!!!

While fall colors here at home are getting a very slow start, they were much further along in the "mountains". (The word mountain here is nearly a joke if you're from the West, but we'll go with it.) I'll post a photo or two here but if you want to see more, check out my online photo album. Photos are already posted. http://travelingturtles.myphotoalbum.com/

Recent Newspaper article

http://www.timesfreepress.com/absolutenm/templates/local.aspx?articleid=22470&zoneid=77

On Monday there was an article in the paper featuring one of the riders at the therapeutic center where I volunteer once a week. There is a slide show (link) near the top of the article showing Destiny getting ready for a Special Olympics Equestrian event this Saturday. I thought you might enjoy it.

Olympic National Park

Another week-end of adventure!!

Larry had a freebie airline ticket that was going to expire soon. We decided to use it (and my companion pass) to visit a National Park that we missed the first time around.

On our way to the airport in Nashville we stopped at Bell Buckle, TN. A very tiny town with a quaint "strip mall" of about 8 shops. It didn't take long to browse! But, it's oh so cute.

We arrived in Seattle Friday evening; then early Saturday morning (which was easy since we're still on Eastern time in our heads) we started driving. We drove about 4 hours to get to the Olympic National Park visitors center, going South around the Sound at Tacoma and then North to Port Angeles.

That's where we learned it was another 2 1/2 hour drive to the rain forest; after all, that's what we came for. They have oceans and mountains in the park too but we've seen those.

So drive we did. As you can imagine it is a pretty drive. This river/lake has hints of glacial stone in it, like a diluted Lake Louise (in Canada).

The rain forest was not at all what we expected. There are a good percentage of Maples - Big Leaf and Vine Maples, to be specific. And, it's fall in this neck of the woods. The result was a rain forest with a good bit of light and not the thick, dark, lush forest we expected. There was plenty of moss and some good size trees but no Jurassic Park type stuff. This is not a tropical rain forest!

Did I mention it was raining? Get this - the West side of the mountain (where the rain forest is located) gets 12 feet of rain each year!! It's probably a rare day when it isn't raining there.

Here's a big leaf from the Big Leaf maple. I didn't put it there - honest! Someone else must have placed it there. For emphasis, Larry is holding a

Big Leaf Maple leaf in his hand, comparing it to his own big hand. The trip back to our hotel from there was only about 2 1/2 hours. We're so glad we didn't have to go back the way we came. Not only that but we rewarded ourselves with Round Table pizza! That's the only negative thing I can say about Tennessee. There are zero Round Table pizzas.

Before hopping back on the plane for the trip home we browsed around Pike Plaza. We visited the very first ever Starbucks (been there before but this is the first photo), bought some yummy Piroshky for lunch, walked around a bit and called it a day.