I'm playing catch up with posting photos on our blog. These are from a marothon trip Jim and I took this last June. We drove from AF to Helena, MT for a seminar, then on to Spokane to visit Danielle and her crew, then we drove to the beautiful Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon side and saw more waterfalls than you could possibly imagine and did a lot of hiking and site seeing!
This view is from the top of Multnomah Falls. A killer hike that just about did us in.

Multnomah Falls

The view just a few steps from our Bed & Breakfast Inn.

The old highway bridge

More old Hwy.

Amazing views!

Mexico

The bustling port city of Puerto Vallarta was the first stop on our Mexican Riviera cruise. Not being terribly excited about spending the day in a big, dirty, old city, we caught a small touring boat heading down the coast to a little village for some snorkeling, hiking and relaxing on the beach. Unfortunately....Jim's sea sickness patch fell off in the shower that morning and we were in for a rough ride to the village. By the time we got there he was felling pretty green around the gills and ready to feed the fish.

After snorkeling in some questionable water, we headed over to the little village for a hike to the waterfall. Jim was in no condition for hiking, so I left him on the beach and made my way with the group.

Local transportation.

Darling little girls selling shells to us tourists.

Jim working on his recovery and contemplating the ride back to Puerto Vallarta.

Post snorkeling and hiking - both of us looking lovely - ready to head back. There is a saying, "every day in Mexico is a bad hair day." So true.

High School Graduate

Evan adjusting to the feeling of being a HS graduate! We are so happy to have survived the high school years and are looking forward to him having a happy, successful experience at Dixie State College come August.

Rough Love...Mac Style

Don't be fooled by this sweet, innocent face. Beneath the angelic facade lies the heart of a future WWF star.

An afternoon with Mac and Lucy in Grammy's care starts off okay...

...but quickly escalates into a major wrestling session.

Sweet Lucy takes the initial head-butt in stride.

Then Mac goes in for the take-down.

Lucy takes hold of the couch for some added support and tries to avoid being tossed on her fanny by the ever-persistent Mac.

After a good half hour of grappling with Grammy as an ineffective ref, Mac has decided to end this match with a combination belly-bump and simultaneous wet one to the nose. Lucy continues to play it cool and is unimpressed by this last move.

Blessed Boy

Baby Hamilton, what a love! Showing off his sweetness here with mom and dad on his blessing day.

St. John's River

We took a little trip over to St. John's River planning to take another scenic boat ride and check out the gators and manatees, but we were disappointed to find out all the tour boats were booked for the day. So....we decided to do the next best thing and rent a two-man kayak and head out into the swampy waters on our own!

We started out fine, enjoying wilderness along the river the wide variety of birds perched above us in the trees.

We quickly departed the dock and any sign of human life.


Jim is expressing concern over the reports of plentiful alligators roaming the river we're floating on.

The water was extremely dark, so no manatees sightings despite the signage.

All is well.

Here's one of the many large turtles we saw basking in the sun. Then...just when we're feeling safe and secure in our surroundings...this appears!

He looks so small in this picture, but actually he was rather massive!

We tried to stay in the middle of the river where the water was deep to avoid his kind. We tried to paddle past this fiend of nature as quickly as we could, Jim expressing his wish to avoid becoming a gator snack. The next thing I hear is Jim screaming "PADDLE FAST! THERE'S A FREAKIN' GATOR COMING AFTER US! AHHHH! IT'S RIGHT NEXT TO US!"

At this point Jim is no longer enjoying the experience. I had to laugh a little, only because I didn't actually see the "scaled one" lunging after us and therefore didn't quite experience the same level of terror as my Jimmy. :-)

Bulow Plantation Ruins

On day two in Ormond we took a nice drive into the rustic state park to check out the ruins of an old sugar cane plantation that was built in 1821 in Seminole Indian territory. After fifteen years of operation, and many conflicts between the federal government and the Seminoles, U.S. troops stormed the plantation, taking John Bulow prisoner for opposing the government plans for the Seminoles. Not too long after the Indians burned Bulowville to the ground. Deeply discouraged, Bulow died shortly after at 26 years of age.

The area has pretty much been reclaimed by the forest, making for a rustic hike.

Love that Spanish moss.

Ormond Beach

Yea! Our hotel was right on the beach! We went on long walks, picked up shells and watched the whales right off shore; a great way to relax.

It was especially nice to shed the coats and boots for a while.

And bonus....the beach was uncrowded.

Warm and happy!

Okay, there was one or two drawbacks, the Ormond and Daytona Beach areas are definitely in decline. I think they probably had their hey-days back in the 50s and 60s, sadly now most of the place is in disrepair and many of the hotels look like they could use a good wrecking-ball to the mid-section. But as you can see, my bargain hunter of a husband is feeling quite pleased with himself as he contemplates the many dollars saved.