Well, we made it safe and sound, we are in London. We flew the red-eye from Vancouver, BC, Canada and landed at 11:00am London time. We are lucky in that we are flying business class on the long leg, free drinks & meals, full laydown seats/beds, but sleep still eludes me for the most part. I think Jim got quite a few winks in.

We take the bus to our hotel, luckily, they have a clean room at 12:00 noon, because check-in is not until 2:00pm and we wanted to drop off our luggage and head to Central London to look around.  We get on another bus, take it to the “tube” and head downtown. It’s England and London at that, so it is lightly raining. we get off the tube at Westminster so that we can take a look at Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliement, etc. We also wanted to ride “The Eye”, a huge ferris wheel. By the time we get off the Eye, it’s pouring! We are now looking for a pub to grab a bite to eat, but they are standing room only, no one wants to be out in the rain.

We change our minds, head back to the hotel for some dinner and to relax. In the meantime, we are now having discussions with 2 credit cards that are not working even though we called them to make sure they knew we were traveling. It took two long phone calls at 1.29 a minute to get them all cleared up, so keep your fingers crossed that they will continue to work.

Now we need to take showers, etc because we have to be at the airport at OH DARK 4:30 AM for out 6:35 AM flight to Barcelona. If we can stay awake, and we get into Barcelona at 9:30 AM, we will almost have 1 full additional day to enjoy the sites, food & wine of Barcelona.

Haven’t figured out how to get pictures up yet, so will head over to Facebook and post a few soggy pictures of London.

We got all set up in our new home in Issaquah, where we are going to be as long as we are in the Seattle area. It’s nice that we have family & friends in the area (including some right here in the RV park!), so we get to have lots of fun! Here is a sample of a couple of things once we got settled in.

We went to watch Mark play in his pool league (he plays for a team from the Rolling Log Tavern in Issaquah) in North Bend:

North Bend Tavern

crazy weather in North Bend

Mark playing in a pool league

We went to the local Wild Bird shop in Burien and bought LOTS of stuff to keep the local birds happy. I love sitting in my seat where I do my computer stuff and watch the birds flock to the bird feeders.

Yellow Finch

another view

We hung some fun flowers from the top of the bird feeder in hopes to draw hummingbirds. We finally did, but it took awhile. To begin with, mostly we had Yellow Finches, lesser Finches, Oregon Juncko’s, Black Cap Chickadee’s, Stellar Jay’s and a Downy Woodpecker. I will be sharing pictures in the next few posts because I took a LOT of pictures while sitting in my seat (out the window).

We are here for awhile, so not so much traveling, but just enjoying family & friends!

Where has the time gone?!?! It’s the end of October and I haven’t even finished posting about July and the rest of the trip to Seattle. Well, here is one more post of pictures as we traveled across Montana with a stop in Missoula and then Billings. After Billings, we stopped in Idaho to say hello to family & friends. We leave Idaho on the 14th of July, getting to our RV spot for the winter in Issaquah late in the afternoon, I have to head to work the next day for the first time in 5 YEARS!

I don’t remember doing much in Missoula, MT other than relaxing and getting a good nights sleep. I was looking forward to getting to Billings so that we could try out another great brewery, Montana Brewing Company. I had asked my niece about where to go, she stayed in Missoula for awhile, but she and her husband also knew a brewer that had moved from Bend, OR to Billings, so we had to try it out.

Come on in, the beer is cold

dinner & the required beer tasting tray

I asked to see if Evan was there that day, he was the brewer that my niece knew. He was, he came out and we chatted for quite awhile. He makes some great beer, I would recommend giving it a try!

As we traveled from the Black Hills to Missoula, we crossed some beautiful country. Here are a few shots that I took from the RV as we were driving down the road.

crazy clouds

part of the Rockies

We had a really short trip from Billings to Hayden, ID, which gave us some time to catch up with family & friends. We spent the night in our favorite camp spot, the Bolam’s driveway. They are so generous with letting us stay awhile, use their electric, water & bath facilities. They also let us invite our daughter and grand-kids down to visit. Can’t ask for better friends.

me, Julie & Daisie

Lisa & Daisie

the twins giving us a concert

Kathy & Daisie

Jim & Bob

Jim, Kim, Bob, Kathy & Daisie

It was a short visit but a wonderful stop. Had lots on my mind, thinking about going back to work so this was a great way to relax and take a break! Thanks again everyone for everything!

