No Knitting but lots of Pictures

Stupid me, I took my camera on our trip to Oregon to visit family but didn't bring it out until the last day. I missed taking pictures of the girls with their grandparents (my mom and dad) and my aunt.

I did however remember to snap a few pics of the girls with their great granny Ruby.

I snapped a few photos along the way (mostly in the car going down the road). We were wanting to get home and didn't want to make many stops.

This first one cracked me up.

I took it when we stopped at Fairchild AFB, WA to stay the night on the way to Oregon. We stayed in a pet friendly TLF (temporary lodging facility) and they gave use sheets to put on the couch to keep the pet hair, drool etc off the couch. Apparently someone missed the n in friendly.

This is a picture of the tree farm that was along the road near Hermiston, Oregon.

As you can see in the photo the trees (on the right hand side of the photo) go on and on. We estimated that it runs along 5 miles of I-84 and it goes back away from the interstate as far as the eye can see. It's kind of neat to see where new trees have been planted and how small they are compared to the ones that are close to being cut down.

The girls got a kick out of going over the Pioneer Memorial "Blue" bridge that connects Kennewick, WA to Pasco WA.

You can see some better shots on this website.

The girls enjoying their Starbucks.

Well Bree is enjoying a small cup of whipped cream. I don't think she's quite ready to have her own Frapp. She was very proud of her Starbucks. We programmed our Tom-Tom GPS (which is now lovingly called Tom) unit to make a noise whenever we were near a Starbucks. Boy did that thing go crazy when we were in Spokane, WA. I'm beginning to wonder how in the world we have lived with out our Tom. There several places along the way that weren't marked very well and the only reason we stayed on course and didn't get lost was because Tom told us where we needed to go.

We passed a correctional facility in Connell, WA.

The thing that makes this place stick out in my mind was because of the signs posted on the side of the interstate telling you not to pick up hitchhikers. Well duh! Common sense dictates that you should never pick up hitchhikers, specially when they are near a prison. No hitchhikers were seen when we passed through. ;~)

Here's a shot of the girls playing with their goodies after a trip to Build-A-Bear Workshop (BABW) when we stopped to stay the night at Fairchild AFB, WA.

We actually made two trips to BABW. The first trip was with my parents and we went to the one in Eugene, OR where they built their bunnies....yes I forgot my damn camera. We stopped at the Spokane Valley Mall on the way back to let them pick out a few things since we made it to Spokane early. They were so excited about getting to go to BABW. Oh man to be able to shop in Spokane, WA. They have a real mall in Spokane....it's huge! The drawback is the state sales tax....ouch, it's over 8%. I've kinda gotten use to no sales tax here in Montana. The huge bonus at Fairchild is that the base has a Starbucks....Yup, I have my priorities straight.

This is the friggin' kitchen in the house we stayed at on Fairchild AFB.

Man I wished I had a kitchen this big. Mine is a lot smaller and has a bunch of cabinets that are completely worthless because you can't reach the shelves. Two people can actually stand in this kitchen without bumping in to each other constantly.

Welcome to Idaho!

Man I can't wait to see this sign when Shawn finally retires from the Air Force. We are actually adding Coeur d'Alene, ID as one of the spots to move back to when Shawn retires. It's only about 30 miles from Spokane so there is big city culture without having to live in the big city. Plus who wouldn't want to live near a lake and be surrounded by trees.

My obligatory Welcome to Montana shot.

We were happy to see this sign since it meant we were getting closer to our destination.

We were merrily driving down I-90 working our way to US Route 12 when we see this big green sign with a bull on it advertising for the Te$tic!e Festival (trying to avoid spam on this post.) I can honestly say I've never heard of this one. I bout spit my soda across the dashboard of the car. Shawn and I had a good laugh over this billboard. I'm still kicking myself in the butt for not getting a picture of that billboard. Seriously, there should be a sign saying "warning for all bloggers funny billboard or sign ahead". If you want to see the billboard they have it out on their website.

A wicked view coming down out of MacDonald Pass on US Route 12...yes that's snow on the ground.

There was still a little bit of snow up on the sides of the pass from the snow storm that came through after we left. MacDonald pass is like 6320 feet and the scenic view is definitely scenic. Wow that is high up. It was high enough that my happy little butt did not want to get out of the car to get a panoramic shot. Just sitting there in the car gave me the heebee jeebees. So I snapped a few shots in the car and told Shawn to keep driving. Yes, I know my fear of heights is irrational but aren't most fears and phobias?

Hope you guys liked my abbreviated tour of four states. I'll be back in a few days to post about my knitting and some goodies I received while I was gone. Sadly I never got to visit the local yarn shops which was a big disappointment but we were pretty busy the whole time we were gone.