2 nights, 1 1/2 days in the Black Hills of South Dakota just doesn’t do it justice, but that is all we could squeeze in and still make our schedule. Poor Jim, not only are we driving 6 hours a day in the RV, I then ask him to put that much time in the car to see the sights.

We checked out all of the following sites:

• Mt. Rushmore Nat’l Monument
• Crazy Horse Memorial
• Badlands Nat’l Park
• Minuteman Missile Nat’l Historic Park
• Custer State Park
• Buffalo Gap Nat’l Grasslands
• Wall Drug Store

but we definitely didn’t spend enough time at any of them. We will be back!

We visited Mt. Rushmore in the afternoon and then the next morning. It’s amazing how the light can change things. We missed the light show at night, it would have been great to see, but the next day was a full drive day to Billings, MT. Everyone should take the time to visit Mt. Rushmore, it’s amazing.

We left Michigan with a set schedule of where and when we would make all of the stops along the way before we got to Issaquah on July 14th.

We would spend 1 night in Oshkosh, WI; spend 1 night in Jackson, MN and then 2 nights just outside of Keystone, SD so that we can check out Mt. Rushmore and the sights in that area.

Not much to see on the first night in WI, but we had a beautiful sunset the night we spent in MN.

Minnesota sunset

another view

one more view

If you haven’t noticed, we were parked right next to a corn field. We saw a LOT of corn along the route, but we were very happy to lay our tired heads close by for the night.

Not far from Pictured Rocks Nat’l Park is a picturesque state park. We didn’t have time to do them in the same day, so another long drive day to enjoy the scenic wonders of this great nation.

Tahquamenon Falls State Park is beautiful, lots of people on the day we decided to enjoy it. We stopped for breakfast in the little town of Paradise. The food was fine, but the service had a lot to be desired and it seemed to be only us. Oh well, we had breakfast for lunch and then took off to visit the park.

The water is something else. The tannins from the trees in the park make the water look anywhere from gold to burnt umber as it goes over the falls. The colors were amazing, looking like old amber resin. There are fishes in there though and even though it kinda looks like it, the water is not polluted. We walked a few trails, but drove from the lower falls to the upper falls. If we had planned ahead, we would have walked the 4 miles, but oh well, we still got to enjoy most of it. To enjoy a few of the falls, you really needed to rent a rowboat and see them upclose and personal. We chose not to do that, just to walk all the trails around either falls.

A great finish to the day was to enjoy a little beer at the local brewery right in the park!

Tahquamenon Falls Brewery & Pub

Tahquamenon Falls beer

another great day in paradise!

Here was our chance, to be able to stick our big toes into the 5th great lake, Lake Superior! We drove 1 1/2 hours north to view the scenery of Pictured Rocks Nat’l Lakeshore and to take the cruise along the lakeshore to view it from a different angle. I loved it, but of course, Jim said if you’ve seen one rock, you’ve seen them all. I just laughed at him and took a LOT of pictures once again. It was a beautiful day, so how could it be that bad?
 
 

It was a long day, but worth it. I enjoyed every minute. I am so lucky to have a great husband that takes me where ever I want to go!

Our last stop in Michigan was Mackinaw City. We stayed at an RV park that was right on Lake Huron, just down the road from the city and Mackinac Bridge. We could see Mackinac Island across the water. That was one of the reasons why we made this stop, to check out the island and to not be on the road for July 4th.

So, on the 4th, we took the ferry over to the island to check it out. Once we had enough, we came back to relax and wait for the fireworks. We could see fireworks from Mackinaw City, Mackinac Island, St. Ignace, and some other town on one of the other islands. It was quite a show, but I only took pictures from the closest, which were from Mackinaw City. I must have taken over 200+ pictures! Geez, but only so many turn out…  Here are a few pictures worth sharing.

We also checked out old forts, lighthouses, Nat’l Parks, and lots of waterfalls. More pictures coming, but here are a few:

We had a great time, we spent 10 days enjoying the weather and the scenery. We never did try the fudge, they are famous for it, but it wasn’t on my “menu”. It was really hard not to have any caramel corn, there were candy shops everywhere!

Jim and I attended the 60th National Square Dance Convention in Detroit, Michigan from June 22nd thru the 25th. I worked out that we were going to be in the same area based on the original travel plans and we made it happen. For square dancers, it is a big deal normally, but I think since it was being held in Detroit, that many said, no way. There were about 4000 registered when it is normally around 6000. They come from all over, not just from the USA, but there were dancers from Japan, Sweden, England, Canada and other countries. Japan had the biggest contingent of dancers and they were really fun to watch in their dance apparel, besides, they were really great dancers!

I didn’t take a lot of pictures, I didn’t want to pack the camera around a lot because we wanted to dance. And dance we did, each evening for several hours. My favorite part was to dance when the Ghost Riders band was playing (yes, real instruments), while the different National callers did their thing. It was 99.9% singing calls which are fun, so you just dance.  Also, it was all Mainstream calls, so the squares would not break down very much (someone forgot how to do a move and didn’t end up in the right place).

On the day of registration, Jim and I took the people mover and rode around to check out downtown Detroit. It was a great way to see the different sections without working very hard The people mover tickets were part of the package, so it was an even better deal. We camped out at the Wayne County Fairgrounds with about 70 other campers that were square dancers. We had our own dance Wednesday night! It was a lot of fun and many of the other people camping came to watch. Maybe we will get a few new dancers down the road.

This video is of Wade Driver calling, another Texas caller that we love. I focused on one of the squares that was made up of several dancers from Japan. They were really fun to watch.

here are a few pictures while wandering around near the COBO Center where the convention was held:

fountain with GM/Chrysler Bldg behind

sculpture in the same park

Here is a picture of “our” call KO Jeanes (from Livingston Boots & Babes Square Dance club) dancing in a square right before he called the next tip. He was able to call several days including backup several times in the evening dances.

KO Jeanes dancing in a square

Dancers from Japan

Ok, I know, there has been a lot about beer lately, but hey, it’s one of my new passions! And, well, Michigan has some excellent craft breweries! Here are some words to live by for the State of Michigan:

Brewery, Microbrewery, Brewpub, what’s the difference?

• A brewery can sell beer both in their own tavern, as well as through retailers across the state. Breweries are limted to one tavern per company.
• A microbrewery is limited to brewers under 30,000 barrels of annual production. Microbreweries can sell beer in both their own taverns or through retailers across the state. They are not limited in the number of taverns they may operate.
• A brewpub can only sell its’ beer inside their own establishment including beer-to-go. It also may include a liquor license and offer a full-service bar.

These definitions are based on the State of Michigan licensing qualifications. These definitions may vary from state to state.

It seems petty and silly, but hey, all I care about is the beers. They can figure out what they are, I will try their samplers

While in Michigan, we tried several different breweries (or what ever they were…) as we traveled around. Here is the list:

• Round Barn Brewery
• Bell’s Brewery *
• Paw Paw Brewing *
• The Livery *
• Cheboygan Brewing Company *
• Tahquamenon Falls Brewery & Pub

Round Barn Beer Barn

Bell's entrance in Kalamazoo, MI

Bell's selections, too many to choose from

Our selection

Jim outside of Paw Paw

Paw Paw is starting small

Livery Brewing

The Livery selections

Our Livery selections

Jim entering Cheboygan Brewing

Cheboygan beer fermenting

Tahquamenon Falls Brewery

Tahquamenon Falls selection

It was a lot of fun trying out different beers, Paw Paw Brewing (with only 2 beers to taste) was established in January of 2010 and Cheboygan (again only 2 beers) had been open only 5 weeks! The others were old hat, but worthwhile checking out, especially Bell’s. I even looked for a clone recipe for Bell’s Two Hearted Ale and found several. It’s really, really good.

If you are into beer, especially Ale’s (of all kinds), check out the Alehead Blog.